Re: Snow on a Sunday Night!

[Guest guest]

Hi Fire-sitters

For a month or more after moving from Durham New Hampshire to Western

Massachusetts (about 12 years ago) I continued to commute to my job as the

weekend house manager of a small group home for developmentally disabled

adults in Manchester, NH. I finished my shift one Sunday night in February

around 11:30 P. M, and wanting to sleep in my own bed I decided to drive the

two hours home. It was snowing lightly as I packed the car but didn't give it

much thought as I drove out of the driveway wearing the black sweatsuit and

brown suede birkenstocks that I had on all day. So I'm driving along,

singing with " the Boss " to his Born in America tape, trying to stay awake and

the snow is getting heavier and sticking to the ground.

I'm about half way up Mount Monadnock when I realize I'm into some really bad

weather and my white escort station wagon with the slightly bald tires is

fishtailing all over the road. Still I figure, I'll go slow and anyway I've

gone too far to turn back now. So up the mountain I go in second gear,

engine moaning and groaning and hardly another car in sight. By now it's

well past midnight and no doubt everybody else in the state of New Hampshire

is nestled snugly in a warm bed.

Okay, so now I'm really sliding all over the place and getting a little

scared....but on

I go. So, I had put it back in third gear because the engine was struggling

but now that I'm coming down the other side of the mountain maybe that was a

mistake...definitely going way too fast...waaaaaaaaaayy too fast.

Slow down there!!!! Just as I put my foot on the clutch to shift back down

to second, the car goes nuts, spinning round and round in circles, ( I'm

definitely mumbling the Lord's Prayer under my breath by now) careening down

the mountain, until finally there is an abrupt stop.

I am no longer on the road. My car is facing west, front end hanging off a

cliff and the back two wheels are wedged into a snow bank, the only thing

keeping it from sliding a thousand feet down a wintery ravine. I remember

climbing into the back seat and getting out through the rear passenger side

door, wondering to myself, what now? I must have stood out on the road for

nearly an hour, watching an occasional car drive by, until finally somebody

stopped. Well, here it was, a woman's worst nightmare, stranded alone in the

middle of the night three miles

up a mountain. Well, the man who stopped could have been an ax-murderer or

an escaped convict, or a rapist..... but no matter, I no longer cared. Turned

out to be a pleasant, not very talkative man, who drove me into the town of

borough and dropped me off at the police station, before going on his

way.

Must have been three A.M. by now as I walked the icy path to the front door,

noticing for the first time that I was still wearing my birkenstocks, my feet

were covered with snow and my coat and shoes, apparently still in the trunk

of my car where I had packed them some life time ago. The door to the police

station was locked up tight and gave only a phone number to call in case of

an emergency. Oh boy, now what? I had my purse and maybe even a dime and but

where would I find a phone in the middle of the night in a sleepy New

Hampshire town with not another soul about for at least a hundred miles. I

pushed the snow off the bench across the street and sat down, thinking

perhaps, I'd have a good cry....Then all of a sudden I looked around and

there were a million stars twinkling in the sky, the snow covered town of

borough was beautiful beyond words and my heart, suddenly was so full

of wonder and joy that I just sat there and laughed...laughed at the

absurdity of it all and then just smiled, knowing myself to be always safe

and only a breath or two away from true seeing at any given point in time.

I took a walk after a while and found myself banging on the door of an all

night factory and help came....There was a kind soul who drove me back up the

mountain, where I waited for Triple A to come and pull my car out of the

ditch. I arrived home by five that morning, adrenaline still pulsing through

my veins, but forever changed. It would seem I was kissed that night, by a

soft and gentle reminder of the magic that lies just on the other side of the

veil.

Suzanne