Chapter 1

I knew it was a little risky when I started out, but the damn storm wasn't scheduled to hit us for another four hours, plently of time to make the hour-and-a-half trip home. (You'd think by the age of fifty-five that I'd know better than to trust the weather forecast by now!)

So here I was, right in the middle of a 50 mile stretch of nothing but nothing, and creeping through a blinding blizzard that was scheduled to last at least the next three days, cursing my stupidity. I was glad I was driving my Toyota mini-van, so if worse came to worst at least I didn't have to worry about freezing to death in a snowbank, since there were two propane tanks that would keep the heater running for over a week. And I always kept the small fridge and cupboard stocked with a week's supply of food and drink, and with the sleeping bags and blankets on the bunk above the cab I could comfortably ride out any storm if necessary.

But for the last half hour it had been getting worse, and now I was worried about staying on the road. I had caught faint glimpses of tracks on the road going the same direction, but the speed at which they were getting blown away, I couldn't be sure of how far the vehicle was in front of me, and that added to the tension, watching out for a stopped car in front of me. Then, during a few seconds reduction in the wind, I thought I saw the tracks veering to the right. My foot automatically lifted off the gas pedal in case the road went that way, just in time to catch a faint glimpse of red reflected by the side beam of my lights. Shit. That really looked like the car I had been following might be down in the eight-foot ditch off the road. No sooner had this clicked in my mind than I saw a wind-swept turn-off into a field - a perfect place to stop.

I got the thing stopped, (the road was pretty slippery, and I had to go past and then back up, ) and then got parked well off the road. I would have to go back to that car to see if anyone was in it, and if they were OK, but I really wasn't dressed for slogging through a blizzard. Sneakers and jeans, even with a good jacket and gloves, meant I would be half-frozen and wet by the time I got to the car, let alone getting back to the camper. So I went into the back and started up the propane heater, then bracing myself, stepped out into a sixty mile an hour icy blast that took my breath away.

Within five minutes I was chilled to the bone, and was seriously wondering if I would even be able to find the damn car. Visibility was down to about ten feet, and I had counted off about four hundred feet, figuring at about 30 miles an hour I'd have gone about that far past where I thought I had seen it, and had spotted nothing that looked like a car, or the tracks going off the road. I was about to give up, figuring I was on a fool's errand, when I thought I saw two lumps in the snow up ahead. Peering through the driving snow, I could almost make out what looked like a larger lump in the ditch off the road, but it really didn't look like a car. And I really didn't want to beat my way down through the ditch to a snow-covered boulder. But I had to.

Yes, it was a car. Brushing the snow off the driver's window, I peered inside the dark interior, to find no-one in the driver's seat. However, there was a dark little lump on the passenger's side, dusted with snow from the broken window, which I first thought must have been a blanket, until I saw the bare leg.

The old Dodge had hit hard enough to jam the door, and there was no way it would come open farther than an inch or two. Luckily the back door was OK, and crawling into the dark cold interior I reached over the front seatback to gently shake the shoulder of what I could now see looked like a child.

"Hey, are you OK?"

The child stirred, and groaned. I could feel faint shivering under my hand, and knew I had to get both of us out of there and into the warmth of the camper soon, but I was worried about injuries. I shook the shoulder once more, gently, and this time was rewarded with a blood-streaked face groggily turning wide, frightened eyes towards me;

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I didn't mean..." her voice trailed off as she got a better look at me, then she seemed to slump in relief.

"Are you hurt? Can you move?"

"Let me sleep... I'm so cold..."

"Dear, we've got to get you out of here before you freeze to death. C'mon, see if you can move. C'mon now, see if you can move. You can sleep when we get you warmer."

The angle the car was sitting at made it difficult to get much leverage, but I managed to get my hands under her shoulders as she struggled to work with me, and together we got her out of the front seat into the back where I was.

She was now shivering so hard it was difficult to hold on to her, and I could see that she was wearing a scruffy old jacket over what looked like a dress and sneakers- way too light clothing to be out in the winter. I flared in anger at parents that would let their child go out in the winter dressed like that.

"Where are your folks? You're not out here all alone, are you?"

"No... yes,... I'm alone..."

She looked too young to be driving, especially in that weather, but I decided I could wait until we were warmer to find out some more answers. She was very close to hypothermia, and I wasn't far away from it myself. It was critical that we get into the heat fast.

I'm not sure how I managed to get her up through the ditch, dragging mostly, and then shuffling, half-running along the road, I was blinking back tears for this poor pitiful freezing little creature I was trying to shelter under my open jacket.

It seemed like days before the bronze coloring of my camper loomed out of the white-out, and relief washed over me like a wave; I was very close to the end of my rope. By now I was carrying her, and although she probably didn't weigh more than 90 pounds, I'm not a big guy, (160 lbs, ) and the last few steps were about all I could have made.

The propane heater wasn't designed to cope with a winter blizzard, but getting out of the wind and driving snow and into the relative warmth of the camper felt like heaven! Quickly propping her in the bench seat at the table, I grabbed a blanket from the bunk above the cab and dropped it on the table before reaching over to start the engine to get the cab heater going. Then digging out the kettle, I pumped it half-full of water and put it on the stove to start heating.

Rummaging through the closet yielded two pairs of wool socks and two large tee-shirts I used for sleeping in. Then kneeling down, I stripped off her soaked sneakers, planning to put a pair of the socks on her, but when I felt her icy little feet, I knew they had to get some heat, soon; they felt frostbitten. Unbuttoning my shirt, and pulling up my tee-shirt, I put those little frozen feet directly on my chest. They felt like icicles, and she flinched, moaning. I started masaging her thin, but surprisingly muscular legs, trying to get some circulation going. Checking out her clothes, I could see that it was it a light summer dress, and it was soaked, as well as her scruffy fleece jacket.