*"Why not take her with you to work? She'd be good
company. I remember when I was in England a lot of shop-
keepers kept their dogs with them in their shops. Of course,
the dogs were always rather sedate and well mannered. I
don't know that anyone would want a dog like Bart with
them." Maggie laughed.
"Then you don't mind if I keep her?" asked Leah incred-
ulously as she dipped her spoon into the soup.
"Not at all. I think she's been missing you."
After Leah had finished her late supper, Maggie gave her
some of Audrey's cookies. She'd purposely brought a couple
of the wilder ones decorated by the boys. "Spencer and
Daniel went a little nuts frosting these," she explained.
"They're great."
"I'm curious, Leah," began Maggie, "about what hap-
pened after Jed's pickup spun out of control." Then she
glanced at her watch. "Although it's getting pretty late. You
may want to get some sleep."
"No, I don't feel tired right now. And I want to tell you
what happened. After I realized I was stuck in the ditch, the
snow was coming down so fast that I was afraid to get out.
It was dark outside and like a blizzard, and I thought for sure
I'd get lost. So I decided it would be better just to stay with
the truck and wait."
"Of course," said Maggie. "I forgot about how the snow
had been coming down so hard earlier. By the time Lizzie
and I got up there all was quiet and calm."
"Anyway, I thought I'd keep the engine running to keep
the heat on. I had almost a whole tank of gas, but..." She
made a sheepish face. "I hadn't thought to dress real warmly
this morning. Pretty dumb, huh?"
Maggie just shrugged. "We all make mistakes. I'm sure
you won't do that again."
Leah shook her head. "With the engine running, it seemed
like exhaust fumes were coming into the cab. I wondered if I
Il Looking for You All My Life267
might've gotten the taupipe stuck in the snow. I saw that
once on a movie or something."
"Yes, and the truck was at the right kind of angle for that
to happen."
"So, I turned off the engine and got out and made my
way to the back end. It was buried in snow. I dug and dug
and never found it. I ended up losing my gloves in the snow,
and by then I was so cold I had to get back inside."
Maggie nodded. "And then you were probably afraid to
leave the engine running?"
"Yeah. I'd let it run a little with the window open. Then
quickly turn it off and wind the window up real fast. But it
wasn't working. Finally, I left the window up. I just kept get-
ting colder and colder. And then I must've fallen asleep."