Beacon in the Storm – Chapter 2
Forgetting Amy's words about the horse, Lou stares out the window in disbelief. "It's gotten worse." She declares. Noting that the snow is no longer falling. It's flying past the house with no intention of landing anytime soon. "Amy, Ty must have pulled off someplace if it's this bad out. I can't even see the yard, let alone the barn." She says, before heading back to collect her book and head off to bed.
Surprised by Lou's comment and departure, Amy watches her for a moment. Trying to figure out what just happened. Then realizes that Lou cannot see Ghost. All she saw was the blowing snow. It never occurred to Amy that Ghost only presented himself to her. Turning back to the door "There he is. I can see him. He's right there!"
Coat buttoned up and hat on, Amy opened the door and walked out onto the porch, never breaking eye contact with the horse. Ignoring the sudden cold, she felt a lump form in her throat and pang in her heart. She'd seen Ghost before and each time, it meant something bad had happened to Ty.
But in all previous sightings, Ghost appeared off in the distance. Now, he was front and center. Amy knew there was only one reason for it. She had to find Ty. NOW!
Having acknowledged the urgency of the situation, Amy stood there for a moment longer, looking at Ghost. She wanted to move but it felt like he was trying to tell her something. Something important she needed to know. A moment later, Ghost simply turned and walked away. Fading from sight amidst the blowing snow. No evidence of his appearance remained. Not even hoof prints.
Going back inside, removing her hat and loosening her coat, Amy ran to Grandpa's bedroom and was about to knock when she remembered his comments from earlier that evening. How he'd never felt that cold before.
Switching to Plan B, she walked over to where Scott was sleeping on the floor. He was lying on his right side, facing the fire. She could hear him breathing steady and knew he was sound asleep. Having overheard parts of his conversation with Lou, she knew he'd been up early that day and was undoubtedly tired.
Feeling the heat from the fireplace, Amy removed her coat and tossed it onto the sofa next to Mallory.
"Scott" Amy called, kneeling down by him.
No response.
"Scott" Amy said again, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Scott" She calls, a bit louder and tries to shake him awake.
"Hmmmmm. What?" Comes a confused reply.
"It's me, Amy."
"Amy? ….. What time is it?" he asks, reluctantly coaxing more brain cells awake.
"About 1:30. I need your help." She shares. Fighting the growing sense of urgency.
Scott shifts so he's lying on his back and takes another moment.
"Is Ty back?"
"No. I need …. I mean we need to go look for him. He's not far."
"What do you mean, not far?" He asks, opening his eyes to look at her. Blinking several times.
"He sent another text. Said he was about 15 minutes away." Amy flips to the text message and shows it to him, as if to prove that she's not lying. Scott quickly slams his eyes shut against the bright screen. "Ouch."
"Sorry." Amy says, pulling the phone back.
Hearing this news forces Scott awake and he sits up, causing Amy to stand up and step back. He thinks about it as he blinks several times to get the white out of his eyes. Then asks. "When did he send it?"
"12:37" she says, confirming the time on the message.
That was almost an hour ago. "Is it still storming out?"
"Yes." Amy says, hesitantly. Then decides full disclosure is best so she adds "It's worse than when you got here."
"How much worse?" Scott asks as he gets up, gets his bearings and heads to the Kitchen. Peering out the window above the sink, he hears the wind howling and the frenzied blowing of snow across the yard. "That's definitely worse, Amy."
Turning to her and seeing the troubled look on her face he counters. "There's still a chance that he pulled off somewhere. If I were him, I would have."
"If that's true, why didn't he call or text. Let me know he was okay?!" she implores. "When I tried calling, it rings for a bit and then goes right to voice mail."
"I know he's out there Scott." After a pause and feeling desperate. "I saw Ghost. He was standing right by the front porch."
Turning to look at her "You saw Ghost? You mean that spotted Appaloosa you rescued?" Scott asks, trying to confirm what he heard her say.
"Yes. Usually, I see him off in the distance, but still within sight. But this time he was right there by the front porch." Amy points to where Ghost was standing.
"Ty mentioned something about it to me after his accident. He said that you …" Thinking way ahead of his words, Scott stopped. "Get your stuff, Amy. We have to go find him. Or at least try."
Pleased that she'd convinced him, Amy quickly turned to head to her room to put on more layers. Thinking of Ty's possible situation and not wanting to scare Amy, Scott called out "We need to grab blankets. Hand warmers. And anything else you can think of. I've got flashlights in the truck."
Now motivated by the belief that Ty was in trouble, Scott ran back to the fireplace, grabbed his warm clothes and started the process of layering up. That job done, he grabbed his coat, hat and gloves and heading to the Mud Room to put on his boots.
Hearing all the commotion, Lou comes out of her bedroom and is surprised to see Scott all dressed. "What's going on?"
"We're going to look for Ty. Amy thinks he's pretty close."
"Scott, Ty must have pulled off somewhere. Have you seen outside? It's even worse now than it was when you got here."
Stopping and looking at her for a moment, he responds "I don't think he did, Lou. Amy got a text from him about an hour ago saying he was 15 minutes away. I think he tried to make it." Turning toward the Mud Room again, he adds "Probably not one of his smarter moves."
Following him, Lou continues. Her concern for Ty now mixed with the fear that something could happen to Scott and Amy. "There could be any number of reasons why Ty didn't call. Maybe his phone died or …"
Turning to face her again, Scott counters. "I know. But if Amy saw Ghost, I'm pretty sure we need to be looking for him." He pauses. Then adds "Amy only sees that particular horse when something bad has happened."
Puzzled by this talk about a horse, Lou's still not sure. "Amy said something about that horse earlier. She said it was standing right in front of the porch, looking at us. But I looked out there and I didn't see it."
Scott sits down on the bench and thinks about it for a moment. Turning to look at the door, he imagines how it would feel to see a ghost horse. Then he looks up at Lou. "No, I don't imagine you can, Lou. …. Interesting."
"What do you mean?" Lou asks, feeling even more confused about current events.
"I'll explain later. We have to get going. Oh, do you have any hot cider left?"
"I think so. Let me check."
"Fill a thermos with that or the hot chocolate. I have a feeling we're going to need it."
Discussion over, Scott focuses on getting his boots on so he's ready when Amy is. Sticking his left foot in, he realizes just how wet they still are on the inside. "Putting these by the fireplace would have been a good idea." He tells himself. Then proceeds to lace it up and continue with the right one.
Meanwhile, Amy, mind racing with an ever-growing list of things to grab, has rolled up two thick blankets and tied them with old shoe laces. She stuffs them into two plastic bags and then proceeds to race through the house collecting everything else on her mental list.
When she arrives back in the kitchen, she's carrying the two bags with the blankets. She's tied the bags together with a piece of rope so she can sling them over her shoulder and keep her hands free. At least that's what she told herself when she spent several minutes looking for rope. And she has her old school backpack stuffed with everything she collected.
"Let's go Scott." She says as she runs back into the Family Room to get her jacket from the couch. Coming back to the kitchen, she tosses it on the table and then sits down next to Scott to put her boots on. In less than a minute, she's fully dressed, with coat, hat, gloves and scarf.
"Grab the thermos on the table, Amy. I'll go clear the snow off the truck." Scott says before heading out the door. The howling of the wind increases ten-fold while the doors open. This causes Amy to pause for just a moment. "Am I doing the right thing? Or am I worried for nothing?" she asks herself. A moment later "No, I need to be worried. Ghost told me I needed to find him. Find Ty."
Startled awake by the sudden removal of her third blanket which just happened to be Amy's coat, Mallory gets up and wonders into the kitchen. Expecting the house to be quiet by now, she instead finds Lou standing by the sink, looking out the window at Scott who's brushing the snow off of his truck. Or at least trying to. Then she spots Amy.
"Where are you going, Amy? Can't you hear that it's storming out yet? Why would you…"
Cutting her off, Amy tells her "Scott and I are going to look for Ty." as she walks back to the kitchen table. Seeing three different things that she needs to carry out to the truck; Amy decides to clip the thermos to the side of her backpack using one of several carabiners. Lifting the now heavier backpack, she slings it over her shoulder.
Saddened by this news, Mallory says aloud what everyone has been thinking. "I wish Ty would have stayed where he was. Then you and Scott wouldn't have to go look for him."
Hearing her thoughts aloud, Amy sets the backpack down and walks over to Mallory and pulls her into a hug. "Me too." She whispers. Then pulling back she adds "Looking for him is the right thing to do. So don't worry. We'll be okay."
With that, Amy returns to the table to load up.
Lou walks over for a quick hug. "You be careful. If it gets too bad, please just turn around and come back. Having one person out in the storm is bad enough. I don't want to have to worry about two more."
Amy doesn't reply but holds tight for a bit and then heads outside. Both Mallory and Lou watch through the kitchen window as Amy walks to the truck and puts her stuff inside. She then walks around the outside, using her gloved hand to clean off the headlights and part of the windshield.
Not wanting to dwell on current events, Lou turns from the window. She grabs a glass from the cup board and has a drink of water. "Come on you. I'm not going to be able to sleep, so how about you show me this Cribbage game of yours." That lightens Mallory's mode and they both head off to the Family Room to sit by the fire. Mallory grabs the Cribbage board from the card table and sets it on the couch between them. She moves the four pegs back to their starting position and after thinking about it, asks Lou to shuffle the cards.
Lou does her best to pay attention as Mallory explains the basics of Cribbage. Thoughts about Amy, Scott and the still missing Ty come front and center only a couple times every few seconds. But to her credit, Lou does remember how many cards to deal out and something about something called the "crib". They play the hand and then Mallory started explaining how the scoring works.
"It's fifteen two, fifteen four and a pair for six. So you peg six points." Mallory explains, using fingers of both hands to identify the cards involved in each part. Lou finally gets it as they both hear the door to the house open.
"They must have come back." Mallory says as they both peak up over the top of the sofa. Not seeing or hearing anything, Lou gets up and heads to the kitchen followed by Mallory. They get to the Mud Room and see Scott standing there. His cheeks bright red from the bitter cold and a look of frustration on his face.
"Amy's gone."
"What?" Lou says, incredulously.
"She took off on Harley"
"I thought you were both going in the truck. What happened?" Lou asks, fighting the urge to call Amy and tell her how stupid she's being.
Feeling defeated, and partially responsible, Scott sits down on the bench. "I couldn't get the truck started so I went out to pop the hood and spray some ether in the air intake. It took me a bit to get the hood open because of the snow. When I got back, she'd taken her stuff and gone. I thought she came back into the house to warm up. But she's not here and neither is Harley."
…
Somewhere out in the middle of the storm… Ty awoke to the sound of his phone vibrating and Stevie Wonder singing "You are the sunshine of my life" near his left ear. Not yet conscious enough to realize that Amy was calling him, he opened his eyes and confirmed the following basic things. Old Blue had flipped onto its passenger side. He is hanging upside down. He is very very cold. And moving any part of him hurt.
Not quite believing his predicament, Ty blinked several times as if hoping it was some weird dream. After opening his eyes for the third time and seeing everything the same, he thought, "This is not how I imagined this working out." After waking up a bit more, he learned two more things. Window crank handles are not comfortable to lay on and he had a really bad headache. "Oh, this is just getting better!"
Feeling angry at himself for having been so foolish, he took a moment to vent. "You stupid son of a …..! All you had to do was call and tell Amy the roads were bad. She would have understood! Really! There was a perfect place to stop 10 miles back! You could have been someplace warm and NOT HERE UPSIDE DOWN!"
"Amy!" Ty said aloud. Interrupting his own beratement, he finally made the connection to Stevie Wonder. Remembering he'd heard the song on his left side, he tried reaching his left hand up by his head. That proved impossible because it required him to turn his body slightly and a shooting pain made that not an option. But, moving his right arm slowly, he was able to feel around the back of his head. "Yeah! One point for Team Borden! No Blood!"
Switching into vet mode, Ty assessed his physical situation. The cowboy boots that his mom had given him for Christmas had buckles on both sides. Ty found them so comfortable that he'd decided to wear them on his trip back to Heartland. It was the buckle on the inside of his left boot that was caught on the clutch peddle, causing him to be in his present inverted position.
The headache was from hitting the passenger door when the truck flipped. His inability to move without pain was probably due to cracked ribs and maybe some internal injuries. Those injuries were not immediately life threatening, otherwise he wouldn't have gained consciousness. He reasoned.
Rubbing his hands together slowly to ward off the cold and stiffness, Ty tried to remember what had happened. He was driving in the middle of the road, the windshield pretty much clear as the blowing snow had no interest in landing on anything. The heater was on high so there was some melting snow on the edges of the windshield, but visibility was okay. At least as far as the storm would allow.
This stretch of the road was pretty clear as there were open fields on either side and the blowing wind didn't allow the snow to accumulate. So he'd gone faster, hoping to make up some time. But then the rear wheels slipped on a patch of ice, causing the backend to fishtail to the right. When they'd cleared the ice, the wheels caught, pushing the truck forward and then things went sideways.
Berating himself for additional moments of stupidity "Like speeding up in a snow storm!", Ty tried to refocus on the reality of his situation. Glancing at the dashboard, he could tell that the headlights were still on, but getting dimmer. The engine was off so there was no heat. And the cab of Old Blue was quickly turning into an icebox.
Besides being conscious, the only other bit of good news was that the device plugged into the cigarette lighter was still working. It was hanging precariously about six inches above his head, but it was working. He made a mental note to thank Amy for that. Then closed his eyes.
…
Less than a mile away, Amy and gotten off of Harley and was now walking slowly ahead of him through the bitter wind and blowing snow. Desperate to find Ty, she'd used a GPS app on her phone to confirm that they were at least close to the road if not on it. There were moments of calm when the wind died down and Amy recognized buildings and other markers along the way. After Harley slipped on a patch of ice, she jumped off and took the lead. Walking gingerly ahead, she made sure they were on solid footing. Unable to communicate with her voice, Amy used her left arm to rub Harley's neck from time to time.
Having been out for almost an hour, the three layers of clothes, scarf, hat and gloves were proving no match for Mother Nature. If Amy stayed out much longer, she would be in as much trouble as she feared Ty was. But she kept going. "Not finding Ty was not an option." she told herself. Adjusting her position so she was walking downwind and next to Harley instead of in front, she used him to block the wind and give her a better chance to stay warm. There was no going back.
…
Back at Heartland, a lone figure stared out the kitchen window and into the storm. His weary eyes telegraphing his concern for the two people who were missing. To Jack, this felt too much like déjà vu.
Seeing him standing there, Lou went back to her room. Called the authorities to check on their search efforts and then tapped out a text message. Realizing there was nothing else she could do, she slid back into bed and snuggled up next to Scott, who was lying on his back. Resting her head on his chest, she felt his left hand touch the side of her face and then begin stroking her hair.
"They will be okay, Lou. Amy will find Ty and they will be okay." He whispered.
"I hope so."
Author's Note:
I hope you enjoyed this second chapter. I hadn't anticipated it taking so long to publish so I apologize for that. After completing the first chapter, I didn't like how things progressed in the second so I basically rewrote it. That required finding time during an already busy February and March.
It occurs to me that there are similarities between this story and the plane crash from the TV series. The key difference here is that Amy's decision to go look for Ty puts her in danger as well. I was curious to see how much she'd be willing to risk for the boy she loves.
They're not out of the woods yet so stay tuned. I appreciate all of your comments. Take care.