6 Miles With Courage
Page 21
“Calm down son, remember not only did these people help you, but they were given a chance to right a wrong.” Rob said.
“It says here that the witnesses, fearing for their lives, ran but heard the screams of Jebediah as the lord himself sent a bear to devour him.”
“That’s not true either!” Ryan said, “The whole lot of them stepped between a cub and its mother and then Jebediah filled with grief blamed the bear for the death of his brother. I tried to get him to step out of the way, but he took on the bear in a knife fight.”
“It must have been a terrible thing to witness.”
“It was horrible dad, just horrible. I thought I would never be able to talk to anyone about it ever!” Ryan hung his head and wiped the tears from his eyes. Rob hugged him. Words were not necessary.
Ryan stared into the picture, and wiping the tears away saw the bayonet on Obadiah’s belt.
“Dad, that bayonet hanging from Obadiah’s belt, I used it to hack my way through the swamp to the uplands! When I reached the uplands it got hot and turned to dust before my very eyes! Why dad? Why would I have this arrow head, and yet that bayonet turned to dust? It’s been haunting me ever since it happened.” Ryan looked to his dad for an answer.
“How did you get the bayonet?”
“I rolled Obadiah over and took it off his belt. The lower part of his body was in the creek.”
“Well that’s it then. The bayonet, over the years, had rusted away in the creek bed. It could not have been brought out of the swamp lands without returning to its natural state. The stone arrow head on the other hand is in its natural state.”
Ryan nodded his head with acceptance. Then he said, “Go to the next one dad.”
Rob turned back the cloth yet again. There was a picture of a man standing in front of an old panel work truck. On the truck was painted, “Commercial Painting Service call, QA-5-1212.” Sitting next to the man was an Irish setter.
“That’s Red!” Ryan exclaimed.
“Well sadly, I know this picture all too well,” Rob said.
“That number on the truck, that’s the number I saw on his collar.” Ryan said.
“That’s your mother’s grandpa and his dog Red. That was the phone number back then. I don’t need to read about this one. This was a tragedy.”
“What happened?”
“Grandpa was an avid duck hunter. He always had Labradors but somehow he got a hold of this ‘Setter’. Red was afraid of his own shadow, but your mother’s grandpa just wouldn’t give up on him.”
“I can tell you that Red was no chicken of a dog,” Ryan said with certainty, “No Sir, not Red.”
“Some nearby duck hunters heard a panther and a man yelling in the distance and headed towards grandpa’s duck blind. Neither Red, nor your Grandpa was ever seen again. Grandpa’s boat was found several miles away. Nothing was in it, no gun, no lunch bucket—nothing. Everyone figured that Red just ran away leaving your grandpa to fend for himself but nobody could figure out why he didn’t fire his gun.”
“He didn’t fire his gun because he didn’t want to hit Red, who was in a tangled fight with a panther! The fight most likely lead into the swamp where grandpa took his gun and lunch bucket in after them. He most likely had a heart attack or stroke and dropped somewhere in the swamp. Red would have returned to him and would have never left his side. I’m sure if grandpa were alive he would tell you that Red fought a good fight and came back to stay at his side even unto his dying breath.”
Rob looked at Ryan, nodding his head in agreement, “I’m sure your right son. Old Red just went up five-notches in my book. I’m going to tell a different story about him from now on.”
“Go to the next one dad.”
Rob peeled back the cloth revealing the last photograph which was on a sheet of tin. It was of a middle-aged woman standing in front of a steam boat. Rob did not recognize the woman but he did the boat.
“Hey, I saw that boat. It came down the river while I was camped out on the banks of the Oklawaha. I don’t know the woman though, what do you know about her dad?”
“Don’t know anything about her but let me read this letter.”
Rob read as Ryan peaked out the shed door and looked up at the cabin. He could see his mom and his aunt talking. He figured they had a little while longer before they would be missed. Ryan closed the door and went back to his dad’s side.
“What did you learn?”
“It says here this woman, apparently one of my great aunts, got on this steam boat ‘The Alligator’ sometime in the late 1800’s and was never to be seen again. She boarded in Silver Springs and was supposed to meet her fiancé at the end of the line. When the boat docked nothing could be found of her, not even her luggage!”
“What? How could that be?”
“It says here, that only one person disembarked earlier, but that it was a man. Her disappearance remains a mystery.”
“That was her! That was the lady dressed like a man who told me that I was going in the wrong direction. She was sitting on the side of the road with all her luggage. She got off the boat to start a new life! She left her fiancé behind, and got off the boat one stop early and married someone else!”
“She helped you by pointing you in the right direction and it gave her the chance to tell us that she was alright and went on to have a better life.” Rob said.
“That’s it there are no more photographs that I am familiar with. I think between the two of us we have answered all our questions. I know now whose faces I had seen and you know a little about the people who helped you out.” Rob said as he began to put the artifacts back into the trunk.
“And I think that it is safe to say that this is all connected,” Ryan said, “Including the fact that your grandpa had shown you these pictures, and the speech you had given me about courage before I left for the second time to go for help.”
“I agree and I also believe it would do us no good to talk about this to anyone. They will only chalk it up to hallucinations, wild mushrooms and concussions.” Rob said with a laugh.
“I agree,” Ryan said as he extended his hand to his father for a hand shake. Then they turned off the shed light and headed back to join the ladies.
Rob and Ryan had come away with a new understanding about life and death, and all who have come before us.
When we are born, the love and the courage of all our ancestors dwell within us. It is who we are. In a desperate situation, when one feels hopeless and that all is lost, God through our faith can intervene and help us to tap into that love and courage. They learned another valuable lesson too. No matter how many years have passed you may get a chance to right a wrong, even if it was a simple misunderstanding. Love and courage then, knows no bounds!
Within a week Rob left the cabin and was back home. Neither he nor Ryan had any problems coping and getting back to life as usual.
In the years that followed, they shared many wonderful and exciting adventures together surveying the Florida wilderness. To this day Ryan occasionally works with his dad on the survey crew and is quite a valuable crew member.