The journey had not been going well for Tanya and Amy. The two sisters had been traveling for six hours across icy roadways in an attempt to reach their grandfather's home. The whole family had argued that it would be foolish for the elderly man to continue to live in the mountain foothills of the Rockies after his wife had died. And now Thanksgiving had come and gone and no one had heard from him.
Tanya and Amy, the youngest members of the large family, had volunteered to make the trip out to his home to ensure that everything was all right. The old cabin was normally only a three hour drive from their mother's house, where they had spent Thanksgiving Day. But after only driving for an hour and a half, the temperatures had plummeted and snow had begun to fall. Very quickly they were forced to a crawl; the Audi's all wheel drive constantly working to maintain traction on the road.
Amy had gone along on the trip because she was adventurous and carefree. Tanya had gone along because she was their grandfather's favorite and he listened to no one but her. Tanya had been forced to leave behind her boyfriend and their seven month old baby. The plan had been to go to the house, make sure that Papa Armentz was all right, and then return to the family with him in tow. Normally a trip like that could have been accomplished, even with an ornery old man, in the better half of a day. Now, with heavy snow and icy roads it looked as if they would reach the cabin shortly after sundown and would likely have to stay the night there.
Tanya regretted her decision to go along. She had not been apart from her daughter for anything more than an hour or two since she had been born. And now in the icy silence of the winter she missed her terribly. Unsure of when the weather would let up and how long the drive would take, she rode along quietly. She wondered what she was doing. Was she hungry? Tired? Wet? Tanya just wished she had listened to her boyfriend and staid home.
Amy did not have a family of her own and had really just wanted to spend time with her older sister. The two had been very close growing up and had only stopped talking when Amy had moved away for college. Tanya had chosen a different route, becoming a stay at home mom of sorts. She and her boyfriend had been dating for several years now and were very committed to one another. He worked and paid the bills and she made sure that his home was well kept and his daughter well cared for. It was a very quaint and traditional set up. One that Amy was not fond of.
The rift between the women had largely been related to their differences of opinion in that matter. Amy had vocally opposed Tanya's decision to not go to school and had insulter her husband and her. Amy felt that Tanya was throwing away a lot of potential and a future for herself. And Tanya had been hurt; feeling a bit of nervousness about the decision herself, and in her pride had refused to speak with Amy until this Thanksgiving.
Something had clicked over the turkey meal and the women had eagerly filled in the other on their lives and what they had missed. Amy had gushed about how cute Tanya's daughter was and how she had her eyes. Tanya had lauded Amy for her success in school and her pending graduation from the university. No one really talked about what had happened between them and they had tried to pick up where they had left off.
Amy peered into the darkness, her mind wondering what her sister was thinking. Much of their conversation to that point had been shallow and she had so many things she wanted to ask and share with Tanya. But now with the treacherous roadways, she was unsure that any of the drive could be spent talking. However, she did have one big thing she needed to get off her chest before they were joined by their grandfather and she worried that as they got higher in the mountains that it would be less likely she would say it.
So like many things she said and did, Amy blurted it out. "I'm sorry, sis. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you when I said that stuff. I just missed you. We were best friends and I thought we were so alike." She waited hoping that Tanya would say something. When her older sister did not, Amy turned towards her and repeated.
"I wish I had never said that stuff. Your life is perfect. You have a great guy and a beautiful kid. You're so lucky."
Tanya couldn't take much more of her sister's profuse apology. She had a confession of her own to make.
"Quiet, Amy. I was wrong. You were right. Don't apologize again."
Amy stared at her older sister surprised by this admission. "What?"
"I think Todd is cheating on me. We haven't slept together since, like, my second trimester. It's almost a year now. I love Dahlia, but I am worried that Todd will leave us. I made the wrong decision."
"Are you sure? How do you know that he cheated? Have you said anything to him yet," Amy blurted once more, surprise sounding in her voice.
"No, I haven't said anything. I just know. He says he is at all these meetings all the time. He never has meetings. He's a salesman for Christ's sake." Tanya could feel a lot of emotions welling up within her. She didn't want Amy to see them; she didn't want to be weak in front of someone whose opinion she so highly valued.
"I don't want to be right any more. I just want us to be friends again. I want to be your little sister again. Please?"
Tanya wiped away a tear and said with some finality, "Deal."
Tanya leaned in to give her sister a hug. Amy released the wheel with her right arm and circled it around her sister's neck. They were just breaking their embrace when the road veered sharply to the right. Amy reacted as most people would, one foot slamming home the brake and her arms hastily working to turn the car. But even with all wheel drive the vehicle drove off the edge of a ten foot embankment and its nose crumpled against a young fir tree.
Both women were thrown forward hard, the air bags exploding just before their heads impacted the dash. Then they were thrown back, their bodies slammed against the seat by the force of the deployment. The car's automatic fuel shutoff switch kicked on and the engine's uneven whine faltered to a stop. Then everything went quiet.
Amy was the first to move, hurriedly thrashing the air bag down against the steering wheel and trying to get some indication of her sister's health. Tanya woozily stirred at her sister's touch, one hand drifting to the side of her head and the other reaching for the door handle.
Tanya stumbled out of the warm interior of the car and landed waist deep in the snow drift. This high above sea level, snow had been falling for the better part of a week, and now the car and its passengers were irrevocably stuck in it. Tanya tried pivoting back to the car but could not turn her feet beneath the cold grip of the white powder. Amy leaned across the passenger's seat and grabbed her sister beneath the arms. Together the two women managed to free Tanya and get her back into her seat. The door closed safely behind her, and the women stared at each other fearful and bewildered.
Amy tried restarting the car, but was rewarded with the simple whine of an ignition with no gas. Then both women reached for their cell phones. Amy had no reception but tried to dial 911 anyways. Tanya merely threw her phone against the dash. The high priced device splintered on impact, its dead battery dropping to the floor. Amy felt tears well up in her eyes as the repeated buzz of no signal blared from her phone.
"What do we do? What do we do? We're trapped. What are we going to do," she stuttered over and over again. Tanya tried comforting her, but her mind reeled at the gravity of the situation they found themselves in. She tried calming herself down enough to think clearly.
It was then she remembered the story of a family who had slid off a road and not been found for seventeen days. They had stayed put, not venturing out into the weather, and had waited for rescue.
As calmly as possible she tried explaining to Amy what they had to do.
"Sis. Sis. It'll be okay. They'll come looking for us. They'll know when we aren't back this evening and they can't reach us. They know where we were going. We'll be okay."
"But what if it doesn't stop snowing," Amy pleaded. "They can't go out in this. They won't see our tire tracks. They won't find us."
"Quiet, sister. I need you to be calm for me. Do you have any emergency equipment? A safety kit or anything like that?" Amy's bewildered shrug and steadily increasing sobs told her that her little sister had no idea. Tanya was getting cold, the frozen ice and snow covering her jeans quickly soaking into the material as it melted. She leaned back her seat and sorely crawled into the rear of the station wagon. After digging for several minutes she managed to come up with a small dealer equipped emergency preparedness kit. Once again she crawled back to her passenger seat.
Amy watched as her sister dug through the kit, pulling different items out. She had started to calm, but was still quite scared of what challenges lay ahead. She tried starting the car again, it merely whined feebly. That was when she noticed the red light of the clock. 8:30.
Amy dropped back to her seat, the air rushing out of her. 8:30? 8:30? They had left at nine in the morning. She remembered having driven for six hours. But that would only make it around 3:00 in the afternoon. She turned panicking once more to her older sister.