Driving Into the Driving Snow!

By FenellaAshworth. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.

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The snow was falling so heavily that it had become almost hypnotic. Coupled with the rapid, monotonous beat of the windscreen wipers which were fighting a losing battle to maintain visibility, Emily was impressed she was managing to make any progress at all. Several miles previously, she’d been forced to leave the busy A road she normally traveled along when visiting her parents, due to a multi-car accident. From the number of blue flashing lights reflecting across the snowy surfaces at the scene, it had looked pretty serious, suggesting there was little chance of the route being cleared for several hours.

Emily had therefore taken the bold yet questionable decision of driving along the little-used, untreated back roads, in an attempt to keep moving.

Being relatively near to her final destination in the heart of West Sussex, and having grown up in the vicinity, it was a route she knew well. This was a blessing given that the thick, swirling snow was now settling with a vengeance. Under the white blanket, the exact positioning of the road surface became increasingly blurred, forcing a confused Emily to rely heavily upon local landmarks. Hedgerows and tunnels of trees, now devoid of their thick summer foliage, became invaluable to assist her slow progress, under such difficult circumstances as these.

Crawling forwards, occasionally sliding on the slick surfaces, she passed a series of abandoned vehicles and felt her stomach roll with nervous apprehension. One of them looked suspiciously like a Ferrari and she felt a flash of pride that her own bog-standard car was managing to outperform the expensive hot hatch. Yet, with another seven miles still left to travel and the snow falling more heavily with every passing minute, much like the weather surrounding her, her chances of success were looking increasingly bleak. Gulping down fast, shallow breaths, she continued resolutely onwards, her cold, clammy hands providing a stark contrast to the hot, red flush radiating from her face and neck. It was physiological evidence, if any were seriously required, that driving in such poor weather conditions could be incredibly stressful.

Edging her way onwards, Emily found her mind starting to wander towards her family and the festive celebrations they had planned over the next few days. Somehow, Christmas always made her feel lonelier than at any other time of year, despite having her nearest and dearest present. Her favorite Christmas song proclaimed it was hard to be alone at this time of year, and never had that sentiment been truer. The knowledge that everybody would be coupled up in their happy pairings; her parents, her brother John with his wife, her sister Jane and husband Dan. Even the dog and cat were known to annually suspend hostilities and naturally migrate together beside the open fire, although theirs was always destined to be a rocky partnership. Emily stood out as the only singleton in a mass of happy couples. And it was so not cool for a woman in her mid-thirties to be jealous of the cat.

Her melancholy wasn’t helped by memories of what had taken place exactly three years ago, to the day. Her long-term boyfriend, in his great wisdom, had chosen Christmas Eve as the most appropriate time to make his big announcement. He no longer loved her and hadn’t done for some time, apparently. And that, as they say, was that. For the days and nights that had followed, Emily had played the song, ‘A Winter’s Tale’, almost obsessively on repeat. It seemed to so completely describe the wretched situation she found herself in. His thoughtless actions had even managed to tinge her favorite Christmas song with a dash of unbearable sadness, and that was unforgiveable.

A heartbroken Emily subsequently discovered that, with indecent haste, he had become engaged to an ex-girlfriend. Before anyone could say “shotgun wedding”, they were married and excitedly preparing to welcome their first child into the world. Although each new snippet of information hurt slightly less than the last, the news had still subjected her to actual physical pain, further hampering the recovery of her injured heart.

Despite it being a cliché though, time really was proving to be a great healer. Indeed, deep down, Emily could now accept that they would never have been compatible in the long term. Even while they were still together, she’d always experienced a nagging doubt, even though her brain worked strenuously to suppress it at the time. Looking back, she remembered wondering whether it was really her that he wanted, or did he just want someone. Certainly, the speed at which he could drop one girlfriend and obtain a replacement, suggested the latter scenario, and only added weight to her theory. These days, she no longer wanted him back. Indeed, with distance, she’d come to recognise that he had been insensitive and emotionally weak. But although his spell over her was broken, the curse he’d cast over Christmas remained firmly in place.

Making her way carefully around another abandoned car, Emily fought off the melancholy she always felt when her unwelcome ex appeared in her thoughts. In the past year, she had put a limited amount of effort into meeting someone new, in the hope of finding love again. But was she really cut out for a life of dating apps? Swiping left or right and being asked a barrage of personal, often intimate questions, whilst trying to fend off dick pics and unsolicited instant messages, were so not her idea of a good time. Wasn’t there just somebody kind, sexy and decent out there?

Negotiating around a sharp corner, her skin crawled in memory of a recent date she’d had with a guy, following a brief conversation online. It had quickly become apparent from the outset that theirs would never be a harmonious coupling. Emily was searching for romance, connection, belonging and, dare she even admit it these days, love. It swiftly became blatantly clear that he was looking for a one off, no strings attached, fuck fest. Needless to say, that night he’d gone home disappointed. Despite being fed up with her single status, Emily struggled to believe that advertising yourself on the internet like some second-hand car was the way forward. She’d recently shared her thoughts with her sister who, in her infinite wisdom, had tried to console her.

'You’ll know when you find the one,’ her sister had advised, gushing with positivity. 'And it will happen, I promise.’ Easy for her to spew out such platitudes, Emily had noted at the time. With a glorious husband, two apparently perfect children and a Labrador in tow, she was the epitome of contentment. Besides, Emily wasn’t willing to just settle into another relationship now. Next time, she wanted something extraordinary, or nothing at all. She’d reached a time in her life where she wasn’t willing to mess about any longer.

'Oh fuck!’ she cried out, as her car suddenly started to slide out of control. Emily quickly discovered that cruising sideways down a steep incline provided a very effective distraction from chronic wistfulness. Never able to remember whether you should turn your wheels into a skid, or out of it, she tried both options with minimal consequence, whilst her foot pressed down hard on the brake pedal. Trapped in a metal box, skidding towards a very solid-looking, highly inconveniently placed line of trees, Emily squealed. Her eyes automatically snapped shut, preparing for the inevitable impact and subsequent pain.

She’d heard of people’s lives flashing before their eyes, upon finding themselves in a near-death experience. Of course she had. What she hadn’t banked on was for her mind to take it upon itself to come up with such a random, eclectic and downright weird selection of memories. The images started off sensibly enough; her parents with their arms wrapped around each other, laughing. The epitome of the loving relationship which Emily herself secretly strived to achieve. The movie reel quickly cut to a goldfish which she had won as an eight-year old at the local fair, repetitively circling in its plastic bag. Next, a disco she’d attended, where her older sister had kissed a boy she’d had a secret crush on as a teen. Finally, she was doing her university finals, watching the dust float languidly in the hot, sunlit air above her small, wooden desk. Silently, she observed the names of students, stretching back over previous decades, deeply carved into the grainy surface. And then, nothing but darkness.

'That’s it?’ thought Emily, feeling ridiculously short-changed, just before her car came to an ultimate and untimely stop. That bizarre and outrageously uninspiring set of memories was the best her brain could come up with, when faced with the threat of potential death? Seconds later, accompanied by an explosive bang that ricocheted painfully through her skull, her car became intimately acquainted with an Oak tree as the engine cut out. For a few silent seconds, she remained hunched over, gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles, both unable and unwilling to open her eyes. Every muscle in her body was tightly