A Love for Jesse
Copyright© 2021 by Jake Rivers
Chapter 2
CAL – The edge of death
I rubbed the back of my neck trying to work out the knots formed from driving for hours hunched over the steering wheel, watching for slick spots on I-70; squinting through the occasional snow flurries.
“It sure has been a hectic trip,” I mused. When my sister had called from Grand Junction about the baby, I had just come off a twelve-hour shift as an intern at the Hospital at the University of Colorado in Denver. I had graduated last spring and after my internship I was moving to Grand Junction to be near my family, and to be near the open country I so loved. It was a great thought, Caleb Townsend a doctor! It did have a certain ring to it.
I’d been able to grab a couple of hours sleep before I started on the trip across the state. I had been lucky: the traffic was light and the weather was great. There were a few light snow flurries but that was nothing for my big F-250 four-wheeler. It actually belonged to the family ranch near Rifle but I had been using it all through school.
Jan had a difficult delivery but the tiny pink creature, so obviously a girl, made the trip worthwhile. After a quick visit at the hospital, I had time to run out to the ranch for dinner and a good night’s sleep and then back to the hospital to visit some more with my sister and brother-in-law, Tad. Time got away from me and I was late heading back to Denver for my scheduled midnight shift. I stopped at Vail for some coffee and a quick steak and made sure to fill my thermos.
Back on the road, I pushed it a little but was finally getting close to Dillon; I was looking at maybe an hour and a half more driving to get to Denver. I was getting a little sleepy and it was just ten o’clock so I pulled into the roadside park I sometimes stopped at. I figured a cup of coffee and a short walk in the crisp; cold air would still get me to the hospital in good time and wide awake.
There was a car there, which surprised me. I pulled next to an older Chevy – somewhat the worse for wear - on the passenger side and got out, something not seeming quite right! I walked around the car; the driver’s window was rolled down. I jerked open the door seeing a woman inside as the dim overhead light came on. I put my hand to her throat to check for a pulse and was surprised how lovely she was ... an aura of childlike innocence surrounding her; her exposed skin the color of alabaster - translucently white from the cold.
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