Courage Page 2

  “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.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  After the beds were made as comfortable as possible with layers of cedar boughs, Lucas said, “Dad, I’m hungry.”

  “So am I.” Jill agreed.

  “How many cans of food do we have?” Jim asked.

  “Tons dad, we have beans, even soup, we’re fine. Hey, no can opener though.”

  “No problem, I have one on my Swiss army knife.”

  They moved Mary to a spot under the tree, still secured in her airplane seat. Jim was afraid there might be more injuries than were evident and it made more sense to leave her in the seat

  “We need to find a place for us to use as a ‘bathroom’, but not too far from our camp.”

  “Like, what do we do, dig a hole?” Lucas inquired.

  “Right now we just choose a site and later on we’ll dig a hole if we can find something to dig with.”

  Jim counted the cans of food; there were 4 cans of beans, two of peaches and two cans of soup.

  “I packed more food than that, Jim,” Mary said.

  “We haven’t found them so far, maybe we’ll look for them tomorrow. But today for supper we’ll dine on French Bean Cassoulet with fresh spring water,” he said jokingly.

  Even Mary laughed at the ridiculous menu.

  Jim opened the can of beans and they all shared it with enthusiasm.

  “Grandpa, one can of beans for all of them, that’s it?” she asked.

  “Remember they have to think of the next few days so they need to make the food last until they’re rescued.”

  After supper Jim told Mary that he wanted to see how her leg wound was doing. “Lucas, could you please bring the first aid box over here?”

  He unwrapped Mary’s leg and it didn’t look too bad.

  “You know it looks pretty good, I’ll clean it again and use a sterile bandage to dress it.” It took about ten minutes to cleanse and dress the wound; Mary was obviously in pain, but didn’t complain.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Darkness came quickly and with it came the cold night air that was not expected by Jim and his family. But in the high mountains, when the sun goes down the temperature drops quickly. Jim estimated they must be 4000 to 5000 feet above sea level considering the dwarf cedars and scrub vegetation with only a few tall spruce trees in the area, but he wasn’t sure. That meant they could be in either the coastal or the Rocky Mountains, unfortunately he didn’t know which mountain range or how far up north.

  “Lucas, Jill, bring the poles, they should be good fire starter
s, see if you can find bigger dry branches for the fire. We’ll need a lot, I’d like to have it burn all night if possible.”

  Jim cleared an area for the fire and scrapped the soil around the fire area to prevent fire spread. He carefully placed some rocks and stones to circle the fire area.

  “Look this is a perfect fire pit,” Lucas commented.

  They gathered firewood and within minutes a blazing fire was giving up much needed warmth. Luckily they had packed a good supply of waterproof matches.

  “We have to put on all the clothing we have with us to keep the night chill out,” Jim ordered.

  “We’re getting dressed to go to bed instead of getting undressed, that’s funny,” Lucas laughed.

  They settled down on their cedar beds and Jill began to cry quietly, hugging her mother close. “I want to go home mommy, I miss my home,” she sobbed.

  “ I know how that feel,.” Alicia said.

  “Evenings and nights are the most difficult times for home sickness. You’re tired by then and all the feelings overwhelm you, it can be very difficult,” I agreed.

  “I’ve had that a few times and it’s not a good feeling,” Alicia responded

  Tears trickled down Mary’s face too as she snuggled with Jill and prayed the search party would find them soon. Her leg was throbbing painfully and every time she took a deep breath there was a shooting pain in her right side. She was sure that she had a few cracked or broken ribs.

  The family settled into a long night, made longer by fear of the unknown, except Lucas, he was excited about this new ‘adventure’.

  “This is so cool, I can hardly wait to get back to school so I can tell all the kids about this.”

  “Mom, dad, why don’t you go to sleep? I’ll stay awake and keep watch,” Lucas volunteered.

  Jim put more wood on the fire before they settled in.

  In no time at all Lucas was asleep, even before Jill and Mary. Jim tried to stay awake; he had a lot of worries on his mind. He didn’t know where they were or if anyone had heard his S. O. S. call from the plane. He didn’t feel that he knew enough about how to survive in the wilderness to keep his family safe. Would they be found in time? Were there wild animals lurking nearby that might try to hurt them? He didn’t know if they should leave the crash site and attempt to make their way to civilization, and come to think about it, he didn’t even know where civilization was! He blamed himself for this misadventure and for not knowing what to do in this situation. Why hadn’t he read more about the Canadian wilderness and how to survive if stranded there? He had placed his family in a very dangerous situation because of his unpreparedness. Would they be strong enough to survive until they were rescued? The pain of his failures was tearing at him.