The next morning we all woke to heavy equipment out on the main road. Looking out the window, we saw front-end loaders, dump trucks, and other heavy equipment slowly clearing the road. They must have been working all night to get to us already, as I figured they would clear the highway and town before even starting down here, unless they were just getting everything south to north and had several crews working, which was possible. In that case, we would be among the first to get cleared, being on the south end of town.
Anyway, with the roads opening, Susan and John started gathering up any of their things they'd had out. As soon as the road was clear, they announced, they'd "get out of our hair" and head down to the community center. We all tried to protest that we didn't mind them being there at all, but they would hear none of it. Having decided they'd used enough of our hospitality, they were going to the shelter, so we started helping.
They were going to go as soon as they got packed, but we managed to convince them to give the crews a bit more time to get that direction, as the closest community center was away from the highway, and the crews might not have gotten through to there yet.
With no reason to go outside, we played board games all morning, which was a lot of fun with so many people.
The crews finally got to our road (a branch of the main road) about lunchtime. John decided they would leave after eating, and nothing we said would change his mind.
Mom and I prepared canned food lunch for everyone, as even though our refrigerated food was still good, that was only due to a make cold spell Jesse had put on it, and we didn't know if the Stephens' knew about the House of Life.
As we were finishing our meal, Jesse called out that someone was stopped on the main road, and we crowded around the window.
Through the trees, it looked like someone had parked an SUV where our road branched from the main road, but we couldn't see anyone around it due to it being four feet below our line of sight, hidden by the snowdrift.
Worried someone might be broken down, Machaela and I volunteered to go look. We convinced everyone else to stay at the house, as if something went wrong I could always call Jesse.
With the temperature still well below freezing, Machaela and I bundled up, strapped on our snowshoes, and started hiking towards the road.
"Who do you think it is?" Machaela asked about halfway up.
I shrugged. "Could be anyone. Might be someone lost in the snow. Or maybe someone's car got stuck in the gutter. We'll find out in a minute."
Reaching the road, we followed the top of the snow up to the parked car, but there was nobody there.
"Hello?" I called. "Is someone in trouble?"
No one responded, and Machaela was about to call out when she cut herself off. "Look!" she pointed at the pile of rubble. "Someone's digging through their house!" I followed her hand and, sure enough, tracks from the car led to two people digging through the rubble of the Stephens' house
"Hey!" we called, hopping down the snow bank and climbing up the other side. "Anything you find in that house doesn't belong to you!" I continued.
The closer of the two people turned around as we reached the top of the snow on the opposite side of the road, and we approached warily. We didn't want anyone stealing anything left in the house, but we also didn't want to get hurt because some crazy was looking to steal something.
As they got closer, the person turned out to be an older lady, and she was calling something, but I couldn't quite make it out at first.
It wasn't until she got close that I finally realized what she was asking. "Where's my son? Oh, my son! My son!"
Her son? "Ma'am, you need to calm down," I tried to soothe her. "Who's your son?" I asked, but she was too distraught to answer me.
The other person came up then, a man about the same age as the lady. He was much calmer, though extremely sad, and answered for her. "John. John Stephens. We're his parents and we were trying to find him in the rubble. This used to be their house. We heard about the storm on the news and tried to call, but it wouldn't go through. We drove through the night to get here, but we're too late. We couldn't find them."
He turned to try to comfort his wife and I turned to Machaela, who was thinking the same thing.
"Come on," she told them gently. "It's cold out here and you don't have a coat on. Let's get you inside, and we'll tell you what little we know."
We helped them down the cliff made from the plowed road, and up the other side, then started down the road to the driveway. As we reached the driveway, the lady, who said her name was Barbara (her husband was John Senior) finally voiced a question that'd been bubbling since we started moving.
"What do you know?" she asked, using Machaela's words.
I glanced over at Machaela, who nodded at me, and answered. "The storm started three days ago and dumped about two feet of snow the first day, killing the nearest cellphone tower. The house fell a couple hours before sunset the second and last day of the storm after about three and a half feet had fallen, knocking out power to several houses in this area." We were about halfway down the driveway by now, and I tried to time it right. "By the time it fell, pretty much everyone in this area was snowed it, unable to get out of the house."
Hope came back into their eyes, which was what I had been aiming for. "'Pretty much everyone'?" John repeated.
I grinned and helped them down a steep part of the driveway. My timing was almost right, as the silence had stretched just a little too long when the front door slammed.
Mom and Susan, seeing Machaela and I helping someone come down the driveway, had come out to help without knowing who was there. Barbara recognized Susan before Susan even had the chance to get off the porch.
With a cry of relief, Barbara and John rushed to Susan, wrapping her in a hug between them. Susan looked at us, her question written on her face.
"Apparently they've been trying to call you," I explained as the couple broke the hug, "but the calls didn't go through, for obvious reasons. We found them digging through the rubble trying to find you."
John came out right then, Cindy right behind him. "Mom?" "Grandma?" they said in unison. I sighed as the couple embraced their son and granddaughter, as I knew I would now have to repeat myself, but Mom chuckled and started moving everyone inside.
Once we'd gathered in the living room, which was starting to get a bit crowded, John Sr. told his son and the rest of us what had led them here and how he and Barbara had assumed them buried when they found the collapsed house covered in snow. In return, Susan told about Mom, my siblings, and I being the only ones able to get out into the storm and how we'd found them, which led to the four of us blushing bright red when Barbara and John insisted on hugging each of us.
Attempting to change the subject, I asked if they were finished packing. They nodded and grabbed the bags, which prompted another explanation as to how they had so much if their house had collapsed around them. This, of course, put too much focus on me again.
Thankfully, though, this time Barbara changed the subject, asking why they were packing.
"We're going up to the community center where the Red Cross should have set up a shelter by now," Susan replied.
"Oh, no you're not," was Barbara's adamant response. "You're coming home with us."
Cindy's dad tried to protest, of course, but his parents are more stubborn than he is. They would be staying with his parents until they found a new house.
With about a six-hour drive ahead of them due to the storm, everybody said their goodbyes and the Stephens' headed south to the highway, where they'd turn west. With them gone, the five of us had a simple, quiet day playing board and card games.
That evening we switched on the old radio to listen for any announcements. Most of it was the old blah blah blah about "the Cumberland Plateau has seen record snowfall" and "crews are still working to clear all the county roads in this area." We were almost out of battery for today when something helpful finally came on.
"The school board has cancelled school until all the roads have been plowed. At that time they will reevaluate and announce day-by-day," our local DJ declared. "The electric company is aware that many lack power. They will begin work as soon as their trucks can get through.
"The Red Cross has shelters in the community centers and school gyms for anyone unable to return to their homes. They will also be driving through neighborhoods delivering food for anyone in need.
"FEMA has one lane of the highway cleared between here and the interstate. High clearance cars can get through, though please expect double to triple travel times.
"We can expect this snow to stick around for two to three more days before melting off. Our temperatures will be in the high twenties through the week, finally warming up to mid-fifties Sunday, when we should see a good amount melt. Remember, low-lying areas are under a flood watch from this melt-off. And that's all for today. Here's the…"
"No school!" I half-jokingly celebrated as we turned the radio off. Mom shook her head at me, a smile on her face. "But seriously," I continued. "Going by that, we can probably expect the electric crews here tomorrow morning, since it's much too late today." I glanced out the window, eyeing the driveway covered in over four feet of snow. "And we probably won't be driving anywhere until the weekend, because I really don't see me shoveling that driveway when we can get out and about in other ways." At that, Machaela and Jesse nodded their heads.
"We're too exposed to take the shortcut," Jesse agreed, not wanting to shovel it any more than I did, "but we have enough supplies for a few days, yet."
Mom obviously didn't like the idea of being essentially stuck here for a few more days, but she didn't argue. Besides, with the Stephens' gone and Jean in the loop, we could get into the refrigerated/frozen food, and we had all kinds of goodies in there.
The next two days passed slowly, filled with board games, puzzles, and various pre-internet forms of entertainment, many of which were new to Jesse and me.
It finally warmed up the third day after Susan, John, and Cindy left, and the snow started melting rapidly. With the snow turning to slush, our snowshoes no longer supported us, and we ended up clearing the driveway. Jean helped us a lot by teaching us a new spell that allowed us to take a different shortcut to clear the driveway, one without being obvious with magic.
The next day the power came back on and Jean happily moved back into her own home and her own bed. She was starting to hurt sleeping on the couch, and I knew she felt like she had imposed on us long enough.
The snow continued to melt, and, by this point, most of the roads were clear. The morning after Jean went home, the school board announced school would be in session the next day, in spite of all unplowed areas (grass, driveways, etc.) still having just over a foot of snow, an unheard-of move in this state as they usually wait for all snow to melt before reopening. With this announcement, our blizzard adventure ended how it began: I still hadn't figured out my calculus homework.
"Grace? Do you know anything about the Stephens' new house being built on their lot?"
Okay, maybe not exactly how it began. It really is too bad a LotusCash card doesn't help with homework. I guess money can't solve everything.
Well, I was actually planning for this to be 7 chapters, but the 7th would have been too short. Lucky you :P Anyways, hope you enjoyed the final chapter of this very fluffy, anticlimactic story. Don't forget to review what you thought.
Also, I'm taking oneshot/short story requests for my Life of a Demigod universe. Any questions about a minor plot hole in LoD? Did I leave something too open for you? Did I hint at an event but not explain it? Let me know and I might get time to write it out.
Happy Reading!