She quietly repeated, “Think warm thoughts. Think warm thoughts.”
In his last conscious moments, Adam felt a sudden warmth spread over his entire body. He thought he must be close to death. It wasn’t the kind of warmth that comes from another person’s body heat—there was no way that Maddie’s body could have generated that amount of heat in the snow and freezing temperatures. He felt the kind of warmth that one feels from the sun on the beach in ninety-degree weather. What a wonderful, welcome sensation. He was enveloped in a warmth that comforted and relaxed him. His body quit shivering. His teeth quit chattering. He couldn’t hold on any longer. He drifted off into oblivion.
Chapter 15
Adam awoke to a blinding light and a faint beeping noise. He squinted as his eyes grew accustomed to the light.
Where am I?
He glanced to his right, where the intense light streamed in from a large window. He quickly looked down to avert his eyes. His brow furrowed when he saw that he was in a bed with metal railing and tubes attached to his arms. His eyes darted to the foot of the bed.
Was that a cast on his leg?
The beeping sound came from some sort of instrument on a pole next to the bed. A woman he assumed to be a nurse adjusted the settings. He looked to his left. Maddie sat beside the bed reading a book. When she heard him stir, her head snapped up and she stared at him with wide eyes. She jumped to her feet and threw her arms around his neck.
“Adam, you’re awake!” she cried. “Oh my god! I’m so glad you’re okay!”
Tears streamed down her face.
Why was she crying?
He heard another familiar voice say, “Easy now, don’t squeeze him so hard that you hurt him.”
There were other people in the room. He slowly turned his head in the direction of the voice and saw Zach, Claire, and his parents. They moved closer to the bed and gathered around him. They all looked relieved and happy.
Adam heard his dad say, “Son, you had us so worried.”
Maddie moved back to let his mother and father hug him.
His mom was crying too. She kept repeating, “I thought we had lost you. Baby, I thought we had lost you.”
Adam pursed his lips and knitted his brow.
What the heck was going on?
He rubbed his eyes and tried to remember. Zach and Claire hugged him too. It was good to see them, but he couldn’t make sense of it all. Then, memories began to flash in his mind: skiing, a storm, an avalanche, a broken leg. Adam glanced down at his leg again, which was hoisted up at the foot of the bed and covered with a very large plaster cast from his foot to mid-thigh.
He remembered lying in the snow with Maddie. He remembered thinking they were going to die. But they hadn’t.
He strained to remember anything beyond that.
His eyes met Maddie’s and he said in a hoarse voice, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said as she smiled her beautiful smile, wiping tears away.
Adam noticed that she had a large bandage wrapped around her arm where the gash had been. She saw him look at the bandage and rubbed it absentmindedly as she said, “It’s okay. It just needed a few stitches.”
“A few?” said Zach. “More like forty.”
Maddie shot him a look as if to say ‘shut up.’ Claire hit Zach on the arm and gave him a disapproving look as well.
Zach continued, “Dude, you’ve been out for like twenty-four hours. Now that’s some serious Zs.”
Zach had a way of lightening up a conversation.
Twenty-four hours?
It felt like only moments ago that Adam had prepared to die on the mountain.
His mom said, “They did surgery on your leg. The doctor says it was a success and everything’s going to be fine. You’ll be up and walking in no time.”
“They told us it was a miracle that you two survived on the mountain,” his dad chimed in, his voice breaking a little when he said the word “survived.”
How did they survive? How long were they on the mountain? How were they rescued?
Adam honestly didn’t know. He had so many questions.
Mom said, “Do you need anything, sweetie? Let us know if you need pain medicine or something to eat. The doctor is on his way to examine you.”
As his parents and Zach and Claire continued to talk to him, Adam noticed that Maddie had retreated to the back of the room. She looked sad as she stared straight ahead out the window.
He had to ask, “Exactly how long were we up on the mountain?”
Zach glanced at Claire and Maddie, then leaned in and said, “Man, you guys were up there all night! The rescue party didn’t find you until the next day. Both of you were covered in snow. They almost didn’t see you. The doctors said it’s a miracle that you survived the well-below-freezing temperatures. And neither one of you had any frostbite. It’s a damn miracle, bro!”
Claire chimed in. “We’re all so thankful you made it. The rest of the guys said to tell you ‘hey’ when you woke up, and that they’re pulling for you. They’ll be by to see you later.”
It certainly must have been a miracle. How else could they have survived?
And then Adam remembered the warmth enveloping him right before he lost consciousness. Had he been hallucinating?
“God must’ve been looking out for you,” said Mom. “I was praying for you both all night long, from the moment I got the call that you hadn’t returned to the lodge. The meteorologist said it was a freak storm. They didn’t see it coming until it was too late. It just came out of nowhere. They said a storm like that happens very rarely. And the two of you surviving it was an even rarer occurrence.”
Her voice broke as she fought back tears. Adam glanced at Maddie. Maybe the recollection of the horrible events
