The Snow and the Darkness
By Matthew Warren Wilson
The Snow and The Darkness
By Matthew Warren Wilson
Copyright 2014 Matthew Warren Wilson
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This story is dedicated to Colin and Sawyer Best, for giving me a reason to visit Virginia. One day you’ll be old enough to read this type of thing.
The Snow and the Darkness
Jason didn’t care if it was the worst snowstorm the east coast had ever seen. They’d already paid for the plane tickets, so they were going. If the flight had been cancelled, that would be one thing; then they’d have no choice. But since it wasn’t, they were going, and if they had to spend four days sitting at Dulles because no one could get through the storm to pick them up, so be it.
There was no way he was going to just throw away eight hundred bucks because of some bad weather. He knew his brother would do whatever he possibly could to pick them up, and Frank wasn’t a careless driver. He knew how to drive in snow and ice better than anyone Jason had ever known. Frank would be able to pick them up, he’d be able to get them back to his house in Winchester without any problems, and then it was just a matter of surviving. If worse came to worst, they’d have no electricity and spend four days playing cards by candlelight and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. But Jason thought this so-called blizzard was a little too hyped up. It probably wasn’t anything to be worried about at all. If it was, the airline would’ve cancelled their flight.
Jason and Valerie were due to arrive at Dulles International at 10:30pm, and Jason fell asleep just after takeoff, before the ‘Fasten Seatbelts’ sign was even turned off. It wasn’t quite three in the afternoon, so he shouldn’t have been sleepy, but something about settling down into a cramped airplane seat always knocked him out right away. It made Valerie jealous; she would spend the whole flight worrying about the weather and thinking every little sound was the plane getting struck by lightning. But Jason couldn’t help that. She could always take a sleeping pill or something if she really wanted to.
The next thing he knew, Valerie was gently shaking his shoulder. “We’re here,” she said softly. He’d slept through the entire flight.
It took him a while to really wake up, and they’d already made their way to the baggage claim area before he felt he was fully awake, but once they’d retrieved their suitcase he was feeling refreshed and ready to go.
“See, we made it no problem,” he said to Valerie.
“That’s only half of it,” she said. “Now there’s the driving part. Which’ll probably be worse.”
“Let me call Frank,” Jason said. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed his brother’s number. They only spoke for a moment, the reception scratchy and full of static.
“He’ll be here soon,” Jason said to Valerie. She gave him an annoyed look but didn’t respond.
‘Soon’ turned out to be a lot faster than Jason had expected. By the time he and Valerie sat down in the soft black chairs just inside the automatic sliding doors, he looked up to see the grinning face of his little brother walking in. Frank was a couple of inches shorter than Jason, with frizzy brown hair that stood up all over his head as if he’d just rolled out of bed. He was stocky, broad-shouldered, and he wore a black NorthFace jacket zipped up to his chin. He must’ve been right outside to begin with. It had only been two minutes since he’d hung up.
“J!” Frank held his arms out expectantly. “Glad you made it, bro. Seriously. It’s a bitch out there.”
Jason gave him a hug, patting his back. Before he pulled away he gave Frank a quick rabbit-punch to the kidneys. Not too hard, but hard enough. Big brother stuff.
“You’re gonna pay for that one,” Frank said, but he was still smiling. “Hey Val, how ya holding up?”
Valerie smiled at him warmly. “I’m okay. I’ll be a lot better when we’re safely back at your house. Are the roads really bad?”
Frank shrugged. “Not so much. Just gotta go slow, that’s all. Nice part is, there’s hardly any traffic.” He laughed at his own joke. “But seriously, don’t worry. Now c’mon, let’s get moving. The sooner we head out, the sooner we’ll be home with a cold beer, am I right?”
Jason couldn’t help grinning. Same old Frank. “Right, little brother, yes you are.”
Jason grabbed the suitcase and he and Valerie followed Frank through the automatic doors. The cold hit him in the face and he sucked his breath in quickly. Snow was falling. It wasn’t heavy but the wind swirled it in spirals and circles that hindered visibility. It was like looking into a kaleidoscope with nothing but white crystals inside. He took Valerie’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
Frank headed for a gold Acura MDX parked at the curb, directly in front of a sign that said ‘Absolutely No Waiting’. Same old Frank. Ignore the rules, do what you want, there are no consequences. That had always been Frank’s philosophy on life, ever since they were kids, and it seemed to work for him.
As they approached the Acura, Jason could see there was someone in the front passenger seat. A woman. He didn’t recognize her. As Jason loaded the suitcase into the back he motioned toward the front seat.
“Is she new?” he whispered.
Frank nodded. “And you should see her…” He made cupping gestures in front of his chest and grinned. “Awesome.”
Jason and Valerie climbed into the backseat while Frank took his place behind the wheel. The car was already running, the heater blowing a pleasant stream of warm air toward them. Frank wriggled around in his seat so he was facing them.
“This is Lucy,” he said. “Lucy, this is my big brother Jason and his girlfriend Valerie.”
The woman in the passenger seat turned to face them, too. Immediately, Jason saw what Frank had been talking about. Lucy wore a low cut sweater, her giant breasts smashed together, revealing so much cleavage that Jason had a difficult time drawing his eyes to her face. When he did, he was surprised to see she wasn’t very pretty. Eyes too close together, nose too big. She wore too much makeup and her hair looked like she’d just stepped out of an 80’s heavy metal video. He smiled anyway.
“Nice to meet you,” he said.
“Same here.”
Valerie mumbled something inaudible. She’d probably seen Jason’s lingering look at Lucy’s cleavage and was none too happy about it.
“Well folks,” Frank said, turning back to face the windshield, “let’s get this show on the road.”
He pulled away from the curb slowly, merging with the cabs and shuttles that seemed to be the only other vehicles at the airport. Here, the road was cleared of snow and ice. They must’ve had a plow perpetually going over this area. Jason assumed it wouldn’t be quite so nice once they got to less populated roads. He didn’t know his way around DC or Virginia at all, but hoped they would only need to travel on major highways. Surely those would be cleared as quickly as possible.
Frank switched on the stereo and the grinding guitars of Guns N’ Roses filled the car. Frank had always loved that kind of music, but it never really appealed to Jason. It just sounded like a bunch of noise and screaming.
The four of them made small talk as they made their way through the swirling snowflakes that gained intensity with every mile. They filled each other in on what was happening with their jobs—Frank hadn’t been to work in three days due to the weather, Jason was fed up
with his pencil-pushing cog-in-the-machine daily grind, Valerie was happy as could be in her low level administrative position, and Lucy mumbled something about money that no one could understand. It crossed Jason’s mind that she might be a stripper. He wouldn’t really be too surprised. They talked of their personal lives, but nothing too in depth. That would wait until they were back at Frank’s house, all of them a few beers deep, getting philosophical and nostalgic. For now they stuck to superficial facts about what mutual friends were up to, the movies they’d seen recently, and the latest Olympics results.
The snowfall was definitely getting heavier as time passed, and the road they were travelling had built up a few inches. Jason saw the snowdrifts on the sides of the road, indications that a plow had been through here, but obviously they couldn’t keep up with what was falling from the sky. Frank was forced to slow down to just over 30 miles an hour, even though they were on the highway.
As they passed the sign indicating the junction with State Route 7, Frank muttered, “Shit.” A few seconds later, Jason saw why.
Flashing red and blue lights reflected off the snow. It looked like a Christmas scene and would’ve been pretty if not for the connotation of disaster those lights brought to mind. Frank tried to take the junction
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