Snowblind

Even though it was two in the morning, Martha Wilkins finally turned off the lights at Enterprise Car Rental. A small Idaho airport, Enterprise waited for the bus when airlines couldn’t land, like now, in a snowstorm. She told Jessie about his Uber fare waiting once he came out of the men’s room.

“Where is she?” Jessie asked.

Martha threw a thumb at the entrance. “Another reunion gal I suspect. They’re gathering like flies to honey. You should go to the reunion yourself, Jessie. Hoot it up, see some old high school friends.”

Jessie glanced back at her. “I’ll make a lot of bank driving, not going to see old friends. Why would I go?”

“Suit yourself,” Martha said.

“It’s your Dottie waiting on you,” Bill Hopkins boomed. He had a wide grin on his face, and strode up the hall in his Stetson cowboy hat, a Blaine County Deputy badge on his chest. “She’s more a looker than ever,” he added.

Jessie laughed. “You think so much of her, you might want to drive her up to the lodge yourself.”

Bill plunked himself down on a lobby couch. “I’ll pass. Too old, too tired, too lazy. Besides, I need to stay warm and rested. You two could end up holed up somewhere and need me to bail you out. She’s Elizabeth Crocket now. You need to go see her yourself. You won’t believe it.”

The automatic doors of the terminal rattled in the wind. She stood beneath the lights in red high heels, snow on the shoulders of her navy peacoat, a red beret to match the heels. He stood frozen watching her grab her roller bag and step off the curb. As she did, her heel broke on the ice. She crouched down and combed the snow looking for it.

Jessie called out. “Ms. Crocket? Elizabeth Crocket?”

Elizabeth rose. Crow’s feet now traced her eyes, but they only added to her beauty.

When she saw him, she smiled. “You’re my Uber driver?”

“You got it. Yes ma’am, Ms. Crocket,” Jessie took his hat off, bowed, and swept his Stetson in front of him. “I left the limo at home.” There was a blue Uber light on the dash of his gray Honda Civic.

“If I’d known it was you, Jess, I would have booked another ride. I’m going to the lodge, stay a few days, and I’m back in L.A. on Friday.”

“Works for me. I can take you to the lodge. I imagine you’re going to the reunion, am I right?” He sensed her eyes sweeping over his weather-worn snakeskin boots, his sweat-stained hat, taking in how much he’d aged. His jeans clung tight around his stomach. He sucked in his gut and stood taller.

After he opened the rear door of the Honda, she slid into the back seat. He then opened the trunk to put her bag in. When he did, he spotted her red heel in the snow, picked it up, and put it in his pocket. Once her bag was in the trunk, he slammed it shut.

As they drove off, wiper blades scraped back and forth, barely keeping up with the snow. Melting ice formed a slush on the windshield. At the exit gate machine Jessie brought his window down and with his hand shaking put his credit card in. He stared at her in the rearview mirror. Her eyes caught his, and he looked away.

“Memory lane?”

“I’m sorry... Ms. Crocket,” Jessie said. He fidgeted with his cellphone mounted on the dash, and scanned the snow drifted across the road ahead of them.

Her low voice came out of the back seat. “The Times is interviewing me at the lodge. I won’t be here long. The reunion is just a dumb idea, if you have to know.”

“It’s none of my business, Ms. Crocket.”

Jessie turned off Airport Road onto the main street of Hailey. The small western town had a lonely emptiness. In spite of the snow forming out of the black sky, or maybe because of it, the air felt quiet and heavy.

Jessie nodded to the back seat. “People who go to reunions are the best of the bunch, in my opinion.”

Elizabeth stared out at the passing town. The Esso Station’s sign blinked as they went by. Unleaded, $3.37. The snow whipped beneath the streetlights.

“The best of the bunch?”

“I have a theory.” Jessie adjusted the heat to blast hot air out the vents. “It’s only winners who go to school reunions. If you’re a loser, you stay home. Take you, for example. You’re Elizabeth Crocket, a big star.”

The Hailey Coffee neon cup sign flickered red as they passed.

She didn’t look at Jessie, but mumbled into the window. “Dottie Crumb. I bet you’d change your name too if you were me.”

“I don’t know what I’d do if I were you. Everyone’s got their reasons, I guess.”

They were quiet as they headed north, the sound of the wheels on the snow, the slap of the windshield wipers. A sign they passed said ‘East Fork Road’ and they stopped at the light.

Elizabeth looked down the empty road. “The Triumph mine,” she said. “Do people still live there? Do they still look for gold nuggets in the Big Wood just for fun?”

“Sure they do. Not like the old days, but some do. Yes, they do.”

With the light still red, he turned and faced her square on. “You might just find a gold mine while you’re here.” He smiled, but it was more like a wince.

She laughed, a throaty sound. “I doubt it. It’s been ten years. Are there still working gold mines in Idaho?”

Jessie turned back and pressed the gas pedal. The rear wheels spun, gaining traction in the snow as they moved forward, picking up speed. “You need to know where to look for a gold mine,” he said. They’re older now. You have to dig beneath the rotten timbers, work the ground.”

She leaned closer to his ear, her voice lower. “Even if I worked the ground, will the mine play out early? Maybe it’s a false run?”

“Some still have a vein.”

She sat back. “I suspect there’s still a vein or two left,” she said, “but the last mine I worked didn’t pay, if you remember.”

“I remember.”

A yellow road sign flashed by. ‘MAX SPEED 40’, ‘ELK CROSSING’.

The car’s headlights reached out ahead in the falling snow, the rear end spinning out from time to time. He couldn’t see The Bigwood, but knew it was there. Worried he’d drive straight off the curb and down a steep bank to the river he fought the drift by easing the wheel to get back in the lane.

She peered through the front windshield. “Can you see the road? How do you know where we’re going?”

Both of his hands gripped the steering wheel. He stared, unblinking, as if trying to see beyond the light from his headlights. The storm was fiercer now. Even in Idaho, it was rare for him to see a storm like this one. Maybe he’d never seen one. Neither of them spoke as the road stretched out into the night, but he kept the car in line and they plodded along.

“What’s it like being an Huber driver?”

“It’s not so bad. Not like being a somebody in Hollywood, I imagine.”

She laughed. “A boy I knew was somebody to me. It didn’t matter what he did for a living. He contacted me three years ago.”

“Did you contact him back?”

“No. I didn’t. Maybe it was just a fantasy about the boy. We were young wild horses when we knew each other. He lived in a van and climbed mountains. We climbed together. You have to trust a person when you climb. I trusted him like no man I ever trusted in L.A. But it was a long time ago and I’m not sure he’ll accept my apology. He’s stayed in my head and I think I might love him, you see.”

“What if he’s just some yokel living in Hailey?”

“It wouldn’t matter to the boy I knew. He could come to L.A. It took canceling eight Ubers to make sure I’d see him.”

“And if he did? Come to L.A. I mean?”

“We could start again.”

“Dottie, I’ve been—”

“Look out!”

Ahead of them a brown form flashed in the windshield. Elk horns, and red eyes in the headlights. The car struck the animal which flipped onto the hood. The body tumbled over the roof. Jessie was thrown against his driver door as the car swerved. They plunged off the side of the highway, flipped, and flipped again as they rolled. Everything broke at once. The metal tearing, the rear windows shattering, the rocky bank tumbling down on them. Upside down, they landed rear first, half in the river. A rumbling sound and snow avalanched down on them, packing the front windows a solid white. River water poured through where the rear windows had shattered.

Jessie turned on his cellphone flashlight and reached up and unbuckled Elizabeth’s seatbelt. She collapsed on the ceiling. They both crawled to the front and lay against the upside-down windshield.

“Are you hurt?” He scanned her with his cellphone.

“My leg.”

He flashed the light. “Looks broken.” Where the flesh tore out, he could see the edge of white bone. Blood seeped down her leg.

She moaned. “God, I’m cold.”

He threw his shoulder against the driver door. The door didn’t budge.

Jessie fumbled for his phone and dialed 911. The dispatcher answered and he explained they’d hit an elk and slid off the road near East Fork Road.

Jessie ended the call. “It won’t be long,” he said. He looked at her leg and covered her with his jacket.

They waited, pressed against each other in the dark, their backs against the windshield. The only sound was the river gurgling as it flowed around the car’s rear end.

“We’ll be ok,” Jessie said. He slammed his shoulder against the driver door again but it was solid against the snow.

“We’ll be ok,” he said again. The light from his phone darted at the black water churning beneath them.

“How will they know where we are?”

“They’ll know. They can track my phone.” The car lurched suddenly and the water climbed above the rear seat headrest. Jessie pulled his legs up, but the icy water now covered him to his hip. He pushed Elizabeth above him and kept her leg straight.

Elizabeth touched his shoulder. “What if our tracks are covered with snow?”

“Lemme think,” Jessie said. He stared at the water.

At last, he said. “They’ll find us. I know they will.”

They lay in a long beat of silence. He turned off the flashlight.

“Now I’ll never make the reunion.” Elizabeth said and laughed.

Her breath warmed his neck.

He laughed with her. “I guess not.” Laying back, he put his arm around her. Her heart thudded against his chest, the smell of mint.

“They’ll find us,” she said. “You called, right?”

He didn’t answer.

After a time, he nudged her side. “I think it’s a good idea to stay awake. How’s your leg?”

“It doesn’t hurt. I’m just… freezing.” Her body shivered.

Jessie glanced at his phone. There were no bars.

“You gotta talk now and stay awake.” He pushed her hard, but all she did was lay there. Her eyes were closed.

And now there was just the noise of the river in the night.

Her skin was cold and her lips blue.

“I’m only a driver,” he rasped.

She was pale white.

“Nothing to do, but wait.”

His body tensed.

The car groaned and shifted.

He slammed his head against the driver side window. Again, and again. The pain exploded in his skull, but the glass cracked. He threw himself against the window. It shattered, the pieces falling. After pushing through the snow and crawling through he reached back and pulled Elizabeth onto the river bank. With her in his arms he climbed. For every step up the slope, he slipped back a step, the snow sliding like sand. But he kicked, fell on rocks, rose, and kicked again. It was dark but there was only one direction to go.

At the edge of the highway a blue light opened his eyes. He stared at Bill Hopkins.

****

“Is there a Jessie Verity here?”

Jessie stood. “I’m here, ma’am.”

The nurse gave him a long look. She frowned. “Ms. Crocket—”

“Is she ok?”

The nurse smiled. “She’s asking for you.”

Jessie’s feet fell out from under him and he collapsed on the waiting room couch. He breathed again.

Elizabeth was sleeping when Jessie entered the room, her leg in a cast, her color better. He reached to touch her cheek but hesitated, then took a seat next to the bed and sat for a long time.

As black night paled, the snow let up. The nurse came in and changed the IV bag. “Would you like to wake her?”

“No. It’s ok. Can you bring me a notepad and pen?”

“As he was writing, Elizabeth woke up.”

Later, the handicap doors slid open and he stepped out of the hospital. To the east, the sun broke above the mountains. His eyes traced a route up the ridgeline to the summit as was his habit when looking at high places. There was fresh snow on the peaks and the sun shone beneath the high clouds turning them rose colored and blue in the dawn. He stared, breathing in the cold air, the smell of pine, and a new day.

Bill Hopkins came through the door and saw him. “You ever get used to it, Jess?”

Jessie turned. “Used to what?”

“The mountains. Back when we’d climb em’. You, me, and your Dottie.”

“We did, didn’t we?

“Are you ok?”

“Sure.”

“Reunion day tomorrow, Jessie. Is Dottie going?”

“I don’t think so, Bill. She’s got a meeting at the lodge, then going back early on the 12:40 to L.A. She was hoping to meet a boy of hers at the reunion. It turns out her boy’s not around anymore. I don’t think he’s coming back. He has to start living his own life.”

You going?” Bill turned away.

“Where?”

“Are you going? To the reunion. Will I see you there?”

Jessie held a red high heel in his hand he’d found in his pocket. He stared at it, took a deep breath, and smiled.