The wipers worked furiously to keep pace with the fast descent of snow that now obliterated their view. Her rescuer sat hunched in the driver’s seat, peering intently out, trying to make out the lines on the highway. The road seemed to have vanished underneath a thick, white blanket. “Where in the world did this come from?” Sam muttered under his breath. Laura watched as the speedometer slowed to a crawl. She knew her driver was dealing with a slick road, as well as poor visibility.
Matthew and Coty had stopped shivering, but she seemed incapable of stopping her shaking. The boys had both fallen into a heavy sleep, for which she was grateful. She looked for a mile marker in order to judge how far they had come and how far to go to get to Tower City. There! She spied one barely visible through the blowing snow, for now the wind had picked up as well. She guessed they had come four miles or so.
Laura looked off in the distance trying to locate her star again. She knew it was silly, but she wanted the reassurance of that twinkling light. She wanted any reassurance at that moment. She was grateful to have found warmth again and was glad none of them seemed to have suffered any permanent damage, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with Joe. Her hand dropped lightly to her belly again. “Oh, Joe. You don’t even know yet.”
Just then she thought she spotted a familiar twinkling light on the horizon. She didn’t remember it being that low in the sky, but maybe she had forgotten its location. The light became brighter with each passing moment, and soon she realized that the light was actually lights from some sort of emergency vehicle. Her first reaction was to ask Sam to pull over and try to flag it down, but then an unthinkable horror sunk in. Maybe Joe has been involved in an accident. Maybe he’s hurt and lying by the road somewhere and the approaching lights are headed to him!
Laura turned to tell Sam the awful thought she had just had, but something in the expression on Sam’s face stopped her. He looked awful. “Sam, are you alright?” Laura asked in alarm. “It’s my ticker,” he said in a strained voice. “I take nitroglycerin tablets for it, but I think I left my pills on the kitchen table. I just refilled my prescription this morning.” Laura was torn between wanting to follow the emergency lights, which now appeared to be sitting on top of a State Highway Patrol car, and wanting to get help for Sam. Sam was speaking again, “if we take the next exit, my house is just two miles off the interstate”. He finished apologetically, “I really need my pills. This one hurts more than usual.” “Of course, Sam,” was all Laura could think of to say. The man needed his pills, plain and simple. If Joe was injured and that police car was headed to him, then he was getting the help he needed. She would just have to track him down later. She didn’t let her mind go any further. He was just injured. Nothing that a good doctor couldn’t mend. They took the next exit and began to slowly head towards Sam’s house. The road was even more slick than the interstate and deep drifts had begun to pile up on the road, making travel hazardous. It was hard to see anything, and Laura wondered how Sam knew they were still on the road. She could only see white everywhere she looked. The wind was howling mightily now and she could feel the dangerous cold even with the heat blasting on high.
But now Sam’s condition was beginning to frighten her. Even in the dim light of the interior, she could see that he was sweating profusely and that his skin looked gray and drawn. “Sam, I think you better pull over and let me drive the rest of the way,” Laura’s voice was commanding and controlled. She could see Sam nod feebly and saw his hands on the wheel begin to steer the car to the side of the road, but the snow was deep and the shoulder imperceptible from the rest of the landscape. “Sam, just stop here and I’ll come around to your…” Laura didn’t finish her sentence because Sam suddenly slumped forward and his foot must have pressed the accelerator down hard, for they were suddenly speeding into the ditch and bumping over uneven ground. Laura saw a line of fence coming at them fast and screamed, but the car kept on its relentless path and crashed through the fence without slowing. Laura tried frantically to grab the wheel away from the unconscious man’s hands, but with two children nestled against her, her attempts were clumsy at best. “If I could just get his foot off the accelerator, we would at least be able to come to a stop eventually,” Laura thought, adrenalin pumping through her. Laura clawed at his right leg, trying to grab a handful of fabric to lift his leg with, but her efforts seemed to make the car go even faster. She grabbed for the gear shift to put it into neutral, but just then they must have hit a large field stone, for it felt as though the passenger side of the car became airborne and Laura grabbed for her babies and screamed with a power she didn’t know her lungs possessed.
They landed on the driver’s side doors and Laura felt herself land hard on Sam’s unconscious body, still clutching Coty, but she had lost her grip on Mattie and was afraid to find out where he had landed. Coty began to wail lustily and Laura took that as a very good sign. She felt as though she had been saved by landing on Sam’s body; nothing felt broken or out of place. But where was Matthew? Just then she heard Coty’s wails answered by Mattie’s, and it sounded like he had landed in the back seat. With great effort, she pulled herself upright and called to him, “Mommy’s here, Mattie. Can you find my hands?” Mattie kept up his bawling, but she soon felt his little hands touching hers. With relief and sobs, she pulled him over the back of the seat to her and hugged him tightly. “Are you OK, Honey?” He just nodded and kept crying, but less intensely now.
She turned her attention to Sam. Still awkwardly positioned on top of him, she felt for his neck seeking a pulse. She found a weak one, and breathed a prayer of thanks. Now she knew the rest was up to her. She was going to have to make it to his house and call for help. The storm had picked up in intensity and visibility was nearly zero. She debated if it would be wiser to leave the boys tucked in the car, but quickly discarded the idea. They should be able to make the two miles in fairly quick time, even in the stormy weather. And she knew in her heart of hearts, she just couldn’t leave them with all the unknown variables floating around out there. After all, Joe was only going to be gone a short time, and look at all that had transpired. No, they were going with her; end of debate.
She felt around until she had located their hats and gloves, but she could only find one of her gloves and Sam wasn’t wearing any. “I guess he’s one of those tough North Dakotans that Joe’s always bragging about,” Laura thought vaguely. Laura did find a thick lap blanket lying in the backseat and grabbed it. After adjusting clothing as much as possible to keep the cold out, she whispered in Sam’s ear, “Hang in there, Sam. I’ll be back with help as soon as I can.” With that, she passed Mattie out of the front window, which was missing, then Coty, and finally pulled herself through.
The wind and cold instantly sucked the breath out of her. “Oh God, how can I do this? We’ll never survive!” Unbelievably, the boys were not crying, even though she felt like it herself. But time was essential here, and she couldn’t afford the luxury of self-pity. They had to get moving!
Laura stood up and testing her limbs to make sure everything was in working order, picked up Mattie and said to him, “Honey, we’re going to have an adventure. We’re going on a hike and I need you to hold on to Mommy’s neck while we walk.” Laura unzipped her parka and picked Mattie up, wrapped his legs around her waist and his arms around her neck, then zipped her coat again to keep them both warm. Next she picked up Coty, laid him face down against her shoulder and tucked the blanket snuggly around his tiny body. Then she prayed that God would go before them and get them to their destination.
Laura began to walk, but the snow was already a foot deep in spots and added to the weight of the boys, Laura could hardly propel herself forward. But she had no choice. This was life or death, and there were too many lives counting on her to waiver in her duty. Slowly, she gained ground and found herself back at the fence they had crashed through. But she must be disoriented, because she could not find the spot they had opened up in the fence. She decided to just follow it north for it was going in the same direction they were. And besides, they were near enough to the road that when a car came along, it would see her.
On she walked, every muscle aching with fatigue, her breath coming hard with exertion. It was so bitterly cold that her sinus cavity felt as though it had been vacuumed dry. She couldn’t believe such an ungodly cold was possible. She tried to speak to the boys to keep them calm, but finally gave up. It was just too difficult.
When they had walked for what seemed an eternity, Laura knew she needed a rest. She sank to her knees and bowed her head against the driving snow. “Dear God, I need some help here. I think I’m walking in circles. Surely, I must be close to Sam’s house but I can’t see it. Please direct my steps for I am out of energy, I’m slipping into hypothermia, and I’m scared to death for the safety of my children.” Laura slowly raised her head and nearly wept with relief. Her star was back! Whatever it was, it was twinkling and glowing like crazy, even in the impossible conditions of this weather. “Mattie, look! God sent a star to guide us. We can find our way now.” Laura shifted her body so that Mattie could see in the direction she was looking. “Pitty star, Mommy.” “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Laura assured him. With great effort, she rose to her feet and began to follow the inviting light. It was further in the distance than she had guessed, but the sight of it had given her new energy, and within another half hour, it was a bright beacon in their path. As they got closer, she realized that some farmer had placed a giant star on the front of his barn, and that was what she had seen, even from miles away. But nothing had ever looked so beautiful to her and she hastened to its light. As she got closer, she could see that there was also a large farmhouse in the yard and several out buildings, but the only visible lights were a yard light on a utility pole and the star on the barn. The place looked deserted at the moment. They were only a quarter of mile from the safety of its structures, but Laura began to feel a drowsiness so profound, that she wanted to just stop for a moment and rest on the ground. “No!” a voice from somewhere inside her screamed. “Keep moving. You’re almost there!” Laura felt as though her legs had turned to concrete. She could barely lift her feet to take a step forward. She stumbled a step or two, but could no longer resist the overwhelming urge to sleep. Numbly, she realized that she no longer felt cold. She was suddenly very comfortable and even toyed with the idea of taking her coat off. But she hadn’t the energy. She stopped walking and swayed indecisively for what seemed like an eternity. Then without warning, she simply collapsed to the ground. She had broken the fall for her children and they whimpered, but didn’t cry outright. They were succumbing to hypothermia as well and their senses were dulled.
Laura just wanted a ten-minute nap, that’s all, and then she would be ready to finish the hike. “At least one of us is warm,” she thought on some level of fuzzy consciousness. She had the presence of mind to lay her children carefully beside her on the ground, then decided she did want to remove her coat after all and laid it on top of them. She draped her arm over her precious boys and pulled them underneath her body as much as possible. A fragment of scripture floated through her mind. “He will cover you with His feathers… ” God was with them. She had never been more sure of anything in her life. Her thoughts wrapped themselves around Joe. “I was going to tell you on Christmas Eve, Joe. “ With thick tongue and garbled speech, she laid her cold hand on each of her boys’ heads and simply whispered, “Mommy loves you.” Then Laura closed her eyes for the last time.
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