HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 2013-12-23, Page 7Monday, December 23, 2013 • Lucknow Sentinel 7
A Christmas Story: Strangers and Snow
By Mike O'Neill
Snow at Christmas time is supposed
to be lovely. Warm even.
Well, this wasn't. It swirled into drifts,
blotted out the landscape and piled up
wherever it felt like. Bah. Humbug.
Snows he remembered as a kid were
not like this. At Christmas, it was magi-
cal, skimming over pristine fields on
brand new skis. Whipping down the big
hill on a toboggan worn smooth and
sleek by repeated use. Now, that same
toboggan was dragging behind him,
overloaded with groceries and taxing
his strength. And it was cold. Humbug.
Snows had come early. About
Hallowe'en time the first covering was
tolerated, but it went away and people
talked as if winter was coming early and
staying late. Though it melted a time or
two, the snow was deep on the fields by
the middle of December. And it kept on
coming. Sam leaned forward, pulling
the rope attached to the toboggan and
his groceries. His car was just barely off
the road and stuck up to the gunwales
in the mother of all drifts. It had been
Cheryl's idea to build elaborate
entrance posts at the end of the lane.
Now they acted as highly decorative
snow fences that deposited the snow
right across the thoroughfare.
IL
"Whoa! Where'd you
come from?" he
exclaimed.
"I'm stuck in a drift just
up the road" came the
reply. He was the biggest
human that Sam had ever
seen.
He'd muscled open the car door, used
the shovel to free his son, the toboggan,
and the groceries and headed for the
pine trees lining both sides of the lawn.
The snow wasn't as deep there and
Tommy could keep up. It was the last
day of school and they'd had a tobog-
gan party, shared gifts, hot chocolate
and Christmas wishes and headed for
home. Now the man was dragging
Christmas dinner, a bunch of stuff for
the year upcoming, and staples needed
to stave off malnutrition. Tucked safely
in the trunk were the best presents he'd
ever been able to buy for his young
family.
It had been a good year. He'd worked
at the lumber yard until well into
November before the snows shut down
construction. The calves brought a good
price and his hogs had done well. Look-
ing back, it seemed that he managed to
get a lot of work done on the farm even
after putting in a full day in town. With
Tommy in school and Carrie able to
follow her wherever she went, Cheryl
had been able to expand the chicken
numbers to the point where their
freezer was full and she'd sold enough
to have her planning for next year. The
only thing missing was the cat.
About five years ago he'd shown up,
young, skinny and skittish. He was a
non-descript tabby, yellow and white
and they'd called him Tom. It took a
while but he'd come to show up regu-
larly to be fed and he'd even tolerated
the affection of a couple of growing and
inventive children. They could be play-
ing in the hay mow and he'd suddenly
show up, stage a mock
attack, and disappear.
He'd come up and
rub their legs and
beg to be petted.
He'd endured
"dress up" games
with Carrie and
had slept on
Tommy's lap
during "Hockey
Night in Can-
ada" with Foster
Hewitt. The kids
just loved him.
Then near the
end of Sep-
tember he'd
up and disap-
peared. The
youngsters
were sad-
dened and
looked high
and low, to
no avail.
They had
asked time
and again if
he thought
Tom was alright.
He'd told them that
he thought so.
As soon as Sam had
unloaded the toboggan, he
grabbed the scoop shovel
and headed back out into
the storm. He suddenly
realized Tommy was still
shadowing him, this time
with a pint-sized shovel,
bent on helping. The car
had to be dug out and brought
closer to the house to avoid being din-
ged by the snow plow. The wind howled
and snow raced around and the two
puny humans trudged out to free their
old four -door Ford. Sam wasn't overly
large, but very strong and he could work
with the best of them. He made sure
Tommy's scarf covered his face up to
the eyeballs and then hove to. The drift
was hard packed and easily carved into
huge shovelfuls. He'd just heaved a fifty
pound block of snow out of the way
when the mirage formed right beside
him.
"Whoa! Where'd you come from?" he
exclaimed.
"I'm stuck in a drift just up the road"
came the reply. He was the biggest
human that Sam had ever seen. His
voice sounded like it emanated from
the bottom of a barrel. "My wife is with
me, can you help us?"
"Yeah, sure. Tommy, get in the car
and wait, will you? I'm going to help
this guy."
The wind howled and snow swirled
and Sam and the stranger walked where
the road should have been. It was bur-
ied deeply in driven snow, but it was
there somewhere. Sam looked at the
giant walking beside him. He was bare-
headed, an overcoat more suited for
rain than snow, no mitts, thin pants and
low slung shoes. It was as if he
was begging to freeze to
death. The stranger
didn't seem to be
suffering any ill
effects for
being under-
dressed in a
blizzard.
They
found the
car. It was
canted
sideways a
bit, but not so
far into the
ditch to be unsal-
vageable. The man
opened the pas-
senger door
and spoke
to some-
one
inside.
Then he
turned
to Sam
and
spoke
to him,
even
though
the wind
tried to catch his
words and fling them away. The woman
was going to drive the car if Sam and
the giant could dig some snow and then
push it out of the ditch. Sam was doubt-
ful. They started digging.
The stranger had a small snow shovel
that seemed more suitable to spooning
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soup than shovelling snow,
but he moved his fair share.
Sam moved a lot. Once they
had a short path cleared in
front of the slanting car, both
men went to the rear, bent
on pushing it out. They
leaned into it, rocking it back
and forth until tires finally
grabbed some traction and
hauled the car onto the
road.
The stranger commented
"You're strong. Biblically
strong:'
"Yeah," said Sam. "And I
have the jawbone of an ass."
The two men dug their way
to the lane and the lady
drove the car, illuminating
the way. When they got to
Sam's car, they found that
Tommy was working at mov-
ing the snow from under the
frame.
When asked why he hadn't
stayed in the car, Tommy
said simply "I was getting
cold." And that was that.
Then the lady drove Sam's
car as he, Tommy and the
stranger pushed it to the
shelter of the pines. They got
the other vehicle onto the
lawn and out of harm's way,
and then all went inside
where it was warm. Cheryl
was surprised.
It seemed that no sooner
were introductions made
that an atmosphere of seren-
ity and comfort filled the
house. Sure that the stran-
gers were good people and
things were fine, Sam went
out to do the chores. This
was in the age of small mixed
farming, and Sam had to
know a lot about a lot. He
milked the last four cows that
hadn't dried up in anticipa-
tion of their calves in late
February. The four would
come in in June to try to split
the market. Sam knew that
things were going well and
was happy. He fed his
charges, pumped the water,
gathered the eggs and
headed for the house.
Once inside, Carrie came
to him saying, "Dad, did you
know Mary has a baby in her
tummy? I think she ate it.
She's nice. Tommy said you
shovelled snow. Mom said
supper's almost ready. Can I
carry the eggs?"
Supper was a lot of fun.
The strangers were warm
and friendly and involved
the kids in the conversation.
Cheryl made up a bed for
them in the spare room and
opened the register, while
Sam dumped a little more
coal in the furnace. Mary and
her huge husband Joshua
settled onto the couch and
engaged the family in
friendly conversation. The
children were excited about
Christmas and getting to see
the "stable" and the Nativity
and getting to go to church at
midnight and having grape-
fruit and then on Christmas
morning, getting to open
presents. The one thing that
both children wanted was to
have Tom, the cat, to come
back.
Joshua leaned forward and
rumbled "I have no doubt
that Tom will come back to
you." Sam was a bit worried
that the kids were going to be
disappointed, but he
couldn't bring himself to say
anything. Cheryl looked at
him, but didn't interject.
The next day, the storm
broke and Mary and Joshua
went on their way. Just as he
was leaving, Joshua turned
back, raised his hand and
said "Bless this house and all
who enter here." It was a bit
unnerving, but not at all
creepy. Nice, really.
Christmas morning, the
cat came back.
Dec 27
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