Stormwatch - Thundersnow

He put the truck in first and started out, leaving it in first gear. The backpressure of the drivetrain was enough to keep the truck nice and slow. He stopped again to clean the windshield wipers and he noticed two things, one was the same hiss that Veronica noticed, the other was that he was the only person dumb enough to try to drive down Herman Hill.

Josh's plan was to turn left on Abbot Road at the bottom of the hill and head out to Springville that way. He stopped two more times to clean his windshield wipers on his way down the hill and as the hill grew steeper the ride became more nerve wracking. "Oh momma, what's a good ol' southern boy doing on a bobsled run like this?"

Closer and closer he came to the intersection; a flash of lightning revealed through the snowfall that the intersection was clogged with vehicles and the only way he was going to get through was through the kindness of his fellow man. Being New York that wasn't likely; it was bumper to bumper traffic heading north, but he wanted to turn left and head south, and the southbound lane was empty. He breathed a sigh of relief and that's when the truck started sliding.

Josh tried every trick he knew to slow the truck down, but he was right, he was on a bobsled run now. His tires were no longer tires; they were round skis. He was headed toward bumper-to-bumper traffic, and he was out of control. At least he wasn't moving too fast, less than 20 mph, but he's not slowing down. He decided to pull up on somebody's lawn and if he had to hit a tree so be it, better a tree than a person. He eased over to the right and the curb on the side of the road bounced him back out into the middle of the street. All he could do was flash his high beams on and off as rapidly as possible, blow his horn, and pray that there were no kids in the car that he was going to hit. His inexorable plunge into traffic began to pick up speed and none of his tricks worked.

At the last moment a miracle happened. Traffic on Abbot Road surged ahead three car lengths and one driver decided to obey NY State Law and not pull into the intersection and block it giving Josh an opening to slide through. Josh slid through the opening in the traffic sideways and slid for several blocks until he finally came to stop in front of a 7-Eleven. Trembling he staggered inside and got the biggest cup of coffee they had, a six pack of Coke, a sack of cat litter, and two huge hotdogs from the roller grill, his only food intake today had been an everything bagel eight hours ago. He also bought four cases of bottled water; the water was weight to put over the rear wheels of the truck.

"Buddy, you look like you just seen a ghost," the old fellow at the register said as he rang up Josh's groceries.

"I just came down Herman Hill Road from Chestnut Ridge," said Josh weakly.

"In this weather? That's a damn fool thing to do," the old codger scolded.

"Well, I'm from Georgia," said Josh, "it's what we do."

It was easy to get out on the Boston State Road which took him all the way to Springville, albeit very slowly. He was going uphill now which on snow slick roads was much easier than trying to go downhill safely. "Hi Nica, I'm in Boston now."

Almost in tears of relief Veronica asked, "It took you three hours to go five miles? Or are you in the other Boston?" Veronica was referring of course to the other, better-known Boston in Massachusetts.

"It was pretty slow going until the very end, then it got really exciting."

"If you see a place, pull over, it's getting dark, and you could end up in a ditch. I'll be fine, Andi and Paul are still here, we're going to watch that movie from last night, Paul says he's never seen it." Veronica was really starting to freak out, she knows Josh, if he feels that by his doing something life will be better for Veronica, he'll move mountains to get it done.

"Yes ma'am, I sure will." Josh continued along the Boston State Road, a winding, narrow, two-lane road that used to be the main road to Springville and the ski resorts further south.

Veronica placed a rocking chair by the fire and sat there while Paul and Andi cuddled on the couch and watched The Legend of Bagger Vance. Paul loved it for the story around the sport of golf during the depression and the two actual golf legends that were portrayed in the movie. Being from a small town in North Dakota Andi loved it for the portrayal of small-town politics, and Veronica watched it for the love story between a shell-shocked veteran and the woman that loved him.

"Honey?"

Veronica suddenly realized that Andi was trying to get her attention. "Sorry, I was somewhere else."

"You haven't had anything to eat all day, would you like some soup or something?"

"I suppose... but not tomato... there's some dried soup mixes next to the 'fridge."

Andi rooted around and came up with a few packets. "How's this cheddar broccoli?" but Veronica didn't respond, she was off in la-la land worrying herself sick. Andi nudged her again when she set up a bowl of chicken noodle soup on a small TV table for her. The soup went untouched.

Out on the road Josh was having better luck than he did during the first leg of his journey. The snow continued to be heavy, but the temperature had dropped, and the snow was no longer the wet heavy mud that had been falling from the sky, now it was the lighter, fluffy dry snow that he had become used to. It was much easier to drive now that the windshield wipers were able to deal with the light, dry snow.

The roads were covered with nearly a foot of snow, most of it still that wet heavy snow, so he was careful as he tried to stay near the center of the road. He tuned the radio to a Christmas music station and listened to a woman on a national show playing requests and long-distance dedications for Christmas music. He eventually soured on that and switched to something a bit more soothing on his frazzled nerves. The sounds of "Veronica's music," the Oxford St. Peter's Choir, the Academy of St. Martin in the Field, Choir of King's College and others filled his cab via Spotify on his phone.

His nerves were severely jangled, his jaw ached from clenching his teeth so tight, and the road ahead continued to test his driving skills. The wheel tracks of other drivers often end at an empty car in the ditch or are completely obliterated by snow and wind. When there were houses on the road the mailboxes gave him a good indication where the shoulder was, but there were several good size farms which meant there were long stretches of road with no indication of what was road and what was Jeep eating ditch.

Just ahead of him was a car, nose down in the ditch and there were lights moving inside. He couldn't pass them by, so he pulled up and put on the emergency flashers then stepped out to check on them. He tapped on the driver's window, and it slid down to reveal a shaken looking young driver, the sounds of a crying baby flowed out into the snowy night. "Y'all ok?" Josh asked.

"We're fine, shook up is all," the fellow said. "Could you give us a lift to East Aurora?"

"Sorry, I'm going the other way, traffic north is a nightmare starting a few miles back.

His wife leaned over and said, "could you pull us out?"

"I'm sorry ma'am, it's way too slippery out here, I'm having a hard enough time just standing."

"Then could you take us to the fire hall just up the road?" the anxious young man asked. "They had a sign that said they were open for stranded travelers."

"We can do that, but if they're not open, I'm heading to Springville. Is that cool?" When the couple agreed, Josh said "Ok, let's get your stuff." He helped the young fellow out of the car, then they came around to the other side to get the wife and baby, then grabbing a suitcase they made their way to the idling Jeep and climbed in. Josh handed out water, put the truck in gear and all four tires started spinning on the slick road. The rain that initially fell has finally frozen and is now a layer of ice on the road.

Josh got out and grabbed the cat litter and sprinkled a bunch in front of each tire for about a yard ahead of the tire. Hopping back in, Josh put the drivetrain in four wheel low and eased out on the clutch very slowly and the truck started to move. He was a maestro, a little gas, a little clutch, trade speed for traction, then gain the speed back when you get the traction. It was a slow painful process but they were moving and they slowly started up the Boston-Springville road.

Veronica nearly jumped out of her skin when her phone rang, she looked at the caller ID and it was Josh and not a policeman with bad news. "How are you? Are you ok?"

Josh heard the panic in her voice and kicked in the baritone to try and relax her, "Ah'm ok darlin' girl, Ah'm takin' it nice and easy. Ah just dropped off a young couple at the Patchin fire hall, they got stuck in the ditch, we're all fine."

"You sure? Are you going to spend the night there?"

Josh looked around the tiny fire hall, it was packed with stranded travelers, volunteers from around the area were roving the roads on snowmobiles looking for stranded vehicles and tagging the ones that they found empty. There wasn't an empty chair or cot in the firehall. "Ah'm going to press on nice an' careful, it's kind of full up here. No room at the inn, ya know?" Veronica had an argument but, in the end, Josh got in his Jeep Gladiator and headed south.

It was well after midnight when Josh rolled into Springville, the village Christmas lights looked beautiful in the now gentle snow, and Josh had a small family in the truck that he rescued three miles up the road, a couple and their two young boys who had an amazed fascination with this guy that talks like a country singer but claims that he's never heard of Country music.

"You never heard of Garth Brooks?"

"Is he a tenor like Luciano Pavarotti?" teased Josh.

"NO!" cried the boys, "He sings country!"

"Maybe he's a baritone then, like Matthias Goerne," said Josh.

"NO! that's not a country singer!"

"Well, of course not, we're talking about opera, right?"

"Uhhhhggggg!" cried the exasperated boys.

"We're right here on the left," said their chuckling mother. The boys were terrified when they went into the ditch, but Josh had them too busy trying to educate him about country music to be worried. Josh pulled into the driveway of a nice split level on the south end of Springville. He hopped out and helped get their bag out of the back of the truck.

"How much do I owe you?" said the husband as he reached for his wallet.

"Nothing, it' ain't your fault that it snowed, and we were headed in the same direction," said Josh as he climbed back in the truck.

"There's nothing I owe you?"

"When you get the chance, just pay it forward. Y'all have a Merry Christmas," and he eased the Jeep out of the driveway.

"He knows country music," said the five-year-old boy, "he said y'all."

Josh stopped at the circle K on the west side of Main Street and filled up, he used up most of the gas he got at the 7-Eleven driving fifteen miles, then just as he prepared to pull out on to Main Street, a snowplow came by scraping the snow leaving the street clean. "Where were you when I needed you?" muttered Josh and he pulled on to the first clean road that he's touched in fourteen hours. Gritting his teeth, he passed under the 219 Expressway overpass expecting to hit a wall of snow because this area got over 2 feet of snow since the storm started at 1:00 PM, almost 14 hours ago and those were Village of Springville snowplows. This side of the underpass is maintained by the County.

He dreaded this part because he was looking at a long steep drop into Spooners Gulch, then a long steep uphill climb to get back out. It's that or go home, but he promised Mike and Audrey they could have the house to themselves, and he refused to break that promise.

He crept forward wondering if he could crash at Paul and Andi's house. That's when Josh realized that the road was plowed! He could see the road was clear and black all the way down to the bottom of the valley and up the other side... he almost wept with relief. Josh drove down to the bottom of the valley reveling in the lack of combat that he had to sustain to move forward! He watched with joy as his speed crept to unseen heights, 20... 30... 40 miles per hour! And if it wasn't for the patches of black ice he may have dared to go even faster.

Soon he was at the corner of Trevette Road which remained unplowed. Trevette is a "County Tertiary" priority road, meaning that it will be plowed in late July at the soonest. He took a long drink of his ice-cold coffee and put the truck back into four wheel low and pressed into the two feet of newly fallen snow. He's got only one mile between him and his Nica.

Compared to the adventures of the past 24 hours, that last mile was completely uneventful. Even the 120 degree turn to the left at Hirsh's farm was easy, there was plenty of light from the half-moon that was starting to set. It was just a matter of moments when he turned into his driveway and shut down listening to the Dance of the Reed Pipes from The Nutcracker Suite played on an acoustic guitar. It was stunningly beautiful, but right now the only stunningly beautiful thing he wanted was his Nica.

Josh quietly stepped into the cabin which was toasty warm, and the air was blessedly dry. He eased off his coat, boots, and cargo pants which were soaked from the knee down from being out in the snow. He peeled off his soaked socks and hung them over the fire because that's where wet socks go, Santa took advantage of that fact. He added a couple of logs to the fire then eased the cover down revealing that Veronica was indeed wearing the white see-through robe, and she probably did wear it all night long just like she's wearing it now, over her Buffalo Bills T-shirt and sweatpants.

Josh crawled under the covers with Nica and gazed at his beautiful wife as she was illuminated by the moonlight. He closed his eyes for a second and didn't wake up until he realized his face was being peppered with kisses... but it stopped so he drifted back off to sleep.

"Why did you stop me?" demanded Veronica. Andi and Paul were asleep in the bedroom and when she discovered that Josh was back, they came out and shushed her and took her over by the kitchen.

"He needs his sleep, he had a tough night," said Andi. "You were sleeping so he texted you." She handed Veronica her phone and Veronica looked through it, there were nearly a dozen texts Josh sent outlining his exploits between North Boston and Springville. Over and over he stopped to see if someone was in a car in the ditch, if they were he offered them a ride south to Springville, and water. Twice he stopped and helped push a car out of the ditch if they weren't in too deep.

"Why does he do these things?" gasped Veronica as she read his exploits.

"Veterans," sighed Andi, "a lot of them are like that. They just want to help."

Veronica glanced at Josh who was sleeping soundly. "He always wants to help; he always wants to fix something... he could have died out there!"

"He wanted to get back to you," said Paul as he pulled on his mukluks. "That's what veterans do, fight their way back to the ones we love."

"How can I make him stop it?" Veronica looked at Josh and shook her head.

"Now you're the one trying to fix things," tiny Andi arched up to give Veronica a goodbye kiss. Veronica isn't too incredibly tall, Andi is just that short, and she and Paul headed out the door. They wanted to get back to their cabin before the snow started again.

"That wasn't an answer," said Veronica. "Dinner at five tonight? We're going to have smoked wild turkey."

"You're right, it wasn't an answer. When you figure one out let me know." She waved her Buffalo Bills mitten covered hand at Veronica and said, "See you at five!" and disappeared around the pine tree windbreak.

Veronica stepped back inside the cabin, stripped off her clothes and climbed under the covers with Josh, his eyes were closed but he was smiling. He heard every word they said. "You should have stayed somewhere!" whined Veronica. "You could have died!"

"No," he whispered, "We haven't spent a night apart for an entire year. I'm not going to start now. I love you Nica, and I'm always going to come home to you."

"Then, I'll always be here waiting for you... cheering you on. Merry Christmas darling."

"Merry Christmas love." As they kissed his hands stroked gently over her body, but he was soon fast asleep.