Mary and Alvin Ch. 14

The Ice Storm

For as long as she'd been in Maine, Mary had heard the locals take a dismissive attitude towards winter weather. There was no wind cold enough, no blizzard fierce enough, for them to be concerned. Driving on snowy roads was a challenge eagerly faced, becoming snowbound at home, a vacation to savor. By implication, those like her, people from away as they were referred to, who were not descended from generations of hearty lumberjacks and lobstermen, could not be expected to deal well with a Maine winter. It was a miracle if they survived it at all.

So, she was surprised to see a near panic overtake her coworkers at news of bad weather. It had been raining when she had driven to work, but the temperature had fallen steadily all day, and she began to hear people speaking fearfully about ice storms.

"Couple of years back, we got hit right at Christmas. At least this one is a few weeks before."

"That wasn't as bad as '98. We had no power for eleven days."

"Best stop at the store and stock up and milk and bread and toilet paper!"

She went over to Kelly Martin's desk and asked her if there was really anything to worry about.

"Well, a big ice storm can make it impossible to get around and knock out your power for a while. You might want to to go out to Alvin's, he's got a fireplace and I assume he's probably got a generator."

"I guess I could. He went to Bangor though, for a dentist appointment. Is he going to be able to get back?"

Kelly shrugged. "Hard to say. He might be stuck there until the roads get cleared."

"I can't picture him staying put and not trying to get home."

"No, that's true," Kelly said.

Mary returned to her desk. Now she was worried. She called Alvin's number, but got no answer. "Hey baby," she told his voicemail, "I'm just checking in to make sure you're safe in this storm. Give me a call, okay? Love you."

A few minutes later, her work phone rang. She sighed in relief before realizing that Alvin would not call on that line. It was the branch manager telling her to dismiss the employees in her department. They were closing down so that everyone could get home before the roads got any worse.

The maintenance crew was spreading rock salt on the pavement as she left the building. She pulled up her hood to protect her head from the freezing rain and walked, quickly but carefully, to her car. It was covered with a thin coating of ice. She had to yank hard on the door handle. Shards of ice cracked loose when it came open. She slid in and turned the ignition. The windshield wipers came on, she had forgotten to turn them off that morning. Actually, the passenger side wiper was scraping uselessly across the icy glass. In front of her there was only the icy stub of the wiper arm moving back and forth. She quickly realized that it had been frozen in place and had broken off when set in motion.

"Goddamn it," she muttered, turning off the wipers and getting out of the car. Alvin had bought her an ice scraper, it was in the trunk. The trunk however, was frozen shut. She slapped her arms against her sides and thought, how the hell do people even live like this?

***

Alvin hated going to the dentist, and had not been to see one in years. His teeth were in good condition, to the best of his knowledge, but he could not help thinking about what Mary had said at Bubble Pond, the second condition she had put on her agreement to marry him. He thought of the years he had spent alone after Bonnie's death, and although he knew it was likely, he ached at the thought of Mary being left alone after he was gone. He owed it to her to take better care of himself, and his teeth were as good a place as any to start.

The news was pretty good. He had one small cavity in an upper molar, and a bicuspid that was a little loose, but overall, his teeth were in good shape. He scheduled an appointment to fill the cavity and got away with just a cleaning.

It was raining steadily as he left the offie and crossed the parking lot to his car. Once he was inside, he searched the radio dial for a weather report. Before he'd left home the news stations were all discussing the possibility of the rain turning to ice, but had not seemed particularly concerned. Now they were in full storm report mode. He checked a couple of stations and got conflicting reports about where the rain/ice line was located, but they all placed it between Bangor and Londonderry. He had thought about picking up a few things while he was in the city, but decided he had better try to get home as soon as he could. He stopped at the Irving station on Main Street, topped off his tank and got a large coffee for the road. As he was getting back in the car, he remembered that he had a two gallon gas can in the back compartment. An ice storm meant that it was likely the power would go out. He'd need plenty of gas for the generator. He filled the can and stashed it in the back.

As he pulled out of the gas station he debated whether he ought to stick to the main highways or cut across country inland, on the less traveled country roads. The first course was likely to be in better shape, but there would be less traffic on the back roads. He decided that if he drove cautiously, the biggest danger was other drivers that did not, so he chose the inland route.

***

Mary heard the sound of a car horn over the constant patter of rain. She turned around to see Kelly roll to a stop in her big black SUV. "What's the matter, Mar?" Kelly called.

"I can't get my scraper out of my trunk and one of my windshield wipers went flying off."

Kelly laughed. "Welcome to Maine, dearie. Come on, I'll drive you home."

Mary shut off her car and climbed into the SUV.

"I'm soaking wet," she grumbled.

"I'm sorry I laughed at you," Kelly said, still grinning, "but now you are going to really learn what a Maine winter is."

Mary dug her phone out of her purse. There was still no response from Alvin. She tried calling again, but he did not answer.

"Don't worry about Alvin," Kelly said. "He'll be fine. And don't worry about your car either. You won't be needing it for a few days."

They were stopped before they could get out of the parking lot. At least twenty cars were lined up in front of them, waiting to pull out on to the street. Kelly flipped on the radio and found an all news station. The weather report warned that, although their would be break in the freezing rain later in the afternoon, a second band of storms was close behind it, and a third system was forming over Canada.

"Jeezum crow, this is gonna be bad," Kelly said, "Maybe I ought to take you out to Alvin's."

"No, Kelly, you are going out of your way already. I don't want to make you drive all the way out there."

Eventually they reached the street. Cars were crawling slowly in both directions, occasionally fishtailing on the slippery pavement. Kelly turned right, downhill into town. Mary drove this route to and from work every day, but it seemed eerily unfamiliar now. Tree branches hung low over the street, weighed down by their burden of ice. Just past Elm Street, a large bough had come down in their lane, but Kelly deftly steered around it. At the intersection of Main and Oak, a car had slid off the road and jumped the curb. They waited while a group of young men pushed it back into the street for its grateful driver.

Mary was relieved to see her building as they passed the post office, but the street grew steeper here, and she saw Kelly tighten her grip on the steering wheel.

"Hang on, girlfriend," Kelly said. The SUV was drifting to the right. Kelly spun the wheel and they straightened out for a few seconds, then began to spin in the other direction. Mary felt her stomach turn over, but Kelly seemed perfectly calm. They slid sideways down the street and came to a stop a half a block downhill from Mary's door.

"Woah!" Kelly exclaimed, "Wicked lucky there were no cars coming the other way. Jeezum, Mary, you look white as a ghost."

Mary realized that her hands were shaking. "Well, that was a new experience for me."

"Yeah, I guess it was. Sorry." Kelly managed to turn the SUV and point it uphill, but when she tried to move forward, the wheels spun uselessly. She shifted to reverse and backed a couple of car lengths down the hill. "Okay, let's try again."

They managed to creep forward to a spot only a few feet past their starting point before their vehicle began to veer to the side again.

"I think I better let you out and try a less steep street," Kelly said, "Maybe Maple or Birch. Think you can walk from here? It's wicked slippery."

Mary looked out at the icy sidewalk. She wasn't sure if she could get to her door without falling, but it seemed a safer course than trying to get the SUV up the hill.

"Thank you, Kelly. I think I can make it." She hooked her purse over her shoulder and opened the door. Ice tinkled from the side of the SUV to the pavement. "Please be careful, honey."

"I'll be fine, don't worry."

"Text me to let me know you got home okay, please."

"I will. And don't worry about Alvin."

Mary climbed out and nearly slipped as soon as her feet touched the pavement. She stepped gingerly away from the vehicle and began tiptoeing towards the curb. Kelly watched until she made it, then waved and backed all the way down the street to the landing before turning and heading off down Front Street.

Mary started up the sidewalk, and lost her balance after just a few steps. She fell to one knee but managed to get a hand on the wall of Bayside Realty and raise herself up. She remembered Alvin's story of falling and hurting his arm during an ice storm. That was when he met Bonnie, she recalled. He met one future wife in an ice storm, she thought, it would be nice if he didn't lose one under similar circumstances. Steadying herself against the wall and taking one careful step after another, she managed to reach her door without falling again.

Once inside, she sat down on the stairs and breathed a sigh of relief. She kicked off her wet boots and left them by the door before going up to her apartment. She felt cold and wet and miserable. Good thing I love you, she addressed an imaginary Alvin, or I'd be booking a flight to LAX right now. She stripped off her clothes and dropped them in the hamper, then got into the shower and let the hot water wash over her. When she felt warm again, she dried off and put on her pajamas and robe.

She looked at her phone. There was still nothing from Alvin. She tried one more time to reach him, but again, there was no answer. Resigned to waiting for him to get back to her, she made a pot of Earl Grey and curled up on the couch. She turned on the television and watched a few minutes of the weather report, but that just made her more anxious, so she began scanning for a movie to watch. Before she got far down the list, the lights flickered, the TV went to black and she was sitting in the dark.

"Fuck you, Maine," she muttered.

***

Alvin had correctly judged that the interior roads would be empty, but he had underestimated how much damage the storm had already done. At one point, a tall pine had fallen and blocked the road, but he was able to crawl around it on the shoulder. In another spot, the power lines dipped low, but he had just enough clearance to drive under them. Halfway home, he was feeling confident that he would make it without too much trouble. That was before he saw the cows.

He came around a bend in the Dixmont Road and saw them, at least a dozen Guernseys, standing in the road. Realizing that he had no time to brake, he spotted an opening along the shoulder to his right. He aimed for it and cleared the herd, missing the nearest cow by less than a foot. When he tried to steer back on to the road, however, he realized that he was in trouble. Rather than respond, his car flew forward, even as the road continued to curve. He saw that the fence bordering the cow pasture was down just before he drove over it. He heard a sickening grating noise as the fence wire tangled around his wheels. After bouncing a good twenty yards into the pasture, he finally came to a stop.

As soon as he shut off the engine, the windows began to ice up, but he could still see a figure running towards him. He got out just as a man in a yellow raincoat reached his car.

"Jeezum, bub, are you alright?" the man asked.

"I'm fine," Alvin said, squatting to look at the tangle of wire under his car. "Don't look like too much damage, but I don't expect it's going anywhere soon."

"Im christly sorry, Mister. The ice was weighing down the fence and when they leaned on it, it went right down. I was having a hard enough time rounding them up when they wasn't loose in the roadway."

Alvin shrugged. "Got to get them out of the road now. Next car might not miss them."

"Well, if you could give me a hand, i can give you a ride where you need to go, if it ain't christly far."

"Londonderry."

"Oh, yes, I can take you down."

"Well, lets get to it."

They slogged their way up to the road. A few of the cows had already wandered back into the pasture, and with two men shooing them, most of the rest followed. A pair of heifers ran in circles a few times, but eventually joined the herd. Only one cow remained, staring at them with disdain.

"Should have known you'd be trouble, Mary," the farmer said.

"The cow is named Mary?" Alvin asked.

"Yes, and she's got a mind of her own."

Alvin chuckled as the farmer got behind Mary and tried to shove her forward without slipping on the icy road. Finally, the cow turned her head and gave him a long look, then sauntered back into the pasture, where the rest of the herd was traipsing slowly toward the barn.

Alvin and the farmer shook hands and followed them. Once all the cattle were in the barn with the door barred behind them, the two men went into the house. Alvin heard the loud buzz of a generator.

"Lights been out long?" he asked.

The farmer, who introduced himself as Jeremy Pinkham, poured two cups of coffee. "An hour or so," he replied, "Hope to hell this ain't another '98. You remember that one?"

"Yes, sir. Good two weeks before the lights come on."

Jeremy fetched a towel and tossed it to Alvin, then poured the rest of the coffee into a thermos bottle. "Best get going, it ain't gonna be gettin' no better for a mite."

They finished their coffee, then crossed the dooryard to an dilapidated shed where Jeremy had parked his pick up truck. They climbed in and set off down the road toward Londonderry.

They nearly made it. Less than two miles from town, a pine tree had come down, completely blocking the road.

"Son of a bitch," Jeremy muttered, putting the truck in reverse.

"Tell you what," Alvin said, "My brother lives down to Peyton's Corner. If we just go back as far as the Jackson Road, it's not a mile to his house. You could drop me there."

"You sure? Feel it's my fault you ain't already home."

"It will be alright. I can hunker down there a while."

Jeremy shrugged and turned the truck around. Alvin thought he ought to let Mary know where he was, but when he patted his pockets, he realized he had left his phone in his car.

There were no more obstacles on the way to Tim's house, and in another ten minutes, they were at the end of his driveway.

"Looks like a solid sheet of ice," Alvin said, "I reckon I can walk up." He shook hands with Jeremy and told him he'd be in touch about his car as soon as the weather permitted. He stepped carefully down from the passenger seat and walked, crunching on the frozen grass, to the house. He looked in the garage and did not see Tim's car. When he opened the front door and called his brother's name, he confirmed that no one was home. He assumed Tim must have decided to ride out the storm with Molly and Theo.

He crossed to the kitchen and flipped the light switch. Nothing happened. He went to the refrigerator and looked inside, realizing that he had not eaten all day. There was a package of sliced roast beef in the meat drawer. We sniffed it for freshness, then, finding loaf of bread on the counter, made himself a thick sandwich. He took a can of lukewarm Coke from the fridge and sat at the kitchen table and ate. He thought Tim had a portable generator, but there was not much food in the house. And he still needed to talk to Mary, to make sure she was safe, and to assure her that he was. He needed to get to Londonderry. Tim had a snowmobile, but running on ice, it would likely overheat before it could make those last couple of miles. He'd also bought an ATV to ride with Theo. Was that here, or at Molly's? He zipped his coat back up, pulled on his hat and went to the garage.

The ATV was there, under a tarp. Alvin found a flashlight on the workbench. After rapping it on his palm a few times, it gave out a faint beam. He check the ignition of the ATV and the key was there. He turned it and the engine coughed into life. The fuel tank was half full. He realized that he had left the gas he'd bought in Bangor in his car, but he was sure he could make it on what he had. He walked the ATV out of the garage, then mounted it and headed towards home.

***

Mary sat in the dark for a few minutes. She looked at her phone. Still no word from Alvin, but there was a text message from Kelly telling her that she'd arrived home safely. She considered texting back and saying what the hell she was supposed to do now, but felt embarrassed by the thought. She was a grown up, she could handle a minor inconvenience like a black out.

She got up and turned on the phone's flashlight. There was a scented candle on the bathroom bureau. She found a book of matches and lit it. She found a box of tapers in one of the kitchen drawers and holders for them in the cupboard. She placed a couple of unlit candles on the kitchen table, then lit one and put it on the end table beside the couch.

Once she had addressed the issue of light, she realized that the bigger problem was that her apartment was starting to get cold. I should have let Alvin buy me those long johns, she thought. She went to the bedroom, gathered up her blankets and lugged them into the living room. She added the afghan she kept on the couch and wrapped herself snugly in a cocoon of blankets. She thought she could read by candlelight until the power came back or she fell asleep. She tried not to think about some of the things her co-workers had said about the big storm of nineteen whatever, when the power had been out for a week or more. After only a few minutes, the flickering light and the sound of the ice pellets tapping her windows made her drowsy. She put down her book and dozed.

Something startled her awake, but she did not know what. She heard a rumbling noise, and thought for a minute that someone was mowing their lawn, before she remembered the ice. She thought it was the middle of the night, but when she looked at her phone, she saw that it was not yet seven o'clock. She had not slept more than a half hour or so. She closed her eyes and had nearly fallen asleep again when the loud sound of boots clumping up her stairs startled her to full wakefulness.

"Alvin?" she asked in a timid voice that could not carry beyond the room. A moment later, there was a soft rap on the door. "Alvin, is that you?" she called in a louder voice.

"It's me, baby," he responded, opening the door.

"Oh, my god, I've been scared to death about you," she exclaimed, untangling herself from her blankets. She rose to embrace him, but he back away.

"I'm soaking wet, sweetie," he said.

"Let me get you a towel."

"No, don't worry about that," he said, "Gather up a few days clothes, whatever you need, and then bundle them up in a trash bag. We are going to my house until this passes."

"I can't believe you drove back from Bangor in this."