CHAPTER 5
Maple
Even though the car’s heater didn’t work I was plenty warm. The adrenaline was pumping through my veins so hard I could feel my pulse on the side of my neck.
I was hot. So hot I was starting to sweat just above my brow.
The higher I went the more I felt it, and it had nothing to do with the elevation.
The climb was so steep I didn’t even get the car above third gear. I looked at the speedometer. Twenty-three miles per hour. Didn’t Usain Bolt run faster than this in the Olympics?
It didn’t matter. All I knew is that each revolution of the tires got me closer to him.
I feel my tires kick a little and was glad we never took the snow chains off. Since I didn’t usually need the car to get to work so I wasn’t about to get on my back and try and jack up the car and take them on and off a few times a year just for the sake of doing so.
Now it was those chains that helped me up the mountain, and away from the chains of small town life that was trying to hold me back.
When was the last time the state plowed these roads?
I can still see the wide tracks going down in the other lane and back up in mine. They’re his. They can only be his.
But for the first time in years there’s someone else ascending the hill and it’s me. My tracks following his.
It sounds ironic and cheesy, but it’s not. I imagine us doing the same thing on a beautiful white sand beach one day. Each time the waves wash away our tracks, we just make more. Together.
Have I lost my mind?
I’m fantasizing about beaches I’ve never been with a guy I don’t even know.
But it’s not mountain fever. I know it.
I feel the car being pushed left from a sudden gust of wind. I tighten my grip on the cold wheel and compensate to the right just a bit. The conditions are hard enough, I don’t need them to get any more difficult.
It’s a dangerous drive, but strangely enough a peaceful one at that. The way the cold mountains appear out of nowhere as you round a turn. They’re miles off into the distance and the view is breathtaking.
Then you turn another corner and the sun is entirely blocked out by other mountains. You immediately feel the chill and focus harder on the road in front of you. Persistence and the heat from inside drive me to continue.
Then it hits me. What am I going to do when I get there?
Just run up and knock on the door and throw myself into his arms?
He could be crazy for all I know. He might literally be boiling bunnies up here.
I don’t care. Enter with boldness as the saying goes. That’s exactly what I plan on doing.
I feel the car pushed to the left again as I round another corner. What is up with these winds?
My wheels go left of center, but there certainly are no cops up here to write me a ticket. Still I need to stay safe and in the path that he’s already blazed for me.
I bring the steering wheel back to the right and feel the right side of the car drop into the groove, but the drop is bigger than I expected and the road is slick right here. The car slides horizontally and I bring the wheel back to the left, but it’s too late.
The back fishtails around and the wheels spin.
I hit the gas harder, but it only causes the car to rotate and slide down the hill sideways.
“Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!”
I hit the brakes and they lock up. The steering wheel freezes in place as I look out my driver’s side window watching the car slide back down the hill.
“Come on. Come on. Catch on something,” I beg of my wheels.
Still locked.
I’m sliding toward a bend in the road and there’s no guardrail!
I can open the door, but I can’t jump that direction. I’ll get run over!
I grab for my seatbelt and fumble with it. My nervous thumb finds the button and it releases.
I scramble across the seat for the passenger’s side door.
I push. It’s locked!
I pull up on the knob. It’s frozen!
“I don’t want to die.”
I roll over onto my back and kick at the window. Nothing. Again. Nothing. I kick the door and the knob pops up.
I frantically roll back over onto my stomach and scramble upwards as the car continues it’s slide down.
I grab the handle and pull, immediately feeling the cold air on my face.
I grab for the edge of the seat and look down at the road underneath me. I have no choice. I don’t even think.
I dive head first for the pavement keeping my arms extended out in front of my face.
I close my eyes and brace for the impact of my arms hitting the pavement, but instead I feel…snow?
I open my eyes.
I’m at the edge!
I continue sliding and start reaching in every direction trying to grasp something before I go over the edge.
I hear my car tumble down the hill turning into a pile of junk with each bounce.
I hear an explosion and it rattles me even more.
My hands continue grasping. Nothing.
Something strange passes underneath me and as my body slides a few feet more I see it’s a branch.
My hand tries to lock onto it, but I’m moving too fast. I feel the burn through my fingers as I try and tighten my grip.
Finally, my grip catches.
My other hand quickly grabs the branch as well.
My heart is racing. I look over my shoulder and see I’m hanging off the side of the mountain face.
If I lose my grip I’ll fall into the blazing inferno that Bessie has become, not that I’ll even feel the few hundred-foot drop and the resulting impact.
The ledge is a good foot above where the branch begins.
I pull knowing even if I make it to where the root goes into the side of the mountain face I won’t have the length or strength to reach up and pull myself to safety. Not to mention the side is covered in snow and surely just as slick as the road itself.
My life is about to end because of a wild goose chase up a dangerous pass after an even more dangerous man.
I think about my mom and everything she sacrificed for me over the years.
If I go down at least I’m not going down without a fight!