way I was going to turn back; I was way closer to Pleasant Grove than I was to Breckenridge, so I pushed down on the accelerator and got back up to a speed that I felt comfortable with.
“Chris, I’m about forty minutes from you. But that’s in good weather and going the posted speeds. I should be there within an hour. Should. I hope.”
“What? You’re that close already?”
“Yeah,” I said. I looked ahead and could still see the road as well as some of the landscape, which were both good things. “I’ve made good time, and I only stopped once after I left. I wanted to make sure I had the top half of my tank full rather than be at the bottom.” That was something my parents had drilled into me since before I could legally drive.
“Okay. That’s…shit. I’m so worried. I mean, I can see the house across the street still, but the road is covered already.”
“I’ll make it. And if it gets to the point that I can’t go further, I’ll stop. But we’ve both lived here our entire lives. We’re used to driving in this stuff.” I focused on the road as I reached up and turned the switch to increase the speed of my wipers. I’d just moved them from the fastest delay to steady on, and I knew I needed to get to Chris’s place and quick. Only I couldn’t go as fast as normal, and that was going to be an issue.
“Just be careful, yeah? And call me if you have to stop. We’re still at level one, but they expect it to get worse quick.”
“Will do. There aren’t any drifts yet, but the wind has started picking up, and it’s only a matter of time. I’ll be there soon. And I promise to call if anything changes.”
“You better. Be safe.”
“You know it,” I said before ending the call with a press of a button on my steering wheel.
It was slow going, and I was down to twenty miles per hour or less by the time I turned onto Chris’s street. My wipers were on full blast, and he was right. The road was covered and had several inches already.
I had my phone call Chris, and he was frantic when he picked up before the phone could even finish ringing once.
“Shit, Sawyer. Are you stopping? They’ve declared it level two now, and they say we’ll be level three within hours.”
“It’s probably good that I’m about to pull into your driveway, then. Did you want me to park anywhere in particular?”
“You’re what!” I winced a bit because Chris’s voice was suddenly loud through the speakers. “In the garage. I’ll open it for you. I shoved everything off to the back and side. Your Jeep should fit. You’re really here?”
“Yep. And I won’t complain about parking in a garage; it sure beats what I have at home.”
I saw Chris’s house on the left, and after I passed it, I slowly turned into his driveway. The right door was lifting, and I rolled up to it and then inside. My entire body instantly relaxed, and it took a moment for me to realize I needed to turn my wipers off as they’d cleared the snow off the windshield.
Chris was suddenly beside me, and when he motioned for me to stop, I did and put the Jeep in park. I was turning the engine off when the door was pulled open, and then my best friend wrapped around me from the side.
“Holy shit, I’ve been worried. They said it was going to be bad, but I think it’s worse than they anticipated. This system dropped almost three feet in Utah, and they say it’ll be just as bad as here. They were only calling for eighteen inches.”
“Fun times. It’s good to see you though,” I said as I smiled at Chris, who had finally let me go.
“Damn, have you lost weight?” Chris asked. I wrinkled my nose at him because I had, and it sucked that he noticed so quickly.
“We can talk about all of that later. After we unload this thing. I come basically moving in you’d think.”
Chris snorted before he took a step to his right. I released my seat belt and sighed. I was here, and that was all that mattered at the moment.
Chris had a wood-burning stove in his living room, so even if the power went out, we wouldn’t freeze because he had a wood porch just off his kitchen and it