Chapter 88 Worried
It was the third time that she had switched over to look at The Weather Channel in the last thirty minutes and well over three dozen times since she and Evelyn had arrived in the motel the night before. There was a slow-moving snowstorm dumping large amounts of snow in Southern Utah, Northern New Mexico, Arizona, and nearly all of Colorado, certainly in the Rockies.
“Accumulations are expected to be from 4 to 6 inches in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona and from 10 to 14 inches in the southern Rockies of Colorado,” the weatherman reported. “Flagstaff, Arizona, is reporting 3 inches, and the snow is continuing to fall. Farmington, New Mexico, is reporting 5 inches already on the ground. Saint George, Utah, is reporting 6 inches, and Durango, Colorado, has already received 8 inches of snow. The storm is moving very slowly toward the East and is tracking northward. Accumulations will likely be higher in the central and Northern Rockies than in the Southern Rockies, but as you can see, the accumulations are already significant. If you are traveling along I-40 in Arizona or I-15 in Southern Utah and heading on into Las Vegas, Nevada, be aware of the driving conditions and be careful out there.”
As the weatherman moved on to other regions of the country, Alexandra switched to a local station to see if she could get any news of what was going on. There were even a couple of inches of snow in Vegas, and she was on edge. She knew that Evan had started early that morning, and he would be in the middle of that horrible mess somewhere. He hadn’t been sure whether he would go through Utah or Arizona when he talked to her last night. Until he called, she wouldn’t know which set of conditions he was driving in. She had been over both routes while traveling with Evelyn, and she had driven the southern route alone when she had first come out West on her way to Glendale after the delicious week that she had spent with Evan.
She knew that Evan had grown up driving in these conditions, but she also knew that, regardless of the amount of experience a person has, it can still be dangerous. Evan had to do some backtracking to the East to take the route through Northern New Mexico and Arizona, and it wasn’t nearly as direct a route and was a little further in mileage, but it was likely that there would be less snow on the southern route. Evan said that he dreaded being in a snowstorm on I-70 in Eastern Utah, but that with an early start, he might be through most of that before it got there. She wished that he would call.
“Evan will be fine,” Evelyn said. She was as worried as Alexandra, but she felt that it was her place to offer encouragement rather than to add to Alexandra’s tension.
“Of course he will,” she said. “Why hasn’t he called?”
“It is a little bit early in the morning still,” Evelyn replied. “He probably doesn’t want to wake you.”
“Like I could sleep. I barely slept last night.” They had arrived in Vegas, settled the horses, and then went straight to the motel where most of the contestants were staying. It was close at hand to the Thomas and Mack Center, where the National Finals were held. The weather had little effect on the two of them because they could go from the motel to the stalls where the horses were being kept without hardly going outside.
“I’m sure he’ll call pretty soon,” she encouraged. “Let’s go tend to the horses and then go get some breakfast. It won’t do you any good to sit here and stare at the TV; it won’t change the weather.”
Evelyn was right, of course; she couldn’t change the weather, and she would just go crazy checking the weather reports every fifteen minutes. Evan would call her on her cell phone. “You’re right,” she said, pulling on her boots and giving her hair a quick once-over in the mirror. “Let’s go.”
It had been a short trip from Sparks down to Vegas for the finals. They had left about eight the morning before and arrived in the middle of the afternoon. They had gotten the horses settled in, checked into their room, and ordered room service. They rarely did that, but they had decided that it was their first night in Vegas and they were going to splurge a little. Besides, it was nearly impossible to pull Alexandra away from the TV for more than a few minutes. With the threat of a major winter storm, Alexandra had been on edge all night. She had talked to Evan before going to bed the night before, and he had assured her that he would be fine, but it was still very hard for her to relax. The man she loved was coming to her. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but she believed with all of her heart that it would be the beginning of the rest of their life together.
She remembered driving that road on her way to Glendale after she left Evan. The whole world had just been opened up to her, and she saw everything differently. Even through the tears that had blurred her vision, she remembered the stark contrast of colors and the beauty of every part of the road; from the green mountains and purple sage of the Rockies, to the red sandstone of the Navajo reservation, to the drier and hotter lower green hills of Northern Arizona. The people in Arizona called them mountains, but after being among the snow-capped peaks of Colorado, the “mountains” of Arizona were nothing more than hills. They had their own beauty, and her eyes had been opened to appreciate nature in all of its forms, even in Arizona.
Alexandra recalled how she had felt. She had believed that her world was falling apart when she left Evan. She was so certain that she had made a huge mistake by getting in her car and driving away from him, but she also remembered that her own fear and her stubbornness had kicked in and pushed her to do what was right. She remembered the irony of how the thing that had brought her freedom and changed her into a completely different person, also made her realize that she had to drive away and leave it behind.
One thing had stuck with her, and it was what ultimately brought her in full circle. She had never let go of her love of horses and the love of being out in the wide open spaces. Had she gone back to Pittsburgh after she left Cameron, the dream might have died, but because she continued on her chosen path with a new, stubborn determination, she was now waiting for the love of her life to come to her.