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Welcome to fast food horror. In
this episode, a good Samaritan picks up

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a stranded person along the road during
a snowstorm, but he picks up a

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lot more than he ever expected.
In this tale entitled the Scene en Route

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sixteen by E. J. Miller, the snowfall in my town has been

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greatly exaggerated over the decades, you
know where. I speak of one mega

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blizzard in the seventies, and we're
forever known as Snowmageddon Capital of the world.

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Yes, we get our share over
the course of the winter, but

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we are not feet deep in it. From October till April. We get

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our squalls, our lake effect,
our blizzards, but for the most part,

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we get light snowfalls here and there
through the winter months that make us

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look like a Rockwellian snow globe,
just enough to keep our town a wintry

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wonderland. That day, however,
was one of the former. I was

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driving my bus at Gtopos, I
think down sixteen on that frosty night.

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I say Route sixteen because I couldn't
see any landmarks, signs, houses,

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businesses, or scenery to figure out
exactly where I was. It was just

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the last road I remember being on
For all I knew, I was driving

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in circles across some farmer's field,
or still in the mall parking lot,

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doing laps around the light pole.
It was snowing so hard. I felt

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like Hans Solo as he took the
Millennium Falcon to light speed, traveling through

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nothing but darkness as blurs of millions
of white stars whizzed past the window,

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or in my case, millions of
snowflakes racing past my windshield at ten miles

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an hour. And before you say, why didn't you use your GPS or

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whip out your cell phone? And
this was in the days before GPS and

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cell phones. This was the late
eighties, the days of maps and the

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Rand McNally, the days of pulling
over and asking a kind stranger for directions,

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or dropping a quarter in a phone
booth to call for help. I

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had none of these. I couldn't
even see the last two, nor did

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I want to exit the warmth and
relative safely of my posgto to find either.

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I just knew I needed to keep
moving slowly, carefully, or end

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up stuck and buried. An hour
later, my dogged perseverance was rewarded or

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at least I thought it was,
as in the distance I saw the familiar

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flashing red and blue lights signifying emergency
vehicles, like so many lighthouses, dancing

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against the snowy night sky. Probably
an accident for some poor soul. But

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help was there at those lights,
help I could use, or at least

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some guidance. I found myself joining
a procession of vehicles slowly making their way

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in each other's ruts, in a
single file of pulsing red lights along the

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snow covered road. Past the scene, an officer waved me through. I

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rolled down my window and heard him
yell, you're almost out of the storm.

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Just keep going, don't stop,
just go slow. I waved and

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I smiled shouted back a thank you
as my eyes took in the scene.

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A small compact, something no longer
identifiable, had been rear ended by a

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semi and pushed into a second semi. The air bags had deployed, now

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smeared with red glass broken out of
each window of the car, its once

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sleek lines jammed between the two trucks
into a mangled mess. I set a

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silent prayer for its passengers and continued
past, focused on the road ahead my

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focus was broken only fifty yards from
the accident, seen by eyes drawn to

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the slight figure illuminated by my head
lights standing knee deep in the snow along

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the right side of the road.
There she stood alone, a teenage girl

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about thirteen, brown hair, flying
in the icy wind, clutching her arms

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around herself and the light blue coat
that seemed oversized for her small frame and

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woefully inadequate for the conditions out there. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and

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her body physically shook from either the
frigid conditions or her outward showing of emotion

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or both. Where did she come
from? Had she got out of one

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of the cars ahead of me?
Was she involved in the accident? Or

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had she been caught walking in the
snow from the surrounding area. Was she

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hurt? How long had she been
out there? And how had no one

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else seen her or stopped to help
her? No matter, I couldn't leave

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her, but I would have to
stop quickly or else become just another snowbank.

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I quickly rolled down my window as
I got closer and yelled for her

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to get in the back. As
I turned the heat all the way up,

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I watched in my rear view as
she got in the car, still

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sobbing, and put the car back
and drive thankfully. It continued along the

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rutted path, now quickly filling up
with snow. Hey, I said,

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I'm Cooper. What's your name?
Are you hurt? Where's your parents?

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Were you in a car? And
got out? Each question was answered with

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continued sobs. I continued driving slowly
forward, looking in my rear view periodically

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to check out my passenger. I
can take you home. Still more sobs.

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As I rejoined the line of cars. My passenger, sitting in the

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rear seat had down, legs drawn
up to her chest, light blue coat

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wrapped tightly around herself, more now
for comfort than warmth. Were you in

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the accident? Finally a response,
rapid head nods than a break in the

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sobbing, A choked voice. My
dad. They took my dad to the

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hospital. They took your dad to
the hospital. He was hurt in the

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accident. More head nods, followed
by crying and then a muffled Sarah,

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before the crying continued. Your name
is Sarah, Okay, Sarah, I

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can take you there. The hospital? Is that where you want to go?

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More head nods, and sobbing my
heart just for this little girl,

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For Sarah, I was determined to
get her to the hospital, no matter

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the storm. I continued on for
forty five minutes or so, the storm

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starting to lighten up as we entered
the city limits and we made our way

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to Sisters of Mercy Hospital. We
entered through the emergency room doors, since

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that's where I thought they'd take a
person involved in a car accident. I

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sat Sarah down in a waiting room
chair, where she continued to sob softly,

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and went to the front desk for
information. Imagine a city emergency room

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during a storm after midnight, then
increased that by ten it was a madhouse,

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but not yet pandemonium. I tried
to explain the situation to the attendant

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amongst the other noise and action going
on around us, that I had picked

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up a teenage girl at an accident
on Route sixteen and her father had been

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brought in by ambulance, That she
was unhurt but needed to be rejoined with

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her father, whom she was very
distraught over. The attendant took this all

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in, asked if I was any
relation to Sarah or the father, then

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told me to go sit and wait
and someone would be right with us.

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I returned to my seat next to
Sarah, who continued to quietly cry amazingly,

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not disturbing a soul around us.
Apparently everyone was caught up in their

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own problems. Right with us turned
into three hours, even though I checked

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with every other attendant who was at
the desk area randomly every thirty minutes or

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so, I swear they answer everyone
with the same line, no matter the

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circumstance, someone will be right with
you. At about four am, I

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had had enough. I marched up
to the desk, blowing past any others

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waiting in line, and I demanded
I wanted to see a manager or someone

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in charge. That we had waited
almost four hours with nothing, no answers,

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that a teenage girl had sat weeping
waiting for any news on her father.

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My yelling had gotten a response,
not the one I wanted, though

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it had triggered two security guards who
had rushed in from some unseen doorway.

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After a brief yelling match, which
they won, they ushered me out of

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the waiting area to a security office, where I was cuffed until I calmed

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down. After I collected myself,
I was told by the bigger of the

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pair to retell my story from the
beginning, which I did, starting at

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driving through the storm on Route sixteen, coming upon the accident to find the

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girl. When I got to the
part where I first approached the front desk

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at the hospital, the second guard
said stopped from behind a bank of monitors

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and beckoned his partner over. I
heard them whispering and saw them pointing to

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something on the screens. The first
guard came back over and stood me up

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and walked me to the monitors.
The second guard walked me through what they

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were pointing at. Now, these
are all the security cameras in the waiting

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area and the entrances to the hospital
and such. In the top right hand

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corner you can see the time and
date stamp. Now you said you came

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in just after midnight through the emergency
room doors. Let's rewind. Ah.

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Here you are at twelve eleven.
Notice anything, I was alone. Here

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you are walking down the hallway and
entering the emergency room area. At twelve

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thirteen. Notice anything. Here you
are walking over to an empty chair before

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walking over to the front desk.
At twelve sixteen. Notice anything. And

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here you are at twelve twenty one
till four to oh nine, sitting by

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your self next to an empty chair
in the waiting room. Again, sir,

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notice anything. I couldn't explain it. I had watched every angle of

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the waiting room and the entrance doors, and there was no signs of the

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Sarah in the light blue coat that
I had picked up off the roadside.

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Every angle was covered, there was
no blind spot, there was no angle

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that was left open. There I
was alone. I sat there trying to

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figure this out, trying to make
this all make sense. The guards just

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sat and watched me. The silence
in the room was broken by the ringing

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of a nearby telephone. Guard one
walked over and he picked it up.

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He mumbled a couple of ascents before
placing the receiver back in the cradle and

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walking back to us behind the monitors. He stood there, watching me for

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what seemed like forever. He then
cleared his throat and informed me that there

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was indeed an accident on Root sixteen
that night, that a gentleman was brought

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in by ambulance from the scene who
had suffered multiple injuries, as well as

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the passenger his young daughter. Both
had to be extracted from the car.

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No other person were found at the
scene, just the daughter and him,

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Just Peter Wolf and Sarah. His
daughter. Peter had died in the hospital

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just a few hours ago. Sarah
had passed at the scene. The scene

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on Route sixteen.