Slice of Life March Challenge #19: Driving through a storm...and hoping for Spring

The March Slice of Life Challenge is hosted by Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers

It is snowing when I arrive at school for an evening meeting  - nickel sized snowflakes swirl and twirl in the air, festive and lovely.  They form a delicate lacy carpet across the asphalt, but I am not fooled by their loveliness ..I have heard the forecast, and it is grim.

Meeting over, I head through the long corridor to the parking lot.  I step out into winter's white fury - a roaring lion of a March storm.  There is a car ahead of me, moving more quickly than I.  It swerves and swishes, narrowly missing street signs as it makes its turns.  Slow down, I think, please slow down!   It is snowing too hard for the windshield wipers to keep up - a steady curtain of snow falls thick and fast. The glow of headlights and tail lights, darting here and streaming by there,  is mesmerizing - flashes of gold and amber and scarlet in the midst of winter white.  

The van swoops down the last but one hill home, and I can see the little tunnel we must pass through - a gaping blackness.  We emerge and I make it through the last intersection, just as a snow plow charges by, throwing a downy blanket across the expanse of my windscreen.  I drive by instinct, knowing that the road is straight at this point, while the wipers work valiantly to clear the view. 

At last, I reach the bottom of the last hill home.  Steady there, I tell myself, stay steady and straight.You can do this.  I count the streetlights as we pass by -  there are seven in all, the seventh being at our corner.  I am so glad to make that last turn, the turn home, that I take it too quickly. I feel the back end of the van spin out and fan across our street. Go with the skid, don't fight it, I remind myself. Slowly, the van comes to a halt and I creep into our driveway.

My husband is at the window...I am home.