Winter Comes Down Hard

We were well prepared for winter. After all, Lisa had survived, nearly single-handedly, when her father became sick. In late October, we had a couple of sudden snowfalls that came through on fronts. One of them when we were in Branson. Six inches of wet snow that disappeared in the heat of the next day. Thankfully, because I wasn't sure of driving my big rig on snow and ice in those mountains. Even with my winches, getting stuck with all that weight off the road, or worse, down a slope or in the water, was not something I was willing to risk.

       Charlie loved it though. He went hopping around and checking the cold snow on his feet, smelling it, and entered after too much wondering what this white stuff was that he had never seen before in his short life. When I made a snowball and threw it, he quickly imitated me. Seemed to be a natural snowball maker and thrower. I didn't think his troop would like it when he got back to the grotto. Those monkeys were smart, hanging around somewhere where they could keep warm even on the coldest days. They were adapters and predator survivors. Resourceful and very intelligent.

       On November 5, I reckoned, according to the calendar on my smart pad that was no longer updated by the Internet, winter came to the Ozarks. By the next morning there was five feet of snow on the street in front of the shop and no way to get to the grotto or the truck except to crawl on hands and knees on top of the wet, heavy stuff. But first, just getting the front door open was difficult, even though the snow had drifted a bit away from the door, covering it only a couple of feet deep there.

       Charlie was jumping up and down, chittering and chattering wanting to get outside. So, by the time I had worked the door back and forth a few times and got it open about 6 inches, he squeaked through the opening and headed out over the tops of the drifts toward the grotto where I could see steam from the water rising and creating frost on the rocks above. It was a magnificent sight to see everything covered in white like that.

       We got our winter coats and boots out and I got the door open enough so that we could squeeze out and on to the snow. Lisa had a great time floundering around on it. I found an aluminum shovel in the utility closet for the laundry and dug out the doorway enough so that we could open it all the way and close it. But decided not to try to clear the sidewalk or any of the street because it would be just too much effort for what we would gain. 

       I showed Lisa how to use the shovel as a slide and we took turns riding down some of the steeper streets. Even with boots and a shovel as something to stick in the snow and hang onto, it was difficult to climb back up those slopes on that snow, so we quickly tired of it and retreated to the grotto where we joined Charlie and his family, alternately in out of the water as they got cold or too hot. Now that Charlie was with us, I knew he would fare better than the others. A below zero cold snap could kill them all. That's why the grotto was so important for their survival. But the predators knew and only their excellent swimming and climbing capability would keep them out of trouble when it came in the night. Knowing their resourcefulness, they probably had a place indoors with steam heat that they could go to just like we did.

       Relaxed and warm with the sweat of our exertion earlier washed off, we hopped around in the cold snow putting our clothes back on. Charlie sensed that we were going home and joined us. That morning, we had a wonderful brunch with special omelettes made by Lisa for our enjoyment. Our first taste of winter, so far, was more fun than anything else. Up on the roof, there was a lot of cleaning to do and we made sure that the pigeons could get into the loft when things got worse. There was always work to do, but it certainly was enjoyable most of the time.

        Lisa's belly and her baby were growing in this peaceful setting, too. He was kicking now. I could feel him when she asked me to put my hand there. I knew it was a he because how strong the kick was. What else could it be? Lisa was adamant. "It will be a girl. A girl that looks just like me, but with your eyes and your smarts." We would only know when it happened. We couldn't wait.

       Three days later, the snow was all gone and the color in the trees had turned faded brown. There was a dreariness in the air that didn't go away. We had another big storm before Thanksgiving and then, when that day came, we gave thanks for all that we had and each other. Even Charlie was a welcome blessing, having lost Oscar to the scourge that killed Lisa's father and almost everybody else that had survived the first two brutal winters. I figured this one would be more benign, but we were prepared to be isolated for some time. Periodically, on nice sun warmed days, I would run the engine on the 579 to charge the batteries and make it ready for spring when it came and we could travel once again. We had lots of days to plan what that travel would be in the meantime.

       I went scavenging once again and found, by luck, snowshoes and skis for us. I was looking forward to doing some cross-country skiing if Lisa was up to it. She found the snowshoes difficult to use, but the skis more agreeable. By mid December, there was a permanent white ground cover and we had made trails around town. Rather, I made most of them. I saw lots of tracks, including mountain lion and bear. Deer were plentiful as well as the usual small critters and wild pigs. It was very easy to set snares for squirrels and rabbits by their heavily tracked trails. We were never at a loss for fresh meat and I could save my ammunition. Hen turkeys had banded together in groups and made predictable feeding runs every day. They weighed in at about nine pounds and were tastier than the toms. I was glad that we had a warm, comfortable place to live when the cold waves came down and the temperature dipped below zero. It was no fun being out in a blizzard.

       One warm 25° December day we decided to head up into the National Park for the day just to see what was there. Charlie insisted on coming along, like he did most days, and then, tired of scampering on the snow, ended up on my shoulder hanging onto my neck or sitting on my backpack. With my hoodie up over my head, it certainly was warmer there for him and he seemed to enjoy the ride whenever I skied down a downslope. On the upslope, Charlie often jumped off as I worked hard to climb either by sidestepping or herringboning my way gradually up the mountain.

       Carrying extra weight with our child, Lisa found it more difficult to work her way up the long upslope into the park. She had to stop often to rest. Charlie would run over to her and look her in the face curiously as if to encourage her to get up and get going again. I broke ground ahead and came back often to check with her to see how she was doing. She was sweating a bit too much, but insisted that she wanted to go all the way there. Finally, we made it to the overlook that we often enjoyed and stopped for lunch.

       I had packed all the essentials so that Lisa did not have to carry anything except her own weight. She was ravenous from all the exertion and ate everything we had for lunch. We kept canteens underneath our coats close to our bodies so that we had water for us and Charlie. He ate our food and drank our water like the companion he was becoming. Grateful for our provisions, since he had none.

       Leaving the park, I slalomed ahead down the long slope into town. And then, stopped after 100 yards or so, waiting for Lisa to follow. She was still learning to ski and had trouble slaloming to slow her speed on the snow that had hardened, crusty and was quite fast. Instead of following my tracks down the mountain road, she skied straight down, gaining speed rapidly. I yelled at her, "Lisa! Turn your skis or snowplow! Slow down! You're going too fast!"

       Lisa responded, yelling, "I can't! I… can't! How do I stop! How do I?"

       She flew by me, still yelling trying to use her ski poles to slow down, but couldn't, picking up speed as she went. It was even steeper ahead. Charlie squeaked as I launched both my skis in her tracks and tried to follow with him hanging on for dear life. I yelled, "Lisa, put it down! Slide on your side! You'll stop. You're going too fast!"

       Lisa yelled back, "I'll try! I'm trying…" And I saw her go down in a cloud of snow and slide off the road to the right towards a large rock, hitting it hard with her right foot breaking her ski and sending her in a cart wheel back into the center of the street where she ended up in a heap, moaning. I skied up to her side and knelt in the snow turning her over gently to see how she was. I could see that her right leg didn't look right and there was a bump on her jean's thigh that told me she had a compound fracture. I kissed her cold ear with my warm mouth and whispered loudly, "Are you okay?"

       She moaned again, wincing, and answered. "No, my right leg is throbbing and I stretched my groin real bad. I can hardly take the pain."

       "Is he okay?"

       Lisa felt her belly. "She's okay, I think her heart is beating very fast."

       "I think it's yours."

       "No, it's her. Her legs are moving, too."

       "I'm going to get you two home and comfortable as soon as I can." I hope she doesn't go into shock, I thought, but I didn't say anything to her about it, not wanting to precipitate the possibility. Keep Calm… Keep Calm, I told myself, but it was hard. I struggled with my emotions.

       I straightened her out as best I could and continued talking to her as I worked. I removed the clamp from the broken ski from her boot carefully and then removed the left ski. “I’m going to make a toboggan to get you home.” I then took off my skis and looked at them. I always had 50 feet of rope in my backpack in these mountains, so I cut some of it to tie all three skis together at their clamps. It was not stable and the clamps were not something that were easy to lie on, but it was all I had. The whole time I was working, Charlie was hopping around excitedly, knowing that something serious had happened to his Lisa. Periodically he ran over and looked her in the eyes in his own way of showing sympathy.

       As gently as I could, I dragged Lisa up on the three skis, with her butt on the clamps where I’m sure it hurt and tied her feet to the turned up ends of the skis. I didn’t want to waste any time and this whole process took only two or three minutes.

       With the rope around her shoulders and under her arms and then tied around my waist, I gently let the skis follow the slope down into town a half-mile away with me digging in behind with my heels in the crusty snow that gave me grip and allowed me to be able to control our descent. I don’t know what it would’ve been like to have had to pull her up steep slopes. But the two times I did have to pull her up hill for a short distance went quite well. In spite of her pregnancy she didn’t weigh over 120 pounds and my adrenaline and anxiety carried the day.

Within a half-hour we were at the door of the laundry and at least out of the cold.

       I recalled that there was a wheelchair in a closet on the second floor and left Lisa briefly to get it. I pulled her up on the wheelchair as gently as I could, while Lisa bit her tongue and tried not to cry out in pain. And then wheeled her to the stairs. She could have stayed downstairs, but I made the decision to get her up and into our bed, so I pulled her up the stairs one step at a time. She hung on desperately, until I got her to the second floor, and finally, into our bed.

              I gave her Advil, the only pain reliever I had, and told her that I was going to try to set her right leg. I handed her a twisted sheet for her to bite on and then got a good grip on her right ankle. "Are you ready?" I asked. Lisa nodded her head and mumbled through her clenched teeth.

       "On three," I said. And then started counting… "One… Two…" On three I pulled as hard as I could on her ankle that was already swelling and felt the leg finally straighten out and resemble a normal leg except for the swelling. Lisa screamed through her clenched teeth and then relaxed as though a heavy weight had been taken off her leg. She sighed and closed her eyes.

       But my work wasn't done. I got my knife out of my pack and slit her jeans all the way up. The swelling in her thigh was immense and I could see through the stretched skin blood collecting under it, grateful that the bone didn't break through, requiring some kind of surgery to close the wound. Unsure whether the leg was straight enough so that the thigh bone could heal properly.

        I ran downstairs and grabbed some pillowcases I filled with snow. Bringing them back upstairs where they served as ice packs until the snow melted and got too wet. Finding some plastic bags solved that problem. I kept asking Lisa how she was until she fell asleep. I was grateful for that. I felt for her baby. It was moving and there was a heartbeat.