Dreamland

Racing the Storm

I’m riding in a pickup truck down a dirt road. My father is driving. There is a warning on the radio of a severe storm that is approaching. We are driving quite fast, trying to get back to the house before the storm hits. I look ahead into the distance; I can see a wall of dark clouds descending down from the mountains. I point it out to my father. He looks over to talk to me and misses a curve, driving the truck off the road.

We are bouncing across the prairie, with a big ditch straight ahead. I tell Dad to floor it so we can clear it, since it’s too late to stop. This works, but there is an even bigger ditch ahead of us. We have no choice but to continue on, full speed ahead. We keep going, bouncing across bigger and bigger ditches, until we are eventually flying across small canyons in the truck. This continues on, until we see we are approaching a huge canyon, there is no way we can clear it. Dad steps on the brakes; the truck is immediately stuck in a small ditch.

I get out to see if we can get the truck unstuck, and maybe figure out how to get back on the road. I see an old woman standing outside of a ranch house a little ways ahead. I walk up to her and ask her for directions to the highway. She points to a dirt road not too far from where the truck is, says to follow it east, it meets up with the main highway in a couple miles. I thank her, and hurry back to the truck.

I push the truck while my father uses the clutch to rock it in second gear, trying to free it from the rut. We succeed, and carefully drive between the ruts towards the dirt road. The storm is getting closer now; it looks to be a real killer. We make it to the intersection of the main road just as the storm hits.

The wind is howling, rocking the truck with gale force. We stay put, It’s raining so hard we can’t even see to drive. After a while the storm lets up a little. We drive slowly, carefully making our way back home.