Snow Storm part 3
Johnny and Jane went back outside and assessed the situation, trying to make a plan on how they would dig themselves out. They started shovelling again, in the direction that they thought the Land Rover was located; working in a terraced formation so the snow wouldn't blow back down on areas they had just cleared. Soon their jackets were on the porch, and Johnny had rolled up his sleeves. The sun made the snow sparkle as if millions of diamonds had been cast randomly at their feet. The clear blue of the sky and dark green of the trees, combined with the bright white of the snow were all breathtakingly beautiful. It felt good to be out working in this pristine wonderland. They took their time, enjoying the sunshine.
After a while, Jane looked up and leaned on her shovel, but as Johnny began to talk to her, she said, "Shhh. Do you hear something? Like a motor?"
He lifted his head and listened. "Yeah, I hear it, too." They turned towards the sound, and saw a snowmobile heading in their direction, coming up the road – or where the road would be, under all that snow. The trees lining the sides were covered to their lower branches, and heavy loads had caused several tree limbs to fall into the path of the snowmobile, but the driver was able to skirt around them.
"Halloo!" the driver called. "Everyone all right?" Johnny waved to the man and he drove up to the side of the cabin. He was wearing a navy parka, and as he pushed off his hood, he also lifted up a balaclava off his face so he could speak more clearly with the Gages. "Saw the smoke from your chimney. Just checking that everyone is okay. Sheriff's office."
Johnny reached up to the snow bank and shook the man's hand as he reached down. "John Gage, vacationing LA county fireman paramedic, and my wife, Jane – pleased to meet you."
"Well, now! Name's Bob James – I'm a volunteer fireman myself, and I have a snowmobile, so offered my services to the sheriff to check up on people out here. Say, Mr Gage, we sure could use your expertise, if you don't mind. We've got a couple of injured people back there, and no medicos to help out. I imagine you're probably pretty good at rescue, and we could really use a hand with that as well. What do you say?"
Johnny looked at Jane. "Of course, he'd be happy to help," she answered for him, "Is there anything that I can do?"
"I dunno, ma'am. What can you do?"
"Standard First Aid. But I'll help anywhere and anyway I can."
Bob smiled broadly. "Then the question is, when can you good people come?"
"We don't have any transportation right now. Just trying to dig it out, as a matter of fact."
"You couldn't use it anyways – none of the roads are plowed yet. Think you could hop onto this snowmobile with me? It's the fastest and most reliable way to get around for now."
Johnny nodded towards the cabin. "We need to take care of some things in there first – got a fire to deal with and some supplies we could gather up – can you give us a few minutes to do that?"
"Are you kidding? For the kind of help we're getting from you, I'll even come in and give you a hand!"
Johnny took care of putting out the fire while making sure they would be able to light it again fairly easily when they came back. Jane collected a flashlight, a first aid kit, a blanket, and some chocolate and put them into a bag. She asked Johnny if there was anything else she should include. "Soap, washcloth, some plastic bags if we've got, a sewing kit, maybe some alcohol just in case." She went around and gathered the items together.
Johnny said to Bob, "Anything else you see that you think might come in useful? Got any ropes?"
Bob scratched his cheek. "Don't know. Problem is, some things that we might normally access might be buried under the snow, you know?"
Johnny gave a nod. "I sure do. Okay, I'll just do another sweep of the place to see if there is anything else I can find, and then we can head out."
"I think I'd better take you first, Mr Gage."
"Call me Johnny."
"Fine, Johnny. Then I'll come back and pick up your wife. How does that sound?"
"Where will you be taking him?" asked Jane.
"We have an informal command post at the township garage – where we keep the snow plows and such. Seemed the most logical place, since no one can really go anywhere till those machines get moving. But the medical clinic is running on generator, and there is someone out trying to get the doc to come in."
"Jane, do you mind?"
"No, not at all – better get moving! I'm sure they needed you somewhere ten minutes ago!"
When she could no longer hear or see the snowmobile, Jane went back into the cabin. She stood in the middle of the main room and looked around. She felt very alone all of a sudden. She usually tried to look confidently to the future, but since losing the baby she had moments when she realized that something was broken inside of her, and worried that maybe it was a permanent condition.
Johnny was so kind. He really seemed to understand how she was feeling when they had been sitting in front of the fire earlier. He could be ridiculous and even irritating sometimes, but whenever she needed him to be serious, he was right there.
Sometimes she could see he was sad too; she had seen him playing with Roy's son Chris and then suddenly stopping what they were doing as if distracted; once she caught him watching Roy work together with his son on some project and a wistful look crossed his face. She knew that he understood how she felt. So why was she suddenly feeling so bereft?
She stood in the cold room, with the fire gone, and the bag of extra supplies at her feet, and felt the tears drip down her face. She was grateful that John wasn't there to see her crying, yet again. She really meant what she said when she talked about believing in love living forever. Was she a hypocrite then for feeling this way?
Johnny kept his face turned away from the wind and tucked into Bob Wilson's back as much as possible, wishing that he had a balaclava to cover his face like his driver. Because the snow was fresh, the treads from the snowmobile kicked up the powder like spray from a speedboat and it bit at his exposed skin. He also wished he had worn his ski gloves rather than the woollen ones he had on. Over the roar of the engine, he was surprised that he could still make out the cracking sounds of branches breaking and falling – in the crisp air the noise carried and sounded somewhat like gunshots. Bob yelled back at him after a particularly loud crack, "Gonna be a lot of trees needing felling after this!" John didn't bother to answer due to the machine's noise, but privately estimated that maybe as much as a quarter of the trees had been affected in some way. It was quite the snowfall.
Jane sat down on the mattress and looked at the dead fire. Dead fire, dead baby, dead mother, dead dad…She tried to shake herself out of her negative mindset. Her thoughts turned to her sister, living in a 'specialized care facility.' She hadn't spoken to her since just after the baby died; she didn't know what to say. What was her loss when compared to losing the ability to live on your own, to care for your own needs, to work? She remembered seeing her sister in the hospital intensive care unit, wondering how to tell her that their mother was dead, that their father was seriously burned and his chances were not good, that the doctors said Sue would never walk again, never ride another horse, never run or dance…Looking back from where she was now, that time was a blur, and she wondered how she came through it.
She did know, in a way; it had to do with Mark, her first serious boyfriend. She remembered how he initially came upon her, sitting in the back stairwell of the college science labs after classes were over for the day, crying, unable to bear the burden of all that she carried any longer. He had asked her what was wrong, and in her weakness, she had told him the bare bones of what was going on in her life; the accident, her parents' deaths, her sister's crippling injuries. Somehow, from that moment, he had taken over planning and organizing her life. She recalled how numbly grateful she had been, how they had somehow become a couple, with Mark calling all the shots. He decided what they did, what their future would be like.
Looking back from her perspective in the snow surrounded cabin, she could see why she had relied on him so completely and blindly. She had been grateful for his 'love' even while she wondered what he had really felt for her…and then, she remembered going to see Auntie Mags, to deal with all the things left over from her mom's death and to arrange her sister's care...
What a surprise that had been. Instead of support and counsel, there was an outpouring of blame and anger…somehow it was her, Jane's, fault that the accident had happened, that Mags' sister was dead, that Sue was "nearly a vegetable"…she was ordered back to LA to 'fix it' when she had nothing left to give…and then when she got back, finding Mark with Jenna, one of her closest friends. How sick she became at their mutual betrayal. How blindsided and destroyed she felt. There was no one left she could talk to, no one she could trust….friends, family, all close relationships broken and gone. Only pain, grief and loneliness remained.
It had taken some time to recover, finish her teaching degree, and create an alternative family through volunteering at the community center. Well, not really a family, because she never told anyone how she really felt, how lonely her nights were…but she had focused on loving her grade one students and caring for the elderly shut-ins from the center, until miraculously, one day there was Johnny, the DeSotos, the men from Station 51, Dixie, Dr Joe, and even, surprisingly, Dr Brackett…her new family.
She had not yet told Johnny about Mark – all he knew was that there had been someone in her life when she was in college with whom she had been engaged to marry but that it didn't work out. She was grateful that John never pried into her past, and always took what she told him with matter-of- fact acceptance. Someday she would tell him about Mark and what he'd done. Maybe.
Jane shook her head out of her reverie and came back to the present. She rubbed her arms with her hands, glad that she had her gloves on. She looked outside into the bright sunlight and it hurt her eyes. Those times were long gone. She had Johnny now, and he had somehow made things right in her life. She wondered where he was and what he was doing.