A Christmas Carol

Chapter Eight

              I bit down so hard on my lip with my chattering teeth that I was sure it would leave an imprint as the icy Colorado winds whipped my hair in every which way. I wasn’t sure how or why I was in Colorado when I was supposed to be back at home in Pennsylvania, but there I was, standing at the top of a mountain, snow practically reaching my knees with even more snow fluttering down in fat flakes at an impressive rate. I didn’t have a cell phone on me and I wasn’t sure where exactly I was, though I somehow knew for certain that I was in Colorado amidst the raging snowstorm.

              My mind seemed incapable to conjure up coherent thoughts, and the only thing I could focus on was how I needed to find my parents. I took a stumbling step forward, the deep layer of snow slowing me down considerably. The heavy clouds and showering of snow made it difficult to see very far in the black of night. An overwhelming desire to scream and sob resonated throughout my body all at once, and the urge to sit down was threatening to overcome, but I continued on, determined not to give up on my family.

              Suddenly, I heard a buzzing sound from the distance, starting out as nothing more than a soft hum until it grew and grew to resemble the roaring of an engine. I craned my neck, searching desperately in every direction to try and make out the source of the noise. At first, I didn’t see anything, but after several seconds of looking around, out of nowhere the silvery outline of an airplane reached my line of vision, coming closer and closer.

              Even though the plane was a significant distance above my place on the mountain and the snow was making it hard to see, I could somehow just make out the desperate face of my mom in one of the windows, my dad’s face peeking out the window next to her. My mom appeared to be yelling something and my dad was waving his hands with urgent movements, as if he were trying to signal something to me. I furrowed my eyebrows and tried yelling back to ask what they were trying to tell me, but somehow my mouth wouldn’t quite form any words and my cry got lost somewhere in my throat.

              It wasn’t until they grew closer that I was able to make out the expression on their faces: fear. I began running blindly, fumbling my way across the piles of snow in a frantic attempt to catch up with the plane even though I knew such a task could not be achieved, especially at the top of a mountain where eventually I’d run out of mountain and meet the edge, my fate sealed down to two real options.

              “Mom! Dad!” I yelled after them. “Wait for me! Please, wait for me. It’s not safe to fly in these conditions!” I tried yelling some more, but my voice got lost among the ever-growing and then fading reverberation that came from the engine. They were leaving me there, stranded.

              Suddenly, a gust of wind came from nowhere, setting me back and stinging my eyes with its icy touch. I squinted up at the sky to watch what was happening with the plane when all of a sudden, the wind caused it to dip and somersault and then plunge downwards toward a valley at the foot of the mountain. I started screaming, my body racking with sobs as I begged for my parents not to die. I struggled my way to the edge of the mountain and watched with horror as the plane barreled its way to the ground.

              “Please!” I sobbed, tears pouring down my face as I watched the plane smash into the ground, the left wing breaking off from the impact and pieces smashed here, there and everywhere. I slunk to the ground and began howling with cries, even though no one could hear me. I had never felt more alone.

              Though I couldn’t make out the plane all too well aside from the shape of its outline, I knew my parents were in there, dead. I leaned over the edge a little bit, just to try and make out the scene better, but I accidentally leaned over too far and the chunk of snow that I was perched on broke off, sending me tumbling down to my own death, screaming in fear all the while, although it felt more like I was floating than falling. I was just about to hit the ground when someone grabbed my wrist and saved me just in the nick of time. I screamed in terror as the person who saved me began shaking me violently.