Chapter 17

The girls let go of my hands almost instantly and I turned toward the door, knowing in my heart that anyone knocking on our door on a day like this was in need of help.

"Andy, check the phone and see if it's working again. Lisa-Marie, throw the kettle on, whoever it is will be cold." I said even while I was heading for the door.

I opened the door and shivered almost instantly, then reached out to take the hand of the old woman standing there covered in snow and shaking like a leaf. She looked like she was dressed for a fall outing, not for being out in a blizzard and I knew we had to get her warm quickly.

"I - I - I'm s-s-ssorry to disturb you." She mumbled. "We need help."

"Yes Ma'am." I said quickly as I helped her inside and quickly helped her out of her wet coat. "I know who you are. You're Mrs Matilda Granger. Where is your sister, Nettie?"

As cold as she was and as old as she was, I wanted to help as much as I could, so I was being a bit pushy. I helped her to a chair near the old heater, just realising it was on and realising that one of the girls must have started a fire in it earlier in the day because the kitchen got chilly.

"We were at church, then when we were driving home, the wind just blew us off the road. I had to walk." She managed to say through chattering teeth. "Nettie was knocked out I think. She's still in the car. I hurried as fast as I could, but you've got to get us some help."

"Phone?" I glanced at Andy who'd checked it and she shook her head.

"Tom, she's freezing cold." Lisa-Marie said shortly as she rested a hand on the old lady's forehead. "We need to warm her up fast, inside and out. Can you carry her upstairs? We'll get her into a tub of warm water and I'll make some weak sweet tea for her to drink. Andy, can you go upstairs and start filling the tub with warm water, not too hot, just warm and then help Tom get her soaking in it?"

"Mrs. Granger, I need to know where Nettie and the car are." I said as I scooped her into my arms and turned toward the stairs.

"The car went off the road near your little river, but the motor isn't running, so it will be awfully cold for poor Nettie. Now let me down. I can walk. You need to go help her. I'm fine."

"We're almost there." I said firmly. "We want to get you warm, so we're going to put you into the tub and..."

"I am not undressing with a man in the room." She said stubbornly, then pointed at Andy. "I know this girl. She can help me."

"She's okay now, Tom. Just set her down and I'll help her." Andy nodded at me. "You go find Aunt Nettie, but for gosh sakes, be careful."

I didn't argue, and as I turned, I almost knocked Lisa-Marie down as she came in carrying a tea pot and a cup.

"Andy, you can look after Mrs. Granger, can't you?" Lisa-Marie said quietly. "I don't want Tom out there alone. I want to go with him."

"We'll be just fine, won't we Aunt Mattie?" Andy nodded at Lisa-Marie, already helping the old woman with the buttons on the back of her dress.

"I'm taking the tractor." I glanced at Lisa-Marie. "So you need to dress for intense cold."

She followed me downstairs and frowned as I tossed her a pair of coveralls, then my old parka.

"Are you wearing two pairs of socks? And what are you wearing for boots?" I asked as I dressed myself.

"Yes I have two pairs of socks and don't worry, I'll dress warmly." She snapped. "Why do I need to wear this stinky pair of coveralls?"

"Because they break the wind and the parka will keep you warm, but everything will still let you move." I sighed. "Hey, while I'm getting the tractor, why don't you make a thermos of hot tea? It might come in handy."

"You could have asked for that before I had all these clothes on." She barked, then pointed to the floor beside the door where a big thermos already sat waiting. "One of these days you're going to have to start remembering that I've lived on the farm all my life too. So did Andy. We know what needs to be done."

I didn't say anything, just leaned over and kissed her quickly, then hurried to finish dressing for cold weather. She was dressed as soon as I was and we went outside together. It was cold and that damn wind seemed to cut right through the clothes we had on. At least it wasn't snowing much now, but the snow on the ground was drifting heavily.

"Did you say these coveralls helped to keep you warm?" Lisa-Marie almost shouted to be heard over the wind.

"Yeah, without them, you'd freeze." I shouted back.

"Well, I'm half frozen already." She answered, just as we got into the lee of the equipment shed. "The wind is horrid."

"Yeah, just think of that old woman coming through this blizzard in the clothes she was wearing." I said quietly as we stepped inside the shed through the regular door and I snapped on the lights.

"Oh, thank goodness." Lisa Marie said, looking at the tractor. "I'd forgotten about the cab and I was expecting to freeze for the next hour or so."

"Well, it's small and drafty, but it'll break most of the wind." I nodded. "The key's in it, if you want to start it up. I'll get the main door."

"You start it." She said flatly, pushing me away from the chain that raised the door. "I might do something wrong and wreck it."

She was being overly cautious because it wasn't that different from Joe's tractor and I knew she could drive that, but I didn't want to take the time to argue.

"Well, wait a minute or two with the door. It's a diesel and it needs to warm up a bit before I rev it up much." I said, then went to start the tractor.

Once the tractor was slightly warmed up, I opened a side window in the cab and waved to her. She ran the big door to the top so I could drive out, then I stopped and waited while she closed it and joined me in the little cab. I turned on the headlights just in case there was anyone out there to see them so we didn't have a collision. Then we drove down the drive and turned onto the road, heading toward the bridge across the creek.

"I wonder which side of the road she went off on?" Lisa-Marie asked.

"Well, Matilda said the wind blew them off the road, so that would be on our left."

"Yeah, she did, didn't she?"

"Yes, but who knows for sure which side they went off. Look at that snow. Man, is it ever drifting."

"Yeah. Hey, do we have a shovel?"

"Fine time to ask, woman." I snorted. "There's two of them, as well as a chain, laying in the front bucket. I just left them there after I'd pulled Willy out of the ditch."

"Oh, I forgot about that." She leaned against me for a second, then pulled back so I wasn't cramped in case I had to swing the wheel hard.

Neither of us spoke for a few minutes, and I simply drove over the drifts we saw on the road, not bothering to try to clear them out of the way. Then I saw a strange light ahead.

"What's that?" Lisa-Marie said almost at the same time as I saw the light.

"Cops I think." I said realising at that second that I was seeing a flashing blue light. "If it is, I hope they've got the old lady in the car so she can warm up."

"Yeah, me too." Lisa answered, but her voice sounded uncertain.

As we approached, a cop got out of the car and waved his hands for me to stop. I stopped and slid open the side window.

"Evening, Officer. Did you stop here for an accident?"

"Yes, how did you know about it?" He snapped.

"A little old lady walked to our house in this damn blizzard. We came looking for her sister to see if we could help."

"I see." He sighed and his faced showed some relief, but still looked sad. "At least I can stop looking for Matilda."

"Is Nettie okay?" I asked.

As he slowly shook his head, I sighed and Lisa-Marie actually moaned slightly.

"Actually there wasn't anything anyone could do. I think she died instantly." He said quietly. "How is Matilda?"

"Suffering from the cold. We have a neighbour staying with us and she's looking after Matilda right now. We came as fast as we could, just in case we could help."

"You're the young folks who took over Silas Williams' place aren't you?" He asked.

"Yeah, that's right. I'm Tom Williams and this is my fiancé Lisa-Marie."

"Glad to meet you. I'm Constable Ted Orr."

I nodded. " I'm surprised to see you on this road on a night like this."

He sighed deeply. "It's a long story, too long to go into at this time. Now, I don't suppose you could think of a way to break frozen brake shoes free, could you? I should go back to your place and see if Matilda needs medical attention. There isn't anything I can do here for Nettie by myself."

"We could try giving your car a tow." I suggested. "I suppose you got snow packed into your brakes and when you stopped they froze huh?"

"That's what I think happened." He nodded. "The front wheels are locked solid and no matter if I back up or go forward, the car slides toward the ditch. I can't just leave it here and I can't seem to call for help. Down in this hollow, I'm getting crappy radio reception so my calls probably aren't getting out either."

"Great, and our phone is down."

"That's understandable. Nettie took out a phone pole when she crashed."

"Cripes, it was that long ago?"

"Yeah, It's been a while. I wasn't far behind them when it happened. I stopped because I saw the skid marks on the road. I've been hunting for Matilda and trying to get this car moving since then. On top of everything else, I'm short of gas, so I haven't been running the car much."

"Jeez, you must be freezing?"

He just nodded.

"Would you like some hot tea?" Lisa-Marie asked quickly. "We have a thermos with us."

"Ma'am, right now I'd like to try to get my brakes freed up and then come to your house, if you don't mind? Not that I'd turn down a cup of tea though."

"You take the thermos and get in your car." I smiled. "We'll hook a chain onto that nice big tow hook I see sticking out of your bumper and I'll pull you back to our place if you want. The drifts are a bit deep in places."

"I'd rather you just tried to break the wheels free." He smiled at my idea. "If we get the tires free, then I could follow you and drive in your tire tracks."

"Sure, I'll turn around and hook up the chain. You get in the car and warm up a bit. I'll flick a light on and off when I'm ready to tow and you can flash your lights to let me know it's okay. When you want me to quit towing, just flash your headlights off and on again and I'll stop to unhook the chain."

"And if I get stuck, you'll come back and tow me out?"

"I plan on dropping the bucket to about six inches off the road and plowing a path. If you follow in my wheel tracks, you won't get stuck."

He took the thermos and headed for his car. It only took a few minutes to swing the tractor around and hook up the chain. While I was at it, I moved the shovels out of the front bucket so they wouldn't be buried when I plowed into the snow drifts. His car only moved about ten feet before he was flashing his lights to let me know that we'd succeeded in breaking the wheels free. After that, we simply drove home and he was easily able to follow us.

While we put the tractor in the machine shed, he swung his car around to face the road near my truck. When we walked back from the machine shed, he looked a lot more relaxed as he got out of the car and joined us to go into the house.

"The radio worked well here." He said quietly. "I've got a snow plow, a tow truck and an ambulance on the way. I'll get them to tow the car back to town as it is and we'll get the body out of the car there, but we'll have the ambulance take Matilda in to have her checked over at the hospital."

"I think that's a really good idea." I nodded. "I don't suppose you contacted the phone company?"

"They wouldn't come out now anyway, not in this storm. You might think about getting a CB radio for situations like this."

"Yeah, sure." I sighed as I held the door for him to go inside the house. "We're finding we need a few things. That wasn't on our list, but it might be an idea."

He stopped inside the door and we were taking off our outer gear when I glanced up to see Andy standing there looking puzzled.

"Hello Andrea." The cop said quietly.

"I'm sorry, you look familiar but I can't place you?" She answered.

"There's no real reason you should. I was in civies when I met you before. I asked you to dance about four months ago." He smiled at her "I'm Constable Ted Orr."

"Oh, I remember, at the barn dance. Excuse me for a minute." She turned her head toward me. "Aunt Mattie would only stay in the tub for about fifteen minutes, then she complained that she was too hot. At least I got her to lie down on my bed. She fell asleep right away and her colour is much better now. What worries me is that she kept saying her feet felt funny and both of them look kind of white to me."

"You left her up there alone?" Lisa-Marie frowned.

"I only came down a minute or so ago. I heard the tractor pull into the yard and I thought I should come tell you what had happened." She frowned again. "Where is Aunt Nettie?"

"I'm sorry." The constable said softly. "There was nothing any of us could do."

"Oh no! Poor Aunt Mattie, that will hit her hard. But, she might know already I guess, just from the strange way she's been acting." Andy had tears running down her cheeks.

"Oh God, what next?" She whimpered, then she turned and ran upstairs.