She looked so content with her situation. He hoped Danielle wouldn’t get too angry with him, but he couldn’t do as she had asked and move the elderly lady where Danielle could keep an eye on her. He understood Danielle’s need to protect her grandma, but he also understood the need to give the lady her freedom.
“Okay, I’ll give Danielle the message. I’m also going to check on you every half hour. If anything changes, I’ll come move you myself,” he said, knitting his brow.
“I promise I won’t move or get lost.”
Chapter 24
Up the Hill
Everyone was excited. They were finally doing something other than sitting around the campfire and waiting. Patrick was the most excited since it was the first time he had been able to look at the country around the shelter. He worked hard at staying rigid to make it easier for his three friends to move him. He was always stiff, but he had the chair to help him relax a bit. With all the movement he found it hard not to fold in half. Every time he didn’t focus on his body, he bent and the boys almost dropped him.
Sam was strong and capable of carrying his share of Patrick’s weight. Nicholi, though he was much larger, was chubby, and his normal lifestyle was one of lying around the house, doing as little as possible. Camping out, the group had discovered that when he took off his shirt, a fat belly hung over his pants. His pants didn’t want to stay on his rear, and they were always falling dangerously low. Carrying Patrick was the hardest thing he had ever done in his long life of fifteen years. He was huffing and puffing within the first 25 yards and they hadn’t even started up the hillside.
Marie had always been a normal-size girl. She weighed only around 120 pounds, but she was on the lazy side. Helen’s being hurt had helped Marie realize all her sister did for her. Ever since the crash she had stayed close by Patrick and Helen or made sure that Lillian was at their side. She worried about leaving Helen alone in the shelter. Leaving the bear spray behind allowed her to worry a little less. She had seen what that stuff did to a bear once before when a bear got too friendly at fish camp. Her auntie had yelled at the bear as it sniffed around their smokehouse, but it hadn’t been intimidated. In the end Auntie had had to spray the bear in the eyes and nose. The animal screamed in pain and ran off blindly, stopping occasionally to rub his eyes with his paws or in the tall summer grass in the tundra around camp. He never returned. Helen will be fine, she thought as she huffed and puffed to the bottom of the trail.
“Let’s stop here so you can rest,” said Patrick.
The three set him down carefully in the beach grass and propped him up against a log. They all looked out at the water and the volcano. The smoke was still coming out, but it was a lighter grey color and the lightning had stopped.
“You know we needed to move anyway, you guys, even if the volcano wasn’t erupting and Nicholi hadn’t found the cabin.”
“W a” (Why)? asked Sam.
“In a couple of days, it’ll be the highest tide of the month because it’ll be a full moon. I remember seeing that it’ll be a 23.2-foot tide that day. Remember the logs that were on the beach the first day we arrived, the ones we rested on? They washed up there in a high tide like the one that’s coming. If there’s no wind at the high tide, we’d have only gotten wet. If there’s wind, those logs could have crushed us in the shelter.”
“Glad Nicholi and Lillian found us a place to go. Can’t wait to see it,” said Marie.
Sam got up from resting and walked up the beach to Lillian, who was struggling to move the clumsy chair toward the trail. She let him move it the rest of the way while she followed along and tried to catch her breath. He picked it up and carried it to one side. It probably weighed 35 pounds, but he could do it.
Once they were all together again, they rested for another few minutes, avoiding the inevitable hard work ahead until Marie said, “Well, we’d better get this show on the road or it’ll be dark before we get Helen. Besides, I’m hungry and didn’t you say there was some food up there?”
Lillian looked directly at Marie without blinking her eyes. She was saying yes in her own way.
“Good. I’m starving too,” said Patrick. “I’m ready when you are.”
The boys grasped each other’s forearms and put them behind Patrick. Marie took a firm hold of his rock-hard, muscular legs and said, “One, two, three,” and the four athletes rose up. They all adjusted their load and started up the narrow trail. Lillian grasped the heavy orange survival bag and set it down. She quickly unzipped it and took out the clam shovel and zipped it shut again. She placed the precious shovel under a spruce tree that was above high tide but in a location that was easy to spot so she wouldn’t lose it.
Patrick saw what she did and said, “Good idea. No clams up there.”
Lillian once again picked up the heavy bag. Soon she gave up on carrying it and began dragging it up the hill. She was slow, but she made steady progress. It was easier than carrying Patrick, and she knew it.
About halfway up, Lillian stopped and froze to look at a steaming pile of fresh poop.
Patrick said, “Yeah, it’s bear. Let’s not stop.”
Marie started pulling Patrick’s legs faster than the boys could go, dragging them up the hill.
Patrick started singing, “Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.” When he ran out of words, he sang a jumbled, made-up song, telling the bear he wasn’t welcome around them. He never stopped singing/yelling all the rest of the way.
Though the three carrying the load wanted to tell him to shut up, they were too tired and breathless to say a word. Patrick was right; no respectable bear would come near them with him singing off key so loudly. They were sweating so hard by the time they got to the wooden porch that their clothes were sopping wet like the people they had seen on the television show The Biggest Loser. They dumped Patrick on the rough-cut wood porch and collapsed around him to catch their breath for a minute. Sam went down the hill to help Lillian get the survival bag safely up to the cabin. Once everyone had recovered from all the hard work, they moved Patrick into the cabin.
“Leave me on the floor. I can move around down here. I don’t want to be stuck in the bed or something.”
“You sure?” said Marie.
“Oh, yeah. This is soo much better than the shelter.” The cabin was about 20’ x 20’ in size. It was one large room with an open loft. Patrick couldn’t see exactly what was up there, but he could tell there was a bunk bed on the level he was on. There were a table, two benches, a couple of folding chairs, and a kitchen. “Okay, go get Helen before that volcano blows. Nicholi and Marie, do the singing—loud. Stay together, guys. Safety in numbers.”
“Can I get you anything?” asked Marie.
Lillian was ahead of her. She had already grabbed a cup and left the cabin, headed for the creek that ran beside it. She dipped the cup in and brought the cool, clear water inside just about the time everyone was ready to start down the hill. Marie propped Patrick up and Lillian tipped the cup up to his lips. Water dribbled down his cheek and shirt. Patrick didn’t care about getting wet, but he did hope he didn’t get beaver fever from the untreated water.
After securing the door to the cabin, the rest of the guys stopped for a moment outside and also drank from the creek, sharing the same cup, and then headed downhill. They speedily passed the fresh bear sign and ran down out of the thick forest and onto the open beach where they felt safer because they could see if any bears were in sight.
At that point they heard Helen shouting. She sounded angry, demanding, and threatening. They all froze in place, not knowing exactly what to do.
“Patrick said there was safety in numbers. Let’s go help Helen,” said Marie.
Everyone looked at her. They didn’t want to go, but no one wanted to be left behind alone, and they needed Helen. With a lot of trepidation they all started running toward the screaming woman in the shelter. They found Helen crouched behind a
tree, still yelling but alone.
Marie ran over to her side. “What happened?”
The others stopped and looked around the camp. Everything looked the same.
“He came, a big, but young, two-year-old brown bear. He came right up to me. I must have dozed off for him to get that close before I saw him. He was about ten feet away, smelling the air in my direction. I could smell him. He was fishy.”
“Did you spray him?” asked Nicholi.
“No, I just started screaming. It scared him for a second and he started to run but then he stopped. I started cursing him and threatening to spray him. I got the can all ready. I didn’t run because I couldn’t. He started back toward me and I let him have it. I missed at first, but by the second time I had figured out the trajectory of the can and I got him right in the eyes. He screamed, turned into the bushes, and took off crashing through the underbrush like he was blind with fear.
“I decided it was best if I got a tree between him and me. I crawled over here and continued to threaten and yell at him just so he would know where I was and wouldn’t accidently stumble back this direction.”
“Ets o” (Let’s go), said Sam.
“I agree,” said Marie.
Sam and Marie got on opposite sides of Helen and stood her up. Helen tried to walk and found that she could, but her balance was a mess. Still holding on tightly to the can of bear spray, she found it was easiest if she closed her eyes and went along blindly with her head sagging down. It was splitting with pain, but she didn’t care. The two guided her along safely. She just wanted to get far away from that shelter as soon as possible. The very thought of being in the shelter alone made the hair on the back of her neck rise and goose bumps appear on her arms.
Nicholi carried two duffle bags and did the yelling and noisemaking all the way up the hill to the cabin while Sam and Marie worked hard to guide Helen. What he said didn’t make a lot of sense, but it was loud, and that was all anyone cared about. Lillian struggled to carry one small duffle up the hill and managed to not get too far behind. She didn‘t want to be bear bait.
Once everyone was reunited up in the cabin, Helen was able to rest her head on the bed and look around. “Oh, my goodness, what a blessing this place is. There’s a hand-powered washing machine,” she said with delight. Her clothes were filthy, as were everyone else’s.
They all looked at the grey tub in the corner of the room. It had a beautiful lacquered wooden handle on it. When the tub was full of water, a person could stand beside it and push and pull the handle, which would make the clothes swirl back and forth against themselves. The rubbing would cause the dirt to come free in the water and thus clean a small load.
Marie walked over to it and looked inside. “Looks like a lot of work to me.”
Laughing, Helen said, “Yeah, but you should see what you look like. You, in fact all of us, need a serious makeover—you know, a bath. We stink!”
Lillian handed her the note from the table, and Helen read it.
“Sounds like we’re welcome as long as we clean up our mess and replace everything we use, including that beautiful wood in the most precisely stacked pile I’ve ever seen. Whoever owns this place is picky, so we’d better take extra good care of everything. Agreed?”
They all nodded.
“First food, then laundry, and then steam baths are in order.”
Marie and Nicholi looked in all the cupboards and on the shelves of the pantry. There were two cases of canned salmon in tins, along with assorted cans of bacon, tuna, chicken, peas, tomatoes, carrots, corn, peaches, oranges, and more. Lillian found flour, Bisquik, oats, various dried noodles, and powdered eggs in unopened boxes. It was all secure in large metal cans so no little varmints like mice or squirrels could get to it. There were a can of Crisco, cans of butter, and jars of unopened jam and berry/rhubarb compote on the shelf. There was more than enough food for them to live for a couple of weeks. In the middle of the little kitchen was a glorious old-fashioned cast iron wood cookstove. Helen had cooked on a similar one as a child with her mom. She knew all the ins and outs of them.
“Marie, Sam, and Nicholi, would you mind going back down the hill one more time to get the last three bags and Patrick’s chair? While you do that, Lillian, Patrick, and I will rustle up some breakfast.”
“I didn’t want to ask for my chair, but it would be glorious,” Patrick said. “Then I could help more with cooking.” He loved to stir food when given the chance, but someone had to hold the bowl because his muscles were spastic and sometimes his arms flew out of control in directions he didn’t expect. He had made a lot of mashed potatoes fly in his life.
Nicholi was standing out on the porch, looking around. “An outhouse too.”
“I already used it,” said Marie enthusiastically. “It’s filled with great magazines to read and lots of pictures to look at, and they planted those big round-leafed plants with the yellow and orange flowers for salads all around outside.”
“You mean nasturtiums?” asked Helen.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Let’s go get the stuff. You guys cook. I’m starving,” said Nicholi. “You stay in bed, Helen,” he ordered.
“Yes sir,” Helen answered with a salute. “Actually, that’s a good idea.”
The three walked out the door. Helen could hear them making lots of noise as they traveled down the hill to the beach.
“I’d be surprised if any bear wouldn’t head for the hills if he heard the three of them with all the warning noise they’re making. Lillian, can you find the box of powdered eggs and a can of bacon?” From the bed she could see dried onion, salt, pepper, and olive oil on the open shelf in the kitchen. “Oh, first we need to get the stove cooking. You guys have been taking care of me so long I’ve forgotten how to do anything.”
Lillian searched for the items necessary for a bacon and egg breakfast as Helen called out their names and locations. Sam, Marie, and Nicholi returned to the cabin and plunked down the last of the dirty duffels. Dust rose off the floor in the streaks of sunlight that crossed the cabin.
“Think you three can go find some of that perfectly split kindling and small wood for the cookstove?”
Sam and Marie ran out, giggling and challenging each other to see who would get there first. Nicholas was already in a dream world, talking to his mirror again.
When the two returned, Marie had the larger stove wood and Sam had an armload of pencil-sized kindling. They walked up to the stove and stood looking at it, but didn’t know where to build the fire.
After a couple of minutes, Helen said, “Lillian, show Sam where to build the fire.”
Lillian walked over to the stove and pointed to the handle on the top of it. Sam looked at it but didn’t know what to do next. She grasped his hand, wrapped it around the removable stovetop handle, and showed him how the circle of metal came up, allowing him access to the firebox from the stovetop. He smiled once he understood what to do and laid the foundation for the fire with some scrap paper, birch bark, and pencil-sized kindling. He lit the paper and closed up the top, and the fire immediately started to pop and hiss as it spread along the surface of the wood. Whiffs of smoke rose around parts of the top of the stove as the fire fought to heat the metal and allow the chimney to suck the smoke out of the complicated channels of cast iron.
After a minute, Nicholi opened the side door to the firebox, stuffed a couple of Marie’s slightly larger-sized wood chunks in the fire, and closed the door. “You open it, put this in, and close it,” he said to Lillian.
She did as directed, very slowly, but efficiently. She had seen it done before.
“You do it too, Marie,” said Nicholi.
“No, too scary!”
“You need to learn how to do this, Marie. No more excuses,” said Helen. “If you’re safe, like Nicholi is showing you, you’ll be fine.”
With trepidation, she took the stick he was handing her, opened up the door with the potholder, and slowly stuffed the stic
k in. It got stuck partway, and she was afraid to push it hard because her hand might go in the fire.
“Do this when it gets stuck.” Nicholi picked up another stick and pushed the first stick in by wiggling and pushing with the extender. “Your turn to finish.”
Marie took the extender and finished pushing the first stick way into the box in the middle of the fire.
“Good. Now close the door.”
Marie didn’t do as directed. She stood still, looking at the door to the firebox. Nicholi grabbed her limp hand, forced it around the door handle, and made her close it.
“Oh, it’s not hot. I didn’t want to get burned.”
“Nicholi, you’re a good teacher,” said Helen.
“Oo et uf” (Let’s go get the last of the stuff), said Sam, grasping Nicholi’s sleeve. “At air” (Patrick’s chair).
“Remember the bear spray. Nicholi, shoot it at his eyes if one comes too close to the two of you,” said Helen.
“Oh, yeah.” He picked up the spray and put it in the back pocket of his filthy cargo pants. The two walked out the door, and the girls started opening the boxes and cans.
Lillian had used canned bacon before and soon had it out of the can, unwrapped from the greasy waxed paper inside and all laid out in the cast iron skillet. In about ten minutes, when the fire had started to warm up the stovetop, the bacon smell started to waft around the room.
Marie read the directions for mixing the eggs to Patrick, and he told her what to do. There was a lot of whisk banging on the side of the bowl while she mixed the correct proportions of egg powder with water to make scrambled eggs.
“How about pancakes? We could make extra and have salmon pancake sandwiches for lunch,” said Patrick. “We might as well cook them now once we have the wood stove all hot. No point in wasting all that great heat.”
Lillian found the pancake mix, and Patrick told Marie the proportions to mix after Marie read the directions to him.
Let Us Be Brave Page 14