Laura pulled him tightly against her and readjusted the coverings. “OK, Honey. You take a little nap and maybe when you wake up, Daddy will be back.” Mattie nodded his head, yawned again, and was almost instantly asleep. Coty had fallen asleep during the third verse of “Wheels on the Bus,” and now slept heavily against his mother. Laura gingerly pulled her right arm away and looked at her watch again. With alarm she realized that Joe had now been gone an hour and a half. Her heart sank. She had hoped they would be tucked into a warm tow truck by now. Surely, it can’t be much longer.
Laura looked into the blackness of the night. Fear began to wrap its tentacles around her thoughts again. She hadn’t realized that it had begun to snow. Big, fluffy flakes were quickly covering the windshield. If the situation weren’t so dire, she would love watching the beautiful snow accumulate. But the last thing they needed right now was to add another obstacle to their situation.
Laura felt a tear trickle down her face. “Oh God, I am scared. I just have such a bad feeling about all of this. Help me to feel your peace and your presence.” When Laura looked outside again, she was startled to see a light twinkling in the distance. Why hadn’t she noticed it before? She stared intently into the night trying to discern what her mystery light was. She couldn’t tell if it truly was a star in the sky; but that didn’t make sense – it was snowing so the sky must be overcast. Maybe someone had hung Christmas lights on their house or barn. Whatever it was, its friendly light washed over her with assurance and comfort. She wasn’t alone. God was with her.
“It is so cold in here!” Laura thought to herself. “It must be near zero inside this car. My babies are so small. How long can their little bodies retain heat?” Laura forced her mind away from its morbid precipice and again began to pray. “Please God, protect my children. Let no harm befall them.” Laura yawned. Maybe she could doze a little. It would make the time go faster. She allowed her thoughts to drift and felt herself beginning to relax.
She was startled by a tapping sound. She fought to regain consciousness and forced her eyes to open. She couldn’t remember where she was or why she was so intensely cold. She heard the tapping sound again and realized it was coming from the driver’s side window. She turned her head and saw a face peering in at them. Her heart sank when she remembered what had happened and realized that Joe still had not returned. She motioned the stranger to open the door and a gust of frigid cold filled the car. “Lady, are you alright? I didn’t see your car until I was almost on top of it. I thought I better make sure there was no one in it.” As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he realized that Laura was holding a baby and had a toddler leaning against her, and he gasped. “How long have you been sitting here in the cold?” Laura was still trying to shake the cobwebs from her brain, but the cold was causing her to wake up quickly. “What time is it now?” she asked groggily. “It’s nearly 12:45 AM, Ma’am.” Laura tried to absorb this and did some quick mental calculations. Joe had been gone for three hours! Laura knew that something terrible had happened. Joe would never allow his family to suffer in the cold for so long if he had any control over things. Suddenly, Laura was crying. She felt so alone and terrified. She tried to control the shaking in her voice, but failed miserably. “Our fuel gelled three hours ago and my husband left to get help. A truck picked him up and was going to take him to Tower City. I haven’t seen or heard from his since.” “Bless your heart, Ma’am. Let’s get these babies into my car and we’ll head to Tower City and see if we can figure out what the hold up is.”
Laura cried even harder, relief sweeping over her that at last they would find warmth. She hesitated briefly. She had promised Joe that they would stay with the car. But neither of them could have known that Joe’s absence would stretch into such an impossible length of time. “Joe would want us to find warmth. He’ll understand and be grateful that someone had come to our rescue.” She gratefully handed Mattie to her rescuer, searched for her purse and diaper bag, grabbed all their coats and followed with Coty. Her limbs felt stiff and she could feel the tears freezing on her face. The cold instantly invaded every pore of her body. She felt her sinus cavity freezing, gasped at the shock, and then felt her throat constrict with the cold. Coty began wailing in protest and Laura forced her stiff and frozen body into the waiting pickup. She slammed the door shut, as if to leave frosty demons outside, and instantly was surrounded by the most amazing warmth she had ever known. The tears started again, and she was ashamed of her weakness. It wouldn’t due to get the boys in a panicked state. She forced herself to stop the tears and pulled her boys close. They all sighed with contentment, but then began to shake uncontrollably. “I reckon’ it will take some time to get you warmed up proper. It must have been ten below in that car. You say you been sittin’ there for three hours?” He was silent for a moment, unwilling to finish his thought. But Laura knew what he had been thinking. They were lucky to be alive.
She let herself take a good look at her Good Samaritan. He was a grizzled man in his early sixties, she guessed. Nice looking with kind eyes. She knew he could be trusted. “I can’t thank you enough for coming to our rescue. I can’t imagine what is taking my husband so long.” “Well, I’m sure there’s an innocent enough reason. We’ll get to the bottom of it in short order. Name’s Sam, by the way. Short for Samson. Like in the Bible.” His confidence warmed Laura and she sat up a little straighter. “He’s right,” she thought. “There’s a perfectly simple reason Joe has been delayed. In no time, we’ll be together, we’ll warm up, and we’ll have a good laugh.” That was one thing she loved most about Joe. He found humor in everything. But even after Laura’s internal pep talk, she still could not quiet the discomfort she felt in the core of her soul. Something WAS wrong. Joe would move heaven and earth to save his family. She knew him as well as she knew herself. Somewhere, her husband was detained for reasons beyond his control. “Oh, Josiah, where ARE you?”
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