12/26/2025
PART 4 of the “Xmas Eve Eve Rescue”
It was nearly 5am Christmas Eve now and we were at Danny and Denise’s home. But still, there was much work to do. We had to unpack the car and get everyone some hot chocolate. With the kids revived a bit, they were off to bed. Danny, Denise, and I enjoyed a second or third cup of hot chocolate. Denise may have been upstairs when Danny and I walked outside to the driveway. It was still bitter cold, but the wind had died down a bit. I told Danny that the car may have “warmed up” a bit sitting here out of the wind, so maybe it will start. To our surprise, rolling it backwards and popping the clutch, it started right away! “Should I follow you home in my pickup?” Danny inquired. “Naah.” I said confidently, “It’s only 10 minutes across town, I’ll make it.” So, Danny goes back into his house to be discovered a few minutes later by his wife. “What are you doing here?” she almost angrily asks her husband. “The car started, and he thinks he can make it home, it’s only 10 minutes.” With raised voice and raised hand pointing towards the door, she instructs Danny, “You get out there in your truck and follow him home!” Danny quickly obeys. Now, he never catches up with me, and never sees me. There are two or three routes one can take crossing town, especially if you want to avoid traffic. But there is no traffic, except crazy people this early on Xmas eve. Shortcuts may take you down “lonely roads” that should you break down, you would have to wait even longer for a rescue. Remember folks, this is before cell phone and “instant rescue.” Plus, according to the manual, “Rescue Mission involving Gravity Power” in these kinds of situations, a well-used road is preferred, so bodies can be recovered, if need be, fairly quickly. It took me about 15 minutes or so to make it home alright to find my wife on the phone with Denise. She greets me with “Where’s Danny?” I replied, “What do you mean, ‘where’s Danny?’ he was home when I left their house!” “Well, I’ve got Denise on the phone, and he is not back yet, and if he was not behind you, where is he?” “Well, there are different routes in getting here, so maybe he thought I broke down and he is checking each one of them.” “Possibly… but wouldn’t he come here first to see if you made it home, especially since you had a head start?” Yeah, unless his old truck broke down taking a shortcut trying to catch up with me!” He has been gone over 20 minutes! Silence. “So, I had better go look for him.” Silence. “Wait! Let’s not send out another rescuer to rescue the previous rescued, until that rescuer has a chance to arrive at one of the two houses!” “That sounds like a good idea. Let’s wait a few more minutes. Until then, we had better get off the phone so he can call us!” (This was before the call waiting feature was available.) It was only about 5 minutes when the phone rang. It was Denise. “Danny’s home! He did go to your house first, saw your car, and immediately turned around and came back without stopping since he knew that you didn’t know he was following you. He took a different route and never saw you on the trip across town.” Finally, I can go back to my bedroom to get my much-needed sleep. As I go into the bedroom, I see out the east window…the breaking of the dawn. The rescue mission had taken a mere 8 hours. So thus ends the Xmas Eve Eve Rescue…or does it? Well folks, there’s the aftermath, the post traumatic consequences, and the soon-to-be-composed, “Christmas Eve Eve Rescue!” poem. Stay tuned.
