“Thought you said it was a non-drowsy one?”
“That’s what it says, but maybe it doesn’t apply to me.”
“Oh.”
I fall asleep for a little bit but wake up when I hear Wesley curse under his breath, followed by the sound of the windshield wipers. Looking out the window, my stomach drops. It’s snowing…hard. A lot harder than it was earlier.
Sitting up in my seat, I grab my phone to look at the radar.
“Can you tell me what this is? How long it’s gonna last?”
“That’s what I’m doing,” I tell him, squinting at the brightphone light.
“I didn’t even think to check for snow,” he mutters, annoyed with himself.
“Um, yeah, expect twelve to eighteen inches over the next four hours.”
“Damn it.”
I look back out the windshield. I can’t see more than five feet in front of his truck with how fast the snow’s falling and the darkness of the night. Wesley sits a little straighter in his seat and messes with his lights, but nothing makes it better.
He drives another twenty minutes, but at the speed he has to go now with the icy roads and the trailer, it’s going to be midnight before we get home.
An uneasy pit settles in my stomach. “Wesley, I don’t like this.”
“Neither do I,” he says. “See if there’s anything coming up here, we’ll stop.”
Searching the map on my phone, I hold my breath and pray there’s something. Anything.
“What about a path?” I say.
“A path?”
“Like a driveway, but not to a house, to a field.”
“Sure. Let me see where. How soon?”
“Right up here.” I show him my phone. His eyes move back and forth from the screen to the road.
I don’t even understand how he’s driving in this.
“This trailer is not helping.” He chuckles. I can tell he’s trying to stay calm for me, but I think he’s tense.
We finally get to the pull-off spot at the edge of a field and the nerves inside me start to untangle.
“Surprised no one else is sitting here,” I say.
“Me too.” He puts his window down to back around. The blizzard air smacks me in the face and blows down my sweatshirt.
“Alright.” He looks at me. “You’re gonna have to help me get backed in. There are trees I don’t want to hit.”
I slip my boots on and hop out. A gust of wind takes my breath away, the snow feeling like pins and needles on my cheeks. I walk back behind the trailer so he can see me from his mirror.
He cracks his door open before he even moves, and the overhead lights in the truck turn on. “I can’t see you, you’re just gonna have to yell.”
“Okay, well, you have about ten feet!” I shout and he slowly starts to back up. “Stop!”
His brake lights shine and he jumps out of his truck to see how I did.
