Read Online Christmas Miracles by Brad Steiger - Free Book Online

circulation.”
    Grandmother Bauer lived in a nearby village in New Hampshire, and it took about twenty minutes to drive between the two homes.
    â€œAfter we saw Grandma safely to her door and inside to her favorite chair in her living room, Dad and I headed back home—in a sudden sleet storm,” Melissa recalled. “Grandma said that we should stay until the sleet let up, but Dad said that it could last all night and only get progressively worse. It was his responsibility to open up the supermarket the next morning, so he had to get home that night.”
    As the storm worsened and the roads became slick and treacherous, Melissa’s father took his right hand very briefly off the steering wheel to pat her on the shoulder.
    â€œI’m glad you’re with me tonight,” he said. “I wouldn’t like to be alone in this mess.”
    Melissa remembered that the loving gesture from her father made her feel wonderful and wanted.
    â€œI just felt all warm and fuzzy inside,” she said. “I wanted so much to have Dad’s approval and to know that I was as special to him as Marilyn had always seemed to have been. I guess it is only natural that the older child gets a bit more attention just because she arrived first on the planet, but I do admit to having had a little sliver of sibling rivalry stuck in my psyche.”
    And then it became obvious to her that her father was having difficulty negotiating the familiar New Hampshire hills and curves with their new coating of freezing sleet.
    But these roads weren’t familiar. Melissa and her father were somewhere on a very dark and winding road and sliding backward.
    â€œWhere are we, Dad?” Melissa asked, not recognizing the area.
    â€œI . . . I took a shortcut,” he explained. “Thought it would be safer on this old road. No one travels it much any more.”
    Melissa remembered how she began thinking that they could slide into the ditch and not be found on the lonely stretch of road for days.
    Her father was attempting to appear very calm and confident, but she knew his mannerisms too well not to recognize that he was extremely nervous and uncertain.
    â€œMelissa, please, roll down your window and watch very carefully that I don’t get too close to the edge,” he asked. “I . . . think it could be quite a drop-off around here. Can’t tell in the dark, of course. But I have driven this old road in daylight; I think I remember some pretty good drop-offs along this stretch. Just keep a really sharp eye.”
    Melissa rolled down the window and saw by the illumination from the car’s back-up lights that their rear wheels appeared to be on the very edge of the gravel. She had no idea how much control her father had on the slick road, but he appeared to have managed to stop the car from sliding.
    â€œDon’t back up another inch, Dad,” she shouted. Her face was stinging from the sleet and the cold, but she felt strangely exhilarated by the precarious situation.
    â€œI was needed,” she said. “Dad and Mom had always taken such good care of me, but that night, Dad really needed my help. He couldn’t see clearly out the rear window that was coated with freezing sleet. And he wouldn’t dare get out of the car to check for fear it would slide away from him. He really needed me to watch for the edge of the road.”
    In the dim light from the dashboard, Melissa could see that her father was sweating heavily, even with the open window letting in the cold.
    â€œI’m going to release the brake and carefully accelerate,” he said, explaining his plan of action. “I hope we’re on a patch of gravel where we can find enough traction to allow me to stop sliding backward and to move forward up this hill. If I can do that, we will be home free—I know it! There’s an old covered bridge just over the top and then it’s downhill all the way.”
    Melissa