Page 94 of A Twist of Faith
He chuckled and walked out the door. The tension in his body, which had eased a little while he talked to Emma, returned as he drove home. He’d spent the day coming to terms with his unforgiveness of Jana and replaying his time with Dee. Apart from the Autumn Ball, there wasn’t a scene in their relationship where she’d shown anything but genuineness. So what happened tonight? Was it as simple as a natural delay? She’d returned his text so fast; it encouraged him of her sincerity.
Worry gnawed at the back of his mind. Dusk filtered dark shadows across the snow-dusted road toward home. His headlights blared through the darkness, revealing the path ahead. He instinctively slowed as the curve appeared.Wait.Snow skimmed over a fresh tire tread trail of a car’s path off the road. His breath stuck in his throat. He slowed his speed, his gaze following the trail to the roadside. A break in the brush drew his attention to the steep embankment. His stomach knotted with a sudden awareness and he slammed on the brakes. No.
He parked the car, headlights blaring over the ledge, and reached for his flashlight in the glove compartment. Its solo glow sliced into the evening hues, revealing the vehicle’s erratic turn off the road. Energy pulsed through him with each step he took nearer the embankment. Not another victim of this ravine, Lord. And please not … He stopped his mind from going there.
The light pierced beyond the shrubbery and down the thirty foot drop of gray dusk toward the river. As the pale glow glided over the water, the scene knocked the air out of his lungs in one rush. Reflected back to him tipped the crippled remains of a silver car nose down in the river. He couldn’t tell for certain whether it was an Accord, but his heart already knew the answer.
Cold chilledDee from her chest down. She tried to shake the ice-prickles from her fingertips, but her hands moved slow and stiff. Why wouldn’t they work properly and why was she so cold? She attempted to open her eyes, but they weighed too heavy for the act, along with her useless arms. With another effort she forced them open and blinked her surroundings into view. Darkness swelled a foggy picture. Her thoughts moved in a discoordinated dance, sliding just out of reach for her to take hold of them. Where was she?
The dark surroundings combined with her muddled thoughts made it difficult to process everything. So cold and … stings of pain spiked up her legs. Her head ached. She looked down. Water? How did she—?
Clarity pierced through the fog. Reese! She had been on her way to meet Reese. Pieces of memory filtered in. A deer? The cliff? She blinked again and looked around as if for the first time. Oh no, she was in the river. Water poured in through the broken glass of her passenger window and pressed up against her chest. She sat at an angle, her right side deeper into the frigid liquid, numb and useless. The snow filtered down in soft, gentle flutters as the sky began to clear with frosty moonlight.
She shivered.
Then the pain came. Throbbing pulses of it traveled from her foot up her leg. Something warm trailed down her face. She freed her left hand from the icy hold of the river and reached to wipe it. Her quivering fingers showed blood in the pale moonlight. Another hard shiver shook her body and sent a shock of fresh pain surging up her leg and wrapping around her right wrist. She cried out and her stomach roiled. No, she couldn’t get sick here. Not with the water floating all around her.
She bit back the pain and tried to open her door, but either from the car damage or the water pressure, she couldn’t get it to budge. Could she climb out the window? One pull split blinding pain up her leg, she almost lost consciousness again. Her foot pinned tight somewhere underneath the murky water.
Trapped.
Her rasped breaths sped into panic. Trapped in a car filling with freezing water? How long had she been here? Was she going to die?
She searched for an answer, a way to escape or find help. The lighter contents of her purse floated around her, but her cell phone certainly lay somewhere beneath the water, if in the car at all. She was utterly alone with no way to find out. Lost?
I am with you …
A voice, almost audible, caressed her spirit, with warmth.
She looked around her as much as her aching body allowed, but only the coming darkness greeted her. Her breathing stilled and she closed her eyes to listen. God’s presence broke into her panic with peace, peace like she’d never known.
Certainty filtered through her, dousing fear with a Presence. Not alone. He held her. Even now. Whispers in her spirit urged her to believe in what she couldn’t see and faith rose to the challenge, calming and sure.
The water swirled a little higher now and shook a tremor from head to aching toe, but a growing fire flickered into flame in her soul. Even now in the middle of her dying moments, God took the opportunity to remind her of his love—of His presence. No matter what the future held, she belonged to Him.
“You are with me.” The words came hoarse and raw, but brought a smile.
Awareness clung to her newfound faith with a confidence beyond her understanding. She released her fear and gave way to the growing numbness of her body. An internal light shone to such a point, she thought she almost saw it, shimmering off the water and highlighting the inside of her car. Was this what dying felt like? Was God sending His angels for her even now?
The shaft of light spread around her, spotlighting her window and falling on her face. She supposed angels had to be bright to come into dark places like riverbeds at dusk to take God’s kids home. How sweet.
“Dee.”
And the angels even knew her by name.
“Dee, honey, answer me?”
Why did the angel sound like Reese Mitchell? She smiled. A farmer-angel. About as cute a knight-in-dirty-overalls.
A shadow appeared by the glowing light and a voice spoke from it. “You’re alive.”
Dee blinked against the light. “Reese,” her voice croaked his name.
“Praise God, you’re alive.”
Dee looked up into his worried face, mind fuzzy and slow. “But Reese, you’re not an angel.”
Not an angel?What was the crazy woman talking about?
