"The
Storm",
by Sissy Freeborn
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The winter is mild this year...hardly
any snow yet. But, I remember there were earlier times when we had snow
storms every year and battled them with all our might. So much has changed
since that time, both good and bad. Yet, I would not trade this life for
any other that I know. I have been so blessed. When people ask me if I
still believe in God after all that has happened to me in my life, and
now my MS, I tell them "Yes! And I believe in miracles as well, because
I see them happen often in my life and in the lives of others." We
are a simple people here. We believe in a real God and devil. We have a
strong will to fight the harm that befalls us with all the strength of
our bodies and even our very souls.
Take, for example, our winter storms.
In the records, of the valley, there were some storms, that came only once
every twenty years or so, that were more vicious and more deadly, by far,
than normal storms. These storms we gave a name, a name of evil. When the
north winds blow, death comes on cold ice crystals and our people fight
to stay alive. I remember one such evil storm and a woman who called out
to God for help and He answered her...the year the "Tailors"
rang and called "Goliath" to save a life.
The snow was letting up for a time,
but not the wind, so the snow was already drifting into high banks. Bobby
Pearson left the house to see how his cattle were doing and to bring in
some firewood. The temperature was falling to near zero. He took his daughter,
Janet, along to help while Carol, his wife, got out the heavy blankets.
Carol had just put the last one
on the beds, when she heard a thunderous crash and a cry. For a moment
it froze her in her tracks. Then she ran downstairs to get her coat and
boots. The hall clock was chiming just eleven, as she grabbed the flashlight
and bolted outside. She saw their wood shed. It was all twisted and she
knew it would be bad. Part of the shed had collapsed with the weight of
the snow. She plowed through the snow calling to Bobby and Janet, but she
could hear no response--just the wind. It seemed to laugh at her screams.
When she entered the shed, Bobby
was on the floor--an ugly swelling on his forehead. He didn't respond to
her calling his name. His breathing was shallow and he was so cold. Then
she remembered Janet. She moved the light around until it fell on her daughter.
She was pinned under a beam, that had slipped from its position when the
roof shifted. Now it was crushing the life out of her little girl! She
couldn't breathe! Carol laid the light down and began to try to move the
beam. A rational person might have argued, successfully, that the beam
was easily eight hundred pounds and a hundred and ten pound woman could
never move it, much less lift it. But Carol was no longer rational. All
she knew was that "thing" was attacking her daughter and instincts,
far more basic, had taken over in her. She attacked that which was hurting
her offspring, as would any mother of any species.
At first the beam didn't move. Then
she heard Janet call her name and Carol reached down ,into herself to a
spot of calm and strength. She said to no one you could see, "Please
help me. I need your power," and she pushed! Her arms screamed in
agony, but she didn't feel it. Power flowed into her, like a river from
somewhere beyond her self. She knew that whatever power was helping her,
it understood her need to save her child. A sense of it's love flowed deep
within her. Her whole being was focused on the beam. It must move! It had
to move, it would move! It was...moving!!! With a groan, the beam shifted.
Carol pushed it aside and collapsed to her daughters side. Janet was free
but Janet's ribs hurt. She didn't know it then, but she had cracked three
of them.
For Carol, the realization that
Janet was safe returned her to more,rational thinking. Pain hit her like
a trip hammer. She had moved the beam and she had done it at the expense
of her body. But, she couldn't stop now. She had to get help for her family.
But, try as she may, she couldn't move and Bobby was hurt bad. Her only
hope was Janet. She hated to do it, but she knew she must send Janet to
get help, even though she was hurt.
There had been no electricity since
five PM. It was, however, not uncommon for this area to be without power.
So, they had an emergency generator. But, Janet did not know how to start
it. The phone was out of order, as well. Janet would have to use the battery-powered
short wave radio. She DID know how to use that, because she and her father
were in a club for ham radio operators. Carol tried to stay calm, when
she told Janet, in painful breaths, what to do.
Janet left her parents in the shed
and made her way to the house. The wind and snow were inhuman. She was
knocked down several times, but each time she got up and went on and each
time the storm seemed to double it's efforts to prevent her reaching the
house. Finally she made it. She got to the radio and called for help.
Old Doc Gipple was retired now,
but he still had a sense of duty to the town. When the power lines went
down, he became uneasy. When the phone went out, an alarm sounded in the
back of his head and he turned on the battery-powered short wave radio.
Old Doc umphed at the new fangled emergency response unit, now lifeless.
It was supposed to call the volunteer firemen and first aid team. But,
it used electrical power and the phone lines. So did the new fire siren,
thought Doc. The system had cost so much, that they decided to wait on
that big back up generator. That was eight years ago. In the meantime,
the old crank system was taken out. They SAID to provide room. The town
reasoned that power had never gone out on the main line, even in the worst
of the storms, so did they really need an expensive generator,right now,
when so much else needed the money? They were, after all, a poor town.
Old Doc feared there would be some embarrassed faces. He just hoped noone
died because of it.
Then Doc heard Janet's call. She
was nearly hysterical, when Doc got to his radio. He calmed her down and
gave her instructions as what to do for her and her parents and assured
her help would be coming soon. Then, he reluctantly signed off. Now, thought
Doc, just how am I going to bring help? "You old fool!", he said.
"Ya can't go door to door in this storm". It would take forever
to bring the people he needed. He looked at the useless fire alarm system.
Damn, those electric sirens, thought Doc. It seemed everything made now
a days worked on electricity. Doc remembered a time when there was no such
thing and people got alone fine without it, and then he smiled. Yes, he
thought, it might just work!
Janet turned off the radio, after
talking with Doc. She would call Doc back, after she did what he told her
to do. Janet went upstairs to get the blankets Carol had put on the beds
just and hour ago, a small portable heater and the first aid kit. It was
quite a load for a little girl and her chest hurt. She closed the door
to the house and stood on the porch. She could not see the huge barn only
a few yards away, much less the woodshed next to it. There WAS the snow
path and Janet was a practical girl. She knew it had to lead to the shed.
All she had to do was follow it. After fifteen or twenty painful steps
(her chest hurt bad), she still could not see anything of the huge barn,
that she knew must be ahead of her. She turned to look back at the house,
to judge how far she had traveled, but it was gone as well--lost in the
blinding snow. All she had now was the snow path and the wind and snow
were erasing it, even as she watched.
Doctor Gipple stepped out into the
screaming storm. The wind blew ice crystals into his face, making it bleed.
Now, the snow was up to his waist. It took him twenty minutes to get to
the parsonage. When he did, he was exhausted. He pounded on the door, with
his last bit of strength. A light came on and soon there appeared a thin,
wiry man in his mid sixties, wearing a night dress. Doc stumbled into the
hallway and Pastor Jim helped Doc to a chair and went for the sherry. As
he did so, he asked, "Now Arthur, what brings you here on a night
like this?" After a sip of liquid Doc explained what had happened
and his plan.
"Yes," said the pastor. "But do they know the Tailors?"
"All of them that we need to",
replied Doc.
"Then we best not waste anymore
time. It will be Mary, Sarah and Ruth. But I'll need help for them! How
long has it been, Arthur, since you rang them?"
"Not since before I was married,
Pastor, but I haven't forgotten," he replied.
"Good!" said the Pastor.
He left the room and returned shortly dressed for the storm.
At that point, Mrs. Myers came down
the stairs. As a forty-year veteran pastor's wife, folks have said that
she had a will of forged steel, compassion like a river and as much common
sense as a fox after chickens.
"We are off ringing the bells,
Emily!" explained the Pastor, excitedly. "We have a rescue to
perform!"
"How many?" asked Emily,
smiling.
" Ten men!" the Pastor
replied, as he went out the door. "We're going to the Pearson's farm!"
Emily went to the kitchen. She knew
what men, in a storm like this, would need. And she knew their wives would
wait at the parsonage, for their men to come back safely. It would not
be easy for them. She knew they would worry. They had reason to!
The wind was terrible. It screamed
like a banshee and seemed to suck the air from Old Doc's lungs, like some
living thing. It reminded him he was getting old and death was near. He
put the thought out of his mind and followed the Pastor to the church.
As they passed the lea, of the equipment shed, the wind was calmer there.
Doc paused to catch his breath. On the shed was a thermometer. Doc read
it, as he paused. Ten degrees! It had dropped a whole ten degrees more,
since he had left his home. A knot formed in his stomach. The temperature
was dropping like a stone. Arthur Gipple wondered, as he paused in the
lea of the shed, if they would get there in time? He looked at the dark
north and the evil-looking storm clouds forming, like hungry wolves in
a pack, and whispered, "Not yet damn you. You haven't won yet! I have
fought you before when I was young and I know your name before God! Not
while I have breath in my body will I let you take one of our own and the
he hurried to catch up with the pastor.
The two men bolted through the door
of the church and fell on the floor with the effort. The wind seemed to
try to suck them back into the gale, even as they did so. They paused only
to catch their breath before they hurried up the ladder to the high bell
tower and the bell pulls, "Ready!" yelled the Pastor. Doc nodded
and they began to pull -
Mary spoke first; sharp and clear over the noise of the storm . . . . .alarm!...awake!!!, - alarm awake!!! Citizens, awake!!!
They had been ringing for ten minutes,
when Doc looked out over the town. He saw flickering lights appear in the
windows of homes. Some yellow globes were already drifting toward the church.
It had worked after all! Now, if only they could be on time? Doc thought
of the two souls in a cold woodshed getting colder by the minute. He was
present at both of their births. He thought then that they certainly would
outlive him. Now he was not sure.
John Sidwick woke, with a start
to a chorus of bells! His wife was looking at him.
She said "What crazy fool is
ringing church bells at half past midnight?"
John listened, "Only three
bells, Judy," he told his wife. "I can hear Ruth - damn that's
the death bell! Someone's trying to tell us something. Judy, that's the
old alarm!"
Then he thought, of course the power
is out, the sirens and call box can't sound.
He turned to his wife "We got
trouble, bad trouble! Someone's dying. They're going to need me."
John got out of bed. is six foot
frame made the room look smaller than it was. John was the chief mechanic
for the towns fleet of school buses, trucks and fire equipment. (He was
affectionately called Mr. Johns because someone his size you just had to
call mister but someone so nice you couldn't call him by his last name.)
He was also the ambulance driver for the towns volunteer fire department.
Judy looked out the window. "They
will never get a vehicle through this snow," she said. Just then the
window shuttered as if from a massive blow The wind screamed and battered
the window pane as if some living demon were clawing and scratching to
enter and bring it's cold death to her and her unborn child. As she involuntarily
stepped backward she could feel the terror rise and stick in her throat.
She turned to her husband but he had not seen it.
He looked at her and said "Well
let's see what's wrong anyway. We must do what we can. But it will be tough
if it's a fire."
"Well," she said, trying
not to scream, "if you must go, I'll get a few things for Emily. She
will need help." She then suddenly held John in a tight grip and said,
"Please, John! Whatever happens, promise you will come back to me.
I have a bad feeling about this, John! I can't lose you now, with the baby
coming. Please promise, please!"
"Of course, Dear!" he
laughingly replied. "I am not going anywhere without you!" He
kissed her and ordered, "Now get dressed."
Judy looked out at the raging storm,
to hide her face, and said, "It looks like everybody is gathering
at the church."
When John and Judy arrived at the
church, there were already a group of grim-faced men in a huddle. "John!"
one of them called out. "Thank goodness you're here!" While things
were explained to John, Judy carried what was left, of the chicken soup
she had made earlier in the day, into the kitchen. As she walked past them,
she was largely ignored by the men. She knew the women, in the kitchen,
would let her know what what was happening. She was met by Emily, who hugged
and kissed her and ushered her to a seat where the other women, some holding
babies in their laps, were in deep conversation with each other. None were
smiling. She could see the same terror in their eyes that she felt.
The men were asking for volunteers
to go. One man pointed out nothing could get through this snow and all
turned to John who smiled and said, "Except for Goliath, perhaps."
Goliath was a huge dump truck. It
had six wheels in back that were almost as tall as a man. John had removed
the large dump back and put a smaller one on to make room for a large crew
cab that sat nine. But it's real purpose was it's giant rotary snow plow
front.
"I'll drive her," said
John. "That's one!" someone piped up. "I'll have to go,"
said young Doc Gipple, who had taken over his fathers practice. "And
me," said Diane who was his nurse and rode the ambulance. "No,"
said John. "No women!" "But," she replied, "Carol
and Janet are female. They would want to have a woman with them!"
That gave the men pause, but finally young Gipple spoke up and said "No
women and that's final!"
Actually, the young doctor really
meant "no Diane", for he had been smitten by her for some time
now, even though she had been the center of all the scandal for being a
unwed mother. A city man had wooed her and then moved on.
Emily appeared and steered Diane
into the kitchen, with the rest of the women, before she could object.
"What do they know, My Dear?", she said soothingly. "They're
only men, after all!" Then Diane was put to work making sandwiches.
Three burly volunteer firemen said
they would go. They were Ed Baker, who ran the butcher shop, Martin Newland,,
who owned the dairy, and Dan Applebee, who was the barber and also the
new mayor. Old Pete Zimmerman asked to join them. He ran the "Advertiser"
printing press and was the fireman who drove the hook and ladder truck.
The six left with thermoses of coffee
and bags of sandwiches. Judy watched them go, all too quickly disappearing
in the blowing snow. She had a sick feeling, in her stomach. She knew why
they wanted only volunteers. What no one had voiced, but was in everybody's
minds -- visibility was down to only feet and, if Goliath ran off the road
or got lost or just broke down, then the Pearson's wouldn't be the only
ones to freeze to death. She would be a widow at twenty-five. It brought
a lump in her throat even as she thought about it.
They brought Old Doc's radio to
the church. Now, he could keep in touch with the truck, that also had a
radio and, hopefully, once more contact Janet. But try as he may, Doc could
not get Janet on the radio again. He wondered if she had done what he told
her to do? Obviously things had gone wrong! But what? He wondered if they
were still alive. Was he sending men into harm's way for already dead people?
Was that what the storm was telling him? Had it already won?
Carol watched, as Janet left the
shed. Then,, with much effort and pain, she crawled toward Bobby. She wondered
if SHE could have made it to the house. But then she would have to leave
Bobby and she couldn't bare to do that. She worried! Janet was only eleven.
Would she be able to bring help? She painfully picked up Bobby's head,
from the floor, and put it on her lap. His breathing was better, she thought,
but when she brought her hand away from his head, it was soaked with blood.
"Oh, God! Oh, God!" she whispered. "Please don't let Bobby
die! What will I do with out him?" Her lap was quickly turning blood
red.
Dan Applebee puffed, as he turned
the crank that manually raised the huge equipment barn door. He noted that
this door, too, worked on electric power. As Dan was raising the door,
John turned on Goliath's preheaters to the huge engine and the other men
worked on removing equipment from Goliath, to make room for the medical
supplies from the ambulance. John pushed the start button and Goliath came
to life, with a teeth-rattling roar and yelling it's challenge to the storm.
John steered the huge machine past the door and Goliath bit into the first
snow drift.
Pete Zimmerman strained to see out
the window. The problem, he thought, would not be Goliath getting through
the snow but finding the road for them. They followed the telephone poles
out of town--their only guide to the road. The storm was already filling
in the swath cut by Goliath. But that was not as easy as it seemed. Goliath's
blades cut a ten-foot wide path and could take a ten-foot high snowdrift--not
like the narrow path Janet traveled.
Janet looked down at the path. She
could barely see it now, but she knew she couldn't stay where she was!
Plus, it hurt more when she breathed now. The wind stung her face with
ice crystals. She reminded herself that her mother and dad were somewhere
ahead of her and they needed her. So she went on. It was the bravest thing
she had ever done. One step there was nothing but white in front of her,
the next a dark shadow, a third and she nearly bumped into the wall of
the shed. She found the door and, when she entered, she saw her mother
crying over her daddy. A wave of panic swept over her until she realized
Daddy was still alive. She bundled up Mother and Dad with the blankets
and helped Mother stop the flow of blood from her father's head, with the
first aid kit. Once she had the propane heater on, she prepared to return
to the house, so she could call Old Doc again on the radio. But the path
to the house was gone. Even the tracks she had just made were gone. The
world was a wall of white nothing, only a few feet from her, and the screaming
howling wind.
"There is no path!" she
cried to Mother. "I don't know where the house is!" She began
to get hysterical. "I have to call Doctor Gipple! I have to!"
She cried to her mother, "I don't know where......., it's all white!"
"Come snuggle next to me, Dear,"
Carol told her. "You have done all you can now."
Janet closed the door and crawled
under the blankets with her parents to await their fate. "Are we going
to die?" she asked her mother. "Only God knows, Honey,"
was the reply. "God knows for sure!"
Six miles out of town, with four
more to go, John heard a crunching sound. Pete saw pieces of shredded metal
fly out the snow chute and he got a sick feeling. He looked at his watch--
2 AM. John stopped the rotor blades. He had a good idea what had happened.
He hit a car.
The men climbed out and saw the
corner of a car caught in the bars John called his car catcher. It had
saved the blades from being damaged and marooning them in a world of cold
death. They had been installed to prevent cars from getting caught in the
blades, after Goliath one year completely shredded a Volkswagen hidden
in the snow. Goliath had to be taken to the repair barn, where John worked
on it for over a month and a half. As for John he never lived it down.
"I see Goliath is up to her
old diet again," said Dan.
John just grimaced and turned away.
The men tried to cut a path around it, but the road was too narrow. "We
will have to pull it out and push the car off the road!" yelled Dan
over the howling wind. The men took out shovels to clean away some snow,
so chains could be attached to the car. After they connected the chains
to the plow. Goliath began pulling, her wheels dug in, her engine belched
smoke from the stacks, the chain became taunt and creaked alarmingly. All
at once the car came free like a cork in a bottle.
"What damn fool would abandon
their car in the middle of the road like this? When we get back, I'll have
them arrested for sure!" Dan threatened, as they went to remove the
chains.
It was then that they made the grim
discovery. A man was huddled in the front seat covering a woman, and between
them, a baby.
"I don't think, Mr. Mayor,
that they have abandoned it quite yet," said John. "Do you want
to arrest them now?"
Dan just looked the other way.
The young Doc was already examining
the people in the car. He came back to the knot of men trying to keep warm
in the gale force winds and below zero temperature.
He said, "I don't know who
they are, but the man has frozen to death. The woman is alive but badly
frost bitten. She is going to need treatment quick. As for the baby? Well,
I can't find a thing wrong with it--except he's hungry!"
"Damn," said Dan. "We
should have let Diane come. She is still nursing hers." That brought
a nasty look from Doc. The fact that Diane was an unwed mother was a very
touchy subject with him.
"Well," said the young
Doc, "we will take the mother and baby with us. The baby will have
to be hungry a might longer."
"But, what do we do with the
man, Mr. Mayor?" asked John, enjoying the situation
"Leave him in the car,"
Dan said. "He is beyond our help now and he'll wait" They pushed
the car, with the dead man inside, off the road way and continued on.
The wind had died down some now.
But, the snow in the dale was unbelievably deep. Some of the drifts were
almost as high as Goliath. At those times, Dan had to get out and stand
on the hood of the plow to see where they were going, giving signals to
John. It was extremely dangerous! One slip forward and Dan would be caught
in the cork screw blades of the plow and would be shredded faster then
anyone could stop them. A slip backwards and he would fall down under the
huge tires and be crushed.
As John watched Dan, he could see
the fear on his face like a mask. John had always considered Dan a pompous
two-faced baby kissing politician. The whole town did. But, John knew one
more thing about Dan now. Whatever else he might be, he was not a coward.
At last they approached the farm.
Dan looked at his watch-- 4:30 AM! He prayed a quiet prayer that all were
safe.
Marty and Ed took the woman and
baby into the house. The rest, of the volunteers, converged on the shed
but the door was snow bound. As Pete and Dan ran for some shovels, Dan
felt like cursing but he thought he had opened his mouth a little to often
lately. They only got halfway, when John grabbed the door and grunted.
All heard a loud cracking sound and John had the door -- well at least
most of it -- in his hands.
John and Doc went in first and came
back out with good news. "They're all alive! Let's get them to the
house!" Doc ordered. A blood transfusion, was set up for Bobby, who
was awake now. He would get well, but faced a long recovery. When doc examined,
Carol she had black and blue marks all over. She had torn muscles and ligaments
in her arms and legs and he wondered just how she could have done such
damage. But, she would recover as well! Janet's three cracked ribs were
taped up, so they would heal properly.
Later that year, Janet would receive
a lifesaver's medal for her brave actions, as her proud parents stood nearby.
Her name was placed on the bronze plaque of heroes that hung in the town
hall. She was the youngest ever to receive it. (She was later to go to
a war zone in southeast Asia, as a nurse -- but that's another story.)
The woman in the car was identified
as a Mrs. William. The family was just passing through the State. She had
lost some toes but would survive to tell tales to the end of her days of
how once she was trapped in the terrible snow storm fashioned by the devil.
And how she prayed for God to save her baby, if He could not save them
ALL. She would tell how her prayer had been answered, when God sent a giant,,
called Goliath to save her, as well as her child.
Dan came over to John, who was looking
out over,the predawn light and said, "She did good, John! We could
not have done it with out her, or you. We won't forget!"
And they didn't. Goliath was given
a bronze plaque to be welded on her hood -- traditionally only put on fire
vehicles who were involved in saving lives. She was the only "truck"
ever to have it and, from then on, she lead the parades on the Fourth of
July.
In the late summer, of that year,
she was shined up, eyes painted on her and displayed at the County Fair.
John was prouder than a new father. Which he DID become, soon after.
Dawn was breaking on a cold still
morning. The wind was gone completely. As young Doc Gipple radioed his
report to his father, he added one thing more. Would Diane marry him? She
said, "Yes" -- in church and in front of the whole town.
"Well, then," said the
Pastor smiling, "I now pronounce you man and wife. Just come in and
make it formal when you can!" The whole town erupted in a thunderous
cheer.
Old Doc quietly slipped away to
a dark window, to look at the departing storm in the light of the new day.
He watched the morning sun creep up the steeple and fall on the ice covered
cross on top. As it did so, the cross burst into golden light. Doc remembered
a line he had once read "I will place my sign in the heavens..."
Then he looked north!
"Lost, you devil! Didn't you?
And so long as we know God's love, you never will be able to steal our
souls from us!"
"Did you say something, Doctor?"
"Who....?" whispered Doc.
"Just me," the voice said,
and Judy stepped forward. Her face was red and tears streamed down her
face.
"What were you saying before?"
she asked.
"Nothing," said Doc. "Just
the rambling of an old man."
"No, it came for us, Doc! The
window, it wanted..."
"He is safe," said Old
Doc. "Safe from whatever evil it held. It's all right to cry, you
know!" he softly added, as he put his arm around her.
"Even for men?" she asked,
seeing the tears in Doc's eyes.
"Yes!" he responded. "Even
men need to cry sometimes. Come! I have a new daughter-in-law to hug and
I think the Pastor wants to say a few prayers of thanks."
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