The Ice Storm

With a honk, Troy launched into a very hard severe tug. The truck jerked forward a few feet and came to a stop.

As he backed up and waved to the lady, Troy set up for a second pull. Listening, he heard the woman timidly get back on the gas.

The second tug was a little less forceful, as Troy didn’t like the way the woman had looked shocked the first pull.

Setting up the third tug, Troy heard the lady give a bit more gas. Troy launched hard. The truck lurched forward several feet before the snowbank claimed the truck.

This time, the lady felt a bit more courage and jab the gas pedal harder. The rear tires loudly sang their famous “ZZzzzzz” buzz sound as the rear dropped into the snow back.

Right before Troy could launch again the woman backed off the gas.

Stepping out… Troy walked back to make sure the lady was OK.

“Sorry about that first tug. I miscalculated” Troy said as he bowed in apology.

“Oh no. No. I wasn’t prepare for… umm… your car is a beast” the lady blushed.

“I thought you’d be giving it a bit more gas, and I thought we’d have you out in the first pull” Troy confessed.

“Oh… sorry. I just didn’t want to slam into the back of you” the lady blushed further.

“I doubt you’d violate me so…” chuckled Troy.

The two laughed. Troy inspected their progress as the two exhaled a little sigh.

The truck was in the center of the snow bank and the back had dug in. This might be the end of the line for his plan.

“Let me try something different. Let me see if I can get you to back up, as I don’t think I can get you forward without risking damages” Troy explained.

“I”m at your mercy, kind sir” the woman batted her eyes playfully.

Once re-positioned behind the S10, Troy honked and launched hard. The car jerked violently against the tow strap as Tory kept the tach at 2500 rpm. The truck moved back slowly towards the street.

Progress stopped as soon as the rear tires touched the slicked ice covering the packed snow of the street.

Time to reset and try pulling this lady back into the campus.

Troy was growing a little worried. The woman was far too timid with her gas pedal. She didn’t need to thrash the truck and mash the pedal to the floor, but he needed her to use more power if this was going to work.

“OK. We’re going to try to go in. This time, please, a little more power” Troy implored.

“I want to… trust me… I do… but I don’t see how that’s going to help or how I’m not going to crash into you” the lady explained looking like she was begging for understanding.

“I get the laws of physics, however, if your tires aren’t applying enough power for the level of traction, my car is left doing most of the work… which is a bit more than it’s supposed to do” Troy tried to say as empathetically as possible.

“OK. But. What if my truck takes off to ram into you?” the lady asked.

“First. I think you’re a skilled enough driver to get off the gas and hit the brakes, and secondly… I’m watching you, I’m not going to hit the brakes if I see your truck lunging at me” Troy assured.

The lady laughed and blushed. Troy was making sense.

“I’ll try. But if I slip…” the lady adjusted herself as she looked intently at Troy.

“You’ll be fine. I trust you” Troy assured once more.

Once ready, Troy crossed his fingers and honked before launching.

The lady, nervously whispered a prayer as she pushed hard on her pedal.

The two vehicles slowly built up momentum and began plowing through the snowbank.

Troy put his hand out and signaled to the woman to try harder. She hesitated and felt the cars slow.

“Oh god… what am I doing?” she timidly prayed.

Watching Troy’s hand signaling to try harder, the lady timidly applied more gas. The progress resumed but much too slowly to make it past their first position of progress.

Nervously, she extended her trembling leg over the gas pedal as the truck started to roar to life. Immediately, she let off.

Too much power, she thought to her self. But Troy was waving more frantically to her to keep going. She pushed again on the pedal and felt the truck come to life and hit the wall of snow where they had last stopped.

Thinking to herself to ease off, as she saw her speedometer reach 30mph, she saw Troy frantically waving to her to keep going.

“Oh eff this… I’m sorry good Samaritan” the lady said as she closed her eyes and pushed hard on the pedal.

The motor roared. The body shook. The back wallowed left and right. The front hopped up and down. The spray from the Civic sounded like rocks slamming into the grill of her tuck.

Opening her eyes, she saw her speedometer reading 55mph.

“Oh dear god… my baby… my sweet baby” she trembled. Her foot was wavering up and down on the pedal with massive nervousness.

Troy, looking back, was reading the nervousness the woman was experiencing. She was doing her best, but clearly this was tasking her driving skills.

Pulling his hand down to signal holding steady, Troy hoped to reassure the woman.

The lady smiled and tried to relax. Troy was no longer asking her to add power. She could handle giving this 40% effort. Anything more was making her too nervous of losing control and slamming into the back of the Civic.

The two slowly clawed their way through the snow bank as Troy kept assuring her with his hand gestures to keep the power steady. Her confidence started to rise as they were clearing the last of the snowbank.