Small-Town Mom (23 page)

Myles bounded into the kitchen. “I’m ready.”

“Let’s go. We’ll see you around eight,” Eli said.

From the window in the door, she watched them tromp through the snow and around the house to the driveway. John’s last words to her echoed in her head.
“I’ll see you June 28.”
She shook them away. Eli and Myles weren’t marching off to war. They were going to Prince of Peace Church in Glens Falls, an hour away. The sun broke through the clouds and shone brilliantly on the snow-covered yard. They’d be fine.

* * *

Eli leaned forward, keeping an iron grip on the church van steering wheel, trying to see better out of the small window of vision in the windshield. The wipers and defroster were fighting a tough battle with the blinding wet snow. Behind him, the kids chatted and joked, seemingly oblivious to the storm. They trusted him, as Jamie trusted him to bring Myles home. Eli glimpsed a familiar landmark.
Only seven miles to go.
As he inched around the curve, he felt the fifteen-seat van lose traction with the snow-covered pavement. He fought the skid, but no matter what he tried, the van continued heading toward the guardrail. The helplessness of not having any control made him sick to his stomach.

“Please, Lord, let the guardrail stop us.” He didn’t know if he spoke out loud or to himself. It didn’t matter. He didn’t want to think of what could happen if they went through the guardrail and down the mountainside.

One of the girls screamed, and they all seemed to join her in a deafening roar as the van hit the guardrail, flipped over and rolled down into the ravine, the sound of crunching metal vying with the noise from the kids.

“Lord, please,” he roared over the din. In answer, the van stopped upright against some pine trees. From what Eli could see out of his side window, they weren’t too far down the mountain.

He shut the engine off, released his seat belt and rubbed his shoulder where the belt had restrained him. He rose and the van rocked. How long would the trees hold? Between the trunks, Eli saw the wide expanse of white sloping down to the bottom of the ravine far below. The wind howled and swayed the trees, but the van didn’t move any more. They were big old trees with deep roots. They should hold if no one made any sudden moves.

“Is everyone okay?”

He received a few weak responses of “Yeah” and “I think so.” A powerful, guilt-laced relief shot through him when he heard Myles’s voice among them.

“My leg hurts really bad.” Tanner’s voice held a quiver that he was obviously trying to hide.

“And my head is bleeding,” Sara shrieked.

Eli removed the first aid kit from the van glove compartment. He went to Sara first. Fortunately, her cut wasn’t deep. He bandaged it. “You’re okay. Head wounds always seem worse because they bleed more. Hold your hand against the bandage. The pressure will help stop the bleeding.”

He moved down the aisle to check Tanner’s leg. “It looks like it’s broken.” He wasn’t a medic, but he’d seen enough broken bones in his time. “Keep it as still as you can.”

Tanner nodded.

“Mr. Payton,” a teary voice called from the far back before he could say more. “It’s Seth.” Ava, Seth’s girlfriend, who’d joined the group after the sledding party, sobbed. “He’s not moving.”

Eli moved to the back as fast as he could without causing any undue motion. He broke open smelling salts and waved the capsule under Seth’s nose in hopes that he might have fainted, but he got no reaction from the teen.

“Is he…?” Ava’s voice rose to a high-pitched screech.

“He probably has a concussion.” Eli had trouble not being short with the girl’s near hysterics. He was as on edge as they were but couldn’t risk showing it. “Everyone stay calm.” He turned to Myles in the opposite seat. “I’m going to hand you some blankets.” Eli pulled a pile of blankets from a compartment behind the last seat and gave them to Myles. “Walk up to the front very carefully and pass them out to the other kids. Depending on how long it takes help to get here, we might need them later to keep warm.”

“Okay.” Jamie’s coffee-brown eyes stared back at him from the youth’s serious face. He
had
to get them all out of here safely. He had no other recourse.

Eli placed a blanket over Seth and handed the rest to Myles.

“Why can’t you turn the van back on and run the heat to keep us warm?” one of the girls asked.

“Duh,” one of the guys said. “Like, if the gas tank is damaged, we could be toast.”

“Quiet!” Just what he didn’t need: someone getting the kids more panicked. Eli walked up to the front of the van where Myles stood, handing out the last of the blankets. The teen’s expression reflected a confidence in Eli that he was hard-pressed to match.

“I’m going to call for help.” He took his phone from his pocket.
No reception.
He punched in Pastor’s number anyway, but it didn’t ring. “I didn’t get through.” He had to be up-front with the kids. “Everyone stay still while I try to open the door.”

If he got up to the road, maybe he could get a connection. He pulled the handle and pushed the door. It squeaked open a half inch and stopped. The van must have hit a boulder or something on the way down that dented the side and jammed the door. Squinting into the blinding snow pummeling the window, he pressed his shoulder and all of his weight against the door. The van swayed and a couple of the kids yelped.

Panic choked him. His insistence that the weather wouldn’t be a problem had put the kids in danger. How would he face Jamie and ever forgive himself if Myles was hurt? She’d become his heart. The van rocked again. What if he never saw her again? He glimpsed the desolation Jamie must have experienced when she lost her husband and had an inkling of how that had tested her faith. Then, his years of readiness training kicked back in.

“Here’s what we’re going to do. Pastor Joel was behind us. I’m sure he stopped.”

Eli wasn’t sure at all. If Joel hadn’t been right behind them and seen them go over, in this snow, he’d have no clue they were here.

“I’m going to open the window, and on the count of three, you’re going to all shout ‘help’ three times, then stop and listen for a response.” He turned the van on accessory and hit the window button. It rolled halfway down.
Good enough.
“Okay. Ready? One, two…” Eli felt Myles and the other kids behind them almost vibrating, waiting for him to say three.

“Three.”

“Help, help, help.” Their united voices reverberated in the van and echoed up the ravine.

Lord, please have someone hear us.
It was out of his hands now.

They heard nothing in return but the wind in the trees and the silence of the winter night.

* * *

Jamie had tucked the girls in bed at nine, despite their protests that tomorrow wasn’t a school day. Now that they were settled down, she flicked through the channels on the TV while the storm winds howled outside.
Eli had said they’d be home by eight.

The ring of the house phone made her jump. “Hello.”

“Jamie, it’s Anne.”

Something in Anne’s voice set her heart racing.

“We think the church van may have gone off the road on the way back from Glens Falls.”

“What do you mean, you think?” Jamie shouted.

Anne ignored her friend’s panic. “Pastor Joel was following the van. Visibility is really poor. He thought the van was right ahead of him. Joel got to the church a few minutes ago, expecting to see Eli and the other kids there. They weren’t.”

Anne’s words pressed all of the air out of Jamie’s lungs. “Myles?”

“Is in the van.”

“No!”

“Pastor Joel called 911, and he and Neal just left to retrace the route back to the last spot Pastor saw the van. The other parents are here at the church. They were waiting to pick their kids up. Jennifer has organized a prayer vigil while she waits for word from her husband and Neal. If you’d like to join them, I’ll come over and stay with Rose and Opal. My kids are with Neal’s parents.”

“Why would I want to do that? What good will it do?”

A moment of silence answered her. “I can come over anyway, so you don’t have to wait alone.”

Fatigue overwhelmed her, making the phone receiver feel like a lead weight in her hand. “No, I’ll be all right. Call me as soon as you have news.” She clicked off and heaved the phone at the opposite end of the couch. “No, not again. Not Myles. Eli said he’d bring him home.”
Eli.
Grief for what she feared most—the loss of him and Myles—seared her, and she dissolved in tears.

A voice from the past, the voice of the chaplain at Fort Drum, broke through the red haze.
So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.
Deuteronomy 31:6. The chaplain had been reassuring the wife of a newly deployed recruit at their spousal Bible study.

She could see Eli embracing these words, as she once had. He had as perfect a faith as she’d ever seen. He’d spoken his heart when he’d said they’d be home. She longed to give her fears to a higher power, to lean on one stronger than her. She realized that Eli had tried to give her some of that strength. But he’d be the first to say that any strength he had to give came from above. Could she draw on that strength? Did she still have it in her? Or had her bitterness killed all of her faith, as she’d let herself believe?

Sinking to her knees, she prayed, “Dear Lord, even if only for tonight, allow me back into Your flock so that I might see my way again. And, even though I’m unworthy to ask anything of You, I know You’ll hear my prayer for Eli and Myles and the other kids to be safe tonight.”

A knock at the door brought Jamie to her feet. She looked out to see Anne and opened the door.

“I couldn’t leave you alone,” Anne said.

“Come in.” Jamie closed the door and took Anne’s coat. Her friend’s kindness in coming even though Jamie had rebuffed her earlier offer threatened to trigger another torrent of tears. “If you’re still willing to stay with the girls, I’d like to go join the other parents at the prayer vigil.”

“Oh, Jamie.” Anne hugged her. “Of course my offer is still open. The snow has let up a lot, but drive carefully, and God bless.”

Jamie hugged her back, fervently hoping for the last.

She walked into the church hall and Tanner’s mother, Clare, rushed to her, followed by Patrick and Charlie at a more hesitant gait. Jamie hugged them all.

“Jennifer is waiting to hear from Pastor Joel again,” Clare said. “When she talked with him about fifteen minutes ago, he and Neal had found the spot where the van had gone off the road and the mountain rescue team had just arrived.”

“So, you haven’t heard… You don’t know?” Jamie stumbled putting the words together into a cohesive question.

“Come and join us in the prayer circle,” Patrick said.

Clare touched her arm. “You don’t have to if it makes you uncomfortable. We understand.”

Jamie thought of the numerous invitations to come to service and church functions that Clare had offered over the past months. “I’d like to. Very much.”

An aura of hope and peace enclosed her as she took her place in the circle and joined hands with Clare and Charlie. As she prayed with the others, Jamie more fully realized what she already knew in her heart. The military and Eli by association weren’t the enemy. As tonight was proving, everyday life could be as dangerous. Nor was trust in others or God or church her enemy. Not trusting in any of them was her scapegoat to allow her not to accept life and live it to the fullest.
Thank You, Lord, for leading me from the wilderness
.

The phone on the wall near the kitchen rang and everyone turned to look at it. Jennifer answered. “Hello. Yes, yes. Praise the Lord.” She hung up and turned to the parents. “The rescue squad has them all out. There doesn’t seem to be any life-threatening injuries. They’re taking them to the Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake to be checked out by the emergency room doctors, though, just to be safe.”

“Amen!” one of the fathers said.

The parents made the hour drive to Saranac Lake in a car caravan. Jamie prayed the whole time that the information Jennifer had gotten was right.

* * *

Eli spotted Jamie as soon as she walked into the waiting room to await her turn to talk with the doctor. He hung back out of her line of vision. Tonight’s experience, more than any he’d had in combat, brought home how precious life was when you loved someone. As he watched Jamie, he longed to take her into his arms and tell her how much he loved her. He couldn’t think of anything he’d rather do than spend the rest of his life doing his best to love and protect her and her family.

But he’d failed her. He’d put her son in danger, and he’d put himself in danger. He had no right to insinuate himself in her life. Eli didn’t know how Jamie had coped with losing her husband. Before the rescue squad had arrived, when their fate was uncertain, he thought of not seeing her again and the pain was indescribable. He was a fool. He’d thought to give her strength to lean on. She was far stronger than him.

“Ms. Glasser,” the nurse called Jamie into the emergency room. A couple of minutes later she emerged, arm around Myles, smiling.

Eli had thought Myles was fine, but it lightened his heart to have that confirmed. He rose to slip out the back door. His apologies would be better made later, in private.

“Where do you think you’re going, buster?” Jamie’s voice stopped him.

Although he’d rather have her make the break privately, if she needed to do it here, he could take it like a man.

He pasted a smile on his face. “Myles is all right?”

“He’s fine.” She turned to her son. “Why don’t you help Tanner’s mother get him to her car? Crutches are tricky until you get the hang of them.”

Myles left and Eli had to face Jamie alone.

“Did you really think you were going to sneak out of this hospital without talking to me?”

“That was the idea,” he admitted.

She led him to an alcove off the waiting room. “Thank you.”

“You’re thanking me?”