Good Samaritan

         My mother has told me of a wonderful miracle given to us one December night, and I feel the urge to relate it to all this holiday season.

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         A young married couple was traveling through the mountains one December night to visit family before Christmas.  The young woman was near her time, and would not be allowed to travel on that blessed day.  The winter weather was fierce, however, and the roads were quickly deteriorating.  The youth passed a small gas station, and considered stopping to wait out the worst of the storm, but were close to their destination and felt secure in their ability to reach it safely.  Resolutely, the pair drove on...
         A short time later, as they rounded a sharp turn in the road, a doe with fawn froze in their headlights.  The young man muttered a curse, and threw the steering wheel sharply to the side as he slammed on the brakes with a squeal.  The deer dashed to the far side of the road, barely missed as the car spun out of control.  A muffled cry of pain was the last thing the young man heard as his head hit the steering wheel and he passed out.
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         The young man woke with a start, shivering uncontrollably.  He quickly surveyed their grim situation, and knew that he would have to go for help.  As he gingerly moved his unconscious wife, he noticed fearfully that she had a spreading bruise on her forehead.  Her skin was damp and clammy cold.  He franticly called her name, receiving no response.  He checked her quickly for any other obvious injuries, and was relieved to find nothing else of note.  He resolutely covered her with a blanket, and stepped out to survey their car damage.  The vehicle had buried itself in a snow bank beside the road, and they would require a tow truck to extract it.  When he attempted to start the car for the warmth its heater would afford, he only received a red engine light for his efforts.  He quickly penned his wife a note explaining that he was headed for the gas station to call for help, and that she should stay in the car out of the weather.  He hesitantly bundled up for the cold walk ahead, and left his life partner behind as he followed the vague path back to civilization.
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         The young lady woke slowly, pain hampering her attempts to sit up and respond to her situation.  She gingerly sat up, noticing as she moved that she had been carefully covered and was alone in the vehicle.  Fighting her rising well of panic, she searched the car for signs of her mate, and gave a wan smile as she recognized her spouse’s handwritten note.  However, her expression slowly dissolved as she read its contents.  Fearfully, she looked out the frosted window, to be greeted with a white curtain of precipitation.  As she shifted, disobediently attempting to open the car door, her swollen abdomen cramped viciously and sharply.  Moaning, she grasped the door handle and her bulging belly.  She panted, focusing on releasing the pain before it overwhelmed her.  As the pain subsided, she cursed herself, preying for her spouse’s quick and safe return.  She cried silently, becoming increasingly panicked as another contraction struck.  She painfully waited it out, franticly anticipating the coming hours.  She mentally reviewed her available resources, knowing she might be forced to deliver her child without assistance.  She knew there might not be any other travelers on the storm covered roads, and could only hope her spouse would return shortly with assistance.
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         The snow had progressed from a peaceful, gentle fall to a driving, blinding curtain.  The young man leaned determinedly into the howling storm, and trudged forward.  He prayed continually for the appearance of a vehicle or the gas station, which was his goal.  As he continued forward, he faced the grim knowledge that he would most likely fail his objective, since his energy was failing and he was increasingly cold.  He could only hope that someone would come upon his wife before she was buried in the snow and froze.  He knew her relatives would be concerned by their absence, since they were so late, and would likely call the authorities to help locate them.  He stumbled in the drifting snow, grimly struggling to keep his feet.  Slowly, like a mirage on the horizon, a dim light glowed palely in the distance.  A low roar, like the death tones of an avalanche, seemingly grew with the oncoming light.  The young man stopped, unbelieving the possibility of his answered prayers.  He shook his head, sure that his eyes and ears were fooling him, as logic dictated that no one would be on these dangerous roads in this storm.
         He started forward, determined to prove his senses wrong, or meet the oncoming threat, salvation, at the soonest possible time.  His relief mounted, as a looming shadow shape soon surrounded the growing light and noise.  He pushed himself into a staggering run, as he joyfully identified the snowplow lumbering steadily towards him.
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         As she gratefully relaxed from another fierce contraction, the young mother quickly moved to the back seat of the car.  She faced the grim possibility of freezing, or at least frostbite, before her child was delivered.  Awkwardly, she removed her suddenly damp sweats, and settled carefully into the rear seat.  She groaned, leaning back against the side of the car and bracing her legs against the other, as she felt an overwhelming urge to push.  Suddenly released from her body’s vicious tug-of-war, she bitterly wondered if her child would arrive before help.  She grimly realized her husband might never reach the safety of civilization, and might never know the joy of holding their child.  Thru the haze of her pain, she thought she saw movement outside the car windows.  Unable to help herself, she screamed in agony as her contraction strengthened.  She cried out again, this time in surprise, as the driver’s door opened to reveal a snow and fur-lined figure.
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         The youth shivered, knowing she would shortly suffer more pain, and praying silently that the old woman spoke true when she said her cabin was not fare away.  She knew she didn’t have much choice, unless she wished to deliver this child alone, in a freezing abandoned car.  The old woman moved behind her to stand on the dog sled runners and call the dogs to action.  They jumped to, yipping with excitement to be moving after their brief rest.  The laboring mother clung determinedly to the speeding sled as it whisked her toward the promised shelter.  She closed her eyes against the wind and thrown snow, and concentrated on enduring the muscle cramps and pressure of her upcoming delivery.  As the contraction eased, she noticed the sled slowing and the tone changed in the canine chorus.  She opened her eyes, relieved that the short, bumpy ride to shelter was over, and she would shortly be warm and comfortable.
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         The young man, fidgeting impatiently, mentally reviewed the last half-hour.  He knew he had only done what was essential to get the help needed for his wife.  He was, however, increasingly convinced that something was wrong, and she needed him with her.  He knew the snowplow could only move so fast, and with the storm, they couldn’t afford to miss the snow-covered car due to their speed.  He stared, searching out the front and side windows of the snowplow’s cab looking for the car-shaped lump of snow that would hide his wife.  He knew, in the back of his mind, that the search and rescue from the next town up the mountain would be looking just as carefully for her, and would have the medical equipment necessary to help her.
         As the snowplow rounded the next curve, the young man lunged forward with a shout of success.  There was the car, just as he had left it, but more covered.  The snowplow eased in behind the stranded vehicle, and its driver pointed to some unusual tracks in the snow beside the car.  The youth jumped from the cab, calling to his wife as he moved quickly toward the car.  He pulled the driver’s door open, straining against the drifted snow, to find the car empty.  Moaning with dismay, he searched for a note, finding only that his had been moved and the insides of the car carried a strange damp smell.  Following his nose, he found his wife’s sweat pants soaked in a clear fluid.  He knew then that she was in labor, and probably freezing to death.  He quickly returned to the snowplow, explaining to its driver what he had found.  They quickly decided to follow the unusual tracks in the hope of finding her safe and cared for.
         Moving steadily forward, they followed the tracks several miles over the snowy hills, until it turned sharply up the hill on an overgrown path, which the snowplow was unable to follow.  The plow driver refused to leave his vehicle, instead saying he would wait for the search and rescue team, and would send them in the right direction.  With quick thanks, the young man headed rapidly down the forgotten trail.  As he looked ahead, he saw a cabin with smoking chimney set against the hillside, and sent a quick prayer that his beloved would be safely within.
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         The warmth of the cabin was quickly thawing out the two women who worked feverishly to bring a new life into the world.  The old woman, steady in her support of the younger woman, was equally steady in her efforts to prepare a place for the new babe to rest once delivered.  In the final contractions of labor, the young lady strained on the bed, supported by pillows and the ornately carved headboard.  The old woman knelt at the foot of the bed, supporting the straining legs across her shoulders and coaching her to push.  A small tuft of hair curled visibly in the birth canal, steadily growing as the babe was expelled from its safe haven.  A grating cry erupted from the straining youth, followed by a bubbly mew of protest from the newest female in the cabin.  The door exploded inward just as the old woman was congratulating the new mother.  With a glad cry, the young man leapt to his wife’s side, holding her and kissing her in grateful affection.  He smiled through his tears as he touched their daughter lightly on her cheek.  The old woman smiled as she looked on at the reunited family.  Nursing their new child and holding her husband’s hand, the young mother looked up at the old woman and nodded her thanks.  Mid-nod, her smile turned to a grimace of pain and her abused abdomen visibly cramped.  She grasped her husband frantically, frightfully seeking the old woman for assistance.  The older woman, mystified by the reoccurring contractions, resumed her former position.  She examined the weary mother, noticing another head slowly emerging.  Encouraging the young mother, she gestured for the young man to approach and showed him the reason for his wife’s pain.  He exclaimed in surprise and went to support his wife, whispering to her about their second child.  In a few short pushes, the old woman gently eased the surprise child into the world.  Squalling angrily, their second daughter attempted to hit the woman rubbing her dry.  With a laugh, the child was handed to her waiting parents, and the old woman quietly left them to get more firewood for the dying flames.  Hardly noticing her absence, the ecstatic couple held their identical daughters, counting fingers and toes in loving wonder.  As he snuggled next to his exhausted wife, the young man noticed the old woman’s absence and left his resting wife with their daughters and went to look for her.  Outside, he saw no sign of their Good Samaritan, but as he was searching for her, he noticed a line of moving figures approaching with a toboggan.  He called out, and the lead figure waved in response.
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         The E.M.T.’s had given the o.k. to move the new family, so mother and children were leaded onto the toboggan to return to the road.  Despite multiple attempts to find the old woman or her sled of huskies, there was no sign of either.  One of the volunteers mentioned an old legend, which might explain her absence.
         There was an old woman, years before, who had disappeared while attempting to reach shelter during a sudden snowstorm.  Her dogs had reached shelter, but her body was never recovered.  Rare sightings occurred during similar storms, but could never be proven.  A few years after her disappearance, her cabin was struck by lightening and burned to the ground. 
         
Unnerved by the legend, the young couple could only wonder.  As the group left the cabin for the trail, the new mother glanced back to see her safe haven fade to invisibility, leaving only charred ruins.  She smiled, saying a quiet word of thanks before turning forward to face the expanding life ahead.

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         So when you go through the mountain hills in winter, remember there is always a surprise around every turn and a miracle for every crisis.  My family still treasures a small cabin in the hills, and when its cold and you listen real carefully, you can still hear the sled dogs barking in the distance - like an old dream.