Stormwatch - Thundersnow

Thundersnow is a rare weather occurrence that occurs in New England, Nova Scotia and in Western New York State on the downwind end of Lake Erie. In the Buffalo area Thundersnow may occur once in a decade, or several times in a season. It's similar to a summertime thunderstorm, but the precipitation is much different.

December is normally dreary, dark, and gloomy in Buffalo NY. One wants to think that with Christmas just around the corner, the ground would be covered with snow and Victorian carolers would be on every street corner. No such luck this year, Autumn was warm and dry, and the warm weather held off until after Josh and Veronica's wedding at the end of October. November came in like a bad flu, dank, dark, and dreary, the month rolled in with a gloomy, grim attitude and sat sullen like a diseased elk. The temperature remained between 35 and 40 during the day and a mild drizzle blanketed the area day after day after day. December stumbled in with little improvement. Occasionally a bleak flurry of snow would fall but the flakes would melt the moment they touched anything.

Veronica stepped out of Erie County Hall in downtown Buffalo and looked at the sky, the concrete gray clouds were almost as permeable to light as actual concrete. It's four in the afternoon and it's almost as dark as dusk. A cold drizzle fell from that dismal sky and the chill seemed to permeate every layer of clothing she could wear. But this was the end, the project to expand the Andalon datacenter has finally been approved, she has all the paperwork signed, notarized, stamped, filed and all bureaucratic nonsense that was required was complete. She headed over to the contractor's office to deliver the good news.

It took Veronica almost an hour to get to the contractor's office in Cheektowaga, a town adjacent to the city, normally a 20-minute drive from County Hall, even quicker if you don't stop for an extra-large double-double at Tim Horton's, but it seemed like the weather had turned the traffic into a dreary copy of itself. She got to the contractor's office just before they closed for the day. As she and the executive secretary, Delilah, got the slightly soggy pages that they need from the stack so they can get construction started, Veronica scoffed, "Everybody is just so miserable this week! Everywhere I go everyone is gloomy!"

"You said it," said the secretary.

"I sure hope the weather changes and cheers everybody up," said the assistant secretary, a slim young blond who just made several copies for Veronica. She stopped when she realized that Veronica and her boss Delilah were staring at her in shock.

"She's new here," said Delilah as she placed the documents that she needed to hand to their engineering team in a neat stack.

"Obviously," said Veronica with a shake of her head.

"What did I say?" said the young thing, starting to panic.

"It's not the weather, we're used to the weather," said Veronica.

"It's the Bills!" said Delilah. The Buffalo Bills lost on Sunday in a squeaker against the Raiders. Bills fans are not fair-weather fans, while Bills fans don't love the miserable weather, it's their weather. Buffalo lived, breathed, ate, and slept the Bills, the Sabers, and the Bisons, and with a loss on Sunday and a playoff berth still not clinched, the population of Erie County New York and surrounding areas are near suicidal with angst over their Bills. It's been often (and accurately) said that Buffalo is a drinking town with a sports problem.

"Are you going to the Miami game?" Veronica asked Delilah. The Miami game is the Sunday before Christmas and it's going to be a big one, both teams are tied for the lead in the AFC east and the fans are hoping for a "Snow Bowl" to "squish the fish."

"Oh, hell yeah!" grinned Delilah. "We have seats on the forty, eight rows up and three seats from the aisle, on the Dolphins side. Are you going?"

"No," frowned Veronica. "The tickets we use are company tickets, and Anthony has a client that needs schmoozing, so Josh and I will have to watch the game on a big screen TV... in front of a warm fire... in a log cabin." Veronica put on a huge show of looking disappointed, but in reality, she was happy. The seats are great, Club Level, near the 50-yard line, but the stadium which is visible from where Veronica works is an open-air stadium. The people of Western New York wouldn't have it any other way, but after mid-November it's a bit cool for Veronica's blood.

"You poor thing! I'll keep you in mind when the snowballs start to fly," smiled Delila as she handed the papers back to Veronica.

As Veronica got back to her Lincoln, she glanced at her phone, a text from Josh had come in. "Meet us at Worzil's" it said. Worzil's is a local bar just a couple of blocks from their home where they love to go for fish fry on Fridays. Normally Josh would say why, like Julissa is having a special on wings or something like that, but he didn't. She looked at her watch and sighed, then replied, "Running a bit late, I'll text you when I leave Andalon."

About forty-five minutes later Veronica strolled into Andalon, most of the day shift was gone, only the sales staff and a few programmers were still in their cubicles. The rain was steady now and Veronica's hair and coat were soaked from her walk through the rain to the building even though she was parked as close to the building as possible. She had noticed that Josh's Jeep pick-up was not in the lot meaning that he actually left the building at a decent hour.

Now that Josh was running the hardware side of the data center, he's been working some long hard hours, rarely putting in less than a 13-hour workday. As a wedding present, Anthony Freidman gave Josh a huge raise and new responsibilities that made the money look like chicken feed.

Before stepping into her office to file the documents she poked her nose into Anthony Friedman's office. He was on the phone but waived her in. She waited a few minutes as he finished up the call, then he glared up at Veronica. "That was Sorolla Construction, it appears that you gave Delilah the impression that you're not going to the Miami game?"

"You have a client to schmooze, so I'm going on that honeymoon I was promised two months ago," said Veronica as she shook the raindrops off her coat.

"I gave you time off," said Anthony, the Founder and CEO of Andalon.com, "what did you do with it?"

"You also gave my workaholic husband a challenging new position and a new data center to build," she said as she shook the folder full of the legal documents that New York requires to start a building project. "He disappeared the day after the wedding and only came up for air on Thanksgiving, and then I only got to see him when I could pry him away from you."

"Ok, I'll take Dave Shapiro from Mercy Hospital," smiled Anthony. Dave Shapiro was the VP of IT at Mercy, and they were ripe to start looking for an offsite data storage solution.

"Who else?" asked Veronica as she leaned into her office through the connecting door and placed the documents into the filing cabinet. Andalon had four seats and quite often when the tickets were free, they went to almost anyone, usually the salesman of the month and guest.

"Billie and Linda," chuckled Anthony as he grabbed his overcoat. His 13-year-old teenage daughters love the Bills and both have swooning crushes on the quarterback. Locking his office door closed, Anthony led Veronica through the darkened lobby "By the way, I approved your Valentines vacation request."

"Ok, see you Monday," said Veronica as they headed toward their cars. Then she stopped and loudly called out, "What Valentines vacation?"

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It was completely dark when Veronica finally made it to Springville, their hometown, and the wet and damp conditions made nightfall even darker. The whole village was lit up for the holiday season with garland and lights across Main Street, light poles wrapped with garland, wreaths crowning the faux gas lamp heads, but the merry lights did little to penetrate the bleak darkness. She stepped into Worzils Grille and was met by the hostess and co-owner Julissa Tanaka who greeted her with her typical aplomb. "You look like a drown rat, bitch."

"Fuck you too, you're a doll yourself," groused Veronica as the two friends hugged.

Normally here in Springville would be snow, they were much higher in the hills in an area known as the Snowbelt. No matter how much snow you hear about hitting Buffalo, twice as much snow hits the snowbelt... but not tonight. The cold, dreary rain made Veronica miserable. Even the cheery Christmas lights throughout the village and the decorations inside Worzils did nothing to lift her spirits. "Where did you park my husband?"

"In the back with the rest of the troublemakers," said Julissa. As they walked past the bar, Julissa's bartending husband Ayato set a glass of wine on a round tray which Julissa picked up as she led Veronica to the back room. There next to a long table was seated her husband Josh, her father Mike von Koster, and his new wife Audrey. Veronica's new stepmother was 12 years younger than she was. It's not like her dad had an eye out for a young girl, Mike was a hard-working man whose wife left him to raise two girls by himself. Hard times fell on him, and he moved in with Josh and Veronica and he fell in love with a friend of theirs. Mike and Audrey got married the same day Josh and Veronica got married although Audrey was a few months pregnant by then

Sitting at the table next to them was a crowd of people centered around Andi Jarecki and her husband Paul. They were neighbors and good friends, with them was Paul's brother John and his wife Macy. Paul held his year-old son Daniel safely as he sat on the table next to his year-old cousin Katarina who held by her dad John. Andi's daughters, the twins Madeline and Sandy, six years old but nearly half the size of a kindergartener due to their preemie birth, were sitting in booster chairs cheering on Danny and Katty as the one-year-olds tried to figure out how to eat a cupcake for the first time. The twins squealed with laughter as Danny and Katty leaned forward to bite the cupcakes without using their hands. The happy mothers shot photo after photo and the proud fathers basked in the joy of the event.

Both brothers, Paul and John, were first-time fathers so they had no idea what to expect when Macy suggested giving the cousins un petit gâteau (a cupcake) at their party. At first the little ones didn't know what to make of the cupcakes. Daniel's cupcake was chocolate with chocolate frosting and Katarina's vanilla cupcake had white vanilla frosting. The cupcakes were chosen because they contrasted with their complexion, Daniel was as fair and light blond as his older sisters, and Katarina has a beautiful mocha complexion, a blending of her pale skinned father and her black French-Canadian mother.

Veronica sat next to Josh and deflated. "I missed their birthday... I'm sorry." Daniel and Katarina were born before the company party where Josh proposed to Veronica and watching them grow was a big part of Josh and Veronica's year together.

"Nica," Josh said softly as he kissed away a tear from her cheek and handed her the glass of wine that Julissa brought from the bar. "It's ok, I completely forgot myself until Audrey texted me." Veronica watched her new stepmother who was sitting next to the twins watching Danny and Katty as they slowly got the idea that they could eat their cupcakes and began to spread the frosting on their faces. Audrey was laughing joyfully, anxious for the day that the new life growing in her would reach this stage.

That's when Josh noticed that rather than enjoying the spectacle, as the other families that came to eat dinner were doing, Veronica was beginning to look anxious, then upset, then she began to tear up. Her hazel eyes began to brim with tears and her expression grew sorrowful as her heart screamed at her, telling her over and over that she gave up her chance at this kind of joy years ago for a career in beauty pageants and modeling. She saw the happiness on Andi and Macy's faces, and she thought of her four nieces that her sister produced, Veronica wanted a baby, she had been off birth control for eight months and not even a missed period. "What's wrong?" asked Josh.

"No," said Veronica. "I love you Effi, but you run around trying to fix everything... some things you can't fix." Effi is the private nickname she uses for Josh, his real name is Efraim, in return he calls her Nica privately.

"Challenge accepted," said Josh whose entire life was dedicated to fixing things. From a sweet old Hallicrafters radio for Paul, to a ratty old Ahrens lawn tractor that he rebuilt to nearly new condition for Veronica to use at the cabin, from B-52s to Army Jeeps, from network servers to network data centers, Josh can fix things. "Give me an idea what the problem seems to be."

"No, Josh, it's not that easy," she bit her lower lip as the sight of the laughing mothers filled her vision and the dread that she never will be one poisoned her heart.

"I can't fix it if I don't know what's broken."

"Please... stop. You can't..." Veronica suddenly whooped as Josh stood and pulled her chair back and scooped her up out of her chair. "Put me down!" but he refused. The look in his eye wasn't anger, it was concern, and it felt good that he was so concerned that he would do something this silly. For some reason it was almost a turn-on to Veronica. Rather than fighting him she put her arms around his neck as he turned toward the back door that led out to the smoking area.

Suddenly Julissa called out across the dining room, "What do you think you're doing?"

"We'll both have the beef on weck," called out Josh as Veronica started to kick, "and I'll take a Jenny."

"Make him stop!" called Veronica across the dining room. "And I'll have another glass of wine!"

"You want pickle with those sandwiches?"

"Yes please," they both called out and they were out the door and in the cold. The rain had finally changed to snow, small, perfectly formed crystals that drifted down from the sky and melted on contact, but that will change soon.

"Now that you humiliated me," she huffed after he set her down. "I'm going home!" God that was hot! Rhett Butler hot! She was tingling all over.

"I know you're not leaving your Lincoln behind," said Josh as he held up the starter fob to the love of her life, her Lincoln Navigator luxury SUV.

"What the f... How did you get that?"

"That doesn't matter, what does matter is why you're so jealous of Andi and Macy," said Josh.

"That's silly, I'm not jealous of them. The crying, the diapers, the feeding..."

"The quiet moments together, their little laugh, their first word," countered Josh. He knew that his words touched exactly where she was vulnerable. Veronica turned to hide her sadness. He let his South Georgia accent speak for him when he wrapped his arms around her from behind and said, "If it happin' Ah wanna share that experience with you. Ah know ah didn' come from a shinin' example a family life, but ah think ah can learn... with your help."

He knew that he was playing dirty, Josh found out early in their relationship that his deep baritone voice and his South Georgia accent had an effect on Veronica, it seemed to calm and reassure her. "You don't have to..." she whispered.

"No, ah don't, but with you, if it's what you want, it's what I want also." She didn't move so he continued. "I know what you're doing, and we don't have to time our sex to your cycles, we can make love any time we want, and when it happens, it happens, and we'll be a family."

"And if it doesn't?" she asked.

"We'll still be a family. We can go to a doc and see what kind of fertilizer we can use..."

"Fertilizer?" She finally turned around, even through her tears she was laughing. "You think there's some powder you can sprinkle on my ovaries?"

"They ain't?"

"You goofball."

"Tell you what," said Josh after their lips parted, "we'll go to my doc next week and see if my swimmers are fully armed, and we'll go from there."

"And if they're not?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Gee... I wonder who we know that can help adopt us a baby..." he said as he stroked his beard. A good 50% of Veronica's job is assisting Marjorie Friedman with her adoption advocacy organization.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" asked Veronica.

"If it's with you, yes, more than anything."

As they re-entered the warmth of Worzil's, Julissa was bringing them their roast beef sandwiches. "Ayato says that you have the whole baby thing figured out. Good, it's about time." There are no secrets in Worzils. Julissa's husband, Ayato, may be blind as a bat, but he has a bat's hearing also.

"We've only been married a month and a half!" exclaimed Josh.

"And you're not getting any younger," scolded Julissa as she set out their beef on weck. "Now eat before your dinner gets cold."

Beef on weck is the food of Buffalo. Chicken wings were for tourists, chicken wings with exotic flavorings were for yuppies and food elitists. Beef on weck was the go-to food of the working man and woman of Western New York. Roast beef cooked rare, sliced thin, and piled high on a kimmelweck. The kimmelweck is a roll, soft and fluffy in the inside with a crispy crust that is adorned with kosher salt and caraway seeds. The top of the kimmelweck is dipped in au jus and the roast beef is festooned with horseradish so hot you could light a cigar with it.

"You're killing me with this food," said Veronica as she bit into her sandwich. It was sooo delicious, but her waistline is not going to survive.

"You're the one that moved to Buffalo, you should have known about the food," chided Josh. Food in Buffalo was a celebration of culture, restaurants featuring the cuisine of Greek, Italian, and Asian of all kinds saturated the landscape and small servings don't exist. No one escapes Buffalo with a narrow waist if they have taste buds of any caliber.

Josh and Veronica sat so they could watch the babies explore their first cupcakes. Their faces and shirts were covered with crumbs and frosting and right now they were exploring each other's faces with frosting covered fingers while their parents laughed so much their sides hurt. Josh was going to assure Veronica "that will be us soon," when her dad, Mike, and his new wife, Audrey, sat down. "Can we talk?" asked Mike, he looked a bit embarrassed.

"What's up dad?" asked Josh. It had to be important, if it wasn't a major issue Mike would have come right out with it.

"Audrey and I would like to spend some time alone together and we just don't..." Mike was embarrassed to say it, he wanted to spend some quality time alone with his wife Audrey before the baby makes it difficult, but he has no money for a hotel. They live in an in-law suite in Veronica and Josh's home, which is great, but with Josh and Veronica coming and going all the time, there's no chance to be as spontaneous as a newlywed would like.

"We want to use... maybe the cabin..." started Audrey softly.

"Sweetheart, we get it," Josh interrupted before she or Mike went any further, "hold on a second." After a hushed conversation with Veronica he said, "No. We're not going to loan you the cabin."

Mike and Audrey looked crestfallen, and Mike started, "We understand, I'm sorry to bother you."

"No wait, dad stop," said Veronica. "Neither of you have spent a winter here in the snowbelt, if you were in the cabin and something happened to either of you or to the baby, help may not be able to get to you."

"We could, if you like, get you a suite in a nice hotel downtown," said Josh.

"Or..." said Veronica, with a sideways glance at Josh, "Josh and I could spend Christmas in the cabin, and you two could have the whole house to yourself... snuggling in front of the fireplace with the tree all lit up... it's pretty romantic."

Knowing his father-in-law's love of Veronica's pool table Josh grinned, "I know a score keeping method that makes playing 8 ball an even more interesting game."

Audrey's eyes flew wide open, and Mike sighed in relief. "Are you sure?" Audrey gushed.

"Absolutely," said Josh. He was really starting to look forward to spending Christmas at the cabin with Veronica.

Veronica nodded in agreement. "We've been wanting to spend some private time together also; we've been so tied up with work we hardly see each other except in passing."

"What about Christmas? We want to spend Christmas with you," said Mike.

"Go spend Christmas with your wife," said Josh, "the four of us will spend New Year's together."

Veronica got up and stepped up behind her dad and gave him a hug from behind and kissed his cheek. "Get a menu together and we'll go shopping for your Christmas dinner, unless you want what we're having."

"You still have those special turkeys?" asked Audrey.

"They're in the freezer out in the garage," said Josh, "why don't you have one on Christmas Day and we'll have the other, because I have a menu already made up for New Year's Eve."

"What's for dinner on New Year Eve?" asked Veronica. Josh is a great cook but unfortunately his new responsibilities had pulled him away from cooking and Audrey took over. Audrey isn't a bad cook, but she's nowhere near Josh's level of skill.

"I have clams casino for an amuse bouche, a big standing rib roast, twice baked potatoes, roasted white asparagus with hollandaise, and lobster tail to ring in the New Year," said Josh.

"Le palourdes du casino n'est pas un amuse bouche, ils sont un aperitif!" insisted Macy from the other table.

"What's that?" chuckled Veronica. "She seems worked up."

"She thinks that clams casino is not an amuse bouche, they're an appetizer, but I'm the cook, I get to name them." An amuse bouche is actually a small appetizer that is generally not on the menu, you get what the chef sends you.

Macy heard him and stepped up to the table between Audrey and Mike then leaned over until her nose touched Josh's nose. "Capiche?" said Josh.

Macy chuckled and kissed Josh's nose. "I will be the judge of that, I've been watching Gordon Ramsey."

"I dare you to use his language," Josh chided the pastor.

Mike and Audrey soon left to walk the four blocks home in the pretty snow. "Remember the first time we were here?" said Veronica as the flakes of snow slowly fell past the window.

"Yeah, I remember being terrified over what life had in store for me," said Josh as they kissed.

"You almost lost me that night," said Veronica.

"I could not reconcile over how Miss Ohio, fashion model, business exec could fall for someone like me."

"I know potential when I see it," smiled Veronica as she squeezed his crotch below the table.

As the newlyweds finished their dinner, Andi and Paul Jarecki joined them. Andi was a pulmonologist, and she worked with the VA, Paul was a cardiologist, but he also ran a string of ten very successful car dealerships. That was until Paul had a minor heart attack and knowing that she couldn't get him to quit working altogether, Andi demanded that he quit one job. In the end, Paul kept the job that he could do from home, and he's now the CEO of a string of soon to be 12 car dealerships having a deal to acquire two more. His dad started with one gas station and worked it up to a ramshackle string of used car lots, then to several new car dealerships. Paul took over when his dad died and found he had a skill at running car dealerships.

"What's up?" asked Veronica, "what's with the grins?"

"Anthony let us hijack you," said Andi as she struggled to get a clean t-shirt on Daniel.

Josh shrugged so Veronica thought then asked, "Valentine's Day?"

"Yep, I have some friends from back home that went through a rough patch so we're going to take them out on a little cruise, and we have an open suite..." Andi waggled her eyebrows, she and Paul have a 72-foot yacht docked in Florida.

Josh looked at Paul and asked, "Where are we going?"

Paul pointed at Andi and said, "Don't ask me, she's driving."

"Andi Granatelli?" gasped Josh pretending to be terrified. Even with three children and a thriving practice, Andi had a fondness for very, very fast cars and her nickname fits.

"She's good," said Paul, "She has her coast guard captain's rating, and it is her boat. I gave it to her for a wedding present."

"We heard that you were spending Christmas at your cabin," said Andi, "Grandma and Yi are watching the kids, so we'll be in our cabin too. Would you like to come over and watch the Bills that Sunday?"

"We have a bigger TV in our cabin," said Josh. They had cabins across the road from each other not far from town, they were investments that Josh and Paul made long before Andi and Veronica entered their lives.

"Fine," said Paul, "Have your people call my people."

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It seemed to take forever but the weekend of the Miami game finally arrived. After checking half a dozen times that Mike and Audrey had plenty of food and they had all the emergency numbers they would need Veronica launched into a safety briefing for her father and stepmother. Veronica was doting on her father like a parent dotes on their child, but she worries about him so much, so many health and financial issues and now a child bride with a child on the way? She couldn't let go.

"Let's go," said Josh sternly from the front door.

"I'm almost ready," said Veronica as she started to write emergency information on the notepad on the kitchen table, but Josh came up behind her and gently took the pencil out of her hand.

"Whatever it is, if they have a problem, they'll call." Veronica turned to scold Josh, but he gave her a tender kiss. "Let them figure it out."

If there's one thing about Josh that Veronica can't stand is how he is able to completely prevent her from overreacting. She can feel her Dutch ancestry calling down through the generations to fight! Overpower with sheer stubborn obstinance! Steam rollers have nothing on an angry Dutch girl! And Josh ruins it all by gently soothing her ruffled feathers. She'll get him back, she knows his weak spots, like how he can never say "No" to a naked woman. She turned and gave him a gaze that she hoped said, "This isn't over."

Then his deep southern baritone voice softly intoned, "It's time to stop being his guardian and start being his cheerleader."

He did it again! She melted inside at his soft words. "You're right," she sighed, and saying their goodbyes they stepped out into the gentle snow globe that the village of Springville had become. "So pretty out here!" she gasped. She had been so concerned with making sure that her dad was set for the week that she hadn't thought to look out the window. "But what if they get snowed in?"

"Kenny said he'll come over from the feed store and clear the driveway for them," reminded Josh.

Veronica looked over at Andi and Paul Jarecki's house two blocks away. The huge Victorian was beautifully decorated for Christmas, a huge blue spruce centered in the 15' tall front window. It makes Veronica's Victorian 3-bedroom home look like a cottage, but both houses are incredibly beautiful. "Kenny won't have to come from that far away," she said with a smile. Kenny Johnson is madly in love with Yi-jin Carlson, the governess and executive chef for the Jarecki family. Kenny and Yi have been inseparable since Halloween and show no signs of slowing down.

Even though Veronica is nearly as tall as he is, Josh helped her into his Jeep Gladiator, and they were on their way. They drove slowly through the snowy village, the sidewalks were filled with happy shoppers, three shopping days left till Christmas! And every one of them was wearing some form of Buffalo Bills regalia. Hats, jackets, hoodies, even red, white and blue Buffalo Bills dog sweaters on more than one dog were visible in the crowd. A quick stop at Tim Horton's for a late afternoon cruller and coffee and they were on the road.

The ride out to the cabin is quick, about ten miles west on US 39, when the four lane narrows to a two lane highway you're almost there. A left turn on Travette Road and in one mile you're at the cabin. Soon they were standing on the covered porch of their cabin, a CCC construction from 1940. It was a large, rectangular log cabin, designed like a barracks, and the land they're on once had over a dozen other cabins back in the woods. Josh bought the whole parcel of land with the understanding that the other cabins were demolished, which was only half correct, several were still standing but needed work, others were easily rebuilt. Counting their cabin, there are now five cabins standing.

"I can't get over how different the forest looks without the leaves!" gasped Veronica. Although there were several species of evergreens in the forest, a great many trees stood naked, their leaves were gone in the storms of November.

"We can get the snowshoes out and go for a walk tomorrow after the game," offered Josh. Neither could wait for Christmas; they each have a gift for each other that would make the walk in the woods more fun. "Ok, I'll get the driveway, the walk, and the porch if you want to get the cabin ready."

"I'm on it!" said Veronica and she began unlocking the door.

Josh walked over to the garage and grabbed a 5 gallon can of gasoline out of the back of his truck then opened the garage and there waiting for him was the snow blower. Fuel topped off, oil checked, choke set, throttle open, electric cord plugged in, and with a press of the starter it cranked for a while before it fired up, sputtering and coughing as the ice-cold gasoline sluggishly combusted. After a minute or two the engine warmed up and Josh was able to ease up on the choke. He unplugged the extension cord that provides power for the starter motor and eased the snowblower out of the garage.

Inside the cabin Veronica cheerfully called out, "Hi Randy! I'm back! Did you miss me?" She flicked on the cabin lights and looked up and there in the gloom, sitting on a cross beam was a stuffed racoon that had been up there for decades. It was wearing a tiny Santa Claus hat. "Your hat looks great Randy!" and she set about going down Josh's check list first - unlock the back door. Once the fire escape was unlocked, she set about opening the windows. Each window had a set of outer shutters and a set of inner shutters. She unlatched the inner shutters, the latches were good solid latches that would withstand any assault, then the windows themselves get unlatched and swung inward and up, then she unlatched the outer shutters. They swung out and light streamed into the cabin along with a puff or two of snow. She swung the windows back into place and went to open up the five remaining windows.

As Veronica worked, she heard the drone of the snowblower, muffled by the snow that continued to gently fall over the county. If this keeps up, they may get a snow bowl for the Miami game tomorrow! The fire she built in the fireplace was crackling merrily and the cabin started to warm up when the snow blower stopped and was replaced by the rasp of the snow shovel as Josh cleared the steps and the porch of snow.

When Josh stepped into the cabin the air was warm and smelled of pine needles and birch smoke. Veronica was wearing a bathrobe and warm felt boot liners while she decorated a small Christmas tree that was set up on a table in a corner. She could be wearing a fireman's jacket and she would still look good. Veronica was as tall as Josh at five foot ten with flowing dark blond hair and features that made men thank God for creating women like that. Gleaming hazel eyes, a small sharp nose and warm full lips that look perfect wrapped around a throbbing cock. Her breasts are a full, round 34DD, she has a narrow 24-inch waist and round 36 inch hips making her figure breathtaking.

Josh kicked off his boots at the door and hung up his coat, mittens, and Buffalo Bills hat. "Hey pretty girl, I'm done out there."

"Why do you wear those silly giant mittens out there?" she asked without turning around.

"What... my choppers? I had to search high and low for a surplus store that sells the proper United States Military Arctic Mittens." They are big, insulated mittens worn in the extreme cold, the palm and thumbs are leather, the rest is canvas and wool, and the outer will go over the thickest parka sleeve.

"Why mittens? Don't they make it difficult to do stuff?" She smiled as he came up behind her and opened her robe and began to caress her soft, silky-smooth flesh. She gasped and jerked away at first by reflex because she was expecting his hands to be cold... but they weren't. "Mmmm your hands are nice and warm."

"That's why I wear mittens in the cold instead of gloves," he growled as he began nipping at her earlobe. His hands grasped her breasts and gently hefted them squeezing gently a finger flickered over each nipple setting off sparks in her libido.

"You go shower up before we play, and trim that beard, you're starting to get scruffy."

"You just don't like rednecks."

"What?" Veronica whirled around and put her fists on her hips, her robe was wide open giving Josh a view of her perfect hourglass figure, her breasts were reaching out to him, nipples erect. "I sleep with a redneck every night, it's scruffy hillbillies I don't like."

"I didn't bring my trimmer."

"I packed it for you, now go!"

"Yes ma'am."

Twenty minutes later he emerged from the bathroom, scrubbed clean, his beard trimmed back to the goatee he wore when he proposed to Veronica just 51 weeks ago. While he was showering, she had taken his clothes so when he emerged from the bathroom, he could have worn a towel around his waist, but he chose not and emerged from the bathroom wearing nothing but a smile and an erection.

He stepped out to find the table set and dinner heating on the stove, tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. And Veronica greeted him wearing a completely diaphanous white robe. The transparency of the robe made Veronica look more naked than she would without it. She eyed his erection and with a half-smile said, "I didn't know you liked tomato soup so much." He pulled her close for a kiss, but she stopped him with a finger to his mouth. "This is my fantasy."

"Fantasy?"

"Yes, when I was young, this is what I thought early married life was like. My husband would come home from work, clean up, and then we'd have dinner naked."

Josh smiled and pulled out a chair for Veronica, but she shook her head. "No, you sit down, you just came back from a hard day at the factory." She went back to the stove and finished up the sandwiches. The scent of the soup filled the cabin, which before Veronica rarely saw more than the occasional steak or a microwave pizza cooked indoors. "Here you go," she placed the perfect grilled cheese and bowl of tomato soup before him.

"This is perfect, this is exactly what I need after a long day of work," but he wasn't looking at his food, he was drinking in the sight of Veronica in her transparent robe. She's never looked so beautiful!

"Eat!" insisted Veronica as she delicately sipped a spoon of steaming hot tomato soup.

"What's this green stuff?"

"I put in some basil and parmesan."

"So, this is what a young girl thinks marriage is like?"

"Well, it's what I thought marriage is like, and to me it was exciting to think about." She smiled and waggled her eyebrows, "real exciting."

As darkness descended outside, Josh got up and said, "Let me get the lights." Instead of turning the lights on he placed a single candle on the table, the candlelight accentuated Veronica's beauty, her skin glowed in the pure light of the candle. "So, what did young Veronica have planned for dessert?"

She looked a little embarrassed as she reached for her spoon to finish her soup. She was so excited that her hands were shaking, every fiber of her body ached for this to be over and dessert to begin. For some reason all she could think about was when he picked her up and carried her outside in a crowded restaurant last night. She knew that she could fight her way out at any time, and she knew that he wasn't going to hurt her, but it felt so powerfully erotic that he was carrying her outside to the smoking section. Even though he took her out there to have a discussion, he could have pulled down her slacks and taken her bent over the railing in front of a dozen smokers and she would have let him. It was so hot to have her man scoop her up in his arms, not just because he was going to have his way, but because he cared.

"I didn't plan on..."

"I'll come up with something," said Josh and he stood up and collected the dishes and carried them to the sink. Returning he stepped up to Veronica and held out a hand. "Care to dance Nica?" Unsure of what he was up to she took his hand and nervously rose. He led her over to the area in front of the fireplace where the fire crackled and danced merrily. He moved the coffee table out of the way and touched his phone a couple of times until "Can I Have This Dance for the Rest of my Life" came on the stereo.

They started to dance to the beautiful country waltz that they danced a year ago when Josh proposed to her, it seemed so long ago, yet at the same time it felt like just yesterday. They waltzed around the cabin, their hearts beating in time with each other, his cock pressed between them, Veronica was sure he could feel her hard nipples pressing against his chest.

"Now Effi," her voice was shaking with need.

"Hmmm?"

Was he being obtuse? "I need you now Effi," she whispered. She stepped back and with trembling fingers untied the ribbon that held the insubstantial whisp of fog that was her robe.

"That's my job Nica," said Josh as he brushed her trembling hands away and eased the imaginary barrier off her shoulders where it pooled on the wooden floor. The only light in the cabin was the fire which burned lazily and the little Christmas tree that Veronica had set up. As she bathed in his adoring gaze Veronica began to wonder what he had planned, but she should know by now that planning was a sometimes thing with Josh. He preferred to let the mood of the moment lead him, and now he did just that and scooped Veronica up in his arms and carried her to the couch that they inherited from Anthony, the couch where their love first bloomed.

The couch is a bit lower than the average bed and Josh got off balance when trying to gently lay Veronica down on the couch. Their evening of romance ended up in a giggling tangled heap on their couch. "Y'all ain't getting outta this that easy," laughed Veronica as she straddled Josh's waist.

"Y'all is plural, like saying "you guys," who-all are you talking to besides me?"

Veronica grasped Josh's cock and rose up a bit on her knees. "This guy! The one you've been pointing at me all night." She rubbed the head of his cock up and down her pussy lips then slowly sank down, skewering herself on his hard, swollen cock. They swam in each other's eyes for a moment, drinking in the bliss of their intimate connection, his cock stretching her reaching deep into her womb, in return he bathed in her tight warmth.

Now she started to move her hips sliding back and forth, stroking her clit on his pubic mound. She gasped and moaned as they moved together. This wasn't going to take her long; she's been on a hair trigger all evening. Playing out her little fantasy was hotter than expected, she couldn't wait to try the more exotic fantasies!

Soon she was gasping and whimpering, her hips moving of their own accord, Josh started driving his cock into her pussy in time with her gyrations. Little cries escaped with each slid of her clit through his now soaked pubic hair. "Yesss... yesss... yesss Effi..." Now as her orgasm overcame her, she was crying out, "Cummminggg... cumminggg... Effiiiiiii!!!" she started thrusting back on his cock harder and harder as waves of release washed over her, and as it passed, she sagged down to his chest taking deep shuddering breaths.

Now he rolled her over, her beautiful hair fanned out on the couch, her nice round breasts wobbling on her chest with every movement of her body. Josh's cock was still rock hard, he was aching for release, and he was so close when she collapsed. Her eyes showed that she realized what she was in for, and she gave him a tired smile. "Ready Nica?"

"I'm all yours," she whispered so quietly he barely heard her over the soft music in the background. His hips began to move, and he propped himself up on his arms so he could watch. He loved this woman so much and there's only one joy more intense that watching her cum, that's the joy of being the man that is driving her out of her mind with passion.

His hips began to thrust, first slowly and measured, basking in the warm clinging of her pussy on his cock, then faster and the need to cum started to build. His measured thrusts started to become frantic, her breasts began to wobble in circles as he thrust harder, deeper. "No!" she gasped, it was still barely conceivable to her to have more than one orgasm with a man, but Josh was different than any man in her past, he wanted her to be cumming constantly, and sometimes he can reach that lofty goal, but right now he was so close to cumming himself, he may not last long enough.

"Cum with me Effi," she gasped, this one was coming quick, her eyes were practically spinning as this marvelous cock pounded her to ecstasy. Josh dropped to his elbows as he began to fuck franticly. Veronica lifted her legs and crossed her ankles around his back while he fucked harder and harder.

Her orgasm hit her just as she grabbed his ass cheeks, digging her fingernails in she cried out in guttural groans of ecstasy, immediately followed by Josh. His cock erupted spurting hours' worth of pent-up semen. He jerked and thrust as deeply as he could, the waves of bliss shaking his frame with each spurt.

Finally, they relaxed in each other's arms, kissing and whispering endearments as their trembling subsided. Josh started to get up but Veronica clutched his arms, "Where are you going?"

"I was thinking of getting a glass of water for us and a washcloth."

"Hold on," Veronica smiled, "stay with me a moment." So Josh stayed and they kissed and soon his cock began to deflate and slide out. "That's the best part," said Veronica.

"Why is that the best part?"

"It's like Mission Accomplished to me. I spent all evening getting you worked up, that tells me I did a good job."

"Yes you did," smiled Josh. "I better get a washcloth."

"You better get a mop! Gaa-Lee! you should have told me how much you can hold." Josh had never heard Veronica talk like this before! "Yeah," she said as if reading his mind, "I'm real people too, now get that cloth."

Chuckling Josh came back with a warm moist cloth and cleaned her (and the couch) up. "What do we want to watch?" she said as they settled in on the couch to relax and rebuild their energy for round two. "I want a romance movie."

"I have the perfect movie for both of us," said Josh and soon the Legend of Bagger Vance came on.

"This is a sports movie," Veronica pouted.

"Just watch the interplay between Charlese Therron and Matt Damon," said Josh. "It will take a while, but you will love it." And for once when picking a movie, Josh was right. What got Veronica hooked was that Matt Damon's character was a veteran struggling with PTSD and Charlize Theron's character was trying to deal with that. Veronica was in tears up by the end of the movie.

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Josh's cellphone woke him up around 3:00 AM, it was his "other daughter" Terri McCarthy, Josh was sure that she was either drunk and looking for a ride home or there was trouble. "What's up Terri?" he asked quietly.

"I didn't want to disturb you, Mr. Friedman said not to call you, but we got trouble."

"What's going on?" He sat up on the edge of the couch, the tree still glittered softly, and the fire had burned down. The encroaching cold was going to wake him to tend to the fire soon anyhow.

"Ellicottville is down."

"Oh crap." Ellicottville Urgent Care is more than a bandage and aspirin medical center, it's a small but full-fledged emergency hospital. There are several ski resorts in the area and EUC is the only place that can handle a horrific skiing accident for scores of miles. The ski resorts will probably close if their medical support is lost. Terri explained the issue and the more she explained the more confusing it was. To Josh it sounded like a newbie at the hospital did something to their server and now half of their network is down and record keeping is in limbo. "Who do we have in Ellicottville?" Josh asked.

"Jenn has been down there since ten o'clock," said Terri. Jennifer Combs is Terri's "Partner in crime" and one of Josh's top field troops, but she was a network specialist, this smelled like a server issue.

"Who do you have with you?"

"It's just me and Gucci right now but Mr. Friedman called all-hands-on-deck. Everyone is coming in."

Sal "Gucci" Cuccinotta is new and he's really good, he's another direct hire by Ant Friedman who is widely known for always hiring "the right person for the right job." Josh carefully placed a log on the fire and said, "Ok, I'm heading down to Ellicottville. Give me a call if you get it fixed before I get there."

Josh dressed then found Veronica's cell phone and laptop and placed them on the couch next to her, then pulled on his boots. "Where are you going?" she murmured.

"EUC is down, Ant called an all hands."

"Oh no," Veronica groaned. Ellicottville is not their biggest client, but they need to protect any client in dire straits especially on a weekend like this, Christmas is less than 3 days away. "Did they call you in?" she asked. Ant promised her that they'd be left alone for a week!

"No, no one called me in, but I heard there was a problem." He gave her that look, this company was their life, they both owe Ant Friedman a lot.

"Ok, do you want coffee before you go?" asked Veronica as she got out of bed and pulled on her diaphanous robe out of sheer habit.

"No, just wear that when I get back. That's all I need." And with a kiss he was out the door. Moments later her phone rang, she didn't have to look, she knew exactly who it was.

"Good morning Anthony."

"I'm sorry to wake you dear, did I wake Josh?"

"No, he was up earlier, he's heading for Ellicottville."

"I told his people not to call him..." Anthony sounded angry, but he continued, "he'd probably be angry with them if they didn't call."

"Exactly, it was his decision to go in, I know he wasn't asked," said Veronica who understood too, and was angry also, but there was nothing she could do to stop it. He was probably the same way when he was in the military.

"We're going to have a conference call with Ellicottville at eight, let's get together at seven thirty and go over what we know so grab some winks, ok?"

"Call me if you need me." Veronica pulled on Josh's robe, made a k-cup of coffee and stepped out onto the porch barefoot. It was warming up, the snow they got yesterday will be gone by noon, it looks like no white Christmas this year. She sipped her coffee and had a strange thought, here she was feeling sad and lonely because Josh was going to fix a computer, she should be happy. The more he can make their customers happy, the more money she makes, but she's sad, like she's afraid he won't come back... weather like this spawn's black ice and on these winding weaving roads through the southern hills, Josh could end up in the ditch and never get there.

How would she be handling it if this was a few years ago and he was going off to war? Josh's career in the USAF put him on AC-130 gunships for a few years, most of the missions were training missions, but several of them were combat operations and his last mission went very, very badly. She looked up at the thick blanket of clouds that covered the land and tried to imagine what it was like for his first wife Yesenia when he was flying. Did she leave him because she couldn't handle the fear that he wouldn't come back?

Hours dragged on slowly for Veronica as she paced the cabin in solitary silence. She was on her third k-cup when she realized that she probably should have made a pot. Finally it was seven thirty and the conference call was packed, almost every technical wizard in the company and not a few programmers were in on this. Anthony started with a role call and of course Josh wasn't there, nor was Jenn, which wasn't too strange, Josh was notorious for being late for conference calls. He finally logged in over ten minutes late. "And how did you spend your first full day of vacation?" asked Anthony.

"Well, we dug out the cabin and had a simple dinner that couldn't be beat..."

"DON'T YOU DARE!" snarled Veronica which brought gales of laughter from her co-workers.

Don went on to describe his findings and his trouble shooting steps, including the dead ends, the incorrect assumptions, the trouble ridden failed steps and on and on. Veronica is not a technician by any means, but by association with this company she knows the difference between switches and glitches and can tell when something sounds expensive, she's also got a very good memory for issues in the past, unfortunately EUC was running their own equipment and not equipment supplied by Andalon which made integration into their operation model a bit dicey.

It was eight o'clock and time for EUC brass to join and Josh still hadn't come to the end of his report. The head of hospital IT started out by saying "Thank you so much for everything you've done! We've learned so much just from watching Josh and Jenny, I don't know how we can thank you."

Anthony Friedman was stunned; he was expecting a royal ass chewing and was preparing to force Josh to give an estimate on when they'll be back up because he didn't give one yet. While Veronica was treading water with business babble, mousy hellion Terri McCarthy who was sitting in Josh's chair in the meeting room tapped Anthony on the shoulder and showed Anthony her laptop screen. Anthony quickly sent Veronica a text message on Slack.

"I'm sure Mister Gravely has been working quite diligently and will... you've been up since five thirty this morning?!?"

"Yes ma'am," came Josh's aw' shuckin' southern drawl. "It were a bit of a faht, but we got 'er." An email arrived from Josh showing not only troubleshooting work (warranty) but also a long list of billable upsells.

"Thank you for your work, Mister Gravely," came Veronica's terse reply.

"I think she's upset with you for burying the lede," said one of the EUC executives to Josh when they were on mute. "That girl can be a handful; she should be a redhead."

"Tell me about it," groaned Josh.

"Aw, don't worry about it," said the hospital CEO who was acquainted with Veronica and Anthony. "She'll probably take it out on her husband."

"That's what I'm worried about," groaned Josh. Apparently the news of Veronica's wedding reached down here, but the name of her new husband hadn't reached Ellicottville yet.

"You can crash on my couch," offered Jenn as she helped herself to another bagel.

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Josh had to drive all the way back to Andalon to make sure that the documentation for the work was completed and the necessary network changes at their end were made. Josh's solution was creative, and it will keep EUC up and running. And now it was time to head home. He looked at his watch and groaned, he's got to get past stadium traffic to get home.

Crap.

"What did I tell you about Starting with the Results?" Veronica didn't sound happy. "There's a way to handle conference calls."

"I thought y'all knew," said Josh as he crept through stadium traffic trying to get home before kickoff. The sky was heavy, it looked like was going to rain heavily. The thermometer in the truck read 40 degrees, but it was 45 degrees just a few minutes ago. "Terri was watching the system stats, she should have seen it."

"You just wanted to be the hero charging in on your white stallion," Veronica retorted.

"I just want to be your hero."

"You already are, now hurry home, but be careful, this weather looks strange."

"Are you wearing that robe?" Josh grinned as Veronica put her phone on speaker.

"She sure is!" called Andi.

"Welllll" said Veronica, "I thought you would be home sooner, and I forgot that they were coming over for the game and now they won't let me change, and they have me serving snacks otherwise they threaten to put pictures on the internet."

"I'll do it too!" Paul called from the background. There was laughing, which included Veronica, so Josh knew that something was up.

"The clouds just opened up," said Josh. The rain was a deluge, his wipers could barely keep up with it.

"You must be near the stadium," said Paul, "we can see it on TV."

"Yeah, I'm trying to get over to the 219," said Josh but he didn't know if they could hear what he said. His Jeep Gladiator had a hard top and the pounding by the rain was deafening. He believed he heard Veronica say, "We have it here too."

The rain only lasted a few minutes, without warning the rain changed to snow. Wet, heavy snow. Huge flakes made of hundreds of smaller snowflakes that were huddled together for safety, spiraling down from the clouds. "JOSH! ARE YOU OK?" Veronica shouted into the phone.

"Yeah, I'm fine why..."

"Oh thank God," gasped Veronica, "It was so loud, then the phone just went silent, I thought you were getting run over or something." She was shaking, her terror was that real.

"I'm OK honey, the rain stopped, now it's snowing. I'm almost on the 219." The 219 is a divided four lane expressway headed straight to where he wanted to be. Even in bad weather the ride will be maybe 45 minutes. Tops. He'll be able to see the second half of the game. Just as he was about to turn onto the on-ramp he saw a semi sliding sideways on the 219. It came to a halt sprawled across his entrance ramp blocking his way onto the expressway.

"I need to find a different route, the 219 is blocked HOLY CRAP!" There was a sudden flash and Josh was blinded for a second and there was a loud KA-BOOM! He wanted to shrivel up and duck - that couldn't have been an incoming round, what the hell was it? He swiveled his head left and right but there was nothing burning or blown apart.

"What was that?" asked Veronica. There was a tinge of panic in her voice.

"I don't know," said Josh as he headed back to Springville on a route that he took Veronica on last year.

"The guy on TV said it was lightning," called out Andi. "It happened just after the kickoff and the fans went crazy!"

"Ridiculous," grumbled Josh, "Lightning doesn't happen during..." As if he were heard by a celestial power with control over the weather, there was a brilliant flash of light and at the same time Josh heard a distinct *Click!* followed almost immediately by the loudest clap of thunder that he ever heard. "Yep, it's lightning. I just had a near miss." Making sure that the truck was in 4 wheel drive Josh headed south on 277 through Chestnut Ridge, the park he took Veronica to on their first date over a year ago. "Hey, it's snowing here in Chestnut Ridge, wanna go tobogganing?"

"No, I want you home safe."

"That's going to be a while honey, it's hard to see and I'm not moving very fast." Josh could barely see; the snow was clogging his windshield wipers making his windshield a wet streaky mess. He could reach out and knock the snow off of the driver side wiper but not on the passenger side, so he kept the defroster on full blast hoping to melt the snow off the wipers.

"This is insane!" said Paul who was concentrating on the game. Of the four friends he's the only native Buffalonian. "You can't see the field markers, they have to stop and clear off the yard lines with shovels. We certainly have a Snow Bowl." It's only been snowing for a couple of minutes, but the field is already covered with several inches of snow.

"Are you recording this?" asked Josh. He's heard of Snow Bowls, but he's never seen one.

"We sure are!"

The road was becoming very slick, the traffic was compressing the snow into what was nearly a sheet of ice. Even with big knobby off-road tires and the drivetrain in four-wheel drive he was having a hard time keeping the front wheels ahead of the rear wheels. "Look folks, I'm going to hang up, I need to concentrate on driving." Another flash of lightning and blast of Thunder accentuated his words.

"Ok, be safe, call if you need anything... holy shit!" Veronica rarely if ever swears, but she just happened to look out the window and saw that the snow that Josh was experiencing had finally reached them, it was like a sheet of white past the porch. Her view of the pond mere yards away was completely obscured by the volume of snow. The world took on a sepia tone of brownish gray from the snow blocking and filtering what sunlight could make it through the clouds.

Andi looked and cried, "Honey! Look!"

Paul reluctantly pried his eyes away from the TV to see the snow cascading from the sky "Oh my god..."

Andi grinned and wrapped herself around him, "It's like the day we met!" and she dragged Paul out onto the patio. "The twins are probably going crazy."

"I need to hear their story," said Veronica to Josh.

"You haven't heard how they met? It's a great story, and it will sound a bit familiar. I really have to go Nica; driving is getting really difficult. Luv ya."

"Love you." Veronica stared at the phone in her hand with the dread that no one would ever call her Nica again. Trying to ease her fear she stepped out onto the porch where Paul and Andi stood clinging to each other watching the snowy deluge from under the cover of the patio roof. Veronica became aware of a hiss; she rubbed her ears, but it was still there. It was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "What is that sound?"

"That's the sound of heavy snow," said Paul. "Every flake makes a tiny sound when it lands, usually it's so tiny it's impossible to hear. But when you get millions of huge wet and heavy snowflakes, it sounds like this."

"Wow."

Fifteen miles away, Josh was saying "wow" himself, for a different reason. He had forgotten about Herman Hill. Herman Hill was not real steep, but it was long; the road went down the hill and straight into the village of North Boston NY. As the Jeep began to build up speed Josh tapped the brakes gently and all four wheels locked up and the truck started sliding.

A man thinks of strange things when you're heading down a mile of hill and out of control. Things like slamming the transmission into reverse to stop the slide. Paul taught him a few things years ago and slamming the transmission into reverse was first on the list to avoid. First thing to do was to pump the brakes gently, next was to put it in neutral when you're going to apply the brake on a slippery road. Why? Because the transmission is still pushing you forward especially in automatics, but it works for standards too. Paul took the truck out of gear and began gentle brake applications, he also put his right wheels on the shoulder of the road to increase traction in the gravel, but that only worked when he could see the shoulder of the road. These factors slowed him down to a stop, which took a half mile, and he's got another mile to go, and the next mile is steeper.

He put the truck in first and started out, leaving it in first gear. The backpressure of the drivetrain was enough to keep the truck nice and slow. He stopped again to clean the windshield wipers and he noticed two things, one was the same hiss that Veronica noticed, the other was that he was the only person dumb enough to try to drive down Herman Hill.

Josh's plan was to turn left on Abbot Road at the bottom of the hill and head out to Springville that way. He stopped two more times to clean his windshield wipers on his way down the hill and as the hill grew steeper the ride became more nerve wracking. "Oh momma, what's a good ol' southern boy doing on a bobsled run like this?"

Closer and closer he came to the intersection; a flash of lightning revealed through the snowfall that the intersection was clogged with vehicles and the only way he was going to get through was through the kindness of his fellow man. Being New York that wasn't likely; it was bumper to bumper traffic heading north, but he wanted to turn left and head south, and the southbound lane was empty. He breathed a sigh of relief and that's when the truck started sliding.

Josh tried every trick he knew to slow the truck down, but he was right, he was on a bobsled run now. His tires were no longer tires; they were round skis. He was headed toward bumper-to-bumper traffic, and he was out of control. At least he wasn't moving too fast, less than 20 mph, but he's not slowing down. He decided to pull up on somebody's lawn and if he had to hit a tree so be it, better a tree than a person. He eased over to the right and the curb on the side of the road bounced him back out into the middle of the street. All he could do was flash his high beams on and off as rapidly as possible, blow his horn, and pray that there were no kids in the car that he was going to hit. His inexorable plunge into traffic began to pick up speed and none of his tricks worked.

At the last moment a miracle happened. Traffic on Abbot Road surged ahead three car lengths and one driver decided to obey NY State Law and not pull into the intersection and block it giving Josh an opening to slide through. Josh slid through the opening in the traffic sideways and slid for several blocks until he finally came to stop in front of a 7-Eleven. Trembling he staggered inside and got the biggest cup of coffee they had, a six pack of Coke, a sack of cat litter, and two huge hotdogs from the roller grill, his only food intake today had been an everything bagel eight hours ago. He also bought four cases of bottled water; the water was weight to put over the rear wheels of the truck.

"Buddy, you look like you just seen a ghost," the old fellow at the register said as he rang up Josh's groceries.

"I just came down Herman Hill Road from Chestnut Ridge," said Josh weakly.

"In this weather? That's a damn fool thing to do," the old codger scolded.

"Well, I'm from Georgia," said Josh, "it's what we do."

It was easy to get out on the Boston State Road which took him all the way to Springville, albeit very slowly. He was going uphill now which on snow slick roads was much easier than trying to go downhill safely. "Hi Nica, I'm in Boston now."

Almost in tears of relief Veronica asked, "It took you three hours to go five miles? Or are you in the other Boston?" Veronica was referring of course to the other, better-known Boston in Massachusetts.

"It was pretty slow going until the very end, then it got really exciting."

"If you see a place, pull over, it's getting dark, and you could end up in a ditch. I'll be fine, Andi and Paul are still here, we're going to watch that movie from last night, Paul says he's never seen it." Veronica was really starting to freak out, she knows Josh, if he feels that by his doing something life will be better for Veronica, he'll move mountains to get it done.

"Yes ma'am, I sure will." Josh continued along the Boston State Road, a winding, narrow, two-lane road that used to be the main road to Springville and the ski resorts further south.

Veronica placed a rocking chair by the fire and sat there while Paul and Andi cuddled on the couch and watched The Legend of Bagger Vance. Paul loved it for the story around the sport of golf during the depression and the two actual golf legends that were portrayed in the movie. Being from a small town in North Dakota Andi loved it for the portrayal of small-town politics, and Veronica watched it for the love story between a shell-shocked veteran and the woman that loved him.

"Honey?"

Veronica suddenly realized that Andi was trying to get her attention. "Sorry, I was somewhere else."

"You haven't had anything to eat all day, would you like some soup or something?"

"I suppose... but not tomato... there's some dried soup mixes next to the 'fridge."

Andi rooted around and came up with a few packets. "How's this cheddar broccoli?" but Veronica didn't respond, she was off in la-la land worrying herself sick. Andi nudged her again when she set up a bowl of chicken noodle soup on a small TV table for her. The soup went untouched.

Out on the road Josh was having better luck than he did during the first leg of his journey. The snow continued to be heavy, but the temperature had dropped, and the snow was no longer the wet heavy mud that had been falling from the sky, now it was the lighter, fluffy dry snow that he had become used to. It was much easier to drive now that the windshield wipers were able to deal with the light, dry snow.

The roads were covered with nearly a foot of snow, most of it still that wet heavy snow, so he was careful as he tried to stay near the center of the road. He tuned the radio to a Christmas music station and listened to a woman on a national show playing requests and long-distance dedications for Christmas music. He eventually soured on that and switched to something a bit more soothing on his frazzled nerves. The sounds of "Veronica's music," the Oxford St. Peter's Choir, the Academy of St. Martin in the Field, Choir of King's College and others filled his cab via Spotify on his phone.

His nerves were severely jangled, his jaw ached from clenching his teeth so tight, and the road ahead continued to test his driving skills. The wheel tracks of other drivers often end at an empty car in the ditch or are completely obliterated by snow and wind. When there were houses on the road the mailboxes gave him a good indication where the shoulder was, but there were several good size farms which meant there were long stretches of road with no indication of what was road and what was Jeep eating ditch.

Just ahead of him was a car, nose down in the ditch and there were lights moving inside. He couldn't pass them by, so he pulled up and put on the emergency flashers then stepped out to check on them. He tapped on the driver's window, and it slid down to reveal a shaken looking young driver, the sounds of a crying baby flowed out into the snowy night. "Y'all ok?" Josh asked.

"We're fine, shook up is all," the fellow said. "Could you give us a lift to East Aurora?"

"Sorry, I'm going the other way, traffic north is a nightmare starting a few miles back.

His wife leaned over and said, "could you pull us out?"

"I'm sorry ma'am, it's way too slippery out here, I'm having a hard enough time just standing."

"Then could you take us to the fire hall just up the road?" the anxious young man asked. "They had a sign that said they were open for stranded travelers."

"We can do that, but if they're not open, I'm heading to Springville. Is that cool?" When the couple agreed, Josh said "Ok, let's get your stuff." He helped the young fellow out of the car, then they came around to the other side to get the wife and baby, then grabbing a suitcase they made their way to the idling Jeep and climbed in. Josh handed out water, put the truck in gear and all four tires started spinning on the slick road. The rain that initially fell has finally frozen and is now a layer of ice on the road.

Josh got out and grabbed the cat litter and sprinkled a bunch in front of each tire for about a yard ahead of the tire. Hopping back in, Josh put the drivetrain in four wheel low and eased out on the clutch very slowly and the truck started to move. He was a maestro, a little gas, a little clutch, trade speed for traction, then gain the speed back when you get the traction. It was a slow painful process but they were moving and they slowly started up the Boston-Springville road.

Veronica nearly jumped out of her skin when her phone rang, she looked at the caller ID and it was Josh and not a policeman with bad news. "How are you? Are you ok?"

Josh heard the panic in her voice and kicked in the baritone to try and relax her, "Ah'm ok darlin' girl, Ah'm takin' it nice and easy. Ah just dropped off a young couple at the Patchin fire hall, they got stuck in the ditch, we're all fine."

"You sure? Are you going to spend the night there?"

Josh looked around the tiny fire hall, it was packed with stranded travelers, volunteers from around the area were roving the roads on snowmobiles looking for stranded vehicles and tagging the ones that they found empty. There wasn't an empty chair or cot in the firehall. "Ah'm going to press on nice an' careful, it's kind of full up here. No room at the inn, ya know?" Veronica had an argument but, in the end, Josh got in his Jeep Gladiator and headed south.

It was well after midnight when Josh rolled into Springville, the village Christmas lights looked beautiful in the now gentle snow, and Josh had a small family in the truck that he rescued three miles up the road, a couple and their two young boys who had an amazed fascination with this guy that talks like a country singer but claims that he's never heard of Country music.

"You never heard of Garth Brooks?"

"Is he a tenor like Luciano Pavarotti?" teased Josh.

"NO!" cried the boys, "He sings country!"

"Maybe he's a baritone then, like Matthias Goerne," said Josh.

"NO! that's not a country singer!"

"Well, of course not, we're talking about opera, right?"

"Uhhhhggggg!" cried the exasperated boys.

"We're right here on the left," said their chuckling mother. The boys were terrified when they went into the ditch, but Josh had them too busy trying to educate him about country music to be worried. Josh pulled into the driveway of a nice split level on the south end of Springville. He hopped out and helped get their bag out of the back of the truck.

"How much do I owe you?" said the husband as he reached for his wallet.

"Nothing, it' ain't your fault that it snowed, and we were headed in the same direction," said Josh as he climbed back in the truck.

"There's nothing I owe you?"

"When you get the chance, just pay it forward. Y'all have a Merry Christmas," and he eased the Jeep out of the driveway.

"He knows country music," said the five-year-old boy, "he said y'all."

Josh stopped at the circle K on the west side of Main Street and filled up, he used up most of the gas he got at the 7-Eleven driving fifteen miles, then just as he prepared to pull out on to Main Street, a snowplow came by scraping the snow leaving the street clean. "Where were you when I needed you?" muttered Josh and he pulled on to the first clean road that he's touched in fourteen hours. Gritting his teeth, he passed under the 219 Expressway overpass expecting to hit a wall of snow because this area got over 2 feet of snow since the storm started at 1:00 PM, almost 14 hours ago and those were Village of Springville snowplows. This side of the underpass is maintained by the County.

He dreaded this part because he was looking at a long steep drop into Spooners Gulch, then a long steep uphill climb to get back out. It's that or go home, but he promised Mike and Audrey they could have the house to themselves, and he refused to break that promise.

He crept forward wondering if he could crash at Paul and Andi's house. That's when Josh realized that the road was plowed! He could see the road was clear and black all the way down to the bottom of the valley and up the other side... he almost wept with relief. Josh drove down to the bottom of the valley reveling in the lack of combat that he had to sustain to move forward! He watched with joy as his speed crept to unseen heights, 20... 30... 40 miles per hour! And if it wasn't for the patches of black ice he may have dared to go even faster.

Soon he was at the corner of Trevette Road which remained unplowed. Trevette is a "County Tertiary" priority road, meaning that it will be plowed in late July at the soonest. He took a long drink of his ice-cold coffee and put the truck back into four wheel low and pressed into the two feet of newly fallen snow. He's got only one mile between him and his Nica.

Compared to the adventures of the past 24 hours, that last mile was completely uneventful. Even the 120 degree turn to the left at Hirsh's farm was easy, there was plenty of light from the half-moon that was starting to set. It was just a matter of moments when he turned into his driveway and shut down listening to the Dance of the Reed Pipes from The Nutcracker Suite played on an acoustic guitar. It was stunningly beautiful, but right now the only stunningly beautiful thing he wanted was his Nica.

Josh quietly stepped into the cabin which was toasty warm, and the air was blessedly dry. He eased off his coat, boots, and cargo pants which were soaked from the knee down from being out in the snow. He peeled off his soaked socks and hung them over the fire because that's where wet socks go, Santa took advantage of that fact. He added a couple of logs to the fire then eased the cover down revealing that Veronica was indeed wearing the white see-through robe, and she probably did wear it all night long just like she's wearing it now, over her Buffalo Bills T-shirt and sweatpants.

Josh crawled under the covers with Nica and gazed at his beautiful wife as she was illuminated by the moonlight. He closed his eyes for a second and didn't wake up until he realized his face was being peppered with kisses... but it stopped so he drifted back off to sleep.

"Why did you stop me?" demanded Veronica. Andi and Paul were asleep in the bedroom and when she discovered that Josh was back, they came out and shushed her and took her over by the kitchen.

"He needs his sleep, he had a tough night," said Andi. "You were sleeping so he texted you." She handed Veronica her phone and Veronica looked through it, there were nearly a dozen texts Josh sent outlining his exploits between North Boston and Springville. Over and over he stopped to see if someone was in a car in the ditch, if they were he offered them a ride south to Springville, and water. Twice he stopped and helped push a car out of the ditch if they weren't in too deep.

"Why does he do these things?" gasped Veronica as she read his exploits.

"Veterans," sighed Andi, "a lot of them are like that. They just want to help."

Veronica glanced at Josh who was sleeping soundly. "He always wants to help; he always wants to fix something... he could have died out there!"

"He wanted to get back to you," said Paul as he pulled on his mukluks. "That's what veterans do, fight their way back to the ones we love."

"How can I make him stop it?" Veronica looked at Josh and shook her head.

"Now you're the one trying to fix things," tiny Andi arched up to give Veronica a goodbye kiss. Veronica isn't too incredibly tall, Andi is just that short, and she and Paul headed out the door. They wanted to get back to their cabin before the snow started again.

"That wasn't an answer," said Veronica. "Dinner at five tonight? We're going to have smoked wild turkey."

"You're right, it wasn't an answer. When you figure one out let me know." She waved her Buffalo Bills mitten covered hand at Veronica and said, "See you at five!" and disappeared around the pine tree windbreak.

Veronica stepped back inside the cabin, stripped off her clothes and climbed under the covers with Josh, his eyes were closed but he was smiling. He heard every word they said. "You should have stayed somewhere!" whined Veronica. "You could have died!"

"No," he whispered, "We haven't spent a night apart for an entire year. I'm not going to start now. I love you Nica, and I'm always going to come home to you."

"Then, I'll always be here waiting for you... cheering you on. Merry Christmas darling."

"Merry Christmas love." As they kissed his hands stroked gently over her body, but he was soon fast asleep.