Take Me to My Friend/Three Desperate Days — Hope D. Jordan

Julie had her driver's license, but as far as she was concerned, it was merely a handy identification to carry in her wallet. She still got the jitters just driving to downtown Milwaukee. As for expressways--well, Julie stayed off them--until the day after Christmas when a family emergency forced her to drive the station wagon from Florida to Wisconsin, with her frail grandmother to worry about as well as the driving.

The red ribbon that Julie tied to the antenna of the car was intended only as identification for Pete, who was meeting her on Highway 1, just outside of Chicago, to guide her through the heavy traffic. But on the third day, as the green station wagon approached the meeting place, the crimson Christmas ribbon fluttering in the wind had become a challenge, a symbol of all that was at stake.

For this motor trip that had begun with a number of qualms but no greater menace than the usual hazards of winter driving, had turned suddenly into a three-day ordeal, with Julie matching wits and endurance against two unwanted passengers who had made her and her grandmother prisoners in their own car.

Original Title: Take Me to My Friend