Miracle on I-40 by Curtiss Ann Matlock Page B

tonight, squirt, if I can at all.”
    Then, in a fluid, surprising motion, he swooped Anna up into his arms. “Let’s keep your feet dry. Don’t want to make your cold worse on vacation.”
     
    White Christmas
     
    Cooper went off to check highway conditions. He returned and slipped into the booth. “They’ve cleared one lane going east. And it’s slick out there,” he told Lacey.  “I think we can handle it, but there is some danger.” He gazed at her with a raised eyebrow.
    His consulting her came as a bit of a surprise. She gazed at him, and then looked at her children.
    Anna said with all practicality, “We have to get to Grandpa’s, Mama, or else Santa won’t know where we are.”
    “Cooper can handle it, Mom,” Jon said with confidence.
    “Of course he can...and of course we’re goin’ on.” The looks Cooper and Jon exchanged did not escape her notice. Boys and men, she thought.
    Then Cooper lifted Anna and carried her out to the truck. Jon slid on his shoes across the lot. Lacey prayed: I trust in You, Lord.
    The big truck rolled down the entrance ramp and into the single lane of traffic, all going at an amazingly good clip, to Lacey’s mind. From the sleeper, Anna and Jon poked their heads out and sang, “Jingle Bells…”
    Cooper actually grinned.
    Lacey peered hard through the windshield. The hard north wind made a muffled roaring sound, and the windshield wipers thumped rapidly as the Kenworth sliced through the swirling white gloom. The CB radio crackled occasionally with reports of the highway conditions from drivers heading both east and west. Music from the radio provided a low background to it all. Twice, on two different stations, they heard “White Christmas” , and Jon and Anna sang along.
    It bothered Lacey this time. She told the children to please get back in the sleeper and stay there.
    “Where’s your Christmas spirit?” Cooper said, giving her a wink.
    The snow began to blow back on the road faster than the plows could keep it clear. Repeatedly, the truck plunged through drifts that completely obliterated the pavement. Lacey caught occasional glimpses of two other semi rigs up ahead. Directly in front of them was a red station wagon, a blessing to follow with visibility so poor.
    Though she could feel the tug of the wind and the occasional sliding of the truck, Lacey strangely did not feel terribly anxious. She felt a certainty they were going to be all right, and this caused her to worry if she was being neglectful of worrying.
    She glanced over at Cooper. All of his attention was focused on his driving, and it was as if he were attached to the truck, anticipating its every movement. She suspected, by the rapt look on his face, that he secretly loved the challenge of driving in such abominable weather.
    It had begun to grow quite dim when it happened. Lacey had actually been drowsing, when a car came pushing around them in a rare wide spot in the road. As Cooper braked slightly and struggled to keep the Kenworth on the road, he cursed under his breath, which brought Lacey up in her seat to see the car’s taillights disappear immediately into the gloom. She strained to see, expecting to find the sedan nose first in a snow-bank on the shoulder, as they’d seen many others.
    She glanced at Cooper and saw a worried frown crease his brow. He let out a curse, and Lacey looked again out the windshield to see red taillights getting rapidly larger.
    Cooper, who had instinctively slowed his already crawling rate of speed, reacted immediately and carefully. Coming down on the brakes too fast could jack-knife the trailer and even overturn the entire rig. The red lights seemed to grow larger right in front of his eyes.
    The damned car was stopped in the middle of the road!
    He applied the brakes as hard as he dared. The trailer began to skid back and forth across the narrow strip of road, dragging the truck with it. Then, in frustrating slow motion, despite Cooper’s frantic turning