Randa
Page 18
Chapter Forty-Three
“Pete, I think I found them!” John yelled excitedly.
“Where?”
“Back just a hair to the far right.”
Pete circled the plane into the direction that John indicated.
“You did John, you did!” Pete radioed in to the Deadhorse Airport to let them know where the downed plane was.
“Can you get us close?” John asked.
“I will do my best.”
Pete set the plane down as softly as he could. As they approached the plane wreckage, they spotted people moving around, but they also saw people on the ground that weren’t moving. John was quickly scanning the faces searching for her. His heart was beating madly as he was rushing around. He went to the front part of the plane, which was partially intact and saw fatalities still strapped into their seats. He ran to the tail section of the plane and then he heard the sound, the soft, gentle moan of the incredible lady that he had desperately missed and ached for every single moment of each day for the past three and one half years. She was still strapped in her seat. She was looking at him or so he thought. Her beautiful serene face seemed to be locked frozen with a confused expression on it. John’s own heart stopped beating in paralyzing fear that she might not be alive.
Chapter Forty-Four
The pain was intense. Randa didn’t know where she was. It all seemed like a dream. The Fates and their snipping of their lives still weighed heavily on her mind. She was about to slip back off into sleep when she heard him calling her name. She moaned, trying to get his attention, but no sound came out. She opened her eyes and saw him. She couldn’t believe that he was there! She wanted to throw her arms around him, but she couldn’t seem to move.
“I’m here Baby Doll, I’m here,” John said as he wrapped his arms around her gently.
“John,” she choked out his name and a slow smile crept across her face.
“Yes.”
“I was coming to see you on the Slope,” she said slowly.
“Yes, I know.”
“It was supposed to be a surprise,” she whispered as her eyes closed.
John’s heart stopped. Randa couldn’t be leaving him know when he just got her back after three years without her love, so he just kept talking.
“Yes and I’m so sorry that your surprise for me got ruined, but if I hadn’t known that you were coming, I wouldn’t have known to come looking for you and it may have been too late when an official search plane came looking for you. I love you so much Baby Doll and if you take me back, I promise you that I will never let you go,” John said as tears rolled down his own cheeks.
Randa smiled again, “Oh John! I love you and I never stopped loving you for one minute the entire time we were apart.” She whispered and closed her eyes again. John saw her breathe, so he let her rest and went to find Pete and see how long it would be until rescue teams would arrive.
Chapter Forty-Five
Randa was flown to the hospital in Fairbanks and luckily only had a broken arm from the plane crash. The doctor said that her arm most likely got broken because she was clutching her pink notebook so tightly during the crash. She was hospitalized overnight purely for observation. John had stayed to help with the rescue effort, so he didn’t arrive in Fairbanks until the next morning.
Randa’s face lit up when John walked into the room. He walked over to her and kissed her forehead and then her soft, sweet lips. They talked for a little while about how she feeling and the plane crash. She didn’t remember any details of the actual crash, which they were both thankful for.
Then she said, “John, why did you wait three years? I waited so long for you. I ached for you. I cried. I don’t think I slept the entire time we were apart. Memories of us haunted me every single night. I remember how it felt to be in your arms. I still remember how it felt to have your lips against mine making me melt and making me yearn for your touch. I fell so madly in love with you John.”
“Randa, when we were together it was as if I were peering into your soul and drinking from your well and feeling the warmth of your fire. I basked in the glow of your spirit. I felt your heart beating and your blood flowing. The love that flowed from your incredible soul brought me to life, but I feared failing you and us. I was always afraid that we wouldn’t make it and that I would disappoint you. I simply couldn’t stand the thought of us getting a divorce.”
“John, I couldn’t even be mad at you or hate you when you left me. I felt for you. I felt not only my pain of losing you, but I felt the pain that you were experiencing. I knew that it had to be something unbearable to make you leave me, something that you thought that you couldn’t overcome. But I knew in my heart and in my soul that whatever it was, it wouldn’t last forever, but our love would. I told myself that as long as I felt hope, that I would never give up. I never ran out of hope. Some days, I only had a teeny-tiny amount, but that was enough. One tiny speck would do.”
“You waited for me Baby Doll?”
“How could I not John? I just couldn’t stop loving you, even on the days when my brain told me to.”
“Randa I’m so sorry that I ever doubted us.”
“It may have taken more than three years, but it was worth every moment that I had to wait for you.”
“Thank you for your graciousness Baby Doll. I love you more than life itself. I have to ask you something.”
“Okay.”
John pulled out the Thunderegg from his pocket. “Does this look familiar?”
“Why yes,” Randa said as she reached out to take it, “it’s my moon rock that always brings me good luck. The one that I told you about when we first met that the little boy had given to me. Did the nurse give it to you? I know that I had it in my pocket when the plane crashed and it was still in my jeans pocket when they checked me in here.”
“The nurse told me that all of your things are in the closet,” John said as he walked over to it and opened the door. Picking up her jeans, he pulled it out of her pocket. He walked over to Randa and handed the Thunderegg half to her. “Here is yours.”
Holding both halves, Randa looked confused. “I don’t understand.”
“Randa, the one in your left hand is my half of the rock or Thunderegg as I know it. I was the little boy at the airport all those years ago that gave it to you.”
Randa sat in stunned silence, “Oh my gosh. It was you? How do you know?”
“Yes, it was me. I didn’t know it until yesterday morning. It actually came to me in a dream. I had just never put two and two together.”
“You’ve been with me in spirit and provided me comfort throughout my life since you gave it to me. That rock brought me good luck. I wished so many times that we would meet again.”
John told her the story that the shopkeeper had told he and his family about the Thunderegg all those years ago and how the two people possessing the halves would have a lifelong bond.
“That just blows me away John. I always knew there was something unique and so different about us. I could never put my finger on it though and now I know. I’m so glad you remembered.”
“Randa, I have absolutely no doubts about the deep love and passion that I am capable of. It’s not perfect and I’m not perfect, but it is pure and real and good and sometimes it is even astonishing. Maybe something will happen and it won’t work, but I have to try. I can’t live without you, because without you, I am truly not alive. Will you marry me Randa Renee Dean and be my wife and give me the honor of being your husband?” John asked as he pulled the heart shaped diamond engagement ring out of his pocket that he had bought for her in Nashville and slipped it onto her finger.
“I will John Williams, I will!”
THE END
A Note to Readers
Thank you for joining me in the story world of Randa and John. I truly hope that you enjoyed reading their love story just as much as I loved writing it! Any comments that you have are very welcome! Please contact me at any of the following:<
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My Website: www.adornic.com
My Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/adornic-118423618167934/timeline/
My Twitter Handle: @adornic
Email: nicole@adornic.com
If you loved this story, please consider leaving a review on the site that you purchased it.
About the Author
Nicole Burkhart grew up on her family’s cattle ranch on the Kiamichi River near Talihina, OK. She received a merchandising degree from Bauder College. She has one son, Ross, who is currently a high school senior. Her dream trip is Alaska. She loves writing stories with a ‘Happily Ever After,’ partly because it has been so elusive in her own life.
Nicole has a penchant for hiking and camping, mountains and rivers, blowing winds and moonlit nights, Christmas and snowfalls, Hallmark movies and suspense thrillers, waterfalls and streams, music and concerts, football and firepits.
She is currently at work on her next story of beautiful true love.
RANDA
By: Nicole Burkhart
Published by: adornic
Copyright 2015: adornic
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format. Please contact the author with any questions at: nicole@adornic.com
RANDA is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
A Note to Readers
About the Author