It was Rob in his pajamas!
Judy screamed and dropping the pole looked into the window. The bed was empty!
Rob was back!
Chapter Thirty Three
“Judy?” Rob said, “What are you doing here?” Judy dropped to her knees, covered her face with her hands, and started crying uncontrollably.
“Judy, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take your fish,” Rob said.
Judy could not speak. She could not catch her breath between the sobs of joy. The saltiness of her tears had never tasted so good.
“Don’t cry I was only trying to keep it from going back into the lake.”
“No, no it’s ok,” Judy managed to get out, “go ahead Rob throw the fish back, its ok.”
“Nope, can’t do that, Grandpa will be upset,” Rob said as he headed for the tackle box. He grabbed a fish stringer and tied the fish to the dock.
Judy was dumb-struck watching Rob move about with the mannerisms of a child. He bent down to her face and placed his finger against her lips.
“Quiet! Don’t let grandpa hear you or he’ll get mad.” Rob said as he reached for another piece of bacon that Judy had on the dock.
“What I usually do Judy,” he said as he baited the hook, “is tie the fish I catch at night to the dock and I don’t show them to Grandpa until the morning.” He said casting the line far out into the lake. Then he set the drag and locked the pole into the deck railing as he had done many times before. Then he turned and looked at Judy.
“How do I know your name?” he said with puzzled look on his face.
Judy wiping the tears from her face and walking slowly towards Rob said, “I’m your wife.”
Rob reached out and put his hands on her shoulders. And seeing the hair on his arms said, “I’m a man!”
“Yes, you are. You’re my man.”
“We’re married aren’t we?”
“Yes we are.”
“And we have children, do we not?”
“Yes we do.”
“Ryan! How is Ryan? Did he make it back?”
“Yes! And he needs so desperately to talk to you!”
Just when it seemed Rob was coming around he slipped back into the past. “Who are you? Does Grandpa know you’re here?”
“Rob honey, please come inside and let’s talk, ok,” Judy said.
“Ok, but help me listen for the fishing pole.”
They went inside the cabin and talked for a while. Judy was able to get Rob to remember some recent events. He remembered the crash and sending Ryan for help. He remembered seeing faces while in a coma. Judy called out for his sister to come quickly to the cabin. When she stepped in the door he recognized her, they had a good cry and hugged each other for a very long time. But his bouncing in and out with current events worried them both.
No sooner would she have him in the present only to have him slip back to a childlike state, wanting to play games with his sister and asking about his Grandpa. During a calm spell, as he sat quietly, Judy called the doctor.
“Judy that’s marvelous news!” the doctor said, “this going in and out of reality is perfectly normal at this stage. We need to build on this progress. Do not take him away from there until he perfectly understands his current condition, a move to soon could possibly leave him stuck in the past.”
Judy hung up the phone. It was getting late in the evening and she was growing tired. She was ready for a good night’s sleep. The doctor assured her that her fears were unfounded but even still she was worried that if Rob was to go to sleep, he would not wake up again. Be that as it may, within a few hours they fell fast asleep.
The morning came in the form of a glorious sunrise. A cool breeze fluttered the curtains into the room. Judy through sleepy eyes watched the sunlight dancing on the cabin ceiling. She looked over at Rob on the hospital bed. He was sleeping soundly. She resisted the temptation to wake him. She put some coffee on and quietly stepped outside to call Ryan and Rob Jr. with the news.
“Hello,” Ryan answered half annoyed.
“Ryan, it’s mom I have wonderful news.” Ryan sat up and rubbed his eyes.
“What is it?” he said through a yawn.
“Your father has woken up!”
“What?” he said, “Say that again?”
“Your father has woken up!”
“Are you sure?” Ryan said making sure it wasn’t a dream.
“Yes, of course I’m sure. He heard the drag go off on the little fishing pole last night and just walked out onto the dock, like he did when he was a kid.”
“Oh mom that is such good news. Is he normal? Can I speak to him?”
“He is not normal.”
“What do you mean? Is he brain damaged?”
“Oh no, nothing like that, he is fine in that respect, why he even asked for you and he wanted to know if you made it back safe!”
“He did? Then he remembers talking to me! And he remembers sending me for help?”
“Well yes, that’s what I got out of it anyway,” Judy seemed a little puzzled.
“So how is he not normal?” Ryan asked.
“He goes in and out of the past. He realizes certain things about the present but at times he is still here at the lake in his childhood.”
“Should I come home right away?”
“No. Stay up there and enjoy the week with your brother and your friend. This is going to take some time. The doctors do not want him to be removed from here until he is fully aware of his situation. Coming home now may only confuse him.”
“Ok mom I’ll tell Brent and Jr. the good news. See you in a week, love you!”
“I love you too, honey,” Judy said as she hung up the phone. For the first time in a long time she felt as though she had both her son and her husband back and on the road to recovery.
She wrote a letter to the missionary in South America to get word to Jenny that her father had been in an accident and that all is well and that he was expected to make a full recovery. She sent the letter knowing it would take weeks to make the trip but Judy felt that it was time to share some news with Jenny.
The week went well as Rob progressed nicely. He was pretty much caught up with the present. He had a slight setback upon learning that his grandpa had passed away some time ago. Judy did not remember him crying that hard when it happened, either he was just now finding closure, or he handled it like he would have had he learned of the death as a child. Judy wasn’t sure, but she sure was glad when he got over it. It darn near set him back a whole day.
The week was drawing to a close. Rob was like a new man. He kept asking when Ryan would be coming home.
“He’ll be home this afternoon,” she said with excitement. The thought of the father-and-son reunion that was coming in just a few hours found her with butterflies in her stomach.
Rob still had his moments but she had prepared Ryan for his off-the-wall comments. Out of the blue Rob would ask for a childhood food or toy. Judy was accustomed to it. Ryan would have to get used to it also. They thought his progress was phenomenal but he needed to stay in touch with his past. Mulling around the cabin seemed like the best way to do it as far as the doctors were concerned.
Late in the afternoon, Rob had wandered into the storage shed by the dock. Ryan and Brent had pretty much rearranged the contents of the entire shed but Rob had a specific item in mind as he opened the creaking door and headed for the work bench. The chest had been on his mind ever since he overheard Judy talking to the doctors about getting in touch with his past. He remembered what his grandpa told him about the old trunk. His hands were shaking as he slid it from alongside the work bench and slowly opened the lid. There was a layer of cloth covering the contents. Rob peeled it away.
There were many artifacts inside the trunk. There were newspaper articles, knick-knacks, and trophies of various types. Most of them were of the modern age. As he got down near the bottom however he saw the sketches and the photos that his grandpa had on the bench that day he
had asked him to fix his fishing pole.
Rob laid them out one-by-one on the bench in the same order that he best remembered them being on that day so long ago. There were four pictures in all, one sketch, one photo on glass, one photo on tin, and one on paper. Tied to each one with a ribbon were papers that explained something about the sketch or the photograph. The brittle papers were from Great- Grandpa Benjamin himself. The later papers were from Rob’s grandpa.
Rob gazed curiously into the four faces that lie before him. They were faces from the past. He remembered them from the time when his grandpa lifted him high upon the stool, but there was something else about them.
Rob gently untied the ribbon freeing the old parchment from the sketch and getting a full look at the face beneath it, dropped the parchment. A chill ran over his entire body.
He flashed back to his coma.
He saw the electrical storms passing with their faces.
These were the faces!
It was them!
He shuddered for a moment and covering the lot of them with the cloth, backed away from the bench.
OK, so what? So what if it was them?
He began to lift the cloth for another look but dropped it when he heard Judy.
“Rob? Honey where are you? Ryan is here!”
“Ryan!” Rob said.
Rob bolted for the shed door.
Chapter Thirty Four
Rob stepped out of the shed squinting, his eyes adjusting to the light from the dimly lit shed. He spotted Judy and Ryan walking about the grounds looking for him.
“I’m over here,” he said waving.
Ryan looked around, and spotting his dad, immediately ran to him. Rob held his arms open wide as they embraced tightly with one hand in the middle of the back, and one hand on the back of the head. It was a very long embrace.
This was the beginning of a new bond. It began with the crash. It was an agonizing separation for the both of them but at last the separation was over.
“I never ever lost faith dad, I just want you to know that.”
“Son, I knew I could count on you. I knew you could make it!” They separated from the embrace but only enough to look each other in the face. Judy gave them some privacy and slipped into the cabin unnoticed.
“Dad, you know where they found you don’t you?”
“Yes I heard, in the top of a sixty-foot cypress.”
“You know I went down with the plane, right?”
“I knew that all along son. I felt as though I was right there with you.”
“Dad I thought you were! I mean I really thought you were!”
“I know, your mother told me you’ve been having a hard time with this.”
“I have, with that and with other things that I haven’t even brought up yet and what about you? How do you feel about this? I really need to know if you’re feeling as wacked-out about all this as I am.”
“Son, I have a lot of issues from this. But as far as the fact of us being separated and yet we communicated, God has given me peace.”
“How is that?”
“You know the old saying, if a tree falls in the forest, and there is nobody there to hear it, does it really make a sound?”
“I don’t get it, dad.”
“Son, did we really hear each other with our ears? You hear yourself think right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“All I am saying son is this. If God saw to it that we were to communicate, then that’s good enough for me. I’m just going to except it.”
“You mean like mental telepathy?”
“Call it what you want son.” Rob said rubbing him on top of the head. “Come on and let’s have mom make us some ice tea. What do you say?”
“Sure dad,” Ryan said as they both headed inside.
Judy made their favorite meal—breaded meat and mashed potatoes—then she made a peach cobbler for desert. With the sun setting over the lake they sat out on the dock talking. Judy noticed that Rob had not regressed at all since Ryan’s return and she sensed a feeling of confidence in Ryan that she had not seen in a long time. It was for Judy, the most enjoyable sunset and family talk she could ever remember. The sun, like a burning ember, dipped below the lake and the evening breeze sent the Sykes family into the cabin for the night.
“Well I think I’m going to take a shower,” Ryan said, “It’s been a long day.”
Judy cleaned up the kitchen while singing a tune as she had not felt this good in a long time. She put the coffee on for Rob.
“Where is dad?” Ryan asked after showering and dressing into some clean clothes. He had more catching up to do.
“I believe he is out in the shed,” Judy said as she pulled back the curtain above the kitchen sink. She could see the light piercing the darkness from the half-opened shed door. She knew he was out there getting in touch with his past.
“Why don’t you take him his coffee?” Judy said.
“Sure mom,” Ryan said as he grabbed a mug down from the shelf. Ryan knew how is dad liked his coffee—black.
Ryan shuffled out towards the shed trying not to spill the full mug as he reached out and pulled the door open. It made a creaking sound.
Rob was sitting at the bench with his back to the door, the dim light shone onto the bench. Rob did not turn around when he heard Ryan open the door but instead reached out and pulled back the cloth revealing the old sketch. Ryan dropped the coffee mug with a crash!
“Dad, that’s him!” Ryan said covering his mouth.
“That’s exactly the reaction I was expecting.” Rob said without turning around.
“That’s the Seminole Indian man that—”
“Pulled you out of the hole?” Rob finished the sentence before Ryan could.
“How did you know?” Ryan said stepping into the shed, sliding up to the bench by his dad’s side as his shoes crunched the broken bits of the coffee mug.
“I put two-and-two together. You see Ranger Mike came by earlier this week and dropped off the backpack. He had forgotten to give it to you after the hike out,” Rob said pointing towards Ryan’s pack on a stool next to the work bench. “He told me about the ‘wild story’ you first gave them at the ranger station. I laughed it off in front of him but I knew then there had to be a connection between your story and the faces I saw while in the coma.”
“You saw faces?”
“Yes, and these were them. My grandpa showed these pictures to me when I was a child but I never bothered to find out anything about them until now.”
“What do you know about them?”
“Nothing, we are about to find out together,” Rob said reaching for the old brittle parchment that was attached to the sketch. He read it slowly and carefully. He had to, the writing was faded.
Ryan opened up the backpack while his father was reading and occasionally letting out a chuckle. Ryan was really only interested in a couple of items in the backpack. After making sure the St. Christopher medal was still pinned safely inside he felt around and pulled out the spear point and the brittle leather dog collar and tag. The spear point looked the same but the collar seemed brittle now and the tag with the strange letters and numbers had deteriorated and broken apart. It was in small pieces at the bottom of the pack.
“Well I’ll be!” Rob said setting down the parchment.
“What is it?”
“Well apparently this here portrait was drawn from recollection as told to your Great- Grandpa Benjamin. The portrait is of our ancestor. He was our great, and how many other greats are supposed to go in there, grandfather. He was a Timacuan Indian.”
Rob picked up the parchment and continued reading.
“Says here that he was banished from the tribe for leaving a fellow tribesman to die after accidently falling into—a hole? My God, Ryan, are you hearing this.”
“I’m hearing it but I don’t believe it,” Ryan said.
“Read-on that’s just incredible!”
“Says here that he denie
d leaving his fellow tribesman and that he said he offered to physically lift him out of the hole to which he refused. And that he offered to show him how he could climb out of the hole to which he also refused in order to protect his honor. He said that he would rather die in the hole then to be indebted to him for the rest of his life.”
Ryan went over to make sure the shed door was closed tightly. If anyone came around listening they would have thought they were both crazy.
“Apparently there was an unwritten law, that if someone saved your life, you owed them yours.” Rob said.
“Ryan, by helping you out of the hole he not only saved your life, but he proved his innocence.”
“But how did he know, dad? How is it that he came to help me?”
“By the same way we communicated back at the wreckage. I knew subconsciously that you were in trouble. I had seen these ancestors before, right here, on this very bench. I saw their faces in the coma too. Somehow they ‘channeled’ themselves through me to you. It’s the only explanation. God must have had a hand in this son.”
“Could it be because we had the faith that we carry inside of us, and all the courage of the ancestors that have passed before us?” Ryan asked.
“Yes, and not only that, but they were given a chance to right a wrong that was brought against them, a chance that was not given to them in their lifetime.”
“Move on dad, go to the next one!” Ryan said nervously peeking out of the shed door as if someone was listening, waiting to drag them away to the loony-bin.
Rob pulled back the cloth revealing an old glass photo of two confederate soldiers proudly posing in full military dress.
“That’s Jebediah!” Ryan bust out with a loud whisper.
“And, based on the story Ranger Mike recanted to me, the other one is most likely his brother Obadiah.” Rob said as a matter-of-fact.
“What does it say about them?”
Rob picked up the yellowed paper and read, “Jebediah was a ravenous murderer who in a fit of rage and in the presence of witnesses shot his brother dead in cold blood.”
“That’s not true!” Ryan said, “It was an accident. I saw it happen!”
6 Miles With Courage Page 20