A Chance Encounter at Love




Like so many 20 year olds, Dan Stevens was a college sophomore. He hit the
books with average enthusiasm, getting B's and C's at a small university,
majoring in pre-med. Unlike most sophomores, he stayed away from the party
scene, with the alcohol and drugs. He was born into your average middle-class
working family. His parents, Natalie and Josh Stevens, were devout Christians,
but Dan lost some of his fire for God. To tell you the truth, he was angry
with God, because no girl had even approached him as of late.

To make things worse, he was physically disabled, due to moderate cerebral
palsy. This made him embarrassed to walk in a gym and work out because the
most he could lift is 25 lbs. He was even ashamed of his body, being 5'10,
145. "Why me? Why can't I be some dumb jock for a change?" He said this as he
was sitting on a bench, outside in the surprisingly warm winter sun, writing a
paper on AIDS research. Then she came walking by, in a nice classic combo of
jeans, a white T-shirt, and black sneakers. The girl's name was Sarah
Fredrickson, who was Dan's age and class. She was white, with brown hair, and
at 6'2 225 lbs, every guy's dream. Her D cups were strong and bursting with
natural life. She looked like a female Greek statue in motion, with 25" biceps
and 30" in every part of her legs. The rest of her was built along the same
lines of strength concealed in beauty. Everything except her arms, neck and
head were covered.

Dan sat there and looking up from his research, saw her walking. He said "Hi",
not expecting a response. To his surprise, she responded in turn, even
stopping her walk to initiate small talk. Unfortunately, that was not his
strong suit. He stammered with the "How's your day" and nice things to say
about her. Sarah saw his nervousness and kindly sat across from a distance.
Once he got comfortable, Dan asked her what sport she did. Sarah replied,
"Starting PG for the university. Also, I do some muy Thai, in which I hold a
3rd degree black belt. I also weight lift." Dan was flabbergasted with her
frank openness. "What do you enjoy?" she asked. He just looked at his own body
and cursed himself inwardly. "Would you excuse me please?" he asked low, yet
politely. After he returned from pumping himself up, he said to her that he's
a struggling geek, with some great personality traits. Sarah genuinely laughed
a bit at his attempt at humor, which surprised him.

As they continued, Grant Roberts walked by, waved to Sarah and 'accidently'
tripped over the bench and elbowed Dan in the throat. Mocking a crippled and
mentally handicapped individual, he said "Sorry Dan didn't see you." The jokes
he pulled made Dan's blood boil, sending him into a white hot anger. Grant was
a senior at the university, lettering in the three main sports of most
colleges: basketball, baseball, and football. Sarah saw this and taking Dan's
hands, looked him in the eyes and mouthed, "He will get his just dessert, I
promise you." Dan was still on the ground recovering from the attack, when
Sarah helped him up. After sitting on the bench for awhile and checking his
laptop for damages, he silently prayed that the day she spoke of would come
soon.

After days of jabbing, poking fun at and chasing Dan, Grant and his buddies,
who were also three-letter athletes decided to trap him and get rid of their
"problem" as he called Dan, forever. The plan was simple: kidnap and dump him
in the woods naked. Only Grant and his 5 friends knew of the plan. They
grabbed Dan late Friday night, who fought the whole way there, but was thrown
in the woods anyway. To make matters worse, it was winter, so he was instantly
freezing. "Nothing could be worse," he muttered to himself. Then he broke,
weeping like an abandoned animal. Finally, after what seemed like hours, he
stopped weeping, resigning to his fate of an impending death.

Sarah hadn't heard or seen Dan all day. She had slipped him her number, hoping
he would call. It hadn't occurred to her that something was wrong until she
heard this on the radio: "A 20-year old college sophomore is missing from the
local university campus. Search teams have been summoned to find the missing
student. More details to come." Sarah hoped that they would find the guy. "Let
me go to Dan's room and talk to him about this," she thought. As she drove to
his dorm, Sarah noticed something strange. Mud and snow and ice were covering
one van immensely, while other cars just received a light blanket of snow.
"Probably some group went to the woods to smoke," she mused.

She just went up in the elevator to Dan's room. What she saw shocked her.
Either he was a pack rat or someone must've been fighting with him. "They took
him, obviously, but where...OH MY GOD! Sarah knew from her study to become a
surgeon that the human body can quickly freeze, especially when naked, as she
summarized that Dan was naked, since no clothes were taken, just him. Outside,
there sat a trash bag, in which when she opened it, contained everything of
Dan's, including his cell phone. Once inside her SUV, she called the radio
station, telling them everything about Dan and the recent troubles he was
having with certain members of the athletic community. She asked that her
voiced be disguised, and just for now, it to be an anonymous tip from an
anonymous source. Sarah swore that Grant and whoever else was involved would
pay dearly. She would see to it, in her own special way. "They better pray I
find him alive and in reasonable health," she said. Sarah knew though that she
couldn't dwell on that because time was running out on Dan, and if she wished
not to suffer anymore than she had to at this moment, she would lose him.

Surprisingly, Dan was holding on, even though his body screamed for relief of
its plight. After walking for a mile and a half, he found an abandoned camp
site that was at least 10 yrs. old. He took a piece of wood he found and
shattered the window of the old cabin. There was no glass on the edges of the
windows after two to three good whacks. Dan hobbled through the window,
landing his head on the wood floor. He clenched his teeth at the impact, with
the pain hitting migraine status. After an hour, it began to feel better.
Using the last reserves of adrenaline-induced energy in his body, he made a
fire, and then slumped to the ground.

Sarah drove to the woods on her instincts, and it paid off somewhat. She could
smell deposits of the human variety. Not wanting to smell the foul stench, she
closed her window. Then she saw smoke and kicked her car into the mid 60's,
sensing and praying that Dan was close to the fire, not in it. She drove this
way because of the icy terrain. As she got closer to the source of the smoke,
she saw a cabin, with smoke coming out of the chimney. Breathing a sigh of
relief she got out the SUV after parking as close to the cabin as possible.
Sarah saw the broken window, and while looking in, saw a huddled mass of flesh
on the wood floor. She wasted no time in climbing through the window, yet she
cautiously approached the body, fearing it to be dead. Then she heard whimpers
from the body, and judging by the sound knew it was Dan.

She then slowly touched him, rolling him over gently, so as not to scare him.
"Dan, it's me, Sarah. I'm a trained paramedic, and I'm going to get you out of
here." Dan then slowly turned, but when he saw her face, became afraid. "It's
ok Dan, I won't hurt you." She continued helping him by saying, "Easy there
Dan, sit up nice and slow. Good, now that your sitting up can you stand?" He
shook his head no slowly, but painfully. Sarah then left to go to her SUV to
get supplies to help him. While she was out in the snow, it began getting
dangerously cold and the blanket became a torrent of a brewing storm.

When she finished going through her trunk, she found a lot of camping
equipment, including food and water. "Thank God I didn't unpack my groceries,
or camping equipment for that matter." As she said this, she remembered Dan,
and hurried, packing everything in one huge duffel bag. As soon as that was
done, she threw it back in the trunk and drove the 12 ft. distance to the
cabin. A little winded due to the storm, she sat for a few minutes, and then
unpacked everything. "Darn. I forgot Dan's clothes." Sarah then quickly zipped
back up and ran outside to the vehicle and grabbed the bag of stuff. Once back
inside, she saw that there were three windows in the living room, one on each
side of the door and one big one across the room. She quickly found wood, some
old nails and a hammer and boarded the broken window. All this took one hour,
which didn't help Dan much. Luckily, he was near the fire, so his chances of
survival increased by one hour. She had to get him warm, so she gently wrapped
a thick quilt around him. Then he began to sweat almost immediately due to the
thickness of the quilt.

After an hour, he improved to where he could eat some soup. However, he was
hurt. Dan was hurt in the sense that no one defended him against tyrants such
as Grant. He could whisper, but decided to wait till his voice was stronger to
speak. All of a sudden, he began coughing violently, shaking and quivering.
Sarah, who herself was resting in her sleeping bag heard this and jumped up,
being at first scared, then went to check and see if Dan was alright.
Fortunately, it was just mucus, but the convulsions scared her to where she
thought the worst. After that incident, she went to lie back down, knowing
that there was no help on the way.

The next day, the snow was melting and it was safe to go outside. Sarah asked
Dan if he felt better, to which he replied a strong "Yea." She then made a
call to her friends on the basketball team and cheerleading squad, who where
elated that they were alright. She then called her best friend since middle
school, Terry Shepherd. "How's Dan," she asked. Sarah replied, "He's fine, I
hope. His voice just came back and he's eating and doing the naturals but
still pretty weak." Just then, she heard a thud and said "Hold on."
Unfortunately, Dan had spiked a major fever. This was worse than either of
them thought. "What is that?" asked Terry, who became concerned immediately
for their well-being. She heard Sarah say "Oh no. Stay with me Dan, please."
Sarah thought to herself, "Where are the search crews?" Terry yelled, "Where
are you guys, because the search team is still out there." "We're at an old
cabin in an abandoned campsite," Sarah responded. Terry then called the
dispatch and notified them of the pair's position. "How much time do we have
before he could die?" asked Terry to Sarah. "Half hour" Sarah responded. Then
she remembered her SUV was close by, so she decided to go for it. "Call off
the rescue" she said. Then Terry remembered Sarah's SUV and paramedic
training. "I hope you know what you're doing," she said to Sarah. Sarah
thought, "I hope so too."

She then bent down, gently wrapping her arms around Dan. Sarah then tenderly
cradled the semi-conscious young man. She then softly maneuvered him over her
shoulder, carrying him to her vehicle. Sarah then carefully moved, so as not
to slip, until she got there. Once there, she opened the back door on the left
and slowly, but cautiously moved the man's body into the back. After doing
this, she went to the driver's side and opened the door. The young woman then
turned the ignition so that the heat would be on at the right temp, so that
Dan's body would get warm quickly.

After she got both their bags, she went back to the SUV. Getting in quickly so
as not to lose precious seconds, she slammed the door then drove the 10 mi. to
the hospital in less than 5 min. As soon as she got there she called for a
stretcher, carefully getting Dan out and on to it. At the hospital, Sarah
waited for any news on his condition. As soon as she calmed down, she called
the various authorities, who notified his parents. Surprisingly, they were at
a friend's home, so they rushed over to the hospital as soon as they heard the
news. Dan's mother couldn't bear to see her son like this, especially in this
much pain. His father's face was stone cold with anger. Once they went to the
waiting room, they met Sarah who told them everything. His father said to her
"I'm a retired cop who has pull. If I wanted to, I could take back my desk, do
this case, and then walk away with no problem." His wife looked at him with
concerned eyes which conveyed the "I don't want to lose you too" message quite
clear. Sarah though had an eviler scheme for the guys who did this. It would
pale in comparison to anything except what it would end with: jail.