Read Affairs of the Heart for Free Online Page B

an instant, the picture flitting
through my mind even as the sadness of losing her resonates through
me.
    Flexing my hand, I
remember how Sandi nearly crushed it during delivery. “I can feel
your presence Sandi.”
    Her grip had felt like
being caught in a vise, every bone about to be shattered, leaving
me wondering when she’d acquired super-human strength. My
soft-spoken wife became a rowdy-mouthed sailor spurting things
totally incomprehensible as she pushed our baby into the world, and
then it was over. Her body relaxed, her breathing returned to
normal, and our lives forever changed with the wail of a new
life.
    The words “it’s a girl”
swelled my heart with pride, but it was seeing Sandi nuzzling the
pink bundle in her arms that poured great love into me. I’d never
felt anything as amazing as that day. I couldn’t wait for the next
time we’d welcome a baby into the world.
    A moment later, my life
came crashing down around me when Sandi closed her eyes for the
last time as Bella snuggled contently in her arms.
    “ I wish they
could have saved both of them, but the aneurism…”
    The tires of the truck
catch a patch of ice and jolt me back to the reality of the
snow-covered highway. “Damn. Keep your mind on driving, you fool!”
I push the past away and return to concentrating on getting through
the December snowstorm. If I were to lose my focus now, I could end
up jackknifed in the road, causing a mass of destruction in the
aftermath and cost Bella her one remaining parent.
    The strange, otherworldly
view through the windshield is like looking into a snow globe after
the first shake, only this snow isn’t stopping; it’s getting
heavier as I creep farther down the highway. The faster my wipers
move, the less visible the tire tracks in the snow-covered highway
are. At this point, it doesn’t matter what speed they cleared the
glass; the wind blows the snow immediately back into
place.
    The crackling of the
company cell phone slices through the whistling of the wind.
Irritated, I tap the button on my wireless earpiece. “It’s snowing
like hell; what ya want DJ?”
    “ You pulled
over yet?” The dispatcher’s voice comes through full of static,
sounding like an old scratched 78 record. “Get that damn truck off
the road as soon as possible. Interstate 94 west of Gary is closing
within an hour. You’ve got to bed down for the night.”
    No way am I going to
break my promise to my daughter. Besides, pulling over is a moot
point when I can’t see the edges of the road. “Right,” I snort.
“Like that’s gonna happen. I can’t even see the shoulder, let alone
find a place to pull over.”
    “ I don’t care
how or where you do it, just do it. Too damn dangerous for you to
be pushing through, and you know it,” DJ snaps.
    “ Gotta make
it home for Christmas.” I glance down at the speedometer and then
settle back in my seat. Forty miles-per-hour isn’t going to get me
home as early as I’d like, but it will get me there sooner than
bedding down for the night. “Can’t afford to be stranded in some
truck stop. I promised this year I’d be there…not here.”
    “ You aren’t
going to be any good to your little girl in a pine box! Boss wants
all the trucks pulled over within the hour. It’ll give you time to
update those logs of yours while waiting out the storm, eleven
hours or not!” DJ says and then hangs up.
    * * * *
    Rubbing my face, I yawn
big and deep, pulling in as much oxygen as I can, trying to focus.
It’s no use; my eyes are fuzzy. Finally feeling the effects of
driving in a blizzard, I reluctantly admit I need to find a place
to get off the road and bed down for the duration.
    “ A little cat
nap, and then I’ll be good to go.” The eight-mile length of road
between Gary and Chicago isn’t getting any better. The question is:
where’s a good place to stop? I can’t see the shoulder. Hell, I
can’t see the road. Driving in these conditions is like trying to
find my