She tried to restart the car, but it wouldn’t turn over, but at least the “SOS” code came back to her. “Three short, three long, three short. I knew that.” She laid on the horn again with the right dits and dahs.
Wishing for the little hammer-and-cutter gadget theyadvertised on late-night television, she rummaged through the console and the glove box the best she could from the driver’s seat.
Next year everyone gets one of those gadgets in their stocking.
She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. The car was getting cold fast.
Honking three short, three long, three short she hoped someone out there could hear her.
“I’m going to be really mad if I freeze to death. I’ve got things I want to do.” Anna’s reminders that there was more to life than work played in her mind.
She pressed the back of her head against the seat and worked her way out from beneath the shoulder strap.Freezing to death isn’t an option.Honestly, she didn’t even know if it was a possibility. It might only be in the teens out there by now, but she couldn’t just sit here either.
The edge of the seat belt scraped her cheek as she cleared it to get it behind her.
With the extra freedom from moving the seat belt, she was able to grab her phone.
“Lilene. It’s Vanessa. I’ve had an accident. I’m in a ditch a half-block away from Main Street. At least I think that’s where I am. I can’t get out of the car. Can you get me help?”
“Yes. Are you okay?”
“I think I’m fine, but the door won’t budge. I can’t get out.”
“Those roads are slick. We sent everyone home early so they could salt and scrape the roads. Hang on.”
Vanessa clutched the phone until Lilene came back on the line.
“They’re on their way to get ya. Don’t you worry.”
“Thanks for calling for help.”
“Want me to stay on the line?”
“No. That’s not necessary. I’m fine.”
She dropped her phone in her lap and relaxed.Of course they’ll drop everything and come help me. That’s what they do around here.
CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
Mike loved nothing more than being on horseback in fresh snow. You could exhaust a smaller horse in no time in this kind of snow, but he and Big Ben didn’t mind taking it slow. Mike hitched the light sleigh to Ben and headed out. Nothing demanding, just man, horse, and nature. He inhaled the fresh smell of snow.
When he was showing the hitch, the sound of the equipment and bells made his heart pound with excitement. This was the opposite. The only sound was the quiet slice of the sleigh rails in the snow, and the squeaky crunch as Ben pushed his weight into the icy snow.
Occasionally the heavy air would trap the smoke like a flying carpet afloat above his neighbors’ houses.
Less than a week before Christmas he was certain there were some people in a panic that they’d lost one good shopping day today. He could picture the piles of shiny wrappedgifts under the trees of each house as he took the slow ride through the neighborhoods surrounding Main Street.
Most of the houses on this street had a Christmas tree with twinkling lights in the front window. Some white, some colorful. An old soul, he favored the big old glass bulbs of years gone by.
He and Misty loved stringing lights in the barn and on the house. It never got old, and the thought of her outgrowing that made him a little sad.
This year some people had those puffy blow-up air figures. That dadgum Amazon put just about anything at the fingertips of people all over the nation. He’d rather see those big plastic candles from days gone by or a nativity scene than a blowup of a Santa-hat-wearing dinosaur. What was Christmassy about that?
The roads through here hadn’t been scraped yet. As Mike rode by his buddy James’s house, the eight-foot inflatable Santa driving a bright red monster off-road truck full of presents pretty much fit James to a T, though.
Big Ben’s ears flicked back and he took a quicker step, raising his nose into the air. Alert.
“I heard that too, buddy. Whoa.” Mike stopped and listened for a long moment. The only sound was the occasional groan of a pile of snow slipping from a branch to the ground, and tiny branches breaking under the weight of it. “I don’t know what that was.”
