The stress was killing everyone in the car, as all eyes were now focused on the road. It had been at least fifteen minutes since the last time I had saw another car.
“Mom, are you still on the correct side of the road?” Alex asked worriedly.
“Shit, how can I tell Alex, it starting to look all the same to me?” I said while slowing down even more. I couldn’t have been going faster than twenty miles an hour.
I guess it was inevitable when our accident finally happened. The old timers would nod their heads and just say I should have pulled over and weathered the storm. You can’t just drive blind on a road and think you’re not going to lose control somehow.
At first there was no indication that we had actually left the road. Apparently I had slowly drifted off to my right and off the ice covered pavement until I was literally driving on top of a smooth flat snow bank covering the ditch. When my front right tire finally broke through the ice crust, the steering wheel of the Jeep jerked sharply out of my hands. The next second had the Jeep swerving hard to the right and then because of the steepness of the embankment had the Jeep tumbling sideways down into a snow covered ditch into deep powdery snow.
I must have knocked my head on the steering wheel as we tumbled because when I woke up, I was up-side down. Bizarrely floating in the air with my seat belt holding my butt and back in place while my long blond hair hung below me to pool up at the Jeep ceiling which was now our floor board.
“Mom, are you alright?” Alex was yelling with not a little bit of panic in his voice. He had already unfastened his belt and fell free. He had turned on the interior light switch (which was now located near his feet). The bright light showed me that Alex was now sitting cross legged on the ceiling under his own bucket seat, shaking me awake. I was obviously still disorientated from the accident but was quickly alarmed that he had a couple of cuts on his face that were slowly bleeding. Seeing where my eye went he quickly added, “I’m fine Mom, really. Just a few scratches. Can you unhook yourself?”
Not really thinking clear, and with all of my weight being focused on that metal buckle, I pulled the release and was promptly dumped unceremoniously down on my head.
“Are you alright?” Alex asked for a second time as he scrambled to me up.
Seeing stars for the second time that night, I was a little afraid that I might actually have a mild concussion. But could I actually be concussed, if I was capable of wondering if I was concussed? I don’t know the rules about that sort of thing. But being a concerned mother I just lied to Alex saying, “Honey I am fine. Really.”
We both turned when we heard my sister moan from the back seat, “Yeah, I’m alright too… thanks for asking!”
Alexi was the snarky one, so her sarcasm actually answered my questions about how she actually was ok. When she unbuckled herself from one of the back seats, she also dropped down onto the freezing cold ceiling that was now our floor.
Now that we both checked each other over and we seemed to be in one piece, I realized it was dark outside. Really dark outside. Then I noticed that the air in the cab was already getting stuffy.
“I’m cold!” Alexi complained.
“Yeah, me too!” Alex agreed.
“Where are we?” I asked as calmly as I could, trying to distract Alex. He had a fine mind but needed something to focus on but me and his sister.
“Mom, I think we drove off the road and fell down an embankment.”
“Holy shit that was a tumble” Alexi agreed.
“Language kids!” I said automatically.
“Why is it so black outside the windows?” Alexi said with a little panic now in her voice.
Shrugging, Alex added, “Honestly, I think the Jeep tumbled down the hill and is now buried in snow.”
We could see the worry in Alex face. Being the “Mom” for these teenager, it meant I had to be as brave as I could. Anyone who has lived in the Great White North knows that there are only a few rules for survival. But first and foremost is to always stay calm. The very next rule was to stay warm.
“Alexi, do you see our jackets? I think we are going to need them.”
Alexi immediately perked up. He now had something she could control and do.
“Alex, I need you to crawl in back and find our survival kit.”
The Jeep not only tumbled down a hill, but the back of the Jeep was turned such that the back was pointing down the hill. This put the front grill towards the top of the hill and Interstate. I didn’t know if it was five feet or a hundred yards away, but I knew that “Up” was where help would come from.
Alex crawled aligned himself up between the front bucket seats, he was able to duck down under the stick shift that was now sticking down from above. Then he was able to turn sideways was able to squeeze to the back seats with Alexi.
The slope of the hill was steep enough that He was able to partially slide down to the back seats area and then to the back storage area of the Jeep. With the snow blocking out any light around the jeep, it felt that we had been just been dumped down into a very tight closet, with only the dingy light coming up from the front consul light.
While I had almost no memory of falling into that damn well so many years ago, I still couldn’t help my chronic case of claustrophobia from kicking in. When I say I am claustrophobic, I mean that it has left me catatonic in the past. But I was no longer a kid and years of therapy has got me to the point that before I fall down into that mental rabbit hole that I called my little psychosis, I now can bravely talked myself out of my panic.
I could feel that this time was different. I was injured and the car was trapped in the dark. It would have been oh so easy to freak out. But instead I knew I had to be strong for my kids. They meant everything to me. As Alex’s mother and in reality also the only mother Alexi had really known growing up, it was vital I not lose my shit right now. Interestingly enough, this need actually allowed me to have a break through. I would never again have the mind numbing fear that claustrophobia could bring on.
The tumble down the side of the hill had mixed up all of the things I had tossed in the back of my Jeep, like some bizarre blender. So what Alex actually found on the roof liner of the Jeep (the new floor) was a large pile of equipment like my jumper cables, the jack, spare tire, and the paper contents of the last four visits to McDonald’s. He also found the large zipped duffle bag that I kindly called my survival bag. While banged up a bit, the kids also had their vacation suitcases full of god knows what, but definitely included clean folded spare clothes.
Alexi was the first to cry out that she had finally located our down filled jackets in the mess.
“Got them Mom! I’m getting our gloves and hats out of our pockets also.”
During the winter month’s people throw fashion to the wind and just focus on staying warm. The key is in what they call layering. Dressing in such a way that you can quickly put on or take off appropriate clothes for the temperature around us. While we all were currently dressed in jeans and flannel shirts, with appropriate cotton underwear underneath, we still had to wear our down filled jackets, fir lined leather gloves and wool ski toques just to run from the Jeep to the house.
Once we all were dressed again for the outside weather, we all stopped shivering from the cold. But based on how easily our breath was clearly seen, I knew it was well below freezing in this Jeep.
“You guys have any ideas?”
The kids were a bit surprised at my not so subtle hint for input. Asking for help was something I seldom did unless I needed their muscles for lifting around the farm. But my head was still pounding like someone was hitting me in the back with a small hammer. Honestly I could of used a couple Ibuprofen right then. The way I was feeling, I was only too willing to let them do all of the thinking right now.
“Ok Mom, we are obviously buried and based on the stale air, even with the storm raging above us, we still are going to need to dig out enough to allow air down to us. When the storm is over, we will also need to set an emergency flag on the highway so someone can find evidence that we are down here.”
Alexi nodded in agreement. “That sounds like a good plan Alex, I see that the key for us is to use the Jeep as a shelter until this storm is over.”
“What are you doing?” I asked as I saw Alex again move to the back hatch that was effectively pointing downward.
“I’m looking for something to dig us out of this snow.”
Alex rummaged around my survival bag for a few minutes, holding up and looking at each item. Alexi and Alex were making a list of our items and if needed immediately he would had the item to Alexi to hold, while tossing out things he didn’t need. My Jeep is usually a real mess, and since the accident it was the photo incarnate of the word “Chaos”.
“Hallelujah!” Alex cried out.
Alarmed, I cried out “What is it?”
Alex proudly held up a metal shovel with a head blade on it a little bigger than the width of my hand. The short handle folded at the center for a total extended length of about 18 inches.
“This is exactly what I need.” Alex proudly displayed to the girls.
Then handing the black duffle bag up towards the front of the jeep out of the way, Alexi and I took the bag and continued to explore its contents.
Alex brought his body completely into the back storage area and tried to open the back door. But like the other doors, it was solidly pinned closed by the weight of fresh packed snow. Because of our inner temperature continued to drop, Ice had also started forming on all the insides of the glass windows like the frost found on the outside of a margarita glass or a frosted root beer mug.
“I can’t see a thing Mom, is there a flash light?” Alex asked while looking upward towards us.
Alexi started digging in her loose pile, “I know I saw it here somewhere”.
“I did too!” I excitably exclaimed, I listed each item out loud so everyone would know what I was looking at.
Calvin Gifford says
Great story!!