Christmas Runaway by Mimi Barbour

~ Christmas Runaway ~
     
    Sara Hanson was miserable. What in the world had possessed her to give her young son Kai permission to spend Christmas holidays with his best friend’s family in Hawaii? Three months ago when the topic came up, he’d worked on her. Not having the heart to refuse, she’d caved. Obviously, she hadn’t thought about the fact that she’d be left alone on her favourite day of the year.
    Blinding snow made driving almost impossible. She shouldn’t have waited so long to start back home. But she couldn’t leave Nanaimo without making sure that his plane had taken off safely and arrived the same way in Vancouver, then a stop at the mall for life-saving necessities such as chocolate and a favourite bottle of wine.
    Add a few more stops, like dinner at her favourite Thai restaurant and a movie that should have made her laugh but didn’t, and here she was driving home too late, and through weather that had deteriorated dreadfully. Ice formed in sheets on the roads as the thermometer dropped when night fell, and treacherous didn’t begin to describe the conditions.
    Thankful that Pegi, her Samoyed, had travelled with her, she turned to pet the whining animal. “Don’t worry girl. We’ll be fine on our own. Kai deserves to be with his friends for Christmas. You and I’ll celebrate with a spinster party just as soon as we get back to our cozy fireplace. We’re not too far now, and as long as I go slow, we’ll get there.”
    Her pet still seemed agitated, and so Sara opened the passenger window a little, knowing how much her dog liked to stick her nose out and breathe in some fresh air.
    The radio had been acting up for the last few miles and finally became so distorted she shut it off. A loud cracking noise had her squinting through the blinding snow to see if a problem lay ahead on the road.
    She couldn’t see anything but huge flakes of never-ending snow. All of a sudden the street lamps flickered and went out leaving the narrow highway totally black. Only her headlights gave light and some solace, as they filtered through the mesmerizing curtain of blinding white.
    Unexpectedly, Pegi lunged at the passenger door next to her and barked. Without thinking, Sara stepped hard on the brake, which forced the car to fishtail. Like an aircraft on takeoff, it glided to one side of the road, and overcompensating the turn made the vehicle head straight to the other side and into the ditch.
    “Pegi? What in the world is wrong with you, girl? Stop that noise. Look what you made me do.” She wailed the words and grabbed for the dog’s collar at the same time. “Settle down.”
    But the agitated animal continued her uproar. She seemed to sense that the only way out was on Sara’s side. Climbing on her lap, sharp toes digging in, whining and quivering, she demanded to be let out.
    “Wait till we get home. Pegi, stop this nonsense.” She tried to push the huge, furry white monster back over to her side of the car, but to no avail. Pegi wouldn’t let up, and instead, became even more forceful.
    “Fine. I’ll open the door, but you can’t run off. You hear me? Stay close.” Sara grabbed her gloves and the flashlight she always carried under her seat and shut the car off. She left the lights on as a safety precaution, and released the latch only to have the weight of the big animal wrench the door from her hand. It swung open, and in a flash, the distraught, barking dog sailed out and disappeared.
    Frustrated, Sara stepped out of the car only to land on her backside. “Damn ice,” she muttered, as she carefully got to her feet only to see her dog bounding through the snow behind them. “That’s it, you dumb beast. Ever heard of the pound where they stick crazy canines in cages and feed them dried veggies pellets?”
    Commands for the dog to ‘get back here right now’ got no response. Now I’ll have to go and get her, she thought. Bloody hell! That’s all I need—fall face first in a snowbank