Summer's Promise

by Irene Brand

  Summer didn’t answer, and Nicole said, “I wish Uncle David was here.”

  “Yes, so do I.” But David wasn’t here. Skipper and Mayo would have been helpful because they spent a lot of time together in the woods, but they were gone, too. Summer knew she was on her own.

  Edna was in her office, and Summer explained her anxiety.

  Edna locked her office. “Let’s check in the kitchen. Anita will be helping with supper, but I can take over so she can look after Nicole.”

  “I think I should go with you,” Anita said when they reached the kitchen. “You might need some help, and I know the forest trails pretty well.”

  “She’s right, Summer,” Edna agreed. “You shouldn’t go alone. Nicole can stay with me.”

  Nicole started crying. “Don’t leave me, Auntie. Let me go with you. I’m afraid.”

  Summer knelt and hugged her. “I don’t know how long it will take to find Timmy, and you’d get tired. It will help the most if you stay with Edna.”

  Nicole swallowed a big sob and said, “Okay. I hope Timmy’s not hurt.”

  “I’ll get my heavy shoes, change into jeans and meet you at the cabin as quick as I can,” Anita said.

  By the time Anita got there, Summer had put a first-aid kit, health bars, water and some juice in a backpack. She picked up the big lantern and checked the batteries. She pulled on a heavy jacket, for the temperature was dropping steadily.

  “What are your plans?” Anita asked as they started up the trail, Summer in the lead.

  “I haven’t had time to make any. We can follow his tracks as long as we can see them, then I’ll start calling. Pete usually comes to me when I call, and he can lead us to Timmy.”

  “If he is lost, he’d be scared by now, and probably crying.”

  After they’d walked for over an hour, the tracks ended on a rocky point where the trail forked.

  “Now what?” Anita said.

  Summer shook her head. “I don’t know.” Looking upward, she prayed, “God, I don’t have a clue to what I should do. You know where Timmy is—guide me.”

  She paused, still not sure which way to go, but Anita said, “I think I hear a dog barking that way.” She pointed to the left.

  Summer didn’t hear the dog, but she turned left. “That’s good enough for me. It’s going to get dark in a few hours, and we’ve got to find him before that. I didn’t think of this before we left, but we should have notified the forest rangers. I thought we’d find him long before now. Maybe Edna will think to notify them. They may have to rescue all three of us.”

  “Oh, I’m not lost,” Anita assured her. “I can find my way back home, but I’d rather do it before dark.”

  Summer soon heard barking, and she was sure it was Pete. She called, and soon Pete came scuttling toward them through the woods, and when he saw them, he started back the way he’d come, still barking. Summer broke into a run, with Anita at her heels. They caught up with Pete, standing at the edge of a rock cliff, barking and looking downward.

  “Careful,” Summer warned Anita as she dropped to her knees and crawled to the edge. A spot of blue several feet below showed where Timmy had fallen.

  “Timmy!” she called. Pete was still barking, and she said, “Anita, try to keep the dog quiet.”

  She called several times, and when Timmy didn’t respond, she said, “I’ll have to go down there.”

  “But how?” Anita asked. “You can’t go down this cliff.”

  “No, but if I backtrack a little, I can go around the side of the mountain. I’ll have to hurry before it’s completely dark. If I get into trouble, you go back to the compound and bring help.”

  Fear showed in Anita’s eyes, but she said, “You’ll be all right. But I oughta warn you—the park rangers have told us to stay away from cliffs like this after the snakes start crawling. They might have come out those warm days we had last week. So be careful.”

  Summer would have preferred that Anita hadn’t divulged that information, but she steeled her mind against the danger she’d find at the foot of the cliff. Clinging to trees for support, and sliding on her rear down the steepest places, Summer finally reached the level where Timmy lay. Fearing what she’d find, she rushed to him and dropped to her knees.

  From above, Anita called, “How is he?”

  “He’s alive, thank God.” Summer touched Timmy’s warm face and monitored his erratic pulse.

  “Timmy,” she said, taking him by the arm. He winced, but he opened his eyes.

  “I’m hurt, Auntie,” he said.

  “Hurt where?”

  “Arm?”

  When she touched his left arm, Timmy groaned, but he didn’t flinch when her hands moved over the rest of his body.

  Putting her hand behind his back, she said, “Try to stand up. I have to take you back to the cabin before it gets dark.”

  Crying, Timmy said, “It’s all Pete’s fault. He runned away, and I was trying to catch him.”

  “Stand up, Timmy,” she insisted, but when Summer pulled him upward, he fainted.

  Calling on God for help, Summer lifted Timmy into her arms. Timmy wasn’t a big boy, but he felt heavy to Summer as she started carrying him around the mountainside.

  “Anita,” she called. “If you’ll come down and help put him on my back, I think I can carry him up the hill. His arm is broken.”

  While Anita scampered down the hill, Summer laid Timmy back on the ground, and removed her coat. She reached in the backpack, found a knife, and started cutting the coat into wide strips. Anita arrived breathless.

  “Why are you doing that?”

  “He keeps fainting, and we’ll have to tie him on my back.”

  “Could we take turns carrying him?”

  “Maybe. But let’s try it this way first.”

  They made a harness out of the heaviest parts of the fabric and fit it around Timmy before they lifted him upward. He regained consciousness and started sobbing.

  “Timmy, listen to me,” Summer said. “Try to stay awake and hold on to me with your right hand. Anita, if you’ll support him until we get to the trail, I can carry him, but I’ll need my hands to hold the trees for leverage as I climb up the hill.”

  “Once we hit the trail, it will be mostly downhill.”

  “Are you mad at me, Auntie?” Timmy whispered.

  “I’m not mad. I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  “Hang on,” Summer said, starting up the incline, pulling muscles in her back and legs she didn’t even know she had. She staggered and gasped for breath when she reached the trail.

  “Here,” Anita said, grabbing her arm. “Drink some of this juice.”

  “Thanks,” Summer whispered. “Try to get Timmy to drink some water or juice.”

  After resting a short time, Summer started out. An hour before they reached The Crossroads, darkness surrounded them, and Anita walked behind her, shining the lantern light on the trail. Summer bypassed the cabin, saying to Anita, “Will you tie Pete up and then come help put Timmy in the car? I’ve got to take him to the hospital right away.”

  Edna must have been watching, for she hurried to the car, with Nicole running beside her.

  “Is he hurt?” Nicole asked. She ran over to Timmy and patted him on the sore arm. “Me and Miss Edna have been praying.”

  “He has a broken arm, and I hope that’s all,” Summer said. “I’ll have to take him to the doctor.” Looking at Edna, she continued, “Is it all right for Anita to go with me?”

  “Certainly. I would go, but with you and David both gone, I should be here.”

  “Anita can cushion his head on her lap. He’s hurting a lot.”

  “Maybe we should call an ambulance?”

  “I can be at the hospital before they’d make it up the mountain, and after the way we jostled him around getting him out of the woods, a ride in the car won’t hurt him anymore.”

  “I’ll be praying for you,” Edna said, taking Nicole by the han
d and leading her inside the building.

  Chapter Eighteen

  As she started down the steep mountain, Summer said, “Thanks, Anita, for the way you’ve stood by tonight. I couldn’t have handled it without you. Every day, I realize how much I need other people in my life.”

  Anita’s voice broke a little as she answered, “I’m glad I can help somebody. My life has seemed worthless for several years, but coming to The Crossroads was the best thing that ever happened to me. Maybe I can amount to something.”

  “You amount to something already. You’ve been a friend to me.”

  Summer detected a sniff from the back seat. “I want to say what I think of you, too. I’ve looked at those pictures in the cabin that show you and your sisters, the big house you lived in and the nice farm. You’ve said enough for me to know that your parents have lots of money. Yet, you’ve given all of that up to come here to The Crossroads to help kids like me and Skipper and Mayo—kids that don’t have anyone else to love them. That takes a lot of love, Summer.”

  Now there was sniffing in the front seat as Anita continued. “Last Sunday, Curtis read a Bible verse when Jesus said, ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.’ While he talked, I thought of you and David. Thanks.”

  Summer had to keep blinking back the tears so she wouldn’t run off the road. Through Anita’s words, Jesus Himself seemed to be approving what she and David were doing.

  They didn’t have to wait long in the emergency room before Timmy was taken in for X rays.

  “Don’t leave me, Auntie,” he begged.

  “I’m going to stay with you.”

  The X rays showed a clean break, which would heal without any damage to his arm. “But we do want to keep him overnight for observation,” the doctor said. “We can’t see that he’s hurt elsewhere, but we want to be sure.”

  It was almost one o’clock before Timmy was moved to a room. Summer asked a nurse to bring a cot for Anita, but she herself sat by Timmy’s bed, holding his hand, monitoring his breathing. Thanking God that Timmy was going to be all right, Summer’s mind turned to the time she’d sat beside Spring’s bed and watched her die. What a lot of changes had occurred in her life since then.

  Although she’d been unhappy with the role Spring had forced on her, she realized now that she might never have known what it was to love if Spring hadn’t appointed her guardian of Nicole and Timmy. She might have lived her life without loving David and the children. And she did love David—she’d known since she’d taken the bus tour, but she hadn’t been able to tell him.

  She’d allayed a lot of fears since she’d started out to find Timmy several hours ago. Summer had never driven down the mountain in the dark, but she hadn’t even thought about the danger tonight. She hadn’t had David or her parents tonight, yet she’d made decisions and carried them out. She’d depended upon God and her own resourcefulness. She wouldn’t doubt again that she could be independent, but she’d also found out how much she needed the companionship of others.

  As she sat watching Timmy’s even breathing, Summer made a commitment to The Crossroads. She’d never be satisfied in a New York office after the experiences she’d had helping others. She smiled when she realized that she loved David as much as her sisters had loved the men they’d chosen. Now she understood why Spring was willing to go with Bert to Bolivia. She knew why Autumn had waited eight years to have Nathan.

  Her mind at ease, Summer leaned back and slept until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up into David’s concerned face.

  “Why, David,” she said, “how did you know?”

  “Edna telephoned me as soon as you went looking for Timmy. I started home then, and she told me she would stay in her office if I wanted to contact her again. I stopped for gas a few hours ago, and learned you’d brought Timmy to the hospital.” He knelt beside her. “How is he?”

  “His arm is broken, but the doctor thinks that’s all. If he’s okay, they’ll send him home this morning.”

  “You look like you’ve had a hard night.”

  She looked down at her muddy, wrinkled garments, and told David all that happened.

  “I couldn’t have done better,” he said. “I’ll take the boys and Anita to The Crossroads, and then come right back to you.” He brushed back her hair and massaged the tight muscles in her neck and shoulders. “I’ll take my share of the load now.”

  Summer stayed home with Timmy for several days, but when the pain was gone, he went back to kindergarten, and she went to work. The mission board required a lot of reports at the end of the school term, and she needed to get started on them.

  Her first day back, Summer looked up when a knock sounded at the office door. A postman entered carrying a large box.

  “I’ve got a parcel here for the family of Bert and Spring Brown in care of The Crossroads. They live here?”

  Summer swallowed, finding it difficult to answer. “No. They’re deceased. I’m Spring Brown’s sister.”

  “That’s family as far as I’m concerned,” the postman said. He set the parcel beside Summer’s desk and pulled a few papers off the top of the box. Pushing the papers toward Summer, he said, “Sign here, ma’am.”

  She glanced at the name of the sender—a garage in Scranton, Pennsylvania! Summer automatically signed her name. The man thanked her and exited. She sat stunned until she heard the postman’s van driving away.

  “David! Come here,” she yelled in a loud, raspy voice. He rushed into the room.

  “What is it?”

  She pointed to the box. His face turned white when he read the address label.

  “What could be in it?” Summer whispered, bewildered.

  “It has to be something that belonged to Bert and Spring. During all our sorrow over their deaths and our move to The Crossroads, I didn’t even think that Bert and Spring would have had luggage in their car when they had the accident. There’s no other explanation for this box. If I had thought about it, I probably would have figured everything was destroyed. It was a terrible wreck.”

  “I can’t bear to open it.”

  “It won’t be easy, but we have to see what’s in it.”

  He pulled a small penknife from his pocket.

  “Just a minute, David. Let me think.” Summer lifted a hand to her pulsating throat. “Timmy and Nicole seem to have accepted their parents’ deaths, but once in a while I hear something that sounds as if they might still expect them to come home. Should the children be with us when we open the box? It will be painful for them, but it might be what’s needed for them to face reality.”

  David nodded his head. “You’re right. When should we do it?”

  “As soon as possible. I can’t stand procrastination.”

  David smiled. “I like to put off unpleasant things, but I am curious. We’ll do it tonight.”

  David carried the box to the cabin and put it in the closet. After Nicole and Timmy performed their assigned chores to remove the dishes from the table, stacking them in the sink, and taking the garbage to the outside can, they settled in front of the television as usual.

  Summer ran water into the sink and soaked the dishes in warm suds. David picked up a dishcloth, leaned against the cabinet, and dried the dishes. Summer was hardly aware of what her hands were doing. Memories of Spring and the days of their childhood in Ohio were both painful and cleansing. Somehow she knew this box was the last tangible tie she’d have of her sister.

  When David put the last plate and glass in the cabinet, with a glance at the children, he said, “I guess we can’t wait any longer.”

  “That program will be over in ten minutes.”

  David sat beside Timmy and Nicole on the sofa. When the program had almost ended, he went to the closet and removed the box.

  “Whatcha got, Uncle David?” Timmy called as David sat on the fireplace ledge and placed the box in front of him.

  “We’ll find out in a little bit.”

  When the cartoo
n ended, Timmy ran to David. “Is it a present?”

  “I don’t know. We’ll have to open the box to find out.”

  Timmy and Nicole crowded close to David and he put his arm around them. With an apologetic glance at Summer, he said quietly, “Maybe you’d better open it.”

  Bringing a sharp knife from a kitchen cabinet, Summer’s hands halted momentarily over the box, fearful of what trouble the next few minutes might bring.

  While she hesitated, David explained, “This box came today from a garage in Pennsylvania, and it’s addressed to the family of Bert and Spring Brown.”

  Nicole clapped her hands. “That’s us. See, I’ve been telling you, Timmy, that Mommy and Daddy are still alive. They’ve sent us a package.”

  The courage that Summer had been building up since the box arrived disappeared completely. Tears glistened in David’s eyes and he shook his head. He was beyond speech, so it was up to her.

  “This box was sent from the garage that towed in your parents’ car after the automobile accident.” Hope slowly faded from Nicole’s face as Summer continued, “We think it may be the luggage they had with them, but we waited until the four of us were together to find out.”

  Summer cut the tape on the box and lifted the lid. An envelope lay on top of the contents. She opened it and read aloud.

  “‘The contents of this box were found in the wrecked automobile registered to Bert Brown. The suitcases were destroyed, but we picked up some items that were salvageable. Pardon our delay in sending these possessions. We had laid them aside expecting someone to call for them and, today, one of our staff members discovered the box.”’

  Summer lifted the items one by one—a briefcase, a purse, a few books and a Bible. Before she reached the bottom of the box, both children were bawling and tears dripped from David’s eyes. Summer was almost at the breaking point, but someone had to stay calm, so she rallied all the Weaver stamina she possessed.

  When she lifted out the Bible, Nicole sobbed, “That’s Daddy’s Bible. He wouldn’t go anyplace without it, so he didn’t go to Bolivia. He’s not coming back. They are dead.”