Within an instant, with the tell-tale thumpingfrom the front wheel well, she could tell that she had a flat tire."FUCK!" She cursed as she guided the van to the side of the road.The road was very narrow with very little discernible shoulder. Theembankment sloped steeply down. Brush speckled the hill. Elizabethcouldn't see the bottom of the hill or how far down it was. She putthe van in park and turned the key so that power was left to thevehicle, but the engine was no longer running. "FUCK FUCK FUCK!"she screamed, banging the steering wheel with her fists. Dammit.She had known it was going to be one of those days.
CHAPTER FOUR: October 15,2010
It was after five now, and it was dark. Sheturned the dome light on to give her light, and opened the door.The cold air outside assaulted her immediately. She crossed herarms over her chest and walked to the back of the vehicle. Sheopened the tailgate and pulled out her thin windbreaker. It wouldoffer little warmth, but maybe it would keep her dry from the sleetand freezing rain that was pelting her sharply. She tossed her bagover into the back seat and began pulling up the carpeting toexpose the spare tire. She hadn't had to change a tire sincedrivers' education when she was sixteen. Generally she had a prettygood memory, and she was counting on it not to fail her now. Withina few minutes she had extracted the jack and the spare tire. Sheplaced the spare underneath the side of the car as she rememberedMr. Dillon demonstrating in driver's ed. She had to stop and getback in the car to try and warm-up for a moment or two. Her handswere frozen and she was having trouble bending them withoutpain.
She picked up her phone to call Susan and tellher she would be late. Susan didn't answer and Elizabeth left her avoice-mail explaining that she was having car trouble, and wouldeither be late or not make it at all. It all depended on how thingsturned out. When Elizabeth disconnected the call, she realized withchagrin that her phone had not been charging on the way out, andthat her battery was almost dead. She swore again. With the pain inher hands somewhat lessened, Elizabeth again got out of her van andattempted to work on changing her tire. It was slow going, butElizabeth felt triumphant when she was able to remove the hub andthen carefully placed the first three lug nuts in the overturnedhubcap. She wished she could tell Mr. Dillon right now that shestill remembered after all these years. However, as usual, heroptimism was short-lived.
The last lug nut was stubborn and didn't wantto turn. Elizabeth stood up from her squat and stretched for amoment. She pushed all her weight onto the cross-shaped lug wrench,but the nut did not turn. As she bounced up and down to try andtorque the stubborn thing, Elizabeth lost her balance, and fellinto the hubcap, knocking the other nuts out all over the ground.Elizabeth screamed, "FUCK!!" and sat down on the ground. The coldwetness immediately began seeping through her jeans, but she didnot care. Somehow, this moment, always so amusing in "A ChristmasStory" was not nearly as funny in reality. In fact, she could findno amusement at all. She could not feel any more despondent thanshe already did. She slowly banged her head into the side of thevan. She sat there for a moment or two, with her knees pulled up toher chest and sobbed. Elizabeth groaned and could no longer holdback the hot angry tears. She sat like that for a few minutes andrealized how cold it was. She would have to dosomething.
Elizabeth stood up and walked around the backof the van to the driver's side. She opened the door and climbed inagain. As she did that, the lights faded. The car battery was dead.Perfect. Just perfect. In addition to the tire, she would now needa jump. She had no idea exactly where she was to call for help. Shestared at her phone, wondering if she should dial 9-1-1, butdecided this was not actually an emergency. She cursed Peter forcanceling the AAA membership trying to save a little money. On theother hand, she didn't know where she was to tell a tow truckdriver anyway. With the temperature continuing to drop, Elizabethknew she couldn't stay in her car all night. She wished again thatshe had been able to find matching socks this morning, even if theyhad been quitters. She slid her nearly dead phone into her backpocket and left the car once again. She took one last hopeless lookat the van and started walking away.
Elizabeth thought that there must be a housesomewhere along the road. She was not even sure where she was sinceshe had not been paying that much attention while driving. Sure, itwas a winding mountain road. She was sure that, even if she knewwhom to call, she would not have reception up here. Of course,there was the glaring fact that she had no one to call. Her motherwas watching her children for the weekend, and was totally mentallyincapable of handling any sort of emergency. Agnes would freak outand totally lose it if she knew the predicament her incapabledaughter was in. Elizabeth had spent most of her life trying toshield her mother from the unpleasantries in life that she was notprepared to handle. Peter was four states away. Even if he werelocal, Elizabeth would rather die than ask him for help and listento him berate her at how irresponsible she was. She could almosthear him yelling, "Jesus Christ Elizabeth! Don't you ever payattention when you're driving? This is like the time you hit thedeer! You don't care, and then I have to pay for it!"
Elizabeth buttoned
