Free Hearts

It had to be today.

All winter only a few inches of snow. The snowpack was at a 5-year low in these mountains, and everyone expected the winter drought to continue.

But Rocky Mountain weather is unpredictable as ever, as evidenced by the dark billowing clouds blotting out the sun even in late April. The first flakes are beginning to fall as she reaches the first sign for the tiny town of Clayton, Colorado. Abby squints at the sky ahead, trying to judge how bad this late-season blizzard is going to be.

Abby is far from your typical elementary school teacher. Only 25 years old, with a slender, almost willowlike figure, soft shoulder-length brown hair, full lips that seem to be smiling even when they frown, and soft brown eyes always full of kindness, her students always thought of her as a kind older sister. She had only started teaching last year, but her peers and superiors were quickly taken with her charming smile and firm but fair style of dealing with her students.

When the school district offered to pay for one teacher to go to this teacher's retreat deep in the beautiful mountains of Colorado, the school staff quickly decided on Abby, not only because she was universally liked but also because she was the newest teacher in the school. She was supposed to check in to the retreat that evening, and she was looking forward not only to what promised to be a great retreat, but also to the end of this road trip.

But it looked like all that might not happen. As Abby approaches the town of Clayton in her Ford pickup, she already sees all she needs to see.

Clayton consists of about four buildings: a grungy restaurant and tiny sheriff's office on one side of the road, and a gas station with a corner store and a dinky two-story motel advertising "Fr e WiFi" on the other. Beyond these buildings, she sees a police car parked next to a large gate that two deputies are currently closing across the highway. It looks like the storm has already hit the pass and she won't be going much further tonight.