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It wasn’t the article I’d seen in her notebook.
“Holy shit.” I gasped as I scrolled through the well-written article. “This isn’t…”
“A scathing dark article about rednecks.” Charlotte interrupted. “She might have come here to write that article, but it looks like this town got under her skin. Like it does to everyone.”
Henri’s article compared the movie to what she experienced in town. And, in Henri’s opinion, the movie was a feel good and completely unrealistic portrayal of life in Chance Rapids. Real life in the mountain town had more layers, both good and bad. She went on to highlight the people, but the bulk of the article was about community, and how the entire town had come together to help the family whose house burned down after the parade.
The photo that accompanied the article was of Shawn and Mary as Mr. and Mrs. Claus, waving from their plywood sleigh atop the flatbed. Two alpacas sporting fake antlers were in the foreground, their handlers grinning, and one of them, me, was staring at the person taking the photo. I remember that exact moment, our eyes had connected through the crowd and I felt like I’d been hit by a mosquito zapper.
“I don’t know what to say.” My voice cracked.
Charlotte looked at her watch, a vintage Cartier. “You should probably apologize.”
“But she should’ve told us.”
Charlotte shook her head. “Jack. Don’t be a jackass. She clearly came here to do a job, fell in love…with the town, and changed her story.”
Suddenly I wasn’t hungry for the other half of my sandwich. “I have been a jackass.”
“You both have. Now, be a man and go get her and bring her home.” Charlotte made a shooing motion with her hands. “I’ll get the bill. You get out of here.”
With the Western route closed,there was only one way to get out of town. I wasn’t sure how much of a head start Henri had on me, but I didn’t think it was more than an hour. Emma’s tulip friends were right, the roads were terrible. I put Cindy into four-wheel drive and drove a little faster than I should have for the weather conditions.
As I passed Windswan, the roads deteriorated quickly. Cars were in the ditches all over the place. The road shouldn’t have re-opened. Henri wasn’t used to driving in winter conditions, and I remembered that her shitty rental car didn’t even have winter tires, let alone the chains that going through the mountain pass would require.
My heart pounded against my ribcage as I squinted into the distance, hoping to see the tail lights of the champagne-colored sedan. The pounding in my chest paused as I saw something on the side of the road. From a distance it looked like a small animal, but as I got closer, I think my heart completely stopped. There was no doubt in my mind, Henri’s boots were sitting on the side of the road. I put on my four-way flashers and pulled over to pick them up. What were her boots doing sitting on the side of the road? It didn’t make sense.
Less than a mile down the road, tire tracks swirled in the snow on the surface of the road. A black SUV was in the ditch on the left-hand side, and tracks led off the road to the right. A car had driven down an embankment. It was Henri. I could feel it. I held my breath as I ran to follow the tire tracks. I didn’t have to follow them far, the rental car was covered in snow, the front end crumpled into a tree.
“Henri!” I shouted and ran to the driver’s side. It was a struggle as the snow was up to my crotch. I yanked on the door handle, but there was too much snow packed around the car for it to open. I peered in the frosty windows and could see Henri slumped onto the deployed airbags. I banged on the window and shouted.
To my surprise, Henri turned her head to look out the window. Then she unrolled it. “Hi Jack.”
“Hi.” She was definitely in shock. There was a cut on her forehead that was bleeding.
I held out my hand like a traffic cop. “Stop. I’m going to dig out the door.” The wail of the ambulance in the distance was reassuring. By the time I had cleared the door, Josh, from Search and Rescue, had a ski patroller toboggan next to the car.
Henri insisted that she was fine, but Josh insisted harder that she needed to let them put her on the backboard and get her to the hospital.
“Can I come with her?” I asked when we were at the back of the ambulance. I didn’t care about Cindy; I just needed to be near Henri and make sure that she was going to be okay.
“Who are you?” The paramedic asked.
Henri was loaded onto the stretcher. I squeezed her hand, “I’m her boyfriend.”
Tears spilled from Henri’s eyes. “You’re going to be okay.” The paramedic thought that she was crying because of the accident, but I knew better.
“Everything is going to be okay Henri.” I whispered in her ear.
She croaked, “I’m sorry.”
They loaded her into the back of the ambulance and I hopped in beside her. “They’re going to check you out to make sure you’re okay and then I’m going to take you home.”
“Home?”
“You belong here Henri. Please say you’ll stay.”
The wry smile that I adored spread across her face and I knew that she was going to okay.
