Chapter 19
Winnie had never been in the situation she currently found herself in. She stared at her phone as it turned dark, her call with Ty dropped. With her pulse pounding at her, she quickly tapped to dial him again.
His phone simply rang and rang, and when his voicemail picked up, Winnie ended the call.
She didn’t seem to have a problem with her service or internet, and so she sent him a quick series of messages.
I lost you, but I heard most of the prayer, and it was beautiful.
I can’t wait to meet more of your friends at Lone Star.
I’m sending you my location pin so that you’ll know where I am.
It’s eerie here in the car—it feels like a cage—and a little bit cold. I turned off the engine because I don’t know how long I’m going to be here, and I’m really glad I wore my puffy sweater today.
I’m going to lay my seat down and just try to relax.
I can’t see anything outside the windows anyway, and I’ve never seen a sky this color before. I took some pictures because it’s just so weird.
She sighed as she looked up, the dust storm raging beyond her windows.
Winnie had never been in anything like this before, and she could’ve looked up some information about what to do, how to shelter if caught outside, but she trusted Ty.
He’d said not to drive, and Winnie was going to wait out the storm and then figure out what to do.
Everything existed in a weird khaki-olive-green state, with thousands of particles flying by her windows, and she slid her chair back so she could recline it down. If she could just close her eyes, she could make it through this.
The car suddenly lurched forward, causing her to yelp.
Just as quickly as it had started to slide, the vehicle came to a violent halt as the front passenger side hit the cement pillar she’d parked beside in the parking lot.
She’d seen a few people bypass the spot that morning, because they drove bigger cars than her, but her sedan fit just fine, even though the pillar took up part of the parking space in the corner.
The back end of her car fishtailed, and Winnie cried out again, looking in the rearview mirror and trying to make sense of why her car was moving. She couldn’t see another vehicle that had hit her.
In the next moment, she realized the wind was moving her car.
With the front corner now jammed against the cement pillar, it couldn’t really go anywhere, and the back end got pushed into the truck next to her, also on the passenger side.
Everything stilled after that, and Winnie’s chest felt so tight, telling her she had not been breathing. She took a quick breath and then another, almost expecting the sky to fall and crack right through her windshield.
When it didn’t, she reclined her seat and started to do some deep-breathing exercises she’d learned in a stress therapy class she’d taken after Carver had called off the wedding.
That only warded off the worry for a couple of minutes, because deep breathing couldn’t truly erase the severity of the situation.
She lifted her phone and texted Ty again.
The wind blew my sedan into the cement light post in front of me. I’m now wedged between it and a truck.
The good news is I don’t think the car will move again, so I should be able to ride out the storm. The bad news is, I’m not sure if my car is going to be driveable or not.
She sent the texts, though she wasn’t sure if Ty was even getting them. She decided it didn’t matter. She needed someone to talk to, and he was all she had.
Yes, she could have called her friends back in Redwood, or even her mother, but what could they do? Winnie didn’t want her mom to worry anyway, and she sighed as she rested her phone on her chest and closed her eyes once more.
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed before her phone rang, startling her back to full consciousness and the reality of her situation.
She lifted the phone, saw Ty’s name there, and quickly tapped to connect the call. “Hey.” She heard the relief and breathlessness in her own voice.
“I got your pin, sweetheart,” he said. “As soon as I can, I’ll get out of here and I’ll come look at your car.”
“Okay,” she said.
“You’re really all right?”
“Yes,” she said.
“The storm’s still raging there?”
“Yep. I feel like I’m in some sort of weird capsule,” she said. “It’s so strange to know the world is beyond the window and not be able to see it.”
“Yeah,” Ty said. “We don’t have any windows in here. It’s pretty dark.”
She heard something come through the line. She tilted her head, trying to make it out. “Are you guys singing?”
“Yeah,” he said. “You want me to put you on speaker? I might be able to whisper a few more stories, but….”
“You can put me on speaker,” Winnie said, and a moment later, the singing on Ty’s end of the line increased in volume.
Then sings my soul,
My Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art,
How great Thou art!
Winnie loved that these cowboys were relying on their faith in this hard time, and she knew she needed to do the same. She closed her eyes again and hummed along with the tune, not quite able to get her voice to sing.
Ty didn’t sing either, and when the song ended, another one started.
Silent Night, Holy Night
All is calm,
All is bright.
Winnie smiled, though Christmas hymns wouldn’t be sung for at least ten more months.
“We’re just singing whatever we all seem to know,” Ty said.
“It’s oddly calming,” Winnie said.
“I agree.” Ty added his voice to the second verse of Silent Night, and Winnie joined him on the chorus.
She couldn’t believe she felt as calm as she did during this ultra-stressful time, but somehow the singing of hymns had brought nothing but peace.
She was still catching up on her sleep from being sick last week, and she’d had to get up extra early for her training in Amarillo this morning. She hadn’t finished it, and she let her mind wander and wonder if she’d have to come back another time.
A little while later—Winnie wasn’t sure how long—the wind buffeting the car seemed to wane slightly. She lifted her phone and saw that she’d been on the call with Ty for thirty-one minutes.
“Ty?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m still here, sweetheart,” he said.
“I think the storm is stopping.”
“Well, that’s good news.”
Winnie raised her seat, but she still couldn’t see much through the windshield or any of the glass. Because she was so close to the truck next to her on the passenger side and it was black, she could see it, but only briefly in between gusts of wind and all that beige and brown dirt.
“Sweetheart, I’m getting messages from my bosses I need to pay attention to,” he said. “I’m going to let you go, okay? But I promise I’m going to be there really soon.”
“When?” she asked, and she hated the pathetic quality of her voice.
“Probably thirty minutes,” he said. “I’m going to send you my pin right now, too, all right?”
“Okay, be safe, Ty.”
“You too, sweetheart. Just stay right where you are. You don’t need to try to do anything with the car. I’ll take care of all of it when I get there.”
“Okay,” she said.
The call ended, and Winnie was once again left alone in the silence. She wasn’t sure what she would do in this situation if she didn’t have someone like Ty.
She supposed she could call a tow truck and then pray that they had some sort of rideshare or cab service that would take her the fifty miles from Amarillo to Three Rivers.
She thought of all the people who were alone in the world who had to figure out solutions to problems like this when they happened, and a brand-new sense of gratitude filled her that she wasn’t alone right now, that she had Ty.
And not only that, but she probably could’ve called any of his cowboy friends, and they would have come to help her.
Winnie’s head hurt and her stomach lurched with anxiety, so she laid her seat down again and closed her eyes.
There was something calming and soothing about the white noise of the rushing air, and the next thing she knew, someone had knocked on her window and pulled open her door.
Her eyes flew open and she yelped.
“Whoa, whoa, it’s me. It’s me.”
A sob tore through Winnie’s throat when she recognized Ty, and she sat straight up and flew into his arms.
He caught her and held her tight. “You’re all right,” he said. “You’re all right. The storm’s over, and I’m here.”
Winnie stepped back. “You scared me.”
“I called and texted, sweetheart.” He gave her a smile. “I can’t believe you fell asleep during this.”
Winnie could hardly believe it either, and she looked around at the world. Cars had been moved all over the parking lot, and the sky sat clearer than Winnie had ever seen it before. It was as if the storm had taken everything hanging in the air and blown it out.
“Wow. The world looks brand new,” she said.
“Sure does.” Ty took her hand and led her around the open door and then the hood. “Yeah, she pushed you pretty good into this.”
Winnie looked at the front bumper of her car, which seemed to be one with the cement pillar.
“And you’re right up against the truck too,” he said.
Their eyes met. “Should I try to move it?” she asked.
“Maybe just away from the truck and back into the right space,” he said. “And then I’ll drive you home.”
“Really? You don’t think I can take my car?”
“No, baby.” He swept his lips along her temple. “I think the tow companies will be really busy for a while.”
Winnie huffed out her frustration and then moved to get behind the wheel again. The car started, and she put it in reverse and started to ease it away from the pillar and the truck. She could easily drive this home, because—
She sucked in a breath at the loud groaning of metal—really a horrible, terrible, all-encompassing roar of metal—and immediately slammed on the brake.
Ty called, “Keep going,” and waved at her to continue backing up.