The Adventures Of Bette Porter And Sissee Gardner After Yale ( Part 5, Chapter 2)

PART FIVE: PHILLIPS, WISCONSIN

Chapter 2

I thought about growing up in Wisconsin and how many times I rode or drove in the snow with no mishaps but there was always that other guy, the ones we read about in the newspapers or heard about on local television stations. There were all those snow related accidents, the slipping, sliding, losing control of the car, landing in a ditch, just like we did.

There were stories also, about those who got stranded for hours before help arrived. People who lost fingers and toes from frostbite, who suffered from hypothermia and those poor souls who became exhausted, dehydrated and some who actually froze to death.

I have to admit I was scared. Howie seemed to be taking a long time, getting that suit case out of the trunk, although it had probably only been seconds.

Suddenly he opened the back door of the car and threw the bag in, quickly slamming the door shut. Then he opened the front door and slid in.

There was snow in his hair, his mustache, on his clothes and he was shivering. He pulled off his gloves and put his hands in front of a vent. Rubbing them for warmth. Then he turned around in his seat and leaned in the back to unzip his suit case, pulling out all of the large pieces of clothing, sweaters, long pants, sweats. He closed it up, put his gloves back on and took the piece of luggage back out to the trunk.

Then he got mine, took out the heavier clothes and returned the stripped bag to the trunk. This time he came back with the bottle of Jack Daniels from his carry on.

He handed it to me. “Take a swig,” he offered. “It’ll warm you inside.”

There are some things one learns after the fact. We both remembered the good St. Bernard dogs in cartoons, stomping through the snow and ice with xxxxx casks of brandy around their necks, going to the rescue of people caught in the frozen wilds. However, we learned later that alcohol increases peripheral heat loss and it was not the right thing to do.