Catching a glimpse of a legendary all-white reindeer is supposed to bring good luck.
Not for Georgia Greene.
As Georgia makes her way home for Christmas, a white reindeer dashes across the road in front of her, causing her to crash her car into a...
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Georgia
After about a half-hour back down the mountain the sun was all but gone, half-blotted out by the advancing clouds. Sue's red truck slowed to a stop and turned on its left turn signal. She lingered there for Georgia to catch up before making a turn onto a snow-packed side road. The land here was flatter, the slope of the mountain left behind as they cut across its side. The trees ran evenly on either side of this path, the white stripe of road winding through the green fortress of the forest.
The only problem was the wind. It seemed to be the first warning of the coming storm, though it was a whole force of its own. It kicked up the snow into a fog, lacing through the trees and drifting across the road. Soon enough, Georgia could barely see anything but the fog, with the taillights of Sue's truck blinking in and out of sight.
Georgia kept her focus, trying her very best to keep the truck in sight. The snow had begun to fall and was sticking to her windshield, and her wimpy wipers only did so much, clearing only a small gap for her to see through. She was very quickly growing to regret agreeing to this idea.
"Maybe Lena was right," Georgia said to herself as she squinted to peer through the cleared spot, into the wind-whipped snow and fog. She could barely see the truck's lights. "Maybe I should've turned back when I had the chance."
She hoped that Sue knew what she was doing. Out here, in the cold, dark night, it was too easy for something to go wrong—
An animal leapt out of the wintery woods. Its pure white coat made it look like it was made of the snowy scene from which it emerged. With its long legs and glorious rack of antlers, it danced gracefully into the road—right into Georgia's path.
Georgia screamed. Not wanting to hit the animal, she jerked on the steering wheel without thinking.
Her car swerved around the animal, missing it by a hair.
Georgia let out a sigh of relief, but she wasn't out of trouble yet. She tried to steer her car back on track, she realized it was sliding out of control. It spun in a swirl of fog and ice and snow. Georgia sat frozen in her seat, trying to remember all her rarely-used winter-driving skills. But it was no use. The car slid right off the side of the road and into the ditch.
As her car came to a stop and began to sink into the deep snow, all Georgia could do was sit there.
What just happened? she thought, dazed. An animal... There was an animal...
She tried to look for it out her window, but it was already half-covered with snow.
Had it been a deer? No...
She might've been living in the city for the past five years, but she still knew what a deer looked like. And that animal, whatever it was, had been too big for a deer. An elk? No...
