Snow Bound

by Blake Crouch

argue. She never tried to get out of it. He stood up, cradling his daughter, and walked over to the redwood railing. They stared into the wilderness that bordered Oasis Hills, their subdivision. The houses on No-Water Lane had the Sonoran Desert for a backyard. “Look,” he said. “See them?” A half mile away, specks filed out of an arroyo and trotted across the desert toward a shadeless forest of giant saguaro cacti that looked vaguely sinister profiled against the horizon. “What are they?” she asked. “Coyotes. What do you bet they start yapping after the sun goes down?” • • • When Devlin had gotten into bed, he read to