Kodi was on the way to her sister's when the snow started. Two hours to go, and she could hardly see the road. She grumbled to herself as she pulled into the gas station to fill up her tank.<br/><br/>"Better be careful," the clerk said. "This one's s'posed to be bad. S'posed to be at leas' a foot 'fore mornin'."<br/><br/>Kodi thanked the clerk for the news, paid for her gas, and left. She looked up at the sky before climbing into her car. It didn't look all that bad. Maybe the weather man had it all wrong. Kodi sighed. She could only hope. She climbed back behind the wheel and was about to shut her door when she heard the man at the next pump.<br/><br/>"Interstate's going down," she heard him say into his cellphone. "Snow's been falling thick and fast a few miles up. I'll be a little late getting home."<br/><br/>Kodi got back out of the car and walked up to the man, avoiding the ice on the ground as she went. The last thing she needed was to fall again.<br/><br/>"Did you say the interstate's being shut down??"<br/><br/>"Yeah, there was an accident just up the road. Luckily my road's just right there," he said and pointed behind the station. "You headed east??"<br/><br/>Kodi nodded her head, her brow furrowed. How was she going to get to Amanda's now?? She didn't know the county highways out here. She barely knew the ones back home.<br/><br/>"There's a highway there that bypasses that section," the man said. "If you don't mind backtracking through a little town, you can be back on the interstate in about fifteen minutes."<br/><br/>Kodi heaved a sigh of relief and thanked the man, then rummaged through her car for a pen and paper to write down the name of the highway. She hoped the highway wasn't too snowed over for her car. Kodi wasn't fond of the little Taurus, but it had taken her where she needed to go. She left the gas station and re-entered the highway carefully. The snow had already begun to accumulate quickly, hiding the ice left over from some previous storm.<br/>Kodi watched for the highway and was relieved when she finally saw her exit. She could see the flashing lights just ahead where the accident had been.<em>I hope everyone's okay,</em>she thought. Kodi turned off on the highway, grateful that there was only about an inch of snow. It was even in good repair. Kodi thought maybe, just maybe, this trip would go smoothly. Then she hit the mailbox.<br/><br/>Well, to be more precise, she hit a patch of ice. She tried to steer out of it, but she couldn't seem to get the car to do what she wanted. She saw the mailbox coming at her rather quickly and covered her face. The car came to a crashing halt, and it was much louder than Kodi expected. She climbed out of her car shakily to observe the damage.<br/>The mailbox post had gone through her radiator; there was no driving out of this. Kodi kicked the car and went to turn it off, cursing under her breath.<em>Wait,</em>she thought.<em>Mailbox means house. House means people. People mean telephone.</em>She looked around then, and saw a quaint little house with an attached garage. It was smallish. The kind you live in when you don't have kids. Then the door opened.