“Siri, is there a shorter route to Palisades Beach?”
Mike and Jo Mulroney had two kids in the back who were getting awfully anxious to see the ocean and gorge themselves on saltwater taffy, so when Siri suggested in her reassuring dulcet voice that they go another 5.8 miles and then turn onto Forest Service Road 281 and proceed west he happily complied. He asked her to show him the route and it looked a little zig-zaggy, but clearly it was much more direct than the main highway which went another 30 miles south to skirt the coast mountains.
There were only a couple hours of sunlight left but Siri assured them it would take exactly 55 minutes to reach Highway 101 and then it would be a short hop to Palisades Beach.
At first the paved road was smooth and clear, framed by tall Douglas firs, with the evening sun peeking through the trees creating a dazzling kaleidoscope effect. Their faces glued to the windows, seven-year-old Jack and four-year-old Julie couldn’t have been happier. Mike and Jo shared a smile.
Four miles in, the road started to climb sharply, switching back and forth, and the sun disappeared in a dark gray gauze. Mike was too busy dodging potholes made by log trucks to notice the first fat flakes of snow falling around them, but it wasn’t long before they started to stick to the windshield. Jack and Julie were delighted and they both had their windows down trying to catch snowflakes with their tongues.
As the grade became steeper, the snowfall became heavier, and Mike had to turn on the wipers to stay on the narrow track. The trees now wore a beautiful frosting of white and muffled crunching sounds came from under the tires. When Mike slowed for a hairpin the car slid sideways a bit and this time he and Jo shared a nervous glance.
“Siri, why are we heading east instead of west?”
Mike’s tone of voice had a hard enough edge to bring Jack and Julie’s heads back in the car with quizzical looks on their faces.
“The road turns west in point three miles.”
“Damn well better,” Mike mumbled just loud enough to carry to the back seat, and the faces now wore unmistakable looks of concern.
Among her many parenting talents, Jo Mulroney was a master of distraction, and she went about the business of keeping the kids’ thoughts full of a winter wonderland and the White Christmas that awaited them.
But the new Ford Explorer kept climbing and the snow kept falling, and when Mike switched to low gear, she abandoned her effort to amuse Jack and Julie and joined her husband squinting out the windshield.
As Siri had promised, the road did switch back to a more westerly heading but kept climbing and Jo let out an exasperated sigh.
“Maybe we should turn back and take the long way, honey.”
“It can’t be too much further until we start down and out of this, babe. Besides, I’m not sure where I could turn around. Or how.”
When the road finally leveled out and began a gentle descent, Jo grabbed Mike’s arm and gave it a hard squeeze. The hard side-eye glance she got in response spoke volumes, though, and she knew they weren’t out of the woods.
It had been over an hour since they started on FS 281, the odometer confirmed they had gone only twenty miles, and their progress was now agonizingly slow. Neither parent dared give voice to it but they both knew darkness would fall long before they reached Highway 101. If they could find it.
Mike stopped abruptly when they came to a fork in the barely visible road and asked Siri what the hell he should do. Julie started to whimper, and Jo turned to hold her hand.
With little choice but to follow Siri’s instructions, Mike took the left fork and eased the SUV into a steep decline. More for the kid’s sake than anything else, Jo cheerily announced that they were heading down now and would be out of the mountains soon. She reminded them that salt water taffy was in their immediate future, but children are well aware of their parent’s moods and manner and Jack and Julie now stared out the windows at the world of white with no joy, only a sense of dread. Julie continued to snivel and when the tires would slip, as they often did now, she would yelp.
The descent flattened out and that briefly gave Mike and Jo some relief, but when they rounded a sharp corner and it began to steeply climb again, they exchanged looks which for the first time showed anger and desperation.
Mike had taken to asking Siri about the route on almost every corner and her soothing voice now sounded uncaring and even menacing. With darkness settling into the forest, after another mile of ups and downs and switching back and forth, Mike stopped abruptly and slammed his hands into the steering wheel.
“Fuck!”
Now Jack started to cry as well. Jo massaged Mike’s knotted shoulders and tried to calm the kids with light-hearted humor.
“Daddy dropped an F-bomb. That’s money in the swear jar. And more taffy.”
Jack snorted a laugh but looked unconvinced and Julie kept quietly blubbering as the darkness enveloping them invaded the interior of the car. Mike turned on the dome lights, but when they dropped into a swale and their progress came to a dead stop in deep snow, the mood in the car went black. Jo grabbed his arm.
“Are we stuck?”
“Not sure. I’m going to try backing up and take a harder run at this. If that doesn’t work, we might be here awhile. Unless Siri can pull us out.”
“Stop it, Mike.”
The Explorer made a little progress backing up but when Mike shifted into low and gunned the engine it only served to drop them deeper into the snow. Jo reached again for her husband’s arm, but he was already on his way out the door to assess the situation and she turned around with a smile to reassure the kids.
Julie was quiet now but almost catatonic with her feet up on the seat, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees and rocking gently. Jack sat rigidly upright, his hand resting protectively on Julie’s knee with false bravado.
Unable to see much outside the vehicle, Jo and the kids were startled when the driver’s door popped open again and Mike stuck his head inside.
“Jo, come out here and take a look at this.”
“Can I come too, dad?” Jack pleaded.
“Stay here with your sister,” Mike barked, leaving no room for discussion.
Once outside together, Mike grabbed his wife by both arms.
“We’re not going anywhere, Jo. At least not tonight.”
“We need to call for help, Mike. Get someone here by morning.”
“Call with what? There’s no cell service up here.”
Jo had not considered that possibility, but her shoulders sank and her arms went limp when she realized of course he was right. The Apple CarPlay gave them GPS but without cell service there could be no texting or calling. Mike drew her into his arms and hugged her tight.
“We’ve got to stay strong for the kids, Jo. Both of us.”
He opened the door and mustering as much calm and confidence as he could, Mike informed Jack and Julie that for safety’s sake they’d need to spend the night and continue down and out of the mountains in the morning. A moment later Jo emerged from the back end with jackets and a blanket which she threw over the kid’s laps. Still able to sound upbeat, she relayed the other thing Mike had told her.
“We need to turn the engine off so we won’t run out of gas, kiddos. It might get a little chilly but we’re going to camp out here in the car and have fun with it, okay? Who’s hungry?”
Jo produced a handful of energy bars from a small kit bag and offered the first choice to Julie, then Jack. Just as she unwrapped one and handed it to her husband, he turned to give her a long look that she could tell meant more bad news.
“We need to turn the dome light off too or the battery will be dead by morning.”
“Are we going to die here?” Julie blurted out.
“Of course not, sweetie. Someone will find us. We just need to wait and stay warm,” Jo said mechanically without turning around.
“Who’s going to find us?” Jack asked rubbing his arms.
The full magnitude and consequence of their predicament now registered in Jo’s brain, but she pleaded for enough light to finish their dinner, such as it was, and make sure the kids were tucked in. Mike nodded solemnly and angrily tore off half his energy bar in one bite.
They ate in silence except for Julie’s sniffling. When they were finished, Mike turned off the light and she began to sob.
“You did this to us, Siri, you fucking bitch,” Mike hissed through clenched teeth.
Their virtual friend said she didn’t understand and Jo started crying too.