Looking For You All My Life Part 170

*"Why not take her with you to work? She'd be good

company. I remember when I was in England a lot of shop-

keepers kept their dogs with them in their shops. Of course,

the dogs were always rather sedate and well mannered. I

don't know that anyone would want a dog like Bart with

them." Maggie laughed.

"Then you don't mind if I keep her?" asked Leah incred-

ulously as she dipped her spoon into the soup.

"Not at all. I think she's been missing you."

After Leah had finished her late supper, Maggie gave her

some of Audrey's cookies. She'd purposely brought a couple

of the wilder ones decorated by the boys. "Spencer and

Daniel went a little nuts frosting these," she explained.

"They're great."

"I'm curious, Leah," began Maggie, "about what hap-

pened after Jed's pickup spun out of control." Then she

glanced at her watch. "Although it's getting pretty late. You

may want to get some sleep."

"No, I don't feel tired right now. And I want to tell you

what happened. After I realized I was stuck in the ditch, the

snow was coming down so fast that I was afraid to get out.

It was dark outside and like a blizzard, and I thought for sure

I'd get lost. So I decided it would be better just to stay with

the truck and wait."

"Of course," said Maggie. "I forgot about how the snow

had been coming down so hard earlier. By the time Lizzie

and I got up there all was quiet and calm."

"Anyway, I thought I'd keep the engine running to keep

the heat on. I had almost a whole tank of gas, but..." She

made a sheepish face. "I hadn't thought to dress real warmly

this morning. Pretty dumb, huh?"

Maggie just shrugged. "We all make mistakes. I'm sure

you won't do that again."

Leah shook her head. "With the engine running, it seemed

like exhaust fumes were coming into the cab. I wondered if I

Il Looking for You All My Life267

might've gotten the taupipe stuck in the snow. I saw that

once on a movie or something."

"Yes, and the truck was at the right kind of angle for that

to happen."

"So, I turned off the engine and got out and made my

way to the back end. It was buried in snow. I dug and dug

and never found it. I ended up losing my gloves in the snow,

and by then I was so cold I had to get back inside."

Maggie nodded. "And then you were probably afraid to

leave the engine running?"

"Yeah. I'd let it run a little with the window open. Then

quickly turn it off and wind the window up real fast. But it

wasn't working. Finally, I left the window up. I just kept get-

ting colder and colder. And then I must've fallen asleep."