Courage (2 page)

CHAPTER TWO

Jim was thrown clear of the plane on impact and when he regained consciousness, it took a few minutes for him to remember all that had happened. The rain was easing, the winds were still quite strong, but slowly the storm was lessening. Jim found himself lying on the ground still harnessed in his seat. He looked around and saw only broken parts of the plane scattered on the ground, but the fuselage was nowhere to be seen. He felt okay other than a few scrapes and bruises. There was a trickle of blood flowing from his nose and when he felt his legs, they moved easily, so thankfully there were no broken bones and the rest of him seemed to be intact as well. Jim was able to unhook his harness and after he gathered his wits about him, he began searching for his family, calling out their names. About half a kilometer from where he landed, he came across the fuselage of the plane. It was almost intact, one wing had been sheared off, the under carriage was mangled, one of the doors was torn half off and the windshield was missing. Jim peered inside the fuselage with trepidation, and fear. Three of the seats were missing, but he saw Jill inside, still harnessed, but there was no sign of either Mary or Lucas and that scared Jim even more. He called Jill's name, but she was unresponsive. Jim called her name again and began shaking her, desperately trying to get a response. When Jill came to, she was hysterical and began screaming for her mother, Mary. She had an egg sized bump on her forehead and her arms and legs were scraped and bleeding.

“It's okay Honey I'm right here,” Jim soothed her.

“Mom, I want my mommy!!” Jill wailed.

“I know Jill, we'll find her and Lucas.”

He peered into the plane to see if any of their luggage was there, but didn't see any.

“You know Alicia, it seems to me that any time a child is not feeling well, they call for their mommy.”

“I know what you mean, Grandpa, I do it too and in case you haven't noticed, I'm the same age as Jill. Did you do that on purpose?”

“Perhaps I did. I think now is a good time to stop. Why don't you sit with me while I type up the story? If I miss something you can correct me.”

“Grandpa, but it was just getting interesting!”

“Look at the time, isn't it close to your bedtime?”

“Yeah,” she agreed reluctantly.

It took almost an hour to type up the story and by that time Alicia was pretty well on her way to dreamland.

“Bedtime honey,” I whispered as I carried Alicia to bed where Grandma took over, tucking her in and staying with her for a few moments until she fell back into a deep sleep.

CHAPTER THREE

“Grandpa, can we get back to the story now, please?”

“We haven't even had breakfast yet, what if we start this afternoon after lunch?”

“What's for breakfast?” she asked.

“Your favorite, crepes with strawberries and whipped cream.”

“Thanks Grandpa, and you're right, they are my favorite.”

“I have some work to do in the yard and you and Grandma can do some baking. I think I heard Grandma say something about chocolate chip cookies.”

Time dragged slowly for Alicia, however baking the cookies was a lot of fun and eating a couple with a glass of milk was pretty good too.

“Grandpa, is it time now?”

“I'm ready, do you remember where we left off?”

“Jim had just found Jill and she was crying,” Alicia said.

Jim gently probed Jill for possible broken bones and checked her head for obvious bruises and contusions before he undid her harness. She appeared to be badly shaken but no serious injuries were evident. He calmed her down, unhooked her harness and explained that they must search for her mother and brother.

“I'm bleeding dad!” she cried.

“Here, I'll wipe it off with a corner of my t-shirt, honey. There, that's not so bad now, is it?”

The rain had finally stopped and the weather was beginning to clear. Jim and Jill walked hand in hand, looking for Mary and Lucas, calling out their names as loudly as they could.

Jim was terrified that Lucas and Mary might be badly injured or even worse, but he kept his worries to himself.

As they searched, Jim made mental notes of what he could see was left of the plane and their supplies.

After what seemed like hours, they finally located Mary who was still in her seat, fully harnessed. She was unconscious and bleeding from both her ears and mouth. Jim checked her pulse which was strong and found she was taking shallow breaths with some difficulty. Jill, upon seeing her mother, began crying with renewed energy. Just then Lucas appeared, dazed, bruised and bleeding from many scrapes and lacerations, but otherwise he seemed fine.

“Lucas, Lucas, are you okay, son?”

“Yeah dad, I'm fine, other than some scrapes, I'm good.”

“Were you still strapped in your seat?”

“Yeah, I could hardly move, the harness was so tight.”

The three of them hugged Mary. Jill sobbed loudly and Lucas said, “I told you dad's a good pilot, he was able to land the plane!”

Mary appeared to be in bad shape. Jim surmised the bleeding from her mouth and ears may be caused by damage to her lungs and she most likely had suffered a concussion as well. The left leg of her jeans was torn and covered with blood. Jim knew it was necessary that he show strength in front of his children so they wouldn't panic and lose hope.

Because of her injuries, Jim decided to leave Mary harnessed in the seat. While Mary was still unconscious, he decided it would be a good time to check her leg.

“Lucas, take Jill and see if you can find any useful stuff from the plane. Don't wonder too far though!”

Jim figured it would be better if Jill didn't see the gash on Mary's leg.

Using his Swiss army knife, he very gently cut away the leg of her bloody jeans and discovered a large, deep gash running from knee to ankle.

He shouted after Lucas and Jill, “Lucas, see if you can find the first aid kit from the plane or anything else I could use to cleanse this wound.”

They didn't find the first aid kit, but discovered one of the duffel bags and ran back to Jim, dragging it between them.

“You two go back and look for more stuff while I see what I can do here.”

Jim opened the bag quickly to see if there was anything that would be useful and out tumbled t-shirts, bathing suits and sweaters that Mary had packed. Jim used some of the clothing to wipe the wound and stop the bleeding. He had no idea if he was doing the right thing; he just hoped he wouldn't cause more harm. All this time Mary remained unconscious and other than moaning while Jim was cleaning and dressing the wound by wrapping it in a clean t-shirt, she was non-responsive.

Lucas and Jill came back without finding anything more, “I saw some plane parts though dad.”

“Jill, Lucas, why don't I clean the blood off your cuts? This may hurt a little bit. Looks like they're mostly scrapes so that's good, they should scab over and heal pretty quickly. When we find the Neosporin that I know your mom packed, I'll put some on these scrapes to help them heal faster.”

Jill cried again as Jim worked on her, but Lucas sucked in his breath and tried to be brave.

Jim spoke to his children and suggested that the three of them search the area nearby looking for anything from the plane that could be salvaged and used. They gently placed Mary against a tree and tied her to it to keep her immobilized should she regain consciousness and the three left together in search of usable refuse. Jim made sure they would be able to locate Mary by climbing the tree and tying a piece of clothing to one of the top branches that would be visible from far away.

After many frustrating minutes of searching, they found the severed wing of the plane and it was almost intact and a few other pieces that Jim couldn't identify. Jim figured the wing would afford some protection from the elements if need be. They retraced their footsteps and found their way back to Mary who was still unconscious.

The biggest concern Jim had was their location. How far off course were they and would anyone be looking for them in this area? Had anyone heard his mayday call?

Jim did some mental calculations and estimated they had crash-landed somewhere between Williams Lake and Lake Louise, but that was only a guess. He feared they wouldn't be found quickly because rescuers would be searching along their flight path and he knew they had been buffeted way off course. In the mountains, winter would come early, maybe in September but definitely by October.

He decided not to venture too far from their crash site and found a spot nearby that seemed almost perfect. If they stayed put maybe help would come. He cleared an area, asked the kids to gather some cedar boughs and other branches and together they made a large pile to light as a bonfire when and if a rescue plane came by. This really frightened him because if they couldn't control the fire, the entire area would be engulfed in flames and they would perish. The other concern he had was regarding wild animals that might be lurking in the area, like bears and wolves.

“Grandpa, that's scary, bears are so big and mean,” Alicia said.

“You'd be surprised just how vicious wolves can be too,” I replied.

Jim told the children to stay with their mom while he went a little farther off to search for a stream or some other water source. He walked in a circular pattern, roughly he guessed, half a mile from the camp. He came across a stream that had plenty of water, but unfortunately he also saw a lot of paw prints at the edge of the water. He wasn't sure what they were but thought they might be wolf tracks. He hurried back to camp and found the children crying quietly next to their mom. When they saw their father they stopped crying and ran to him. Jim felt he owed it to his children to explain what they could expect to happen in the next few days.

“Now listen to me carefully,” he said. “We will be here for a little while, I have no idea how long and we need to be prepared for all sorts of things that you have never experienced before.”

Jill immediately started to cry again while Lucas got all excited.

“Like what dad? Will we be fighting bears?” Lucas asked.

“I don't really think bears will be a problem,” Jim said optimistically. “We may see some, but if you make a lot of noise they usually run away. I wouldn't be surprised if we encounter some wolves and coyotes though, and of course there should be some deer,” Jim added.

“Oh, wow!” Lucas replied. “Just wait till I get home and tell all my friends about the wild animals.”

“Lucas, I would like you to look around and see if you can find a sturdy pole about 6 to 8 feet long, and Jill, can you talk to your mom to see if she is awake yet?”

As the kids did what they were asked, Jim searched amongst the broken pieces of the plane to see if he could find a suitable container for water. He found the fender of a wheel that looked like it might work as a vessel for carrying water. Once again, he told the kids to stay close to their mother while he went back to the stream to get some water. He returned shortly and he and the kids drank their fill of the cold, clear water. Jim took a piece of cloth, wet it and held it to Mary's mouth. She moved her lips and began to suck the water from the wet cloth. Jim asked Jill to continue holding the cloth to her mother's lips.

“Lucas, where is the pole?” Jim asked.

“Actually dad, I got a bunch since I didn't know which one would be the best.”

“Can you bring them to me, please?”

Lucas gathered up the poles and carried them to his dad who examined each pole, turning them over in his hands until he had a thought.

“Lucas this is great, you just gave me an idea. Did you see any more poles where you got these?”

“Sure, there's an area that has a whole bunch of them.”

“Take your sister and bring back as many as you can carry.” Jim figured that the best way to keep Jill from crying would be to keep her busy.

The poles were probably cedar, brittle and dry, good for firewood he thought.

Lucas left with his sister to gather more poles while Jim checked on Mary, she was still unconscious. After about half an hour the kids returned on the run. “Dad, dad! I think this is the first aid box!” Lucas exclaimed.

“Good find guys, we can surely put this to good use. Did you find any more of the poles?”

“Yeah, We dropped them when I saw the first aid box but I'll go back and get them,” Lucas said.

“Jill, you and I will try to find a good camp site.”

They walked around and finally settled on an area that had some clear space but was protected by a large spruce tree. There was only a few large trees in the area, all the rest were stunted spruce only about four to six feet high.

Lucas returned, struggling with a load of poles, some long, some short and deposited them on the ground at Jim's feet.

“Can you separate them by length and put the long ones here with the others and the short ones over there? We'll use the short ones for firewood and I'm sure I can think of a use for the long ones, possibly even a teepee.” While the kids were separating the poles, Jim tried to figure out how to secure his Swiss army knife to the end of an 8-foot long pole, but without success.

“Listen guys, we're moving our camp to under that large spruce tree. Jill, see if you can give a little bit more water to your mother. Lucas, you and I will move everything we have here to the base of that tree.”

“Dad, dad, mom opened her eyes!” Jill yelled.

Jim and Lucas rushed to Mary's side. Her eyes were open, but she looked dazed and confused. “Honey, Mary are you okay?” Mary looked from one to the other until her gaze landed on Jill and she held her hand out for a hug. They all hugged, Mary was crying and so was Jill. After a few minutes, Jim asked the kids to go back to their chores; he needed to talk to Mary in private.

“Honey, do you remember what happened?”

“I think so, but everything seems fuzzy.”

“The plane crashed into some trees. The children and I are okay but you have a large laceration on your left leg. I cleaned it as well as I could and stopped the bleeding. Do you have any other pain?”

“I'm finding it difficult to breathe and there is a shooting pain in my side,” she answered.

“I think maybe you have broken ribs or something, you had some blood on your lips when I found you and I'm pretty sure you have a mild concussion. We're setting up a camp just over there under that large tree,” he said, pointing towards the large spruce. “We found some of the things that you packed, and thank goodness you brought as much as you did. Never again will I tell you to pack light! I'll search the area later on to see what else I can find. We have plenty of clean, drinkable water, so that won't be a problem. The problem we do have is that we don't know where we are. We were pushed way off course and it may make the search difficult for the rescue party.”

“The children, are you sure they're okay?”

“You saw them, they're fine. Lucas thinks this is an adventure and can hardly wait to tell his friends.”

“Do you think the searchers will find us?”

“No question about that, time is the factor though. They'll eventually extend the search to cover a larger area, but first they'll search the area covered by the flight plan I filed before takeoff. We have a few days here, at least the way I see it.”

Darkness was setting in and Jim helped the kids collect evergreen bows to make beds for the four of them.

“Well Alicia what does this remind you of?”

“What do you mean, Grandpa?”

“What I just said a second ago, ‘Darkness was setting in.'”

“Oh, I get it, you mean it's my bedtime,” she said.

With Alicia's help, the typing was soon done and Grandma called for supper.

All through supper Alicia jabbered on about the story.

“Maybe we can have a tiger cub in the story.”

“There are no tigers in Canada other than in the zoo,” I reminded her.

“Oh yeah, I forgot. Grandpa, what time can we start tomorrow?”

“We have to go out for a while in the morning but maybe we can take up where we left off after lunch.”

“Goodnight Grandma and Grandpa, I can hardly wait for tomorrow!” Alicia said as she gave them each a goodnight hug.