Andi's Dream - A Blizzard in Buffalo

© 2023 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original, any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

I started writing this as something to do between weekends. Laid off from Comcast, disabled, and watching the world scroll past I looked for something to do. I looked far and wide for a hobby that I enjoyed which didn't cost a fortune and take up too much room, but I never found one that met those three simple requirements. Watching TV movies as the snow built up outside I groaned "I can write better than this." That is when my muse tapped me on the shoulder and whispered in my ear, "Quit bitching and do it."

On the We're a Wonderful Wife timeline this occurs around Chapter 10, and it occurs a full year before Stormwatch - A Blizzard in Buffalo

This is it, the genesis of a lot of things I wrote, but it is the first long story I ever tried, please be kind.

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Andi's Dream

Snowbound

It was a cold, dreary December day, gray, damp, slightly foggy, one of those days where it seems like everyone and everything is dreading an upcoming funeral. Yesterday was cold but sunny, the breeze scattered the dry leaves that danced across the street, the sound of their moving filled the air. Today was damp and foggy, the moisture gluing the leaves in place. A Jeep Gladiator pickup pulled up to Dr. Paul Jarecki's cabin on Trevett Road. It was a green truck, that odd color of olive green that made it look like a military vehicle, unless you've been in the military and know what kind of green they use. It even had decorative stencils to add to the military look, but the stencils miss that one thing that would make the stencils look authentic - "over spray." No, the green was a good green, the stencils were perfect and straight and at the same time the finish was buffed to a gloss. This was not a military vehicle and the driver was not military, not anymore. Josh Gravely stepped out of the truck, walked up to the barn shaped cabin and knocked on the door then entered without waiting for a response from inside. "Hey Doc," he said.

Dr. Jarecki looked up from the document he was reading on his laptop, the scent of smoke from his pipe and bacon from the morning's breakfast filled the air. It was a manly cabin filled with mementos of hunts and fishing expeditions, photographs of Paul Jarecki and friends including Josh holding up fish, or ducks, or deer. At one side of the cabin was a wood stove that warmed the cabin with a snap and crackle, the flames seen through the glass door moved in slow motion from the controlled intake of oxygen. A covered iron pot on top of the stove was slowly coming up to heat, there would be beef stew for dinner tonight. "Heading out?" Paul asked without looking up from the document on the screen. "I thought you had the rest of the week off."

"I did, but Eli called and asked me to come in, he thinks there's a storm coming and we have a new hospital to bring online," said Josh as he reached into Paul's fridge and grabbed a bottle of Genesee beer, pulled up a chair and began to drink. Josh worked at an up-and-coming data storage and networking company and owns the property across the street for recreation, but he lives in Orchard Park, about 25 miles away.

"That's the problem with you former military types, sergeant," said Paul, "they call, you haul. You should learn to relax." The doctor glanced over the top half of his glasses and wrote a note on a legal pad on his desk.

"Said the lieutenant colonel who is reviewing his patients records on his day off," said Josh. "Here's the key to my cabin, if there's a fire you know what to do," and he rose and hung the key ring in Paul's key rack.

"I know, save the rifles and clear your browser history."

Josh placed a fresh beer on Paul's desk for his friend then took a sip from his own beer and said, "Clear the browser history first. I don't have a barn full of hot chicks to keep me company."

"My hot chicks are keeping you in eggs. Besides, don't you have a secretary named McRooster or something like that to drool over?"

Josh sat back down. "It's von Köster and she's the bosses executive assistant. She is keeping this company together."

"I'm just saying," Paul took a sip from the beer that Josh set in front of him, "she's a neighbor. I could put in a good word for you."

"Thank you Doctor J but we are definitely in different leagues. She's pitching for the Yankees and I'm a benchwarmer for a pre-school T-ball league."

Paul took another drink then said, "Don't put yourself down like that. You'll start as center fielder for the local Ace Hardware T-ball team soon... with practice."

Josh rose and zipped up his jacket and moved toward the door, "See you Saturday?"

"Roger that, the Bills are playing the Broncos, it's going to be a good game." Paul then noticed that Josh was still holding the beer bottle as he opened the door and called out, "that's a nickel!" Josh groaned and finished the beer then set the empty bottle on the table so Paul could collect the deposit. "Do you think it's going to snow?"

Josh looked out of the door at the lead gray sky and shrugged. "Nah, probably not," he lied.

"Same here," Paul lied. "Bring some beers on Saturday, I'll put on some venison stew."

Josh backed out of Paul's driveway, then stopped to check his mailbox and double checked the gate on his property then headed to work. It was annoying to come in on a day off but he wanted this project to succeed so he headed in. The trip to his office in Orchard Park was about twenty minutes and by the time he got to the office the snow was starting to fly. It looked like this storm grew some teeth without warning anyone.

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Dr. Adrianna Roberts had flown from her home in Denver Colorado to Buffalo New York for a medical conference to be held at the South Boston Hospital, a new hospital in a growing rural community about 20 miles south of Buffalo. Andi, as she's most commonly called, didn't expect much from this conference, one of the speakers' name rang a bell, but her best friend in the world who now lives in the Buffalo area, Dr. Lucy Kosis, encouraged her to go. Other than the opportunity to come and visit Lucy, there was really no need to go. Looking at the speakers and the list of classes to be held in the seminar, it was all 'stuff' that she wrote many papers on in her past, some even before she got her fellowship. At least University hospital paid for the trip, Andi guessed they figured "What trouble could she get into in Buffalo?"

She brought the twins with her too; they were the joys of her life. Since Lucy left Denver and moved to Buffalo, the twins were the only joy left in Andi's life. They would be starting kindergarten next year so this was the last time she could bring them with her on a business trip, it was the first business trip she had been on since they were born. The last trip she took was a conference in Minneapolis not long before the twins were born.

They landed in Buffalo several days early to unwind at a highly praised B&B, then she had the week-long conference while the twins played with Aunt Lucy, then two weeks of actual vacation! They planned on one week spent skiing and tubing in the "snow belt" south of Buffalo, then Christmas week in Niagara Falls and Toronto. Her very best friend and former colleague Lucy would be there to guide them around the area, provide day care during the conference, and being a world class athlete Lucy would be her instructor for the important Nordic skills of tobogganing, inner tubing, and consuming wine by the fire.

Getting out of the airport and into a rental car was easy enough, in fact Buffalo International was one of the easiest airports to get out of that Andi had ever flown into. Soon they were in their rental car heading south, singing along with Christmas carols on Andi's iPhone which she paired with the radio on the rental car. And to the twins' delight it started to snow. She was extremely confident in her winter driving skills having been born and raised in Denver and she visited Grandma and Grandpa Olson in Bismarck, North Dakota almost annually - how hard could winter driving be in Buffalo?

Had they been listening to a local radio station they would have discovered that sports talk switched to weather talk and they were heading into the teeth of a Lake Effect blizzard, the kind of storm that Buffalo is famous for. The snow started in small, wet, widely spaced flakes as they passed New Era Stadium, the home of the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, but the further south they drove the heavier the snow fell. As they got closer to their target destination, Springville, not only was the snow flying in earnest there was thunder and lightning. "Thundersnow?" Andi asked no one in particular, "who has thundersnow?"

"Thundersnow! Thundersnow! Thundersnow!" the twins sang along with 'Let It Snow.'

Her windshield wipers could barely keep up with the onslaught, and to make matters worse, when she exited the 219 expressway, she ended up heading west into the countryside rather than east into town and the cozy Bed and Breakfast room waiting for them. She wanted to turn around but there was oncoming traffic which prevented a U turn, and there was no intersections visible.

As she drove, the four lane wide highway narrowed down to a two-lane paved country road, something she didn't notice happening due to the heavy snow. She almost discovered that the roads in this part of the world have very deep ditches due to the amount of rain and snowfall. She stopped and checked her GPS, her right tires perilously close to sliding into the ditch unbeknownst to her. She found her mistake quickly and decided to turn around at the next intersection which was 2 slow miles ahead.

When she finally reached the intersection, she nearly missed it. Snow was piling up fast, and even though it was still early in the afternoon the world grew very dark and took on a brownish grey hue from so much snow in the air. She misjudged how narrow the country road that she turned on to was, and without warning her slow-moving car slid sadly into the ditch on the side of the road.

Much of Andi's winter driving experience came from North Dakota visiting her grandparents, and not Denver. Denver is almost tropical compared to Bismarck North Dakota. Even in the mountains, the roads that Andi traveled on in Colorado were well groomed. In North Dakota she learned that when you go into the wide shallow ditches you drive on the frozen ground until you find a place to pull back on the road. Western New York is vastly different. She tried to continue with one set of wheels in the ditch until she found a field entry driveway, which is what she would do in North Dakota.

However, the steep sided deep ditches in New York are different than the wide shallow ditches of North Dakota and soon she was hopelessly stuck, far off of the main road, highway 39. She stopped the car and immediately it slid deeper into the ditch, tilting up to almost forty five degrees. The twins panicked, chattering away at the edge of terror as only 5-year-old twin girls can chatter but they did it in their own language. Andi dubbed it TwinBabble® and it took Andi several minutes to calm them into a form of quiet that would allow an emergency phone call.

"Nine one one, what is your emergency?" Andi gulped, she had informed scores of terrified patients to call 911, but she has never done it herself. Is there a protocol? What do I say? She realized that she must have been discussing this situation with herself in her head longer than she realized because the operator repeated "Nine one one, what is your emergency?"

"Oh, um, sorry. Hi." Now she felt stupid. Who says "Hi" to a 911 operator? "I'm Doctor Adrianna Roberts and I'm stuck in the snow." Now she felt even dumber, why would she think that throwing her title at the 911 operator could possibly improve the situation? Maybe if she rattled off her list of publications the tow truck would arrive faster?

"Where are you located? Take your time if you have to."

Andi decided that the 911 operator is an empath and realized how stupid she was making herself feel. "I'm not sure, we turned off the 219 expressway at Springville but headed west instead of east on Route 39, then I tried to turn around at an intersection and slid into the ditch."

The operator sounded calm. "I know that area pretty well, it's easy to get turned around in a snowstorm, so I'm just going to ask a few questions to help figure out where you are, OK? When you turned, was this the first intersection after 39 narrowed from four lane to two lane? Or did you go further?"

Andi suddenly realized that she did not notice if there were intersections before the road narrowed. No, wait - the only sign she saw was the sign indicating that the right lane had to merge left, so she wasn't completely ignorant of the world around her as she drove, but there was so much snow that she couldn't actually see the road narrow. "Yes, the first one after."

The 911 operator frowned to herself. If Doctor Roberts had turned at the next intersection a few miles further west on 39 she would be safe in the tiny village of Morton's Corners. "Did you turn left or right off of 39?" she asked Andi.

"Left, we turned left onto the side road."

"Ok, here's the good news. I know exactly where you are." Andi gulped, there is another shoe waiting to drop. The operator continued. "The bad news is that the Erie County Sheriff's office has put a driving ban in place, and they themselves are not on the road."

"Oh God, what do I do?" gasped Andi, "I have two five year old girls in here with me." She tried to keep the terror out of her voice but was fighting a losing battle.

"There is a farmhouse very close to you," said the operator, "can you see it?"

Andi tried looking out of the windows but she could see nothing, "No, I can't see past the hood of my car, my girls... I don't think I could walk them to the farmhouse in this snow."

"I'm going to reach out to the Town of Concord, which is where you are right now. They may have assets available."

Andi's heart sank, she verified her phone number with the 911 operator who gave her some tips on staying warm, then hung up. What do I do? She asked herself, lie to the girls that everything is going to be ok?

"Do we have to wait in the car or can Sandy and I go out and play in the snow?" asked the younger of the twins, Madeline. She was younger than Sandy by 2 minutes. When Andi told them that they couldn't go out in the snow, the moppets started fighting over who was sitting on who in the car that was leaning on a 45-degree angle causing Madeline to end up on Sandy's lap. Sandy decided that since she was older, she got to sit on her younger sister's lap.

"No you cannot go outside and play, the police will be calling me soon to tell me what we can do," Andi was exerting considerable self-control to keep herself from screaming, but it was a cute thought, wanting to go build a snowman in a blizzard to pass the time. Her cell phone rang as she was trying to break up the fight. "Doctor Roberts," she answered mechanically.

"Doctor Roberts, this is Sergeant Montgomery of the Town of Concord police department, how are you guys doing?"

"I think cabin fever is starting to set in with the twins, but we're doing ok."

"To be blunt, we do not have any units on the road, nor do we have any plows or snowmobiles in that area." Before Andi could audibly moan, he continued "I made a few calls, and a fellow who lives just up the road from where you're at agreed to head out to help you. It may take a little time so stay warm, keep the engine running and the lights on so he can see you, but you're going to have to keep the tail pipe clear to prevent carbon monoxide build up."

"Thank you so much Sergeant!" and Andi turned to tell the twins the good news, which only stoked their desire to play in the snow before it got dark, which appeared to be happening. They settled for a story, and Andi told them that she was going to dig the exhaust pipe clear of the snow first. She tried to open the door, but the car was at such a steep angle she couldn't open the door. As a pulmonologist she knew the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning far too intimately so she opened the window and climbed out by standing on the side of the center console and pulling herself out of the window. She cleared the exhaust pipe which unluckily was on the right side down in the snow filled ditch. After she dug the tail pipe clear with bare hands, then clambered back in the car, Sandy handed her the thick story book from which Andi had been reading stories to them since before they were born.

As Andi drew to the end of the second story that she was reading to the girls, Madeline's eyes shot open wide, "Sleigh Bells!" she gasped.

Sandy pulled herself up and started looking through the windows, "Sleigh bells! I hear them!"

Knowing how finely tuned the girl's ears can be, Andi turned off the radio and sure enough a putt-putt-putt and a jingle of tire chains could be heard approaching them. As the sound of the ching-ching-ching of tire chains grew nearer the girls cried "It's Santa Claus!"

Soon the dim glow of headlights could be seen, and suddenly a smallish grey and red tractor pulling a trailer full of hay bales appeared out of the swirling snow. As it pulled abreast of their car the driver hopped off the tractor and began inspecting the situation that they were in. He ducked down in the front and was below the hood for a long time, then he rose, walked up to the driver door, and gestured for her to lower the window.

"You're in that ditch good, ma'am." He said as Andi lowered the window. He was wearing a Buffalo Bills stocking cap and his face was covered with a Buffalo Bills scarf and his glasses were fogged so she couldn't even see his eyes. At least he was tall, but to someone as short as Andi, everyone is tall.

"Can you get us out?" she asked.

"Not with this tractor, I'd be afraid of ripping off your bumper or something like that. I have another one that works a whole lot smoother. And if I did pull you out, where would you go? Route 39 is impassable. All roads south of Orchard Park are closed. But you're more than welcome to wait this storm out in my cabin. It's warm and dry and supper's on."

"Supper!" chimed the twins from the back seat.

"I don't know..." Andi looked back at her girls, her babies. What if this was some pedophile? some rapist? Would it be better to wait out the storm right here in the car? The words "My Cabin" sent chills of terror through her heart. Hundreds of hours of slasher movies she watched as a teen flashed through her mind and the terror started to set in. "I don't know you," she said, "I can't... I can't risk the safety of my girls."

"That's something I truly understand, ma'am. The safety of the ones you love is of prime importance, there's nothing worse than seeing a loved one come to harm" He paused and looked around. It was snowing so heavily nothing was visible. All was gray and billowing snow. "Ma'am, this is a killer storm. Your car will be buried, you will run out of gas, when that happens you will freeze to death, when the snowplow comes it won't see you and it will crush you. I utterly understand your fear, but your babies back there, I can't... I don't want to see them die."