Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
A Blanket of Snow
Night fell. Tom and Tamitha ate a granola bar apiece, snuggled under the blankets with Medusa, and tried to sleep. They ran the heater periodically, but it didn't do much good. The temperature outside was dropping; soon it reached five below zero.By 2 a.m., 50-mile-an-hour gusts were buffeting the pickup, and the windows were blanketed with snow. Tamitha, who had diabetes and ulcers, began to tremble. Tom held her, and they dozed off. When they awoke around five, the storm had entered a lull and Tamitha had recovered some fight. "Either you dig out this truck or I'm going to," she said. It was still dark, but Tom put on some extra layers and gave it a try.
While he was digging, Tamitha said a prayer. On a pad of paper, she scribbled a simple will, followed by a goodbye letter to Krystal. "I'm so proud of you," she wrote, "even if we argued sometimes. Tell Grandma and Grandpa and my brothers I love them." She hid the documents in the glove compartment.
After an hour of shoveling, Tom started the engine. The truck lurched forward ten yards, then foundered. And despite the garbage bags he'd wrapped around his socks to keep them dry, his feet were soaked.
"Too much snow," he said. "I'm so sorry I got you into this."
Tamitha hugged him. "We got into it together. We'll get out together too."
Back in Kearns, Krystal was frantic. Usually, Tamitha phoned or sent text messages several times a day. Now Krystal's calls were going straight to voice mail. "Mom," she said, "where are you? Are you hurt?"
By Sunday evening, Krystal had alerted other family members. Her grandparents and an uncle, Tamitha's brother Jack Retallick, set up a command post in the Garners' living room. All they knew was that Tom and Tamitha were somewhere near the border of southern Utah and Nevada.
Krystal contacted the Salt Lake County sheriff's department, which alerted authorities in the Garners' last known locations. The relatives began calling hospitals, ranger stations, the highway patrol. No one could offer any information. And no one was willing to mount a search-and-rescue operation for a couple who seemed to have taken an extra day of vacation.
In Hamblin Valley, the blizzard worsened, the wind piling drifts around the pickup. Tom, who'd been an Eagle Scout, knew it was best to stay put and wait for rescuers. Besides, getting wet was the greatest danger -- a shortcut to hypothermia. He and Tamitha spent Monday huddled under the blankets, smoking cigarettes and listening to the radio-talk shows and weather reports, all bemoaning the storm.
Tamitha grew weaker by the hour, occasionally vomiting blood. After Tom found her will, she persuaded him to write his own. That night, when he ate a granola bar, she left hers untouched. Once he was snoring, she stashed it under the seat. Tom might need it later, but she surely wasn't going to live until morning.
To her surprise, she woke on Tuesday feeling stronger. The blizzard was petering out, and a crowd of mustangs peered at the truck through the trees. "Look, Tom," Tamitha whispered. "Our guardian angels."
The Garners didn't know it, but searchers were now trying to track them down. Jack had found a file marked "Mustangs" on the couple's computer, with downloads showing locations of various herds. He'd passed along that data to the authorities. Hundreds of volunteers -- along with members of several county sheriff's departments and the Utah and Nevada Civil Air Patrol -- were combing 5,000 square miles of frigid wilderness.
Advertisement 
Your Comments
See all
...
Post your comment