The Snow Angel

This story takes place in the Jellico Mountains. (in the mountains above the old KFC building and the Jellico Motel.)

It was January 9th 1976, I'll never forget that day. I was 16 years old and my dad took me deer hunting. This was my first time going hunting and I was excited. I had been on hunting trips with my dad before but this was the first time that I was taking part in it. It had snowed the night before, about 3 inches of white magic covered the ground and the forecast was calling for more. My dad loved to hunt in the winter and he had been on many successful hunts in the snow. We had a hot breakfast and prepared two thermoses full of coffee and hot chocolate.

As we went out the door dad looked over his shoulder at mama.

"Warm up that stove because we're bringing dinner back home with us."

We took dads old truck to the bottom of the mountain and began unloading our supplies. It was cold, I remember how the wind felt like glass hitting my face. We walked into the snow covered trees and began our journey up the mountain side. It felt like we had walked for hours but in reality it was only 45 minutes or so. Dad spotted deer tracks and began to point them out to me. As we followed the tracks we found more, possibly a whole herd of deer. I clutched my rifle tight and held my breath. We made our way through the snow covered bushes and trees and into a small clearing. That's when we noticed that something else was tracking those deer too.

We had walked upon a pack of coyotes. One of them raised it's head and looked directly at us. One of them started walking along the side, attempting to get behind us. The others just stood there like they was waiting on orders for what to do. I heard one growl and then another. I was terrified, this was the first time I had ever seen coyotes up close and there was at least six or seven of them.

"Don't move!" my dad whispered. Now we had two coyotes behind us and the rest directly in front of us. Dad shot his rifle up into the air and they began to scatter in all directions. We could hear them in the distance calling to each other. They sounded like Indians chanting, that sound still sends chills down my spine.

Dad pointed to the right and we made haste running in the opposite direction. Maybe it was my imagination but it sounded like they was following us and I began to run even faster. The faster I ran the faster my dad followed. It began to snow again when we finally found a rock to sit down on. Dad opened his steaming thermos and sipped some coffee. I was too scared to drink anything, I just kept watching for those coyotes to come back.

I noticed the look on my dads face, he was concerned but trying not to frighten me any worse than I already was. We rested for a few moments and began to walk some more. "Do you think they're still coming?" I asked. "Nah, probably not but you can bet there's more. Let's head on back to the truck and we'll come back another time."

We walked until our feet and legs were numb. It was getting later and much colder. This is when dad looked at me and admitted that we was lost. We wasn't even sure how long we had been walking or which way we came. The snow was coming down so fast that we couldn't even find our tracks. The thought kept racing through my mind "We're going to freeze to death."

I couldn't feel my face and my eyes burned. We had no way to build a fire and nothing to protect us from the cold. Before we left home we had made sure to bundle up, but at this point it wasn't helping much. Mother didn't know where we was, only that we had gone hunting. I suppose that we could have yelled, but nobody would have heard us. I sat beneath a tree and watched as dad looked around trying to remember which way we had came. By now it was dark and we couldn't see more than a few feet in front of us.

I could see tears swelling up in my dads eyes, but they never fell. I wondered to myself if it was too cold to actually cry. "If we sit here, we'll freeze to death." he said. "If we try to walk we could get even more lost or fall and hurt ourselves." I could barely hear myself reply "So what are we going to do?" After a few minutes he finally answered "I don't know, I just don't know."

I rested my head against the tree and eventually fell into a ice cold slumber. I don't know how long I had been asleep when I woke up hearing my dad talking to someone. It was a old man wearing a red plaid shirt and a long, heavy coat. The snow was stuck thick in his beard and he had a huge walking stick to his side.

I heard my dad explain to him how we'd gotten away from a pack of coyotes but had managed to get lost in the process. The old man laughed. I wondered what he was doing in the mountains, in the dark while it was snowing. I didn't even recognize him. He wasn't anyone that I had ever seen around town before. I guessed that he had been hunting too. "Well let's get on out of this storm "he said" and he motioned for us to follow him.

He walked ahead of us and didn't have much more to say. He stopped only once and lit up a old gas lantern. I remembered seeing one like it that my grandfather had owned. I was so thankful to see it's warm glow lighting the way as he made a path through the snow. After what felt like forever we stopped and he pointed down the hillside. There was our truck covered in snow. That old truck looked so good to me, I had never been more glad to see it. Dad extended his hand and thanked our old friend. He turned and vanished back into the snowy, dark trees.

We never seen him again after that. We returned many times to those mountains over the years but we never did find out who our snow angel was. I think maybe we wasn't supposed to ever truly know because he was sent to us that night. If it had not of been for him I am certain that we would have died but an angel was sent to save us and show us the way.

Over the years my dad and I often recalled that night. We'd tell mama about how we had gotten lost and about our old friend finding us. How he walked us down out of the mountains and then disappeared. My dad even testified in church one Sunday about how an angel was sent to save us.

I drive past those mountains on a daily basis and even on a hot Summer day a cold chill will sweep over me. Then I smile and whisper "Thank you." You just never know when your guardian angel will show up or what form they will take but I find peace in knowing that we all have one watching over us.