Chapter 23

At this pace, being pushed this way and that way by the ferocious wind, making very little progress through the storm, using baby steps, it will take the two men twenty minutes to cover the four hundred feet. If the wind wasn’t pushing them backward instead of forward, maybe they can make better time. But Murphy’s Law of the land is like this: unkind and ironic.

Sometimes Jonah loses Sandy in the snowstorm. He walks beside him one second and gone the next. A ghost or apparition. The twirling snow is like this, of course. A catastrophic cyclone that has taken over Channing, keeping the town under its nasty and biting control.

Again, Jonah attempts to call out to Sandy, “Sandy, are you all right?” but the words fall dead in the strong wind. In the end, he continues to tromp through the snowy tundra, holding the festive basket against his stomach and pecs, and only hopes that his fiancé stays at his side during their frosty travels. 24: Sweetie Pie Dies