Michael J DuBois
Stories (2)
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SNOW ANGEL
SNOW ANGEL Pat Williams lay flat on the ground, hands stretched out in front of him, legs splayed out to the sides. He lay still for the moment gathering his wits. The snow on his face quickly getting his attention. Swinging his arms down to his side he brought his legs together, pushing himself up. Shaking the snow off his arms body he turned and looked back at the car stuck in the snow, its headlights casting a beam of light highlighting his struggles. His wife Sarah stared out of the windshield at him slowly shaking her head. He shrugged and gave her a thumbs up to show he was okay and turned to continue down the slick snow-covered driveway that they had slid into. Well, it wasn’t exactly ‘they’, he had misjudged his speed and the curve of the road. He’d be hearing about that for a while. Luckily the car had managed to avoid the stone walls that lined the road and had slid into someone’s driveway. Now it was stuck, the front grill buried in the soft powdery snow that had been falling for the last hour. If it hadn’t been snowing, they would have been well on the way to the children’s medical center using the interstate but an accident had effectively shut it down. Pat’s only good fortune was the highway was shut down before they could get on the onramp. But now he was stuck in a snowy driveway in the middle of nowhere. Looking down he noticed that his fall and flailing about had created a pretty good snow angel. He smiled to himself and thought that their daughter Anne would have enjoyed seeing that. But right now, she was strapped in her car seat behind her mom. She being the reason for this trip. She needed her monthly I.V. treatment to treat the infection that was rampaging through her body. The doctor’s had assured them that there was a good chance that the course of treatment would take care of it but they had to maintain the monthly schedule for several months. Pat continued walking down the slippery snow-covered driveway, taking his time, trying to avoid another embarrassing faceplant in the snow. When the car had come to a halt in a powdery puff of snow, Pat had noticed a light shining in the distant darkness. Hopefully someone was home and he could get some help and apologize for blocking their driveway. As he continued on his way, shuffling his feet like a penguin trying to stay upright, he heard the flapping of wings directly over his head. Ducking instinctively, he cranked his head around and saw a large bird swooping down towards him, its large wings flapping effortlessly as it passed over. With a piercing ssshhreeeek the bird landed in a tree next to him, dropping a fresh load of snow down onto Pat’s head. “Thanks a lot for that” said Pat annoyingly as he tried to scoop the snow off his head and out of his collar. Looking up into the tree he could see a large, white, heart shaped face with coal black eyes and dark brownish body staring quizzically at him. Great he thought, that scared the bejeesus out of him. A barn owl, another witness to his struggles. Hope it was enjoying the show. Wonder if Sarah saw that, he thought, Anne would laugh when he told her how it scared him. Coming around a corner he saw the house directly in front of him. The light that he had seen shone softly in the curtained doorway window.
By Michael J DuBois4 years ago in Fiction
