Today was perhaps the coldest day of the entire year. Snow fell down heavier than usual, coating every surface in a downy layer that resembled a thick coat of frosting. The air was suffocating, the type of freezing that choked your lungs with each and every breath.

Carmen immediately regretted her decision to go to work today. Though she knew she needed the extra shifts to pay her rent, it felt incredibly risky to drive out in such terrible weather.

Carmen was about halfway to work, the deserted streets and charcoal skies making the journey eerily quiet, when the worse possible thing happened. She had been driving at a fairly reasonable speed and was taking a particularly sharp turn in the road when she felt the wheels of her car slip from under her. Carmen eased off the gas and stumbled for the steering wheel, attempting to gain control. The patch of ice was unforgiving though, and she continued to slide, the car almost doing a full 360 before plowing into the curb. The impact wasn’t too jarring, as she had crashed into a mound of plush snow, but her heart was still racing anxiously.

“Ohmygodohmygodohmygod” Carmen let out in a rush. She put the car into park and took a few deep breaths to calm herself before attempting to reverse. Of course, as expected, reversing did nothing to help her in this situation.

Carmen slipped on her thick gloves before getting out of her car. She did everything she could to get unstuck, even pulling out the mini shovel from her trunk to dig out the wheels. But nothing seemed to work.

Carmen slipped back into the car and switched on the ignition, using the heat to defrost her chilly fingers that were starting to turn blue beneath the gloves. She pulled out her phone and was dismayed to find the screen wouldn’t even turn on. As if this day couldn’t get any worse.

Carmen tried not to let the fear get to her as she imagined how slow and painful her death would be in this tiny box. The cold would take her slowly, she imagined, freezing her limbs and making her delirious with hypothermia before finally claiming her life. Chills, from both fear and cold ran down Carmens spine as she tried to dismiss the thought. No, she couldn’t think like that.

Carmen wasn’t particularly religious, but ever since she was a child Carmen had always relied on her imaginary friends to help her out of a tough situation. As silly as it sounds, even as an adult she would close her eyes and silently plea with them to help her.

That’s exactly what she did as she sat in the car, skin growing blue from cold. Carmen shut her eyes tightly and clasped her hands together.

“Please, please, please. If you can hear me Big Blue and Raz, I need your help. Please” she whispered silently. Though there was no one around to see her, she felt embarrassed that her first course of action was to plead to imaginary friends from her childhood. With her eyes still shut, she imagined them now. The giant blue bird with wings that spanned 20ft, and, standing beside him, Raz, the young boy with dark green hair and skin the colour of milk.

Carmen felt the vague sensation of the car moving, but it was so slight that she thought she were imagining it. Perhaps the cold had already made her go crazy. She kept her eyes shut regardless, whispering the same words over and over again like a prayer. When she finally decided to face the situation and act more like a grown up, she let out a sigh and opened her eyes. She expected to see the giant snow mound in front of her and was surprised when she was met with a different sight. Her four wheels were back on the road, facing forward. In fact, she could see the daycare where she worked at in the distance, despite the fact that she had been almost 3 miles away from it when her car had skid.

Carmen placed her hands on the steering wheel, a mixture of bewilderment and wonder filling her senses. Carmen wasn’t one to believe in miracles or magic, or any of that stuff, so she dismissed the situation (perhaps only slightly out of fear). All she knew was that without the help of her friends, it would have been a very difficult day.