Then suddenly, like that scene in The Wizard of Oz where the tornado touches down, the sky grew dark. At first only a few snowflakes landed on the windshield, but within minutes, Nate and Junie were in the middle of a snowstorm. Nate turned the headlights and the windshield wipers on, but even so, he couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of the car. The snowfall seemed to be coming at them sideways, like chaff from a thresher. Nate felt his stomach clench and his throat go dry. “I can’t see where we’re going, Junie,” he told her. He was wondering if they should turn back.

“I know you can get us there,” she said.

The road was winding steeper all the time, into the mountains. Nate passed a road sign that said CAUTION, FALLING ROCK and another indicating a place where trucks could pull off to the side if their brakes failed. On one side of them the rock face of the mountain rose like a giant tombstone. On the other, a total drop-off, with only rock and trees and boulders far below. As they climbed, every few twists in the road they’d come to a place where it would dip again, and Nate would feel the slippery surface under his tires. A couple of times he could feel the car losing traction, the beginnings of a skid. “Turn with it,” his father had told him. “You’ll want to put your foot on the brake when you start to slip, but don’t let yourself do it.”

He thought about his mother then, how worried she must be. She’d probably have called his grandpa by now, and Aunt Sal and Uncle Harold might be coming over in their pickup. Suddenly he felt tears come to his eyes, but he didn’t want Junie to see.

“Let’s hear a joke,” he said.

“What did Humpty Dumpty say when he fell off the wall? . . . Ha-ha, you got yolk all over the place.”

He knew this one. The punch line was supposed to be “The yolk’s on you,” but she’d gotten it messed up. “That’s a good one,” he told her, hands firmly gripping the steering wheel.

“Knock knock,” Junie said soberly.

“Who’s there?”

“The man from U.N.C.L.E.”

“Huh?”

“It’s the man from U.N.C.L.E., Natie,” she said. “Wouldn’t that be so funny, if that’s who came over?”

“Yup, it sure would be,” he said.

Then they were at the top of the mountain pass, the continental divide. On a clear day this would be an amazing spot to look out from. Now there was nothing but white. “We’re going to be going down soon, Junie,” he told her. “It’ll start to get better.”