White Christmas and a shock.

As they entered the outskirts of his small hometown, Thomas had to slow down the car. The roads apparently had been cleared of snow not so long ago, perhaps even this morning, as evident by the large build up of piles on both sides. But once again a thick layer of white powder covered the surface and hid the asphalt and concrete below. It had likely been snowing for days, both in the valley as well as the hills and mountains beyond, and the snowflakes still continued to fall. They didn’t pack any tire chains, which would have been really useful in that situation, because the road was slippery with snow and ice and continued downhill, towards the town located at the bottom of the valley. Without snow chains on the tires he had to drive really carefully and the four friends were **** to complete the last part of their journey moving at snail’s pace. And good thing they did.

Looking down once again at the snow covered town in the dim glow of evening, what looked pretty small and plain only moments ago, was actually a really beautiful and charming sight, Thomas now realized. And they would finally have a white Christmas again, just like in the old days. A feeling of joy overcame him, as he looked to his side towards Emma and he smiled. Thinking back, he actually couldn’t remember a Christmas without snow until five years ago, when he and Emma had moved out of town to study. But in the big city on the other side of the country, where they now lived, it rarely snowed, if even at all.

“Watch out!” Emma suddenly yelled in panic. Thomas set his eyes on the road again and could see it too. They came out of nowhere, now illuminated by the cars headlights: A couple of kids, sledding down the hill at a high speed and they were about to cross the road, just in front of them.

“Damn!” Thomas cursed, but he immediately stepped on the brakes, hard. On the ice-slicked road however, the car barely slowed down, and to make matters worse, began to slide and spin out of control. Moments later, as they collided with something, he was thrown back into his seat by the inflating airbag.

“Is everyone okay?” Thomas asked. When all car occupants replied, he proceeded to untangle himself. He only hoped that he didn’t actually drive over one of the kids. When he finally managed to step out of the car to take a look at things, he exhaled with relief. The kids and their sleds were nowhere to be seen. They must have continued their descent at breakneck pace, but unharmed, he guessed. He actually was unable to locate their tracks or any sign of them for that matter. But he had other things to worry about right now: The car had collided with a big tree right next to the road, and soon Thomas was joined by the others, trying to assess the damage.

Emma, who looked pale in the face, asked worried: “The kids?”

“What kids?” Grace countered with another question.

Thomas looked at Emma, who rolled her eyes. He looked at Chris, who shrugged. He looked at Grace again. Apparently not even the threat of a life and **** situation was a reason for Grace to look up from her phone. And she managed to hold on to it, even during the car crash, although she wasn’t looking at it right now, only holding it in one of her hands. Thomas finally replied, sounding slightly annoyed with Grace, although he knew full well that the crash wasn't her fault and it was probably him who maybe didn’t pay enough attention: “Right. So everyone who didn't stare at his phone saw a couple of kids on sleds speeding right at us, but it looks like we missed them and hit this tree instead."

"Oh, okay…" Grace accepted the explanation without reacting to the hidden criticism. "Anyways, maybe the damage isn't that bad, right? There is no smoke or anything. Maybe we can try to continue to drive?”

But Chris replied right away: “We can’t drive a car when the airbags are deployed. They don’t do that for no reason, you know…”

“I agree, we should call the police and get help,” Emma voiced her opinion.

And with that it was settled. Thomas grabbed his mobile phone out of the pocket of his trousers and called the emergency number to describe the situation the four friends got themselves in. As far as he could tell the reception was friendly and they promised that help would arrive soon.