“This is exactly what I need.” Alex proudly displayed to the girls.
Then handing the black duffle bag up towards the front of the jeep out of the way, Alexi and I took the bag and continued to explore its contents.
Alex brought his body completely into the back storage area and tried to open the back door. But like the other doors, it was solidly pinned closed by the weight of fresh packed snow. Because of our inner temperature continued to drop, Ice had also started forming on all the insides of the glass windows like the frost found on the outside of a margarita glass or a frosted root beer mug.
“I can’t see a thing Mom, is there a flash light?” Alex asked while looking upward towards us.
Alexi started digging in her loose pile, “I know I saw it here somewhere”.
“I did too!” I excitably exclaimed, I listed each item out loud so everyone would know what I was looking at.
“We have a windshield scraper and a small broom, a small flashlight, a crank powered radio with flashlight, a quart of water now starting to freeze, a clear bag full of 10 energy bars, five small boxes of raisins and twenty mini candy bars. A plastic film container full of waterproof matches, a short fat candle and a first aid kit with a pocket knife and whistle to attract attention. Two wool blankets, a small sack of road salt, booster cables and a periscoping rod with a small red flag with white block letters of “SOS” permanently attached to it.
“It’s kind of like Christmas!” Alexi excitably says to her twin. Alex nods in agreement and feeling better as the list of items got bigger.
“Mom, we have nothing to worry about. We just need to get some fresh air in to the Jeep and hunker down and weather out this storm till tomorrow. We can put out the flag then and we should be found by the first plow truck.” Alex confidently says.
Alex confidence was actually contagious and I must admit even I began to feel that what was once a dire situation had now been relegated down to a little adventure to be laughed about around the holidays.
Alex took the folded shovel and began to beat on the back window in earnest. When nothing but a crack appeared in the back window, he set the tool down and picked up that jack handle for the spare tire. The car glass on the hatch back door was already cracked and spider webbed from the shovel, but we figured it was the largest window beside the front windshield. Alex first punched a hole through the back window and then took the shovel and tried to force a larger hole in the cracked windshield with the shovel edge by putting an ever increasing effort into each thrust. Alexi and I cringed with each blow and just when I thought it was a lost cause and that window would never break out, Alex finally got a large hole started. Setting the shovel down, he spun around so both of his feet were resting on the shattered back window.
Laying down on his back, Alex began to kick at the window causing the hole to finally widen till he could actually squeeze through it to the packed ice and snow on the other side of the window.