"...and the dream we were conceived in will reveal a joyful face. And the world we once believed in will shine again in grace. Then why do we keep strangling life, wound this earth, crucify its soul? Though it's plain to see this world is heavenly; be God's glow!" blared the CD from Mr. Banks' truck, audible even with the cab windows closed, almost a call to arms for the band as their trucks weaved their way slowly down the snowy road, hopefully towards the ocean. From his perch atop the front most truck, Jesse shivered in the cold, unable to see much through the now wholly blinding snow other than what was visible directly in his own truck's headlights and those of the trucks behind them. Beneath him, Willy remained close by, within stroking distance of the boy's hand.
Time had been going by slowly since the convoy had left the old water treatment plant-with near whiteout conditions all around them, he'd lost track of time anyway. Glen had been going slowly himself, no more than fifteen miles on hour, clearly making sure to stay on the road, which was getting high with snow anyway. Jesse had no idea how far along to their goal they were, although it had to be at least halfway by now. His watch read three fifteen in the morning-about forty-five minutes since they'd left the complex, so they had to have made some progress. Hopefully McCaw Cove was close now.
Something else caught his attention: the water all around Willy was starting to crystalize into ice-perhaps not surprisingly, given the temperatures were almost certainly well below freezing now. Jesse kicked at the nascent ice, shattering it, although he knew it would freeze up again-which also added some urgency to their timetable. "Try and stay above the water, Willy," he advised his big friend, "I don't want you to get frozen underneath and drown, OK?"
Willy exhaled as a sort-of yes. "How's it going up there?" Jake called from the next truck back.
"The water's freezing up here," Jesse shouted to him, "How close to the ocean do you think we are?"
"No idea; I lost track of where we were over a half hour ago," Jake shouted back, then audibly shivered, "It's getting even colder too; if we don't get there soon enough, the whales could be frozen in ice-and us too."
"I know," Jesse was well aware of the danger the cold presented to everyone, human and whale. He rubbed his hands to try and keep them warm. Further back, despite the wind and hum of the dump trucks, he could hear more whale calls. Polaris' was the loudest due to her proximity to his truck. "What the matter with her now?" Mrs. Corwin could just be heard asking, sounding worried.
"She must be really hungry, Mom; it looks like Dial's men underfed her and the others," Judy sounded very worried herself, "And we couldn't find where they kept the food when we were there earlier. So we need to get her and the others to the ocean fast."
"Of all the nights for there to be a blizzard...!" her mother muttered. There was a pause before she said, with affection in her voice that Jesse would previously have never connected with her, "They really are beautiful animals, aren't they? I can see why you fell in love with them, Judy."
"They are beautiful," Judy agreed, "I'd do anything for them."
"I can see that, now. Again, Judy, I am so sorry for everything I did to you to dissuade you from being around them, for trying to make you into something you weren't," Mrs. Corwin apologized to her daughter, sounding genuinely guilty, "I let my career and a misguided sense of justice blind me to you and everything. I guess...I guess it started when I was your age. Your grandfather, he was a sexist who always put me down and told me I was only good for the kitchen. I took that as an affront, I guess, and vowed I'd prove to him girls could be strong. So I threw myself full tilt into being a good lawyer-at the expense of so much else. Funny thing is, it looks you already proved that girls are strong in your own way with everything you've done. So you should be proud of yourself."
"I agree women need to have an equal place in the world too, Mom. But being the brash, angry lawyer protecting crooked rich guys like Mr. Dial wasn't the way to show how strong we are," Judy pointed out to her.
"I can see that now. Somewhere along the lines, I slipped through the cracks and became just another corporate shill. Looking back, probably over half the guys I've defended were just as guilty as Mr. Dial is. I've squandered a good career being the bad guy. Well, I'll try and turn that around going forward if I can; I'll tell Lauren Shuler that I'd like to give whatever help I can to prosecute Mr. Dial next time, for starters."
"That's a good start, Mom. And I'd like you to make it up with Dad too, if you can," Judy pressed her.
"Well, I'll give him a call the next chance I can. If he's moved on by now, I guess that's the way it is, but I see what you mean, especially since...since it was mostly my fault it didn't work, I see now."
"Just so you can be on good terms with him so I can see him more often. I'm sorry too, Mom, I didn't mean it when I said I hated you in jail," Judy apologized to her, "I was..."
"You were upset that I wasn't listening to you again. I understand now. And I didn't mean it either, Judy; I certainly care. About you, and now about Jesse and these whales too. I hope we can get them back to the ocean soon..."
"Jesse, how's it going up there?" Annie called from the passenger side window below, snapping his attention away from the Corwins.
"It's cold, but I'm OK, Annie. The water's started to freeze up here, though, and it's probably the same for the other whales too," he told his foster mother worriedly, "How close are we!?"
"Judging by the GPS Glen put in, about six more miles to go," Annie informed him, "We should be real close to that critical left turn Mr. Walker mentioned..."
"This should be it right here," Jesse heard Glen's voice in the driver's seat. He took a big sigh of relief; reaching a well known landmark was clear progress...
...but no sooner had the truck turned to the left then Glen abruptly slammed on the brakes, forcing him to grab hold of the edge of the edge of the dumper hard to avoid being thrown off. "What is it!? he shouted out loud. Then he saw exactly what it was in the truck's headlights: the roadway ahead of them was thoroughly blocked by over a foot of snow, high enough to reach the top of the dump truck's grill, and certainly too high to allow them to pass. "OOOOOOOOhh!" he wailed, "This can't be like this!"
"Really!?" Glen sounded just as frustrated as he climbed down from the cab and approached the blockage, "We come all this way, and this has to be here!?"
"Is there any way around it, Mr. Greenwood!?" Walker leaned his head out the passenger side window of the truck his chauffeur was driving, concerned.
"Doesn't look like it, and I doubt we'd be able to find a way around in this darkness, Walker!" Glen threw up his hands in disgust, "Is there any alternate way to the cove from here!?"
"Give me a minute," the businessman ducked back inside.
"Don't take too long; the water's starting to freeze up here! The whales could be stuck!" Jake shouted down.
"OK," Walker leaned back out a minute later, not looking all that confident, "The other road fork here might-might-be a back way to the cove, but it's longer, and who knows what condition that road's in? You think we should try it?"
"These whales don't have any chance if we don't, Mr. Walker; we have to try it," Randolph called to him, "Let's do it."
"Come on, Glen, let's get going, quick!" Jesse goaded his foster father, who obligingly rushed back to the front truck's cab. "I hate this, Willy," he confessed to his big friend, kicking some new ice forming in the water loose, "Why did it have to snow tonight, and snow this heavily when we needed clear roads!? How come things always seem to go wrong when we try and set you free!?"
Willy had no answer. Jesse gripped the rim of the dumper as the truck started moving again very slowly up the other road. His mind flashed back to the similar near disaster on Old Forest Road a few months ago, and how the blocked road had forced them to retreat backwards, almost sending Willy down the mountain to his doom, and leaving them stuck long enough for Dial and his goons to reach the marina first. This, however, was a potentially even worse predicament: if they got stuck here, they would be stranded far from help with no way out. He prayed deep down that this road did lead to the ocean, and would get them there quickly.
No sooner had this thought gone through his mind, however, then the worst case scenario struck again, as the truck came to a stop, and the wheels screeched as they started spinning helplessly in place below. "No, no, no! Floor it, Glen, get us out of here! We can't get stuck!" Jesse cried desperately to him. The wheels spun harder, but it was no use; the truck was stuck in another huge snowdrift that, as far as Jesse could see from his perch, almost completely covered the tires anyway. And more squealing behind him, accompanied by the agonized and frustrated shouts of the other drivers, made it clear the other trucks were stuck in the snow too. "Oh no...!" he lamented, putting his face gloomily in his hands. "We blew it, Willy. We're stuck," he lamented to his friend, "What do we do now!?"
"Can anyone else move!?" Glen thrust his head out the driver's side window below.
"No! I'm stuck in good here!" Hal yelled back in frustration.
"I think we're all stuck!" another garbage man shouted from the rear of the convoy. Glen shook his head grimly. "Shut it down," he called to the other drivers, then turned off his truck's engine. The other trucks turned off one by one, and their passengers stumbled out numbly into the snow. Jesse sadly climbed down himself, feeling completely deflated. "What do we do now!?" he repeated his previous statement to the others.
"I don't know, Jesse, I don't know," Randolph looked quite grim. He stared up at the falling snow, seemingly even heavier now. "Anyone know when this was supposed to stop?" he inquired to the others.
"Not until tomorrow morning, I don't think-nope, close to one hundred percent chance of precipitation through ten a.m.," Shuler checked her phone, "And now they're calling for fifteen inches around here." She sighed sadly. "I'll see if I can get a signal here..."
She trudged up the hill to their left, stumbling in her heels. Silence filled the air. "We're dead, aren't we?" Mrs. Corwin finally spoke up with a low mumble.
"Things can happen, Mrs. Corwin," Randolph at least retained some optimism, "Although, frankly, we're going to need an awful lot of big things right now..."
"What can we do for the whales!?" Judy jumped to the ground, looking deathly worried, "We can't just leave them here like this; they'll starve, or they'll get frozen in...!"
"I wish I knew, Judy," Rae shot a glum look up at the whales in the tanks, many of whom had started wailing now, "I wish I knew..."
"Well, let's not just stand around out here; get some shovels or something, and let's dig a path through this mess...!" Mr. Perkins tried to rally everyone.
"There's no shovels here, George, and what else could we use!?" Hal snapped.
"Well don't you guys bring any shovels along for your shifts on snowy nights!?"
"Well sorry, George, but when you're called out of bed at one in the morning and asked to drive out into the middle of nowhere to rescue whales, shovels are the last things you think of!" the union chief told him roughly.
"OK, OK, let's, let's keep our heads here," Annie held up her hands to try and calm everyone down. "You think someone might be able to go back to the water treatment plant and get on the phone from there, assuming they have a phone?" she proposed.
"That's got to be at least six miles back, Annie; no one could make it without freezing to death!" Dwight protested. "How did we get ourselves into this!?" he mumbled out loud, "This could have...!" he stopped as his cell phone started ringing. "OK, thank god! Please have good reception!" he begged activating it. "Dwight Williamson. Who's this? I don't have good reception here, I can't hear what you're saying..."
He stumbled up the hill after Shuler, trying to get a better signal. Willy started wailing loudly above Jesse's head, sounding as despondent as the humans, likely well aware of how dire the situation was. "I know, Willy, and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. We tried," Jesse told him tearfully, then broke down sobbing against the side of the truck. "Jesse, Jesse, it's all right," worried, Annie put her arm around him.
"No it's not, Annie! Willy's going to die, the rest of his family's going to die, we're all going to die...!"
"Hey, hey, let's not lose hope here," Glen said calmly, putting an arm around his foster son as well, "It looked hopeless for you last time too, remember...?"
"But that was summer, Glen, and I was able to get through to you and Annie easy! Who can save us now? Who can get to us in time!?" Jesse lamented, resuming his sobbing, "It's all my fault...!"
"Oh no, no, it's not your fault, Jesse, it's not your fault at all..." Annie tried to comfort him.
"Yes it is, Annie! That night before the rest of Willy's family was killed, I saw on the tracker Rae and Randolph gave me that he was coming to the institute. Jake, Judy, and I snuck out to say hello to him. That guard must have been watching us; we led him and the hunters right to Willy's family! And if we hadn't done that, we wouldn't all be trapped out here now! I'm so sorry...!"
"It's all right," Glen hugged him, "We'll find a way through this, Jesse, somehow. Just tell yourself, it's not going to get any worse than this."
"You OK, Jesse?" Dwight had returned, a solemn look on his face.
"No," Jesse shook his head, "I don't know if I can be all right again, Dwight."
"Well then, I guess this is the perfect time to tell you this..." Dwight took a deep, heavy breath, "That was the state on the phone, Jesse. I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but I'm afraid your mother's gone."
"What!?" Jesse's stomach dropped like a rock, his blood freezing in shock and horror moments later, "No, it's got to be a mistake, Dwight, it's just got to be...!"
"I wish it was, but they've just confirmed she is dead. She passed away four months ago from cancer. She was living under a different name; that's why it took so long to find her. I'm so sorry, Jesse," Dwight shook his head sadly, "It wasn't what I wanted to hear either..."
"SHE CAN'T BE DEAD!" Jesse screamed in agony, all of his insides ripping to pieces, "I NEED HER, SHE'S GOT TO BE STILL ALIVE...!"
"I wanted that too, but it's just too late now. I'm sorry, Jesse, I truly am. We just missed her..."
A scream of carnal, tortured anguish escaped from Jesse's throat, filling the air with a horrifying refrain and carrying for seemingly miles. In a flash, without even realizing it, he'd broken into a hard run away from the trucks, ignoring the desperate cries of, "Jesse, no!" and "Jesse, come back!" from the others. He instead ran harder, stumbling through the snow drifts, tears streaming down his face in rivers, wanting to just get as far away as possible, and not caring if he lived or died. Indeed, a large part of him wanted to die so he could be with his mother again. His whole life, even after finding happiness with the Greenwoods, had been predicated on being reunited with her again, to resume a normal life with her. And now, when he was already laid low with a massive failure, that dream had been cruelly extinguished forever. His heart just couldn't take it-nor the fact that Willy and his family were almost certainly going to die now, and there was nothing he or his friends-who were probably going to die too-could do about it anymore.
He ran and ran and ran into the pitch darkness, eventually leaving everyone running after him well behind, until he simply couldn't run anymore. He collapsed into the thick snow, sobbing out of control. "WHY!?" he cried up at the dark sky above, "WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY!? WAS I REALLY THAT BAD A PERSON BEFORE THAT THIS WAS MY PUNISHMENT!? IF IT'S MY FAULT, I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! PLEASE, IF YOU'RE THERE, IF ANYONE'S THERE, HELP ME! LET ME MAKE IT RIGHT, OR LET ME DIE AND BE WITH MY MOM AGAIN! I CAN'T GO ON WITH ALL THIS ON MY SOUL! PLEASE, SOMEONE, PLEASE!"
He slumped back down, crying hard into the snow. Without realizing it, a soft prayer, one he'd never said before, but that nonetheless seemed strangely familiar to him, now left his lips: "In my darkest hour, in my deepest despair, will you still care, will you be there? Through my trials and tribulations, through our doubts and frustrations? In my violence and my turbulence, through my fear and my confessions, in my anguish and my pain...!?"
"Jesse..." came the sound, whispering through the trees, almost like someone calling his name. Jesse's head shot up, but there did not seem to be anyone visible at all through the heavily blowing snow. Yet it rang out, "Jesse..." again, clearer this time-and definitely feminine. And strangely familiar to him somehow...almost like...
"Wh-Wh-Who's there!?" he stammered worriedly, glancing around wildly.
"Me," came the generalized answer. And then he saw it: a glow in the woods through the snow. He blinked hard; he had to be imagining this, he just had to be. But the light got brighter, and now it was starting to take on a vaguely humanized form. "Jesse, it's me," came the voice again.
"Mom...!?" he mumbled softly, "But...But it can't be...Dwight just said you were...!"
"Dead? I'm afraid so, son," her voice, assuming it was what he thought it was, was racked with heavy, tearful regret. The lighted figure was getting closer to him, and looked now like a definitely female figure. "I would have given anything to have seen you again in life. It just wasn't meant to be, I suppose..."
She let out a sniff of grief. "It's...It's really you!? Or, really...your ghost!?" his heart pounding, Jesse stepped closer to the figure, "I'm not dreaming this...!?"
"No, it's really me, Jesse," her face now became clear. She had dark hair and bright, affectionate eyes that were filled with tears at the thought of what now could never be. "You look like everything I thought you would be," she told him affectionately.
"If it's really you, then why!?" Jesse all but cried out, agony searing his soul, "Why couldn't you have taken me with you!? Wasn't I good enough for you then!? Wasn't I ever good enough for you!?"
"Of course you were, Jesse; I loved you more than anything," she was visibly crying now, "It just became an avalanche of issues. I had you young, my family cut me off in anger for it, your father walked out, and I never saw him again. I had no way to support you, and I didn't want you to have that kind of life. So I made the decision to give you up-and spent the rest...the rest of my life questioning whether it was the right decision or not. Because no matter where I went, I missed you so much. I wanted to find you again, I honestly did, but something always got in the way, until it was finally too late, at least in life."
She wiped her eyes and looked at him. "I know you've been angry at me for leaving you, Jesse, and I don't blame you; I'd be angry too," she confessed to him, "I just want you to know, I never stopped loving you once, never stopped thinking about you, hoping that wherever he was, my son had grown up to be a fine young man. And I can see now you have, and I'm very, very proud of you. I want you to know that, and remember that always: I'm very proud of you. So I hope you can forgive me, for the mistakes of a frightened young girl who didn't know any better about what she was doing."
She gave him an almost pleading look. Jesse took a deep breath. "Of course, Mom," the words left his lips, seemingly carrying much internal weight with them, "I...I never stopped loving you either in spite of everything...maybe if I'd gone looking for you sooner..."
"There was nothing you could have done that would have stopped this from happening," she gestured at her vaporous form, "It was just the way it had to be. But I want you to know, Jesse, I will be with you every step of the way from now on, even if you can't see me. And don't you worry about Willy and his family; I'm going to make sure they get safely back in the ocean."
"But how, Mom!? If you're..."
"Never underestimate the power of love, Jesse. Or that of friendship like you and Willy have. Love brought me here now, and by god, I'm not passing up the chance to help my son when he needs my help the most. Not anymore. Go on back to Willy and your other friends, Jesse; I'll get you out of this by then. I promise. And don't blame yourself for anything about this. The only ones at fault for what happened to Willy's family are those men in their greed and vengefulness."
"You sure you can help us!?" Jesse pressed her, "We're in a really big pickle here now..."
"All the more reason for me to get involved. You'll get through this, Jesse; from the bottom of my heart as your mother, I promise. I love you so much, my son..." she gently took his hands. "Through my joy, and my sorrow..." she said softly, deep love in her eyes, "...and the promise of another tomorrow, I'll never let you part, for you are always in my heart."
Her lips puckered to kiss him. "I...I love you Mom..." Jesse, feeling a rush of relief and delight, did the same. Their lips locked, finally sharing the kiss they never had in life...
...at which point the light faded, and she had disappeared. "Mom!? No, don't go!" Jesse pleaded her, glancing desperately around the now once more dark and snowy woods; had he hallucinated the whole thing? "Mom, please, don't go!"
"Jesse!?" it was Annie's voice now ringing out from the woods behind him. He spun to see a flashlight beam waving among the trees, coming right towards him. "There, there, I see him!" Glen exclaimed, "Jesse!" he rushed to his foster son and embraced him. "What were you thinking, running off like that!?" he demanded.
"I just...the news just hit me real hard, Glen," Jesse confessed, "Sorry I worried you guys..."
"We thought you'd gotten permanently lost, that you might be hurt, that...!" Annie pulled him into a hug of her own, "I know it hurt to hear that, Jesse, and Dwight probably could have waited or been more diplomatic with the news. But just because she might be gone doesn't mean your mother's lost to you forever..."
"I know that, Annie. She was here, just now, in fact," Jesse told her.
"She was?" his foster mother frowned in confusion.
"She was just here-her spirit was, that is. And she'd promised to get us out of this mess."
"She did?" Glen frowned, staring worriedly at him, and then at Annie, "That's, that's great that she is. In the meantime, let's get you back to the truck; I'm sure you'd like to warm up now that..."
"Glen, you hear that?" Annie held up her hand. Jesse heard it too: the pounding of seemingly thousands of hoofs, almost like thunder. And it was coming right towards them. He could make out numerous dark forms, hundreds of them, charging through the trees right at them. "What in the...!?" a stunned Annie stared right at them herself.
"Move, quick!" Glen grabbed her and Jesse and dove to safety behind a large spruce. Moments later, hundreds of moose, perhaps even thousands, came rushing through the woods, snorting and huffing. "I never knew there were this many moose in the entire Pacific Northwest," Glen stared in confusion at the massive herd, "What set this off?"
"They're headed straight for the trucks; I hope everyone can avoid them," Annie glanced back in the direction they'd come.
"Wait a minute, you guys, look!" Jesse pointed at the ground. The moose were trampling the thick snowdrifts completely flat, "If they're headed for the trucks, that means...that's what she meant!" he realized with a big smile, "She's clearing the way for us!"
"OK, I think you're still a little emotionally distraught over getting the news about your mother, Jesse," Glen said softly, clearly not believing that he'd seen his mother's ghost, although at the moment, Jesse didn't care. The moose continued running through the woods, flattening the snow good. It was a good two minutes later before the last one passed by the Greenwoods' hiding place. "Come on, hurry!" Jesse grabbed his foster parents' hands and dragged them down the now clear path back to the trucks, "We've got to get back on the road quick!"
"That's if we can, Jesse," Annie protested, nonetheless letting herself be dragged back. The rest of their party had taken refuge up on the trucks from the moose, still rushing past, when they came back into Jesse's line of sight. But most importantly, the moose were indeed trampling the snow holding the trucks in place on the road flat as they ran around the vehicles, and did the same to the road behind them. The herd then turned on the shortcut road to the cove, broke through the snowdrift, and trod the snow flat there too before disappearing into the night just as mysteriously as they'd arrived. "Look, the road's open!" Jake shouted from the top of Kago's truck, "They plowed the road for us!"
"I don't believe it, he's right," a stunned Shuler stared after the herd, "Where did they come from...Jesse!" she climbed down and rushed towards him upon seeing him, "Are you all right!?"
"I am now, Mrs. Shuler; we're going to be all right now, I know it. Come on, let's back the trucks up and get going again!" Jesse goaded the others, "We can make it to the ocean now!"
"You heard him, guys, let's get this show back on the road!" Mr. Perkins called to his employees from the ladder on the back of Kago's truck, "Back it up, and let's get these whales going again! Hey, you sure you're OK?" he hailed Jesse down as he rushed past.
"I am now, Mr. Perkins. Thanks for caring," Jesse told him.
"Well, given how Jake told me you've been there for him when he was afraid of me, I guess I owe you an apology, and a thank you for caring about him when I was too lost to do it myself," Mr. Perkins confessed, "You really have been a great friend to Jake, so the least I can do to repay you is help you with these whales-come on, get them back on the road to the cove!" he shouted to the garbage men, then started to climb up the ladder towards his son and Kago, "Hal, get this engine started and get rolling!" he ordered the union chief nearby.
"Now THAT'S the George Perkins I know..." Hal sighed, nonetheless climbing into the truck's cab, "It was too good to last..."
"Jesse," it was Dwight with a hand on his shoulder now, with an expression between guilt and sympathy, "I'm sorry if I delivered that wrong, but..."
"I know, Dwight. But it's all right, and I'm all right now. My mom's here, and she's going to help us get to the ocean," Jesse told him, grabbing the rung of the ladder of the Greenwoods' truck.
"Huh?" Dwight frowned in confusion.
"Come on, Dwight, let's go!" Mr. Banks shouted from the truck carrying Kalana, starting to throw it in reverse after the trucks behind his. Dwight shrugged and ran towards that truck's passenger side. "We were worried about you," Judy called to Jesse once he'd reached the top of his truck, "I know that hurt to hear, but we were scared something had happened to you."
"Thankfully no, Judy. But it's all right now. How're they doing?" Jesse asked her and Jake.
"Really hungry, I can tell," Jake scooted aside to let his father sit down next to Kago's head, "But at least we're not stuck anymore. Wonder where all those moose came from?"
"I think I know, Jake..."
"OK, Jesse, sit down up there, here we go!" Glen called down from the cab door. Jesse obligingly squirmed back to the front of the truck, kicking the new ice that was forming around Willy loose. "It's all right now, Willy," he rubbed his big friend's head as the truck backed up towards the road to the cove after the others, "My mom's here with us. She's going to get us to the ocean, and that's a promise. We're back on track now."
