Slippery Turn of Events

It was terribly cold. Snow was falling and it was almost dark. The weather reports over the radio were all coming to pass. The pavement on the interstate was now beginning to glisten as the road spray from other vehicles’ tires disappeared and hardened into black ice. Charlie had been keeping tabs on the impending weather ahead of her all day. Every report she listened to warned of a big snowstorm in the mountains.

Charlie was a trucker, and she slowed her speed down to help maintain traction on the quickly freezing highway. She had crossed the Columbia River several miles back and into Oregon on her way to her destination in Jacksonville, Florida. She had just loaded apples a few hours earlier in Washington. Twenty-seven thousand pounds of Macintosh, Fuji, Honeycrisp, and Gala apples were packed tightly in boxes and palletized in her refrigerated trailer. 

Better weather awaited her if she could just make it over the Blue Mountains of Oregon and into Idaho. Storms like this are normal for Oregon winters. Heavy snow and howling winds were beginning their onslaught on the landscape. The sky had gone midnight blue just before the shroud of the storm clouds obscured it unsympathetically. 

Charlie tightened her grip on the steering wheel and focused her eyes on the road in front of her. The wind was whipping crossways at her, and she could feel the push as heavier gusts pounded the side of her truck. Her headlights beamed across the asphalt, revealing the accumulation of white snow on the less traveled parts of the pavement, leaving much of the road obscured. Two tire-wide grooves cleaved between the snow revealed the path Charlie needed to stay on through the storm.

Her father’s voice echoed in her mind. “The road tells you what you can do. Listen to it and do what it says. If you feel a slip, then slow down. Respect the road and it will respect you back.” He taught her what to look for and how to get through treacherous winter situations like this. He had tried to discourage her from becoming a truck driver like him when she decided that is what she wanted to do for a living. Yet, even in his disdain for her career choice, he helped her understand how to drive and perform at her best to be safe and do the job properly, and she was a natural behind the wheel. 

The truck climbed upwards on the Blue Mountain Summit, and the snow began to fall harder as it neared the crest. The snowflakes floating toward the windshield were mesmerizing. Charlie was doing all she could to keep her eyes focused on other things except the snowflakes. There were times her eyes would fix on the falling snow, and she would lose her focus on the highway. She adjusted her vision and moved her eyes to fixed points as she drove forward. Highway signs, mile markers, and even trees kept her from becoming snowblind.

Red taillights from another truck began to shine in front of her. Charlie was gaining on the truck as the lights were getting closer quickly. Realizing that the truck was going much slower than she was, she turned her left signal on and changed lanes to pass the upcoming truck.

Just as she neared the rear of the slower truck, his brake lights illuminated and suddenly his trailer began to slide into Charlie’s lane in front of her. She braked quickly but tried not to brake hard as she watched the truck jack-knife and start sliding down the hill sideways. As she slowed, she felt a slip underneath her and then a hard jolt. She bounced hard in her seat and that’s when she noticed her trailer was sliding in the opposite direction and across the right lane. Her heart was pounding as she watched her truck begin to slide.  Both trucks were now sliding sideways down the icy hill and there was nothing they could do but hold on for dear life.

The truck in front of Charlie was sliding faster. The rear of his trailer bumped the concrete divider in the middle of the highway hard enough that the truck bounced in the opposite direction and began to circle around. Charlie’s momentum down the hill had slowed. As the cab of the truck in front of her swung around to face Charlie she could see the eyes of the other driver were as wide as dinner plates. He was an older man with a long white beard. His eyes met hers as he continued to swirl around on the highway.

As she gazed upon the frightened driver, the only thing that came to mind was to wave at the poor fellow. Charlie lifted her right arm, waved, and smiled at the driver as he continued his slide down the hill. His shocked look unfroze a bit, his eyebrows raised as he became surprised at her gesture.

As the driver’s truck had revolved back around to face the proper direction of the highway, it hit a bare patch of highway and all his tires got their traction again. Charlie’s truck straightened out as well when her tires met the bare pavement. She maintained her position in the left lane and began completing her pass of the other truck now safely back in the right lane.

As her cab passed him, she looked over at the other driver. He turned his head, still wide-eyed, and looked at Charlie. He let out a laugh and a smile and Charlie smiled back at him shrugging her shoulders as if to say, “What are you going to do?” The driver lifted his left hand and waved back.

Charlie turned her gaze back to the highway. The snow had stopped, and the road was completely dry. She looked upwards to the sky and could see the clouds of the storm pull back to a starlight night. “Time to get rolling,” Charlie said out loud to herself and increased her momentum back to the posted speed limit. She looked at the radar app she had on her phone and saw she had passed the storm before the worst had hit. Relieved, she set her cruise control, put her hands-free headset on, and dialed her father’s phone number.