The Matches

It was terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark.

"How are we ever going to get out of this mess?" Alice asked with a shaky voice.

"I don't know, but we need to keep going," Alex shot back at her, with a bit of scolding in his voice.

The unspoken rebuke was undeserved. After all, it was his fault they were out there, on some godforsaken mountain, high above treeline, far too late in the day, and short on food, water, and most importantly, any sense of direction.

"I just want to get out of here, Alex, so let's move. Plus I get too cold when we stop."

"I know, I know," he responded defensively, fumbling with the map on his GPS watch to try and determine just where they were.

It had been about three hours since the ever-confident Alex decided to take what he styled as a "shortcut" to the mountain peak, one that would promise to be more steep but would invite more adventure. For these two well-trained athletes, that was something they loved and for which they were well-trained. However, getting lost was not on the agenda, and getting lost on a cold mountain just before sunset with no clue where they were was not an adventure. It was a recipe for disaster.

"Okay, I think I have it now," Alex said, "so let's get a move on."

Feeling resigned to the fact she knew no more about where they are than her directionally-challenged friend, Alice sighed, tightened the straps on her hydration vest, and started following Alex down the trail.

"You know," Alex began, trying to strike a more positive tone, "you have to admit this snow falling around us up here is really pretty."

Indeed it was. The two desert-dwellers were not used to seeing snow anywhere other than in a Google image search. It wasn't just pretty; it was gorgeous. Serene. Like something out of a storybook, the pink and purple streams of light danced across the far horizon, with the peak of the mountain they were destined not to reach jutting steadfast in front of the colors as the snowflakes slowly, delicately danced their way down from the sky. If only they could relax and truly enjoy it.

"Just keep moving," replied an exhausted Alice, though silently she agreed with him. "It is beautiful," she said to herself, looking around, but she did not want to let up her disdain for the situation Alex put them in.

As the pair carefully worked their way down what appeared to be a trail, though a dubious one at best, the wind began to pick up. Alice found the cold fairly tolerable while moving, but no amount of foot shuffling could fight off the biting, shocking blast of each wind gust that blew over her. She shuddered with each iteration of the wind, clenching her fists in her gloves as tightly as she could. All she could do was put one step in front of the other and march forward.

At that point, Alex was determined - so much so that he could not focus on how the wind felt. His only focus was each foot marching steadily one after the other. He was angry at himself for the position in which they found themselves - he knew he was the one who put them there. But, he was too stubborn to show it. His pride was beckoning him with tales of how brilliant he was for finding a shortcut, and that it was not his fault they eventually ended up down the wrong path.

"I just know this is the right way," Alex said aloud, unprompted. "I can feel it."

"Well," Alice retorted, "I'm glad you can feel something. Right now, I'm so cold I can't feel anything."

"Complaining," Alex said, "you're always complaining. We're going to get through this."

"I would be complaining less if you hadn't put us in this predicament," Alice said, barely able to get the words out with her shivering lips. "You know how much I hate the cold."

Alex did not respond. He wanted to argue with her but he felt his energy start to ebb despite his overly-rosy attitude. "Best to conserve that energy for the task at hand," he thought.

The pair continued marching down the trail as the snowfall increased from the light, airy type to a more forceful downfall. The clouds overhead ran as far as the horizon. There was no doubt they were in the middle of a storm that would not go away anytime soon.

Ever-positive, Alex suddenly said, "Let's play a game. How about 'I Spy?'"

Alice didn't immediately respond, in part because her focus was on how cold she felt, and in part because she was dumbfounded by the suggestion.

She finally broke the silence. "You gotta be kidding me."

"C'mon, it'll take your mind off the cold."

"Okay. Fine. I'll start. I spy a dummy. Your turn."

"I'm just trying to..."

"Oh, wait! I spy a lot of snow. Can you find it? Do you see?"

Alex sighs. "Maybe it's time to keep the dialogue internal for a while," he decided to himself.

The pair continued silently down the trail, a path that was becoming ever-covered in snow and more difficult to track. Soon they began to see treeline. It offered a glimmer of hope as their march down the mountain continued, but they still did not know if the path they were on would take them anywhere near the trailhead where they parked.

At that moment, Alice spied what appeared to be a small family of deer. Indeed, it was. As soon as they notice Alex and Alice, they briskly bound away over the snow, disappearing into the trees. But, wait. Were they real? Or, did she imagine them? She wasn't sure.

Before long, the dull grey outlines of the impending sunset devolve into pure darkness. Whether they were on the correct trail or not was no matter at that point.

Alex and Alice were lost, without food or water, on a snowy mountain. And the night has fallen.

"The only way we're going to stay alive is if we use all the layers we have to huddle together for warmth, and we huddle as close to one another as possible.

At that point, Alice's lips were shivering so much she could barely talk, so she only offered a slight nod of agreement. They dropped their gear, pulled out the few layers they had, and covered up.

In his pack, Alex discovered a pack of matches he left there from a camping trip several months ago. "Aha!" he exclaimed. "We can start a fire!"

But, looking around, there was little hope of finding wood that was not completely covered in snow. Not to mention they had nothing to use as tinder or kindling.

So Alex and Alice laid down and began huddling together. Alex lit a match, and they stared at it as if the answers to the whole universe were contained therein. When it burned so low Alex could no longer hold on to it, he dropped it and immediately lit another.

Perhaps it was the delirious mixture of hunger, thirst, and hopelessness they felt, but it seemed with each new match that burned a comforting vision would appear: Their home in Tucson, sitting by the fireplace; the times they would spend with friends at their favorite local bar; and all the evenings they spent watching the gorgeous desert sunset from their perfectly-situated western-facing back patio.

But soon, Alex burned the last match, and they were left alone in the darkness and cold, with only the ever-falling snowflakes available to keep them company as their eyes closed, gently, drifting off to a never-ending slumber.