Andi's Dream - A Blizzard in Buffalo

"I'm sure there will be someone as soon as the snow stops."

"No ma'am, there will not be someone along, this is a Lake Effect blizzard; it's expected to last until Saturday. Also, this collection of potholes is what Erie County calls a tertiary road, it's practically an empty road, there's two farms manned by some older folk, and there's a few cabins and camp sites, all empty except mine. The county won't come plow it until all the other roads in the county are plowed. If I had a brain in my head I wouldn't be up here on the lip of Zoar Valley in the first place, I don't know why I'm here, maybe God put me here for you, I don't know, but I can't stand by and do nothing." He looked around desperately as if trying to see a solution. "Look. If you won't let me help you, I have some MRE's on the wagon - military rations and they're sealed. They'll hold you over."

"That will be fine," said Andi now more terrified of the man than the storm for some reason.

"I'm going to turn this rig around first," he hopped back on the tractor, drove it and the wagon past her car to turn around.

"Where's he going mommeeeee?" whined Sandy.

"HE'S GOING..." Andi took a second to recover her temper, "he's going to go get us lunch."

Having swung the tractor and trailer around he pulled up alongside her car again. He just couldn't leave them like this, he had to try one last time to convince the headstrong but terrified woman to accept his offer of safe shelter. He stopped the tractor, set the brake, and stepped off the tractor to ask her one last time to get out of this storm but she refused to open the window again. He held up a large brown plastic envelope with the letters MRE on it, but she shook her head and refused to open the window. Now the girls were crying, calling for their mommy, and Andi couldn't move, she couldn't turn and comfort them, she was paralyzed with fear.

Andi watched as the man's knees sagged and he sank to the ground, kneeling, his arms crossed across his chest. She watched him, not knowing that he was praying fervently that God would do something, anything to change her mind. At worst he prayed for the storm to take him first, so he didn't have to watch those little girls die. Maybe his tractor parked in the road would warn the eventual plow to the hazard of the three trapped in the ditch. Andi watched the whole spectacle, cleaning the fog off her window. Was this man dying? Was he praying? Praying for what? Praying for a chance to get to her and her babies, she thought.

Just as she started to turn her back to the window her phone rang, it was 911.

"Doctor Roberts, this is Trisha at Erie County dispatch again. The Town of Concord police informed me that a neighbor in your area is coming to help, Doctor Paul Jarecki."

Andi was a bit shocked; she knew of a Dr. Jarecki, she thought that she may have even met him once. Isn't he a cardiologist and a specialist in pulmonary sleep disorders such as sleep apnea?

Oh no.

She looked at the catalog for the conference and she was scheduled to hear him speak at the symposium that she traveled so far to attend.

Oh crap.

"Just a second" she told 911, then leaned out of her window "Doctor Jarecki?" she called out. The man didn't move. Did he die kneeling in the road? "Do you know Doctor Jarecki?" she called out again.

Slowly, as if having been awakened he raised his snow covered head "That would be me."

The blood drained from Andi's face. She just insulted and probably angered a man that she traveled 2,000 miles to learn from, a man who left a nice warm cabin to come out in this cold, wet weather to save her and her girls... "Just checking." Did she really say that? Could she possibly have said something dumber? Oh God, she groaned inwardly.

Then she said to Trisha on the phone "He's here already with a tractor. He said he can't get us out of the ditch, so he's offered to take us to his cabin."

"You should go, you need to go, this storm is going to last for days. You do not want to be stuck in a car out in this weather."

"We don't have much of a choice" muttered Andi as she struggled to get her coat back on. "I'm worried for my girls; I don't know this man and..." her voice caught and she couldn't complete the sentence.

"I understand your fear Dr. Roberts, but I can vouch for Dr. Jarecki. For your own minds sake, I suggest you keep your phone charged and nearby and when there's a break in the weather we'll try to send an officer on a snowmobile to do a check on you."

Slowly her shaking hand reached out and remotely popped the trunk lid and the fellow seeing the trunk lid open rose and began to transfer their luggage from the car to his hay wagon.

"You really need to get to shelter Dr. Roberts, this is imperative. I'll have Town of Concord PD check on you as soon as we can." They said their goodbyes and Andi packed up her purse, told the girls to get their coats on, then tried to open the door. Seeing the door pop open, Dr. Jarecki held it open for her and held his hand out to help her.

She shunned the offered hand, struggled out of the car, and fell into the snow which was over a foot deeper than when she cleared the tail pipe. She finally got to her feet and was about to introduce herself, but she paused and took a look around. There was no wind, but the snow kept pouring down from the heavens, the flakes were huge and clustered together to make it look like they were being pelted with soft dishware. "What's that noise I hear?" Andi asked Paul. She mentally kicked herself again, the guy comes to help, and she asks him what that sound is.

He patted the tractor. "Plugs are fouled a bit, won't take much to clean them..."

"No, that hissing noise, it seems to be coming from everywhere."

"That's the sound that heavy snow makes when it lands. I take it you're not from around here." He lifted a giggling twin from the stranded car and held her over his head as he carried her to the hay wagon. She held her arms straight out simulating an airplane or maybe an angel and she touched down gently in the soft hay.

"Denver actually."

"The snow is drier and lighter up there," he said as he 'flew' another twin to the hay wagon. "Down here by the lakes it's pretty heavy, wet stuff. It's so heavy that it makes a noise when it lands, and in a heavy fall like this we hear it as a hiss." He helped Andi up into the hay wagon where the twins had already started building a nest in the hay. "That's the idea, you three cuddle up close and cover yourselves with hay, that'll keep you warm." Once they were all settled, he climbed up onto the tractor seat, cracked open the throttle and they started moving.

The ching-ching-ching-ching sound of the tire chains and the swirling snowflakes got the twins in a festive mood, and they began singing 'Jingle Bells' at the top of their lungs. The snow was piling up fast, it was almost up to the bottom of the hay wagon, but the tractor swam through it without effort. Andi peered ahead into the pool of swirling snow highlighted by the tractor's headlight and saw that the tire tracks laid down earlier as Paul headed to her rescue were almost filled in completely by new snow.

As they puttered along occasionally Andi would see a huge, gnarled tree leaning at them from the left, and once through the snow to the right she thought she saw a small red house, or maybe it was a shed, it was lost in a whirl of snow in a moment. She tried to be cheery to encourage the girls, but they didn't need any encouragement, this was their first hayride and they loved it! As for Andi, she felt as if she were heading for her doom. Eventually Andi was able to change the Twins Choir from "Jingle Bells" to "Over the River and Through the Woods" but when they got to "to grandmother's house we go" Andi wondered if she'd ever see her Nana again.

After what only seemed like forever, they swung off the road onto a field access driveway and they followed a path that had been plowed clear earlier. Paul shouted over the sound of the tractor that this was his driveway. The driveway seemed to be a longer drive than the road they were on to Andi but eventually she saw some Christmas lights appear ahead, and when they drew close, she saw that there were three barns, two were small hip roof barns situated very close together, both clearly modified for habitation rather than storage. One small barn had a covered patio on the front with windows overlooking the patio and a split Dutch door for access. The small barn immediately to its right only had a few windows and standard entry doors, no big barn doors. The two small barns were connected by an enclosed walkway. The third barn was huge and visibly much older; it sat further off to the side. Flood lights on all three barns illuminated the entrances.

Paul stopped the tractor at the patio, set the brake and hopped off, then helped Andi and the twins and their luggage from the trailer and ushered them through the Dutch door into the small barn. They stomped the snow off their shoes, shrugged off their coats and looked around. It was warm and inviting inside, the walls were paneled with rough cut wood and decorated with antique tools, old pictures, and on the long wall a fire hissed and crackled in a wood stove. In fact, the only light in the barn was from the fire and the dim grey light that streamed reluctantly through the windows.

"Go warm up by the fire but don't touch, that stove gets pretty warm. And don't worry none about Wonka, he won't bite."

Andi brought up all the force her four-foot nine-inch frame could manage. "Doctor Jarecki, if you actually are Doctor Jarecki, I am going to protect these girls with everything I have, because they're all I have..."

He took off his glasses and she could see his blue eyes, such a familiar blue. "Ma'am, I fully understand, just let me get your bags off the hay wagon and I'll be out of your hair. Here's my cell number if you have any questions. Just be nice to my cabin, it's not all I have, but I like it very much." And with that he set down her bags inside the cabin door, handed her his business card which he pulled from his wallet, then got on the tractor and putted off into the storm.

Andi stepped into the cabin and looked around, it was very dark, except for the firelight flickering from the glass door of the very modern but very old fashion looking wood stove that gave the only light other than the light coming through the windows from the fading daylight and the outdoors Christmas lights.

The twins were fascinated by the living area. The cabin was a small barn converted into a comfy retreat. It was one large room that made no attempt to hide its support structure of the upper floor. There were exposed floor joists, heavy cross beams, and upright support columns and all were decorated with evergreen boughs and red ribbons. The walls were paneled with rough cut lumber set horizontally. A large comfortable couch sat facing the wood stove, a table and chairs sat by the windows at the front of the room, and bookshelves lining the wall on the back of the room. A staircase at the back of the room led to the loft. Everywhere there were pine boughs and bright red ribbons decorating the room. Whoever Doctor Paul Jarecki is, thought Andi, he's got an interesting cabin.

She used the flashlight feature of her phone to search the cabin for a light switch and she found that the walls were covered with photographs and memorabilia. She checked out the framed certificates, graduated from State University of New York at Erie - Phi Theta Kappa with an Associates in English, graduated from Buffalo State University - Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Science, got his medical degree from State University of New York at Buffalo, an osteopath. She was going to look at his residency certificate but got distracted by more photographs.

She found a photographs of holidays and parties going back generations, a photo of a man in a set of military dress blues, chest covered with badges and ribbons, standing next to a smiling redheaded woman dressed like a fighter pilot. "Must have been a memorable Halloween," she thought. Pictures of men and women fishing in a small lake and a large stream, random antique tools, the occasional lure, and other fishing equipment, antique looking snowshoes... Andi decided that a woman's touch had never made its way to this cabin.

One of the pictures she spotted looked familiar... awfully familiar. It was of the attendees of a conference gathered together in a group photo, dressed nicely for the occasion. They were packed together in a tight group to get in the frame. Many people were wearing false smiles, those smiles that a doctor will wear when telling patients that they'll be alright, when the doctor knows that their patient probably won't follow their instructions. And there, in the front row, was a very visibly pregnant Doctor Adrianna Roberts. "He's got a picture of me?" she gasped aloud, which caused the twins to come running.

"Where? Where?"

"Let me see!"

She remembered that horrible night in Minneapolis, it was so frigid, she was lucky to get a hotel room in the hotel where the conference was being held, she didn't want to walk on icy sidewalks in her out of balance pregnancy. Everyone gathered for a soiree in the hotel ballroom on the last night of the conference and they had a group photo taken. Being the shortest person there she was pushed to the front of the group. The photo showed a large group of doctors and nurses, professional people in their suits and dresses and she was there, very pregnant standing in front of the group, and behind her a tall man with incredibly blue eyes. She suddenly felt sick to her stomach as she did on that night, and so very, very stupid. "I'm such a yutz," she said. She found his card on the table where she dropped it, picked it up and dialed his number...

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Dr. Paul Jarecki had spent a long time desperately trying to light a kerosene heater in the barn, but even if it did successfully light the chances of it keeping him warm were slim because he had only a few ounces of kerosene remaining. He even tried finding a comfortable position in the heated chicken coop and try to absorb some of their warmth, but the smell got to him quickly.

He found a couple of old blankets and wrapped himself with it and lay back in the hay wagon, at least the babies are safe he thought. Then with a prayer of thanksgiving he closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep. He had almost drifted off when a jingling "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" broke his slumber, it was his phone ringing with an unfamiliar number, the partial ID gave the location of Denver CO. With shivering hands, he picked up his ringing phone, it was Andi.

The cabin smelled of wood, smoke, evergreens, and rich beef stew, heady masculine smells that were getting to Andi. "Doctor Jarecki, we... I may have acted hastily, I should be thankful, but when it comes to my girls..." Andi sniffed the air, the scent of the hanging herbs and evergreen boughs and beef stew was overwhelming. "Please come here, maybe we could talk about what we are going to do over dinner."

It seemed to Paul that it took an hour to make it from the barn to the cabin, the wind had really picked up and the snow was so heavy he could barely see and he walked the long yards on Autopilot. When finally making it to the door he paused. He was freezing, his body shook from tremors, he clearly didn't dress warm enough when he rushed out to help whomever the Concord township police could not reach. He finally opened the door and walked in his cabin he could almost taste the fear that overwhelmed the small woman inside.

With trembling hands, he removed his jacket. He heard a tiny shuddering voice in the darkness. "Doctor Jarecki? I'm Doctor Adrianna Roberts." In the gloom of the cabin, he saw her and saw the fear on her face, and he also saw the tiny faces peering out from behind her.

The light switches Andi couldn't find were behind jackets hanging from pegs near the door. Paul flipped a switch, and the cabin became illuminated by over a dozen electric candles that gently flickered making the cabin look even more cozy. A small Christmas tree in the back corner lit up illuminating a small library.

"This is so cool!" Squealed the twins in unison as they resumed their exploration. They suddenly stopped short as they grew near the wood stove, a large brown object laying on the couch in front of the stove slowly came to life. With a whine it unfolded, stretched, and eased down onto the floor.

"That's my buddy Wonka, he's the worst guard dog on earth."

"Wonka?" asked the girls as the chocolate lab, bleary eyed from his nap, sniffed them, made a quick decision of approval, and began to wag his tail. The twins never had a dog in their lives, but they got over any trepidation in a microsecond and began petting and hugging the dog whose tail wagged faster with every coo and hug. Dr. Jarecki introduced his dog as "Not only the world's worst watch dog, but the sweetest friend a man could have."

Seeing that the dog was tolerating the attention, Andi let the girls fawn and dote over the overjoyed Wonka. The twins resumed their exploration and it was then that Andi noticed that the twins were clearly looking for something important as Wonka followed them in their search.

"What are you two looking for?" Andi gently demanded.

"The bathroom," said Sandy.

"If he doesn't have one," continued Madeline, "then he's probably..."

"A zombie!" the girls said together, eyes wide.

"A zombie?" asked Andi incredulously.

"Everyone knows zombies don't poop!" intoned Sandy with all the authority a five-year-old can muster.

"Dixie's brother Melvin told us so at day care, it's true," added Madeline whom Andi thought was much too involved with Dixie's brother Melvin.

"I hate to tell you this," intoned Andi, "but this is a cabin way out in the country. The bathroom is probably outside."

The twins stared at their mother in wide eyed shock and horror at the thought of a toilet sitting outdoors. Paul smiled seeing the shocked looks on the girls faces. He pulled off his boots then strode over to the stove where he set his boots to warm and hung his scarf and cap on a hook over the stove to dry and gave Wonka a pat on the head.

"I think Dixie's brother Melvin is right about zombies," said Doctor Jarecki. "Gastroenterologists all over the world complain about postmortem constipation in their zombie patients."

"See?" Sandy struck a defiant pose as she glared at her mother.

"I still gotta go potty and it's cold outside," wailed Madeline.

The whole time Paul passed Adrianna's name over and over in his head, her face is familiar but tonight he's only seen her scowl, which is not a good look for her, but... His mind clicked, it was in Minneapolis when he met a young doctor, flush with the joy of carrying not one but two tiny lives in her womb, the hair is different, but this has to be the same woman.

Dr. Jarecki stood over a foot and a half taller than Andi with broad shoulders and hands that looked more like a mechanic than a cardiologist. He appeared to be maybe 50, maybe older? Andi was immediately taken with his good looks that were edged by years of concern mixed with the love of the outdoors. Most importantly he did not appear to be threatening, Andi had a lot of experience with threatening and was always on the outlook. "We were discussing the potential of using external plumbing," answered Andi.

"There is that potential, and those facilities exist, but if you're not the adventurous type, I suggest using the indoor facilities." Paul then turned so Andi could see his face better. "It's good to see you again Doctor Roberts, although the weather isn't much better than at our last meeting."