Sunday Scribblings 191: Weird

It was the third day of their honeymoon and the first they'd ventured out.  Ice and snow glittered across the lawn, winking and beckoning them.  Kitty walked with careful steps down the sidewalk of their cottage to the purring car where Ed scraped the windows.  He looked up and smiled at her.  She blushed.  Everything about life was enhanced.  Even the bare twig trees seemed beautiful caked in snow.

"We'll have to go around on the old carriage road.  I can't back up."  Ed pointed to the small road that wound around a large mansion-like house.  The road stood against the house's large yard but the outer side dropped off.

Kitty nodded, wrapped tightly in scarfs and mittens.  She lowered herself into the warmth of the car.  Ed followed, giving her hand a squeeze.  She smiled.  Hadn't she always dreamed it would be just like this?  And now they were embarking on their first adventure together.  Ed pressed on the gas.  The car lurched and stuck for a moment then it broke free and whipped onto the road.  Ed let up on the gas and crept around the first turn.  On the second turn, the car slid just enough to hit the inside yard and start to spin.  Their eyes locked.  She wanted to scream but couldn't.

Was this was God's cruel way of giving her all she wanted and then snatching it back in three days?  Ed yanked on the emergency break as the car slid off the path.  The car stopped, teetering with only one wheel on the road.  Everything else dangled in the air.  For a moment, neither of them spoke.  Fear had taken the words off their lips

"We need to get out before it flips," Ed instructed. "You go first--"

A chill crept over her.  "I don't like that--"

He wasn't listening.  "Don't grab the side of the car when you get out. Yell when you're clear."

"If I get out, it may shift balance and flip with you in it," she argued.

He let silence sit between them for a moment.  "Kitty, no one else is here.  The owner left us the keys.  If you don't get out, we may both fall.  At least one of us should go for help and your side's closer to the ground."

His logic calmed her a little but her stomach ached with nerves.  She nodded.  She opened the door gently--no sudden movements.  Inching her way close to it, she gave him one final look.  He nodded.  She stepped out into the air.  The slope of ice beneath her was about two feet down.  She dropped, then slid and fisted her hands to keep from reaching for the car.  The impact knocked her down. She slid at a quick pace.  Too quick.  She sped endlessly down the long slope towards the bluff.  Grasping for trees, the ice and bark cut her hands.  She desperately reached for icicled grass trying anything to slow herself.  Finally, a large tree gave her leverage to stop.  Her arms wrapped it in a hug.  She looked up to see the car still teetering.

"Get out of the way!" yelled Ed.  His voice echoed down to her.

She tried to stab her feet into the ice and move further away but the slope was too steep and her shoes were no match for layered ice.

"Are you clear?"  he asked.

She wasn't, but she didn't want him to wait.  "Yes!"

He moved inch by inch onto her seat and ventured to the open door.  He leaped from it and slid as she had down the side of the mountain.  He managed to stop long before she'd been able to.  They waited, expecting the car to fall.  But it hung there, like Kitty hung to her tree.  Ed stomped holes into the ice like steps until he reached her.  It was a slow journey back up and they kept looking at the car with abated breath.  They managed to return to the cottage, and call for help.  Kitty watched out the picture window.  The car stayed in place until the tow truck arrived.

The truck driver got out and rubbed his head.  "Well if that isn't the weirdest thing."  He pulled out a camera from the back seat and snapped a picture.  After getting the car hitched up and back to safety, he turned to them.  "I don't know how you survived.  Never seen nothing like this car hanging on.  It's a plumb miracle."

Kitty shivered.  She knew he was right.