This story is based upon real events in 1975.
Jean pounded on the steering wheel of her old Rambler sedan, "Shit, shit, shit!" Her heart was pounding after skidding into a water-filled ditch. She tried hitting the gas, but the tires just spun.
Torrential rain beat on the car and obscured her view of the desolate country road. A large tree branch slammed into the hood and bounced off. The car shook from the hurricane winds.
Jean was trembling from cold and the shock of the impact. Jean hugged her shivering body and tried to figure a way out of her predicament, "Someone has to come along this road. I just need to stay warm and not panic. I can get some warm clothes from my bag in the trunk."
The car door was stuck at first but creaked open when she shoved against it with all of her meager weight. She stepped out into the downpour and held onto the car as the wind threatened to blow her away. She saw that the car frame was hung up on the near bank of the ditch while the rear of the car was shoved against the opposite side of the water filled ditch.
"OK Jean, you can do it. I just need to cross the ditch to get into the trunk. I can't get any wetter."
Jean held onto the car and tried to ease her way into the ditch. Her flip-flops slipped on the mud and she fell hard onto her hip as she slid into the ditch. Murky water came up to her waist after she fought her way back to her feet. Jean tried to laugh. "Well, that is one way to get into the ditch." The rear of the car was crumpled into the bank of the ditch. Jean couldn't budge the trunk. She pounded on the back of the old Rambler sedan with no effect.
She managed to crawl up the muddy bank by grabbing some roots. She stumbled into the car and jerked the door shut. She was shivering and exhausted from the effort. Her hip was bleeding and she had lost her flip-flops. Her once cute cutoff jeans were now ripped up one side to her waistband. She curled into a fetal position on the bench seat and hugged her knees. She screamed as another large branch slammed into the car. She began to sob.
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She had woken that the morning exhilarated at the prospect of seeing her boyfriend, Steve, one last time before he headed off to California to start his new job. She planned on fucking his brains out so he would remember her when he was surrounding by all of those dumb bleach blond California girls. She couldn't forget his stupid joke about wanting to date California girls.
It had been hot and sunny when she left Philadelphia for the four-hour trip north to Ithaca, NY. She hadn't planned on stopping along the way so she felt safe wearing a skimpy outfit that was to be Steve's special treat. The outfit consisted of frayed cutoff jeans and a knit cotton halter top. A small rip up the side of the jeans was fastened with a safety pin. Years later Steve would show her a picture taken from the side with her wearing this same outfit. She was shocked to see that the shorts revealed not only her long legs but also her lower ass cheeks. The halter top showed a lovely view of the sides of her pert breasts.
She had lived with Steve for two years while she finished her undergraduate degree at Cornell, and he completed his doctorate in physics. He was easily the smartest guy she had ever been with, but he was socially awkward. Still he had proven to be an enthusiastic lover once she had trained him.
Why did guys have no idea that most women needed extra attention in order to have an orgasm?
It was as if men thought that women got off just by having a cock pounded into their cunt.
At the end of the summer, she had left for Temple Law School in Philadelphia. Her aspiration was to litigate class action lawsuits in defense of women's rights. Instead, reality consisted of boring courses in Contracts, Torts and Property. The classes were harder than she had expected and she was struggling. She phoned Steve a couple of times a week and he had done his best to listen to her woes and offer encouragement. What she needed was a hug and some affection. When she called the night before, Steve had welcomed her to visit for his last weekend in New York.
The beginning of what should have been a short trip up the interstate was in bright sunshine. The trees in the western Pocono Mountains were near the peak of their fall colors. The road provided striking views of hills and valleys coated in multiple shades of red, yellow and green. Her sunny mood faded while she was still south of Wilkes-Barre and the wind and rain began.
Jean also planned to visit her Mom while she was in Ithaca and had called her just before leaving Philadelphia. Her Mom cautioned her about Hurricane Eloise, but she also said it shouldn't be much of a problem since Eloise had made landfall along the Florida Panhandle and was expected to dissipate well before it reached Pennsylvania. Jean was unaware of the increasing threat from Eloise since the radio in her decrepit Rambler was broken as well as the heater.
The scenery was obscured by the driving rain and even with the wipers on high, her view of the road ahead was getting poorer by the minute. The temperature was dropping and she shivered in her scant outfit. A flash of anger crossed her mind as she remembered how her boyfriend had broken the car heater while trying to fix the cooling system.
As she rounded a bend, she saw flashing lights ahead on the interstate. Several cars were lined up. A state trooper in rain slicks was directing people toward the exit. When she got to the trooper, he said, "There is a serious truck accident ahead and you have to turn around or take the detour. I suggest taking the detour since the weather is a lot worse south of here."
"I don't have a map. Is the detour very long?"
The trooper replied, "It's only a couple of miles of good county highway. Just follow the car ahead and you'll be fine."
She took the detour and at first all was well. The country road was well maintained. She kept close to the car ahead and could see the lights of several cars in front of her, but there was nobody behind her. The road was covered in flowing water and occasionally there were deeper pools. She hit one of the pools and hydroplaned. She struggled with the wheel and managed to bring the car to a halt as the engine stalled.
As the lights of the cars ahead got dimmer, she struggled to restart the car. In desperation, she pumped the accelerator pedal but only succeeded in flooding the carburetor with gas. She took a deep breath and remembered instructions from her Mom who taught Driver's Education in high school. She held down the accelerator and cranked the starter. She managed to restart the car and urged it forward in an attempt to catch up with the other cars. She couldn't see anything except blowing rain and the wet winding road ahead. Several minutes of driving passed before the road she was on came to a fork. Both ways looked the same. Jean fought against the rising fear and turned left in the direction she figured would lead back to the interstate.
The road wound over hills covered by dense forest. The sky was getting darker from the storm. She didn't see any sign of civilization, not even a light. Suddenly the car shook as the pavement turned to gravel with a washboard surface. Jean muttered a curse and desperately looked for a place wide enough to turn around. As she came around a corner, the car skidded on a muddy patch. She tried to control the skid, but the car spun around and the rear end settled in a water filled ditch.
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She woke in alarm to the sound of someone pounding on the car roof and yelling.