The Ravine

Afternoon set in as the two carried onward; its heat practically burned in pockets of sunlight along stretches where bald patches of hillside lay as solitary monuments to a once-great forest. Carol took another small drink from her bottle and Jameson took another from his. They were both running on empty. The sedan, however, was doing fine with its fluids as it carried them along towards another incline, much more gradual, however, than the one they had slid down awhile back. This one carried the two further from the road they had started from their cabin on and into more zig-zag cuts into the hillside. Jameson complained in the backseat.

“I know, Jamey,” Carol reassured. “Just a bit longer. Final stretch, I promise.”

The incline flattened out.

Carol rested the vehicle momentarily at the top and looked back on Jameson. After assuring that he was okay, she looked forward once more and, past the far-distant line of wilderness, she could see a long stretch of clear-cutting that she perceived as going on for quite a few miles. And beyond that, she appeared to see specks of human construction.

That must be Avery. The sedan lurched forward and approached a grand, and hopefully final, descent back towards the last observable stretch of wilderness.

Carol put the car in neutral once more and, like before, she crept down the hill, expecting the same loose patches of dirt and the inevitable sliding and skidding to occur.

“Slow and steady,” Carol chanted to herself. “Nice and easy.”

The slope protested the sedan’s weight, as expected. But only slightly. And despite a road of this design’s usual wide construction, years of weather and neglect had caused the hillside half to be drastically narrowed—at least in this part—from what was to normally be expected. Carol had no choice but to steer the car cautiously to the undependable shoulder. She took a deep breath and tightened her hands around the steering wheel. In front of her was another turn in the road that gradually disappeared around a road-narrowing hillside. She mentally measured the foreseeable narrow point in front of her.

“I can make it,” Carol boasted, determined. “I have enough room.”

She crept forward. The sedan skidded and scraped the invading hillside, pushing the car back onto the road and closer to the shoulder. They straightened out safely, continuing to turn. Carol swallowed hard, pressed on the brakes, and gradually turned the steering wheel. A large patch of dirt below the rear tires broke loose in response to her breaking and the sedan slid fast and sudden into the side of the hill at the birth of the road’s curve. The left headlight fractured as it collided with a rock sticking out of the encroaching hillside, piercing the still air of stagnant wilderness around them. Jameson started to cry a bit, but Carol reassured him as she struggled to regain control of the vehicle.

“It’s okay, Jamey. We’re okay.”

The sedan rebounded from the collision and momentarily straightened out. The sliding subsided slightly, but they weren’t out of it yet. They were beginning to turn along with the road; the descent continuing along the curve and Carol could see a few more meandering curves along the decline that she knew they’d have to suffer before the road widened again. But before that, she’d have to deal with a road that had become so narrow she had to practically keep the left side of the sedan pressed along the hillside just to avoid the drop off at shoulder’s end.

The sliding continued sparsely and then the sedan came upon another patch at about mid-curve in their descent. This patch of road carried its weight faster than before.

“Oh—.” Carol braked harder, which made it worse. She cranked the wheel but it did no good. The tail end of the sedan fish-tailed, leaving the back tires hanging off the end of the shoulder. The car skidded further down the turn in the road, leaving more of its back end to hang off the edge of the shoulder. Beyond that was a steep embankment that disappeared some hundred or so feet below a dense canopy of fir trees.

“Ma— Ma—” Jameson called for Carol. She looked back at him and could see that he was shaken.

“Don’t worry, Jamey. Just hold on.”

Carol pressed on the gas pedal, but it did not good. The car was a rear-wheel-drive and all it did was spin the tires suspended over the edge of the shoulder uselessly. In her frustration, Carol punched the steering wheel and desperately tried again. There was a loud scraping of the vehicle’s undercarriage against the shoulder of the road and they began to slide down the hill once more, leaving more of the vehicle to be suspended over the side of the should. Carol stopped everything and just froze.

“Ma—”

“Don’t move, Jamey.” Carol slowly took her right hand off of the steering wheel and reached out towards Jameson. “Don’t move.” In the distance there was what Carol might have understood as a bird calling. It would be the first since they had started on the old logging road.

“I’m coming to get you. Just stay there.”

Carol stretched further towards Jameson’s car seat, trying for the safety belt fastener holding him in his seat. The car’s front rocked gently, adjusting to Carol’s shifting weight.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Carol scooted her rear forward off the seat to settle in the space below the steering wheel.

“Gotta keep my weight in the front,” she coached.

She reached again, stretching and straining to close the gap between her and Jameson. It did no good, however. She found herself only further away. The sedan’s tires settled delicately on the road. Slowly, Carol seated herself like before. The front end of the car lifted slightly. Carol thought for a moment.

She eyed the button that fastened the seat belt clasp.

I gotta be quick. Hit that button and unfasten it and then return the weight to the front before the back side goes over.

Carol exhaled.

“It’s gonna work. It’s the only thing I can do. Hold on, Jamey.”

Carol took a deep breath, swallowed hard and lunged forward. The sedan’s front end lifted quick and violently and its undercarriage scraped as it positioned itself for the fall. Carol grabbed and tugged the car seat forward. Jameson let out a piercing cry of surprise. She wrestled with the fastener briefly before releasing it.

“Got it!”

Faster than she had lunged, Carol was back underneath the steering wheel, crouching in a fetal position; praying that the returning weight would catch the car in time to keep it on the road.

“C’mon. C’mon!”

The sedan slid slightly further down. In response to Carol’s weight the car, to her fortunate surprise, rocked back into position, reminding its occupants of the consequences of their carelessness as it rocked back and forth, much like a settling seesaw, on the shoulder.

“Stay put. Mommy’s coming back. Just stay still, Jamey.”

Carol slowly emerged from her place. The car rocked minutely in the direction of the drop off.

If I can grab Jamey fast enough, I can keep the weight up front.

…

Just one quick lunge.

Carol took another breath and shot forward. As expected the sedan’s front end lifted and more scraping of the car’s undercarriage followed. Carol grabbed Jameson at his sides right under his arms and pulled him towards him, being careful not to injure him in the process. The scraping continued for a second longer and then stopped. Carol, with Jameson propped up on her lap, sat forward in dead silence. The car rocked slightly in position but didn’t rock too much in either direction. Carol leaned their weight forward. Jameson started to cry.

“Shhh. Shhh. It’s okay. Momma’s got you now.”

Next step.

Carol eyed the door. They had to get out. Their sedan was now a sinking ship.

If I can get Jamey and I out the window and onto the hood of the car, we can keep the weight and jump off just in time to be clear as it falls.

Carol took another breath, swallowed hard, and scooted closer to the open window. Jameson’s crying became sparse in response to his mother’s reassurance. From the silence in between his crying, Carol could hear the occasional scraping of the car’s undercarriage as loose bits of shoulder gave way to the car’s shifting weight. They had to hurry. Carol reached forward and moved her right leg up onto the driver’s seat. A loud scraping erupted and a greater section of shoulder broke free and the nose of the car’s hood lifted to the sky.

“Shit! Hold on!”

Carol got back into the driving position and fastened her seat belt, holding the wheel with her left hand and Jameson close to her with her right. She leaned forward to cover Jameson’s body with her own as the car slid down the embankment from the shoulder.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!”

The sedan slid down the hill slightly faster than it had with the others, straightening itself out parallel to the hill as gravity pulled it. Then the world turned upside down. The slope became steeper as it approached the fir tree canopies and, in its wake, the middle of the vehicle smashed into a rock, flipping the car on its topside. Metal and Carol screamed and breaking glass and a distraught Jameson pierced the atmosphere with their cries. Carol held onto Jameson tighter as her head smashed against her door and then the roof, knocking her unconscious.