Short Stories [Man on Man]

Snowed In [1]

Amos tapped his fingers anxiously on the steering wheel, willing the light to turn green. It did. He hit the gas and ambled through the intersection, his old truck sliding through the snow. He knew he should've replaced his tires, but he kept pushing it off and pushing it off. Now, he was here.

Snow pelted his windshield in fat, thick pieces. It came down so quickly that a person might mistake it for rain if they squinted their eyes. His windshield wipers swiped at the collecting snow, clearing up the glass, only to be covered again.

He turned up the notch and kept his slow, steady pace home. His house was mere miles away, but he lived on a county road, which meant no snow plow until the city was all cleaned up. And the city wouldn't be all cleaned up until it stopped snowing. Which would be tomorrow. Maybe.

He pressed the gas again. A loud, grating clack sounded then, coming straight from the hood. Amos hit the brakes, but the truck began to shake. Another thing he should've had fixed the last time he'd been down at the shop. Because his four-wheel drive sucked, and that was on good days.

Turning the switch to two-wheel, he sent up a quick prayer that he'd make it home all okay. A roundabout was coming up next. This would be the tricky part for sure.

“C'mon, baby,” he murmured, patting the dash

As he waited for a single car to the left of him to drive around, he inched out. But something happened. His tires caught on the snow, completely stuck. He could only hold on tight as his truck slid way past the exit and right into the ditch.

It was like slowly being engulfed into a pile of snow. His windows were covered with white. He couldn't see anything outside. Fucking A.

Amos pulled out his phone and called the non-emergency number. “Yeah, if ya could send somebody, please, that'd be great. And a tow truck. I'm stuck pretty far.”

The dispatcher told him help should be on the way soon. He told her he was fine and snapped his phone shut, trying not to worry about Milly who was undoubtedly hungry by now. She was the reason he needed to get home.

Resting back on the headrest, Amos closed his eyes and willed his heart to stop beating so quickly. He just needed to relax was all. Then he could get home, feed Milly, start a fire, and sleep. Today had been exhausting. He closed his eyes for what felt like a brief second before he heard loud knocking on the window.

Twisting the knob, he rolled down his window. As soon as it was about a foot down, he wanted to roll it right back up. Harsh wind whipped right in, blowing snow everywhere. But he forged on, shivering as he did.

“You okay?” the officer shouted.

Amos nodded, squinting against the wind. He made out a large figure covered in the black police officer jacket and a black hat. With the snow and weather, he couldn't see anything else, though. He could barely hear. The weather was that bad.

“Yeah,” he said. “When's the truck gonna get here?”

“Tow truck's not gonna get out here 'til tomorrow, at the best.”

“Fuckin'-” He bit off the rest of the curse. “Sorry. What do we do now?”

“Just leave it here. We'll come back when the plows go through.”

“Am I going in your car, or-”

“Yeah.” The officer yanked open his rusty truck door. “C'mon. Let's go. It's freezin' out here!”

Amos couldn't agree more. He hopped out of the truck and slammed the door shut, making sure it actually shut unlike sometimes. It was difficult to make out the blue and red flashing lights, but they made it, with his boots full of snow and face feeling like it was frozen solid.