A few years ago a friend and I decided on a December
Saturday morning to drive from a small town in Missouri to
the nearest large shopping mall.
The road is a narrow two lane country road through mostly farm land with few
houses. We made this trip several times a year and were
very familiar with the road.
When we started out it was a
brisk winter day but there was no snow or signs of snow.
Once at the mall we took in a movie, shopped, ate, shopped,
ate some more, and shopped some more. So, it was around
9PM when we left and discovered a foot of snow on the
ground and more coming down fast.
Instead of doing the
smart thing and getting a motel room we decided to head for
home. I was driving slowly because of the snow pack on
the road when a car came up behind us and tried to pass on
a blind curve. Of course, there was a car coming the other
direction. The first car cut in too sharply and forced me
off the road. Neither car stopped. So, there we were
stranded on a snow bank late at night with no cell phone
and it was freezing.
We sat in the car for an hour and no
other cars came by. The situation was getting desperate
when Mary said, “look, there is a house right over there”.
Neither of us had noticed it before. It was a very
distinctive house, rustic with a huge wrap around porch.
All the lights were on and it was very visible. We decided
to see if they had a phone.
The door was answered by a
sweet old lady who immediately asked us in, let us call for
a tow truck, and gave us tea and cookies. We weren't sure
where we were so she gave the tow truck driver very
specific directions, 2.3 miles west from the turnoff to
Highway xxx. She invited us to stay inside until the tow
truck got there and went back to bed.
A few hours later
the truck showed up and we left. She was still in bed so
we just wrote a quick thank you note. Later we decided to
bake her a batch of cookies and take them for a more
personal thank you.
The next Saturday we drove over to her
house. But, it wasn't there. We drove by where we thought
it was and couldn't find it so we went to the turnoff to
Highway xxx and drove exactly 2.3 miles west and still
couldn't find it. In desperation we called the tow truck
driver who said he had never seen a house when he picked us
up. He was wondering why we standing on a hill instead of
waiting in the car. Every trip to the mall since then we
have looked for that house but have never found it.
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