Courage Page 3

  Sleep finally came to him, but the feeling continued in his dream, it was Jill who woke him when she heard him moaning in his sleep. He was drenched in sweat, and gasping for breath. It took him awhile to get back to sleep, for he was still very much troubled by his failure to anticipate and avoid their current situation.

  Very early in the morning of the next day, Lucas woke with a start. He heard a strange noise that he couldn’t identify and crawled to where his Dad was still sleeping and gently shook him awake.

  “Dad, do you hear that?”

  Jim listened for a few seconds then smiled as he looked over at the still sleeping Jill and Mary.

  “Yeah, it’s the hooting of a great-horned owl or the boreal owl.”

  “They’re just birds?”

  “I’m afraid so son, sorry to disappoint you.”

  “I was kind of hoping it was some big wild animal.”

  “Well, it’s not wild, it’s not big, and it isn’t even an animal.”

  “I want you to walk around our camp and see if you spot any paw prints and if you do, call me. Be careful so you don’t deface the prints if you find any, I want to see if I can identify them.”

  Lucas was excited; I’m a tracker, wait till I get back to school, he thought. He crawled around the perimeter of the camp until he spotted a bunch of paw prints. “Dad, dad, look at this!” he shouted. “Oops, sorry I forgot,” too late, both Mary and Jill woke up.

  “How are you feeling this morning honey?” Jim asked Mary.

  “About the same, maybe a little better,” she responded. She hadn’t slept well, every time she moved even a little, a shooting pain in her side woke her. She was cramped in the seat and her back and her shoulders also ached. But she didn’t want to worry Jim.

  Jill was fine, she ran to Lucas to see what the commotion was all about.

  “Look Jill, these are real wild animal paw prints.”

  “What kind?”

  “I don’t know, maybe lions.”

  “There are no lions here, they’re only in Africa, silly.”

  “That’s how much you know, these could be mountain lion prints.”

  “Dad, Lucas said these are lion tracks.”

  Jim walked over to Lucas and peered at the tracks. “They are tracks all right, raccoon tracks, looks like a whole family. Do you see the bigger paw prints? Those belong to the mom and dad and the juvenile raccoons made these smaller ones. They’re curious creatures so they probably just wanted to investigate.”

  “We have raccoons back home in our subdivision, that sucks, they’re not even really wild,” Lucas wailed.

  “They probably were going for water, smelled the fire and followed the scent here. They’re harmless, but you still have to be careful, because after all they live in the wild and can be dangerous if provoked.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Kids, I need some help with your mother. We need to get her out of this harness and lay her on the cedar bed. She must be cramped from being in the seat so long. They unbuckled her harness, the kids took her legs above the knees and Jim firmly grasped her under the arms and together they very gently moved her to the cedar bed. She winced and a few tears escaped unbidden from her eyes. She didn’t want to cry, but the pain betrayed her. It took about an hour before the pain subsided and she started to feel better. Her leg didn’t seem to hurt as much, but her side was still painful when she took a breath.

  “You know, I think we should bind your rib cage, maybe it will stop the pain.”

  “Do you think it will help?” Mary asked.

  “Well it won’t make it any worse anyway. Jill, can you dig out a few t-shirts and bring them to me please?”

  Jim did the best he could, and he wasn’t sure if he was doing it right since he had only seen it on a medical show on TV.

  “Look Mary, if it’s too tight, tell me and I can loosen it a bit.”

  After Jim finished, Mary said. “You know that feels a little better when I move or take a breath, thanks Jim.”

  “Lucas, you stay with your mother, Jill and I’ll go and search the area once more to see if we can find anything useful from the plane debris, maybe even the radio if we get lucky. Let’s have some water and we’ll have breakfast after we come back. Lucas, I’ll leave my knife with you, see if you can clear a ten foot radius over there.” He pointed to an area that was covered by small dwarf cedars. “We’ll make that our fire site in case we spot a search plane.”

  “Okay dad, is that a plane up there, see that little speck way up there?”

  “It’s likely a commercial passenger jet heading to Vancouver or Victoria, but it’s probably too far up to see our signal.”

  Jim and Jill left to search the crash area for anything else that might be useful. They were in luck; the tent was hanging on a branch about five feet off the ground. A little more searching and they found one of the fishing poles.

  “Dad look, there’s the back pack with the warm clothing that Mom packed and over there’s the sleeping bags.”

  “Good eyes Jill, you’re a life saver. Let’s go back to the camp, but we’ll come back later and search some more.”

  When they returned to camp, they found Lucas had done a fine job of clearing the area and building a dry bonfire site.

  “Lucas, that’s awesome, good work buddy.”

  Jim and Jill ran to Mary’s side. She was smiling and said, “I feel pretty good, there’s hardly any pain in my side and my leg seems better too.”

  “Don’t overdo it, if you get reinjured it will be more difficult to heal,” Jim admonished.

  “Look mom, we found the tent, one fishing pole and the backpack,” Jill said excitedly.

  “That’s a good find, we can certainly use those things. I think that’s where I put the Tylenol and I could really use a couple right now, in fact, that’s where I packed the toothbrushes and toothpaste,” Mary said.

  “It’s just like being at home, we’re going to have to brush our teeth every day,” Lucas muttered.

  “What do you mean once a day? You know I expect you to brush twice a day, every day, Lucas Joseph Robinson!”

  “I’ll open a can of peaches to celebrate, that will be our breakfast. After breakfast Jill and I’ll go down to the stream and bring back some fresh water.”

  “The peaches do taste good,” Mary said.

  “See you in a little bit, we’ll get some water and if we’re lucky, maybe a fish.” Jim said.

  When Jim and Jill got to the stream, while trying to be nonchalant, Jim looked for prints or any sign of animals. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. All was quiet and peaceful by the stream.

  “Let’s look for a worm and see if we can catch some fish,” Jim suggested.

  Jim used a stick to poke around the edge of the water looking for worms.

  “There’s a worm, but I’m not touching it, they’re yucky!” Jill said.

  Jim put it on the hook and cast out to the middle of the stream and before he could blink, the hook was gone. Jim gave the line a jerk and reeled in a fish. He pulled the fish out and exclaimed, “I think it’s a trout!” He did that three more times and said. “Jill honey, we’ll certainly eat well today.”

  “Dad, what’s that in the bushes?”

  “Where, honey?”

  Jill pointed to a spot about 30 feet away. Jim looked and at first didn’t see anything but finally he saw a pair of yellow eyes looking back at him. Jill grabbed Jim’s legs in fear. “I can hear whimpering,” she whispered.

  Jim took a few steps toward the eyes and was met by a deep menacing growl.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Jim whispered.

  “Dad it sounds like it’s injured.”

  “Yeah, you could be right, you stay here and I’ll go a little closer.”

  Jim took a few steps toward the, whatever it was, but it growled and attempted to move back away from him.

  “It looks like a coyote or a wolf and it’s injured. I think we should share our lunch with
it.” As he said this, he tossed a fish into the bushes for the animal. “We should get back, we’ve been gone longer than I meant to.” He was concerned that if there was an injured animal at the stream, there may be others around that had caused the injury.

  They proudly walked back to camp toting water and the three fish, buoyed by the good luck they’d had. He was concerned though, that a wild animal was out there, possibly injured by another wild animal.

  They built up their fire, gutted the fish, put them on a stick and within minutes it started to smell like lunch.

  “Lucas, keep an eye on the fire and under no circumstances let the fish burn. Mary, Jill, we’ll take inventory of what we have.”

  “Mary, here’s a chunk of charcoal, write down what I tell you on this white t-shirt.”

  “Tent, fishing rod and line, 3 cans of beans, 2 cans of soup and one can of peaches, first aid kit, plenty of warm clothes and a lot of matches. And of course the Swiss army knife.”

  “I packed other food and we should look for it as well,” Mary said.

  “Good idea, but we won’t starve, with the fish we catch we should be okay for a short time at least. Mary, we found an injured animal close to the stream, it could be a wolf or a coyote; I’m not sure which. But that means there probably are other wild animals around this area.”

  “You think it’s dangerous?” Mary asked.

  “If it’s wild it could be, but let’s not worry about it right now, lunch is ready.”

  They devoured the trout and it was delicious even though Lucas complained there was no salt. Mary said, “Salt isn’t good for you, you’re better off without it.”

  After lunch Jill and Lucas were playing, chasing each other around the camp and giggling. “They seem to have accepted our situation,” Mary said.

  “Lucas, Jill, let’s get the tent set up and see if we can make things a little more comfortable.”

  The three of them began to assemble all the tent pieces. “It says here in the instructions that we should be able to erect this tent in ten minutes,” Jim said.

  After an hour of watching the others struggle, Mary suggested, “Let me read the instructions while you do what I tell you.”

  With Mary’s help the tent was up in half an hour. The kids cheered, crawled inside and made up the cedar bough beds, topped with their sleeping bags. Jim and Mary would sleep on the outside while the kids would nestle between them. They used some of the clothes for pillows and they had more clothes for covers if needed.

  “This is real camping dad. We don’t have neighbors right beside us, like in the campgrounds, we even have wild animals even though you say they’re only raccoons,” Lucas announced with delight.

  “Enjoy it while it lasts, son. The search party should be here any time,” Jim said hopefully.

  “Look Jim, I found a pencil and paper in the backpack; what if I keep a calendar so we can keep track of time?” Mary suggested.

  “Good idea, let’s see, today is, well we left on the 5th of August; I can’t believe that was just yesterday, so today is the 6th of August.”

  “It’s like we’ve been here for weeks, so much has happened!” Mary added.

  “Guess what? Time to do the typing, eat supper and off to bed,” I suggested.

  “Already? But I’m not even tired.”

  “I’ll tell you what, tomorrow morning we’ll go fishing, see if we can catch a few for our supper.”

  “Okay but I’m not touching the worms!”

  “You’re just like Jill.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “This is Search and Rescue HQ. We have just received a report of a plane that disappeared two days ago in that big electrical storm. ‘Firefox one’ and ‘Firefox two,’ the flight plan was filed as follows; 100-150 kilometers north of Williams Lake. According to the leasing company for the plane, the pilot who is also the father, is an experienced pilot and has flown in that area before. Their destination was filed at about 52 degrees north and 122 degrees west. If you check your mapping, it’s somewhere between Prince George and Williams Lake. There are some grassy plateaus in that area that are suitable for landing the Cessna. Now, be mindful of the storm, they could have been blown off that course 100 kilometers east, or even west. Do a typical grid search at a 50 kilometers sweep and keep your speed slow. Report anything to H.Q. Out.”

  “Acknowledged, ‘Firefox One’ and ‘Two’. Out.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Okay Alicia, let’s find some worms and go down to the dam and see if we can catch our supper.”

  “Grandpa, you know we never catch anything.”

  “Today will be different,” I said.

  “Sure Grandpa, whatever you say.”

  They walked down to the dam, baited the hooks and cast their lines into the water.

  “Keep an eye out for the floats!”

  “I am, but nothing is happening.”

  Alicia picked up a stone and tried to skip it across the water.

  “You’re scaring the fish away!”

  “What fish, I don’t see any?”

  “Alicia your float just disappeared!”

  Alicia gave a jerk on the rod and exclaimed, “‘I’ve got one!” as she reeled in a large four inch perch.

  “If we get a few more of these and if they’re a few inches bigger, we may have enough for supper.”

  An hour went by and there were no more bites.

  “So what do you think? Should we go back and work on the book?” I asked.

  “I think that’s a good idea. Maybe we should order in pizza for supper,” Alicia suggested.

  They all had a great sleep. Being in the tent gave them the feeling of added protection. It was Lucas who stirred first and crawling out of the tent, he immediately searched for paw prints. He was disappointed in not finding any.

  Next to waken was Jim, he felt refreshed from his much-needed sleep. He looked at his Timex and asked in amazement, “Lucas do you realize that we had ten hours of sleep?”

  “So what do we do today dad?”

  “We’ll do another search for things we can use. Jill and I will go back to the crash site, you stay with mom and have the matches handy just in case a search plane is visible.”

  “Are you going to the stream to fish again?”

  “I think so, but we’ll see.”

  Mary and Jill woke up, both in great spirits. Mary was feeling even better than the day before. They opened a can of beans and Jim called it ‘breakfast tooters’. They all enjoyed a good laugh over that.

  “That’s funny Grandpa,” Alicia laughed.

  “Jill, let’s go scavenge the crash site again.”

  “When should we expect you back?” Mary inquired.

  “We should be back between 12 and one.”

  “Good luck dad.”

  Lucas decided to go for a stroll around the campsite and came across some type of berries. He picked a whole bunch but didn’t eat any until his mom and dad gave their okay. When Jim and Jill got back, they were excited because they had found parts of the radio and Jim hoped that maybe he could get it working.

  “Look, I got a bunch of berries, but I don’t know if they are any good to eat.”

  Both Jim and Mary looked at them and shrugged. Jim said, and Mary agreed that they had no idea what they were.

  “I’ll try a few and see what happens,” Jim suggested.

  He took a hand-full and put them in his mouth, “Not much taste to them, but they’re not bad.”

  “I don’t want you kids to have any until we see how your father reacts to them, he can be our guinea pig.”

  Later on in the day Jim and Jill did go fishing and saw the injured animal drinking from the stream.

  “Look dad, it’s pretty skinny; if we catch some fish we should give him more than just one.”

  “I agree, I’m pretty sure it’s a wolf.”

  Just then the injured wolf slowly walked into the bushes, dragging his left hind leg. He was growling but seemed more
afraid of them, than they were of it.

  “Dad is it a mommy or a daddy wolf”

  “I don’t know, I can’t tell, but it looks like he injured his left hind leg.”

  They had great luck, eight large fish in just one hour. As they were leaving, they saw the yellow eyes again in the bushes. Jim took three fish and left them just at the edge of the bush. They walked slowly away hoping to see the animal come out to take the fish, but it didn’t, at least not while they were watching.

  Things were pretty monotonous for the next two weeks. It was nearing the end of August and was getting noticeably cooler. They were fishing every day and always left plenty of fish for the injured wolf. It was more friendly, but still shy. As soon as the wolf spotted them coming to the stream it immediately went to the edge of the bush and waited for the fish.

  “From now on when we go to the stream we have to wash and brush our teeth. Cleanliness is still important even out here in the wilderness,” Mary said firmly. “I might even try to wash some of our clothes in the stream and hang them to dry on the bushes, like the pioneer women used to do.”

  Lucas and Jill just looked at each other and made a face before skipping away, laughing.

  “Jim, do you know what day it is?” Mary asked.

  “Sorry honey, but I don’t know the exact date.”

  “Well, it’s August 20th,” she confirmed.

  “I see where you’re going with this.”

  “Remember what was in the backpack? Chocolate, graham wafer crackers and marshmallows?”

  “So, what are you planning?” Jim Asked.