Page 60 of Flirting in Traffic

Esa set her water down hastily and reapplied the cap when she realized that chances were she wouldn’t be able to use the bathroom for hours. She flipped on the radio and learned that the state police had just officially closed the Dan Ryan due to unsafe road conditions.

“Great, Caleb. Couldn’t you have closed it before I got on it?” Esa muttered sourly. She picked up her cell phone, trying to decide who she should call first to complain—Carla, Rachel or her parents—when a figure running rapidly through the immobile cars caught her attention. Esa heard an outraged shout. Several people started to emerge from their cars directly in front of Esa, all of them staring at the running woman who had now reached the side of the road.

Esa unclipped her seat belt and opened her car door. Pellets of snow stung her face as she stood.

“What’s going on?” Esa shouted to the middle-aged, balding man wearing a dark blue overcoat who had also gotten out of his car directly in front of her.

“Crazy woman. She took off her kid’s clothes and was trying to bury the baby in the snow before that guy over there stopped her!”

“What?” Esa asked in bewilderment.

“I’m telling you it’s true. Take a look. Storm must bring out all the loonies,” the man said as he shook his head and turned back to watch the spectacle unfolding at the side of the road.

Esa closed her car door and stepped forward in the thick snow. What a mess. No wonder they were all stranded. A car couldn’t maneuver in this deep, heavy slush.

The first thought that Esa had when she saw the weeping, hysterical woman at the side of the road holding a wailing, half-naked toddler was that the man had been correct in his estimation. She must be having some sort of psychotic episode.

“How’s putting your kid in the cold snow supposed to help him if he’s sick?” a tall man with his back to Esa, wearing a black parka with the hood up said, his voice muffled by the wind and swirling snow. He had his hand on the crying woman’s shoulder in a restraining hold.

“Let go of me! He’s going to die, you fool,” the woman shrieked.

“He’s not going to die,” the man said more softly. He removed his hand from her shoulder slowly, as if waiting to see what she would do. When the woman just stared up at him in frightened bewilderment he began to unbutton his coat. “Why don’t you let me wrap him in my coat? It’s freezing out here and your son’s clothing is all covered with snow by now.”

“Better I put him in his clothes then,” the woman wailed. She bent and picked up the tiny pants and jacket that had been tossed next to the waist-high bank of snow created by the plows. Her hand shook pitifully as she held up the snowy garments. “He’s burning up, don’t you see? I have a thermometer in the car. His temperature is a hundred and five degrees! We were taking him to the emergency room but that was hours ago. And we’re stuck in this mess,” the woman added miserably.

Esa pushed through a small semi-circle of several people who had gathered to witness the bizarre scene.

“Excuse me, ma’am? I’m a doctor. I’d like to be of assistance if I can.”

Both the woman and the tall man standing next to her turned.

“Oh thank God! Yes, please help me. My little boy is burning up with

fever. Explain to this man that he needs to be cooled off in the snow.”

Esa stared in open-mouthed shock up into Finn’s equally startled face. The hood had fallen partially back, revealing his singular, tousled blond hair. She probably would have recognized him immediately if the hood hadn’t been covering it.

“Doctor?” the woman asked shakily.

Esa blinked. “Everything’s going to be just fine, ma’am. Finn? If the offer of the coat still stands, it’d be greatly appreciated.”

He just nodded his head once and shrugged out of the coat. She was glad to notice that he wore a thick insulated shirt beneath it. Esa reached for the crying, clearly miserable toddler. Finn stepped close and wrapped the child in his coat once Esa had the small, shivering boy in her arms.

“I know that a fever of one hundred and five is alarming, Ms.—”

“Angstrom. Toni Angstrom. And that’s my boy Scott. My father and I were taking him to the hospital when we got caught in this storm.”

Esa nodded as she made soothing sounds to the wailing child. “Like I was saying, a fever of a hundred and five is alarming, and you were right to want to take Scott to the hospital. But the chances are the doctors wouldn’t have been able to do much. A fever is the body’s natural defense, a way of making poor living conditions for the virus that Scott has caught. While a hundred and five degrees is a bad temperature, the best we can do for him at this point is make him as comfortable as possible until the bug runs its course.”

“But my mother used to put me in a cold bath when I had a high fever! That’s why I thought the snow…” The distraught woman waved at the snow bank.

Esa shook her head. “Sometimes doctors recommend a tepid bath but it’s not a good idea to put a sick child in the ice-cold snow, Ms. Angstrom.”

The woman’s face crumpled.

“It’s okay,” Esa soothed. “Everything is going to be just fine. Now, why don’t you show me to your car? Scott needs a nice comfortable place to rest right now.”

“All right,” she sniffled and passed in front of Esa.

---