by Leah Atwood
Avery’s eyes moved furtively from him to Eli. Gavin knew what she was thinking. I need to get my son away from the madman.
Gavin scratched his head then tugged his stocking cap back on. “Okay. I feel better now. Let’s see if we can lift this baby out of here.”
He approached the car, and Avery took two steps back. Feeling back in control, he winked at her. “I needed to let off a little steam. I’m okay now. Honest.”
She shook her head. “You had me worried.”
“Nah, no need to worry about me.” He examined the rental from every angle. “I’m as stable as they come. Why, I’m as rock-solid as this car.”
Her lips twitched.
He lightly tapped his toe against a rear tire. “Why is it that you haven’t gotten angry yet? Aside from when you got pulled over back in Amarillo, I haven’t seen you lose your cool once this whole trip.”
“I heard this sermon once.” Avery adjusted her scarf. “Did you know when God brought His people out of Egypt, He didn’t take them in a straight path to get where they were going? He knew they wouldn’t be able to handle what was on the straight path, so He took them a roundabout way to get there. When we got to the detour after Amarillo, it just kind of hit me. I think this is our roundabout way. It might not make sense to anyone but me, but the way I see it, God is still guiding our path, even though that path isn’t going the direction we want it to go. I’ve still gotten frustrated and haven’t exactly been singing His praises the whole way, but despite that, I just have this feeling inside that we’re where God wants us to be.”
“For someone who doesn’t feel comfortable talking about her faith, you did a fine job explaining that.” Gavin watched as Avery became suddenly busy examining the far side of the car. He couldn’t help but smile. He was sure that, if it weren’t for the freezing air that had already turned all their cheeks a ruddy color, he’d have spotted a blush on her face. “Avery?”
She glanced up at him then back at the car.
“That’s a great insight. Thank you for sharing it with me.”
Then, before she had a chance to say anything in return, he began circling the hatchback. He walked around it twice more, using his flashlight to highlight the extent of the hole in the pavement. “Okay, guys. We’re going to put the car in neutral, then we’re going to lift the front end and push the car so it’s back on the road.”
“We’ll still have to get past the hole.” Eli had a knack for pointing out the obvious.
Gavin nodded. “I can reverse and drive around it, no problem. It’ll be easier to get the front of the car back than it will be to try to move the whole car forward.”
“It’s going to be tricky lifting the front and going over the hole as we back it up. We’ve lost the ability to grip an entire section of the car because of the hole.” Obviously Avery was the one who had taught Eli the art of stating the obvious.
“I’m listening if anybody has a better idea.”
“I’m in.” Eli pulled his hands out from his pockets and chaffed them together. “Tell me where to stand.”
Avery agreed. “I don’t see a better way. But let’s all please be careful not to fall into the hole. With the water in there, I can’t see how deep it is.”
Gavin directed everyone to their positions. Eli was on the passenger side of the engine. Avery was in front of the car but close to where her son was positioned. Gavin was alone on the driver’s side by his own design. He didn’t want to risk Avery or Eli tumbling into the hole. Wanting to avoid a face-first plummet into both the asphalt and the pit, he eyed his position and hoped he’d chosen well.
“On three.” He sure hoped this was the last problem they ran into. “One.” They’d hit so many snags on this trip that a lesser man would have been carted off to the asylum by now. “Two.” An hour of driving with nothing going wrong wasn’t too much to ask for, was it? “Three…”
The car proved lighter than he’d expected. It lifted easily out of the hole, and they were able to move it back onto the pavement with no trouble. Then, as they’d planned, once it was back on solid ground, Eli opened the passenger door, and Avery dove into the car to put the brake on and get it back into park.
Eli looked around. “Was it supposed to be that easy?”
Gavin threw his head back and laughed. “I think I finally found a reason to be thankful for this duct-taped car. There’s no way we could have lifted a giant SUV out of there.” The tension released from his muscles, and he clapped his hand on Eli’s back. “So how about some flares?”
It took a few minutes to get the flares out, but they used four to mark the area of the hole. Without a way to call out on any of their cellphones, they couldn’t notify the highway patrol. Their best bet was hoping someone saw the flares and was better able to report the problem.
With nothing else to do, they climbed back into the car and headed down the road again.
The car definitely had a new vibration to it.
“Do you feel that?” Avery’s teeth rattled as she spoke. Whether it was caused by the cold or the car was anybody’s guess.
Gavin nodded. “We may not have broken the axel, but I’m pretty sure it’s bent. We’re going to have to limp along, but we should be able to manage. Nowhere shouldn’t be much more than ten miles.” He nodded confidently. “As long as we can get there, we’ll be fine.”
Chapter Seventeen
Nowhere, Oklahoma
December 24, 11:40 p.m.
“We’re almost there.” Gavin’s words were music as far as Avery was concerned.
She leaned forward in her seat, eager for her first look at Nowhere, Oklahoma. She had come to think of Nowhere as an oasis, a safe haven in the midst of all the troubles they’d had to deal with since leaving Albuquerque.
The hatchback struggled to climb a hill. Then Gavin, who couldn’t accelerate the car over thirty because of the cylinder, held the clutch in and let the car glide down the other side. Without employing the use of the gas pedal, they were able to pick up some good speed that would give them momentum going into the next hill.
Avery watched the speedometer. Thirty. Forty. Fifty. Fifty-five.
A sound, like a tire popping, reached Avery’s ears seconds before the most atrocious odor she’d ever smelled filled the car.
“What!” Eli’s choked voice came from the back seat before he started gagging.
Gavin frantically pushed the button to roll his window down. He stuck his head out and started sucking in fresh air. Avery couldn’t do the same. Her window was taped closed against the relief of fresh, cold air.
Tears poured down her cheeks. Her vision was so obscured she almost didn’t see the sign announcing they’d reached Nowhere, Oklahoma.
That couldn’t be right.
She had to have seen it wrong.
The sign listed the population as three.
Three!
The first building they saw was a general store of sorts. Gavin deftly maneuvered the car into the vacant dirt parking lot, and they all three tumbled from its interior.
Eli ran for some shrubs at the edge of the parking lot and doubled over, heaving.
Avery collapsed onto all fours and started crawling away from the car.
When she took a glimpse back, Gavin was yanking everything out of the trunk. She knew she should help him, but her need for escape compelled her toward the store.
She’d made it about halfway to the steps of the general store before giving up. Sitting cross-legged, she watched as Gavin did what he could to rescue their belongings. Tears continued to course down her cheeks, and there was nothing she could do to stop them. The up-close-and-personal stink of the skunk was worse than anything she’d smelled in her life. Eli left the shrubs and joined her in the middle of the parking lot as the stench surrounding them battered the optimism and fighting spirit that had carried her along thus far on their journey.
Gavin, his muscles straining, carried both his camera cases and her suitcase to the front
porch of the store. Then he carried his backpack, Eli’s suitcase, and the emergency gear the trucker had insisted they purchase. Once he set it down on the front porch, he came back to where she and Eli sat in the dirt.
He held out a hand to Eli. “Come on. Let’s go sit on the steps over there and figure this thing out.”
Eli took the hand up and ambled toward the steps. When he got close, he spun back to them and made a face. Then he walked in a different direction and sat in the lone rusty chair left out in the parking lot toward the far end of the porch. It had probably been sitting there so the dump truck could collect it.
Gavin turned his eyes to Avery where she still sat in the dirt. He held out his hand. “Your turn. Let’s get you as far away from the smell as we can.”
“Don’t bother! The luggage stinks to high heaven!” Eli’s words weren’t reassuring.
Once Avery gained her feet, she looked back at the car. “What happened?”
Gavin sighed, and his voice came in a monotone. “I think we hit a skunk.”
Avery was tired, hungry, and beyond the limit of what she felt she could endure. A bubble of hysteria rose in her chest. Before she knew it, she was laughing. It was a full-fledged belly laugh. She slapped her hand over her mouth and tried to contain it. When she heard Eli and Gavin joining her, she gave up and let the laughter win.
She soon found herself gasping for air as the edge of her vision began to darken. Reaching out, she grabbed Gavin’s arm and felt her steps falter. There was nothing she could do to stop herself as she crashed into his side.
“Avery?”
Her head cleared a second later, but by then Gavin’s arms were around her, holding her close. Her vision came back into focus, and she caught sight of the pained look in his eyes, eyes that appeared even darker than usual because of how pale his face had become. She tried to say something, but her tongue felt thick within her mouth and wouldn’t obey her commands.
“Avery?” Gavin’s jaw worked against the words, his grip on her tightening.
She managed a shaky nod. “I’m okay.”
“What was that? What happened?”
The tingle of heated embarrassment climbed her neck and passed over her face. Avery broke eye contact and shrugged. “Sometimes when I get carried away with laughter, I pass out.”
“Are you sure that’s all it was?”
Gavin’s voice was tender. Avery was used to people cracking jokes or trying to make her laugh again when they learned her secret. Cruelty endured as a child had taught her to carefully guard her weakness from others. His reaction, the sound of his voice, the way he held her… it was different.
She could feel herself relaxing into his arms, her body shaping itself against his of its own accord. It had been a long time since a man had held her in anything other than a fatherly embrace. Her gaze skittered across his face, and her breath got stuck in her chest. His eyes were dark obsidian, but it wasn’t worry she saw in them this time. It was…
Gavin lifted a hand to cup Avery’s chin and bring her eyes back to meet his. His voice was a deep rumble. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
She nodded, the motion sharp with uncertainty and the press of long-dormant emotions forcing their way to the surface of her consciousness.
He leaned in, and she closed her eyes. His lips rested against her forehead for the briefest moment, yet her skin felt branded by the touch.
Gavin let go, releasing her from his hold. Avery, however, continued to feel the warm touch of his arms around her, his lips on her skin. It was a kiss on the forehead, you ninny! That’s how her grandfather used to kiss her. It didn’t mean anything.
“Hey!” Eli’s voice called out from where he sat. “It’s Christmas. You might as well get your cameras out and take some pictures, right, Gavin?”
“Christmas?” Avery stared at her son. “It can’t be.”
Eli held up his phone. “It’s a quarter after twelve. That makes it Christmas.”
Avery trudged over to the front steps of the general store. She glowered at a notice on the door before sitting down. “It’s Christmas. We’re stuck here in a town that’s been abandoned. We have nowhere to sleep, no way to exchange gifts, and we don’t even have a Bible with us so we can read from Luke.”
“What makes you say it’s abandoned?” Gavin nodded his head over toward a mobile home that sat on the other side of the general store, its windows black as the night sky. “Maybe the people are sleeping.”
“The sign on the door says they’re closed till after the new year.” Avery pointed vaguely over her shoulder. “My guess is they’re visiting family elsewhere. Looks like that trucker back in Hollis was right.”
Gavin sat down next to her on the steps. Eli got up and moved his chair closer but managed to keep himself upwind of the luggage, which smelled putrid.
“I’ll bet all our clothes are ruined.” Avery was tempted to kick one of the suitcases, but that would require getting back up, and that wasn’t happening. “I don’t know if I can get back in that car. The smell is so awful.”
Eli held up his phone. “I’ve got the Bible on here, Mom. Do you want me to read the chapter?”
It was their family tradition. She and Eli always started Christmas morning with the second chapter of Luke. Avery would have preferred to say she’d instituted the tradition because she was some sort of super-Christian who always knew what to do and say, and who had been raising her son to be a mighty evangelist since he’d been in diapers. In truth, she’d seen it on a cartoon and had liked the idea. That was when Eli was four. They’d been doing it ever since. Over the years it had become more meaningful to her, and to Eli, too, she hoped. She cast a quick glance at Gavin, wondering what he would think if he knew their Christmas morning tradition had been inspired by a cartoon. Would he laugh with them, or would he judge? When it came down to it, Gavin didn’t seem to have a judgmental bone in his body. He was almost too good to be true.
Reining her wandering sleepy thoughts in, Avery gave her attention to her son. “Bible on your phone? Why didn’t I know about that?”
Eli shrugged. “I always forget my Bible, but I never forget my phone. It’s what I use at church, too.”
“You mean… All those times I thought you were texting during church you were reading your Bible?”
Eli ducked his head before answering. “Maybe not all of them, but usually.”
Avery gaped at her son a moment. Gavin had been right when he’d told her not to jump to conclusions about her son’s faith. She pursed her lips. “I thought your phone was dead.”
That’s when she saw it. Eli hadn’t moved any closer to them because he was tethered by an electrical cord. He’d found a place to plug in his phone! She needed to get hers plugged in, too, and see if they could call for help. First, though, she wanted to hear her son read. Giving him a nod, she closed her eyes and waited for him to begin.
“And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus…”
Avery sighed, content with the journey. They might be in the middle of Nowhere, Oklahoma, in below freezing temperatures. They may even have endured the most horribly eventful journey in the history of road trips, but they were together, and aside from the stench clinging to each of them, they were well. It was Christmas, and her son had volunteered to read the Christmas story from the Bible he had stored on his phone. She peeked at Gavin and saw him listening with rapt attention as her son’s words told of the Savior’s birth.
This wasn’t the time to voice it, but she was better off for having been stranded in the middle of Nowhere.
She scooted closer to Gavin and leaned her head against his shoulder. Sighing with contentment, she listened to Eli.
“…but Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart…”
When it was all said and done, Avery had a lot to be thankful for. She hadn’t given much thought to the past in a long time. Gavin asking about Eli’s father had brought up some of those mem
ories, and for today, that was a good thing.
Remembering, she thought back to when she’d struggled working two jobs, trying to provide for Eli. She’d hated that he’d spent more time in daycare than with her. Each step of the way, however, God had put people into her path and Eli’s life who had helped guide and love him, and that had supported and encouraged her. Without God’s help and guidance, she never would have gotten where she was. She owned a home. It was old and small, but it was theirs. Eli was doing well and finding his own way. Her job was secure, and she felt valued in her work. Life wasn’t perfect, but she was blessed.
“…And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
“That was great, Eli. Thank you for reading it.” Gavin’s voice rumbled next to her ear.
Avery took a moment to say something in her heart to the God who sent His son to earth all those centuries ago and who, in all the years since, hadn’t given up caring for His people. First, I whined because we didn’t have a Bible. Then I let my mind wander through the entire Christmas story. I am certainly not a super-Christian. Thank You for loving me anyway and for seeing us all through the things we’ve had to deal with in life. I might not be a rock star of the faith, but my faith in You is rock solid. Wincing, she added, Sorry for the bad pun. It was an accident.
She sat up straight, pulled away from Gavin, and turned to her son. “So, Eli, do you think we can make a call out on that phone you’ve got there? You know, since you have power now and all?”
As Eli nodded and began tapping the screen of his phone, a police cruiser pulled into the dirt parking lot.
Gavin jumped up from his seat but didn’t move toward the newcomer. The officer climbed out and, from a distance, inspected their sad little dirty-mustard-yellow hatchback with the scraped-up and banged-in driver’s side, the plastic passenger window, and all the doors and trunk flung open with the unmistakable smell of skunk rolling off it in waves. Then he studied the three forlorn people stranded in Nowhere. “Where you folks from?”