Prompts:
Brutal; adjective: Savagely violent; punishingly hard or uncomfortable; direct and lacking any attempt to disguise unpleasantness.
Sullen; adjective: Bad-tempered and sulky; gloomy; (of the sky) full of dark clouds; noun: A sulky or depressed mood.
Trust; noun: Firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something; acceptance of the truth of a statement without evidence or investigation; the state of being responsible for someone or something; verb: Believe in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of.
It was nineteen sixty eight and a young family was making its way across the country to a new home on Vancouver Island. There were four sullen and hot young children in the backseat of the red rambler. The car had been hastily repaired by the father and a sympathetic garage in Alberta.(Remember these were the days when people didn’t even wear seatbelts).The car was now held together by some soldering, Duct tape and rope but the father trusted it would get them to where they were going even pulling the U-Haul that had pulled the car apart. The windows would all open but the back doors would not open. In true fact the only door that would now open was the passenger side. The father was tired, the mother even more so, as she slept little staying awake to keep the driver awake. She then would stay awake to watch the children as he slept. The children were cranky as the long car ride of four days continued. It wasn’t an adventure anymore but torture to remain quiet and stare endlessly out the window.
It was the middle of the night that the Old U-Haul trailer they were pulling suddenly pulled to the right as they went up the mountain. The father pulled the car over to stop, but no one got out as the middle of the car was tied shut with rope and the backdoors wouldn’t open after their last stop.
“Hon get out and check the U-Haul will you?” the father asked
The mother rushed to comply. Putting one foot down she gasped and pulled it back inside the car ashen.
“Would you hurry up, and go check the trailer. Damn it.” The father demanded. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“There’s nothing there. No ledge no ground. We’re going to topple over the mountainside.”
“What?”
“The ground is gone. We are practically over the edge we have to get the children out.”
“If we move the wrong way the weight of the car and the U-Haul will pull us all the way over.” said the father.
“Children wake up.” the mother said softly.
“But it is still dark.” they protested.
“Help your sister out the driver’s side window, and then help the others out. Once they are all out, you get out.” the mother commanded.
“Why?” asked the oldest boy.
“Just do as your mother says.” the father commanded.
The boy helped his sisters out of the car and when he himself got out realized the situation and moved the children further across the road. He then told his sister who was the next oldest to watch them. He went to help get his mother out across his father. The only one left in the car was his father who refused to get out.
“Find some rocks and put the woodblock behind the wheels of the U-Haul.” the father commanded the older boy and his wife.
The boy and the man’s wife complied and the man yelled that it wasn’t working. The wife was then told to get in and the man yelled at them to steer in the correct direction as he moved the U-Haul pushing it in the right direction. A few minutes later with great relief the man said to his wife.
“It’s straight now.”
The danger was over the man and the woman had steered the car into a stretch were the car could be pulled over. The man and the woman waited in the car at the side of the road until morning. In the morning when they walked back to the spot where the car had almost gone over they saw the brutal truth. They looked out down and saw that they were on not had only been negotiating the Roger’s Pass but had stumbled on the road that overlooked Hell’s Gate, When they looked down all they saw was a river very far down so far they could barely see it.They then realized how lucky they had really been.
© Sheilagh Lee January 11, 2012
Author’s note: This is a true story about my youth. I was one of the younger siblings in the car. We would have surely died if not for the tug that my father felt of the U-Haul .My father always said he had a bad feeling and felt a mysterious tug on his shoulder that caused him to pull over. He felt that this was not from anything earthly (since we were all asleep except my mother and him); so I’d like to think our guardian angels saved us that day so long ago. This road at the time was known as Hell’s Pass. There were no guard rails either at the time making this one of the most dangerous stretches of road in the country.(they have since refined the road and installed guard rails)The river they saw was the Frasier River flowing through.
If you'd like to more on this area click below:
Roger’s Pass info
Hell’s Gate below Hell's Pass
