The Secret of Fire Island (Kristi Cameron Book 1)

by Cynthia Griffith

  “But why did you want to come to Fire Island now, Leilani? I mean with your grandmother missing and all. Oh, I get it! You think your stepfather brought your grandmother here to try to make her lead him to the treasure!”

  “That’s right, Pete. I am sure of it. I was wondering how I would get to this island, how I would rescue my grandmother and then you mentioned you were flying to Fire Island and I just knew it was meant to be—that I should find a way to come with you.”

  “But, Leilani, don’t you believe it would have been better to have come to us then and told us what was happening? To ask us to take you, rather than just sneaking on board?” Rachel asked.

  “Oh, yes, Mrs. Cameron! Now when I look back, and after meeting all of you, I realize that is exactly what I should have done. But I was so scared then, and afraid if I told you that you would feel like you should go to the authorities, and I just couldn’t take the chance that Michael would hurt my grandmother if we brought in the police.”

  “So now, here we all are, stuck on the island with a possible kidnapper somewhere here, too.” Mr. Cameron said slowly. “Don’t worry, Leilani, we’re all in this together now, and we will help you as much as we are able, but I do wish we had been able to talk to the police about this. Now we can’t even call in reinforcements if we need them.”

  “I know and I am so sorry for getting you all involved in this. But Mr. Cameron, I know you believe in prayer and that God is there to help when we ask Him to. Couldn’t we pray about this and ask Him to help us find my grandmother? I don’t care about the treasure at all—I just want my grandmother back, safe and sound. And I want both of us free of my stepfather, too. Couldn’t we just pray about it?”

  “You bet, Leilani. Let’s all bow our heads together and take this problem to the Lord, too. He’ll be working for us overtime this week, I guess!” They gathered in a circle, holding hands, and took turns bringing their burdens and cares to the Lord.

  As soon as the final Amen was said, Robyn threw her arm around Leilani’s shoulder and said with grin and a toss of her blonde hair, “Girl, you just got yourself a whole bunch of new best friends!”

  ____________

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  ____________

  Terror in the Treetops

  It was a tight fit inside the girls’ tent that night with an extra person, but in the end, the snug quarters kept them all a little warmer. They were surprised how cold the island got during the night. It didn’t take long, however, once the sun came up, for the temperature to rise.

  They were eating a breakfast of cereal and fruit when Skeeter asked, “Dad would it be okay if we go exploring around the island today?”

  “Well, that’s really why we came, Skeeter,” his dad answered, “but now that I know we may not be alone on the island, I’m not sure I want you all to go wandering off by yourselves. I need to tinker with the radio a while and see if I can get it working again. Let me think about it while I’m doing that, and then we’ll see if we can’t come up with some plan. In the meantime, why don’t you all do some exploring here on the beach, maybe take a swim or something, okay?”

  They spent the next couple hours helping to clean up their campsite and then splashing in the water. Leilani joined in with the other young people as if she had known them all her life. Everyone had woken with a few more bruises and aches and pains than they had noticed the day before, but even Leilani was feeling optimistic and well. Their running and stretching on the sand and in the waves helped to work the kinks out of their sore muscles.

  They were looking for starfish and seashells on the beach when Steve called them over. “Well, still no luck with the radio. I don’t have the right tools here. There’s not much I can do about it right now, I guess. I think this would be as good a time as any to do a little exploring. Why don’t we all stick together this first time, until we check things out and get our bearings, okay?”

  Rachel agreed and said, “It’s getting close to lunchtime. Do you want me to pack a lunch in a couple of the backpacks for us to eat out on the trail?”

  “Yeah!” Skeeter piped up. “Pack plenty, Mom! I’m hungry!”

  “You’re always hungry, Skeeter!” Dan said. “Do we need to start conserving food, Mom and Dad? When do you think someone will come looking for us?”

  “Well, we’re due back the day after tomorrow, so I would say if we haven’t returned by then, they’ll send out a search party the next day. Rachel, do we have enough food to keep us for another four days, or even five?”

  “Oh, I think so. I was looking over our supplies this morning and if no one acts like a little piggy—Skeeter—we should be fine.” She cocked an eyebrow at Skeeter and winked.

  “Well then, let’s get ready to go.”

  The boys each carried a backpack when they started through the trees behind the beach. “Leilani, do you know anything at all about this island?” Mr. Cameron asked. He had a small machete and led the way, hacking at the vines and undergrowth that blocked their way.

  “No, not at all, Mr. Cameron,” she said. “I’ve never been here, either. I was thinking about it, though, trying to remember what my grandmother told me when I was a little girl about the treasure and where it was hidden. It seems to me she mentioned a cave and something about a waterfall, but that’s all I remember, and I have no idea where they would be if they really even do exist.”

  The light beneath the canopy of trees in the rain forest was dim. Here and there sunlight filtered through the heavy branches overhead and dark green shadows fell across their faces. Once and a while there would be a small break in the trees and they were able to see patches of blue sky and the sun beating down from above. It wasn’t really spooky—just quiet and still except for the calls of parrots and other tropical birds in the trees overhead.

  “Whew! It’s hot and stuffy in here,” Skeeter complained, wiping sweat from his face. “I sure wish we could get a breeze!”

  Robyn said, “I’ll bet there are cool breezes up above the trees, Skeeter! I love to climb trees! I’ll race you to the top of one of those trees!”

  “There might be snakes in the trees, Robyn,” Leilani warned.

  “Snakes! Forget it then!” Robyn backed down in a hurry.

  “Aww, come on, Robyn!” Skeeter coaxed. “They’re probably not poisonous, are they, Leilani? What’s a little snake, anyway? Please? Dan? Pete? You wanna race?”

  Leilani shrugged, “I don’t know. But I’m not going up there!”

  Dan and Pete grinned at one another. “We can’t let my little brother show us up, can we, Pete?” Dan asked. They each picked out a tree.

  Robyn couldn’t resist. “Well, okay, if you guys are going to do it, I will, too. I just pray I don’t run into an anaconda or something up there!”

  They all laughed. “I don’t think you need to worry about anacondas in Hawaii,” Pete said. “They live in South America. Now if we were in the Amazon…”

  “Come on, guys!” Skeeter called. “I’m hot! I can’t wait to feel that breeze! Everyone have his tree? Okay, Kristi, you start the race!”

  “On your mark! Get set! Go!” Kristi yelled.

  Steve and Rachel watched anxiously as the four teens began their scramble up the tree trunks. Robyn’s tree was the easiest, but with their long legs and arms, Dan and Pete soon passed her up. Skeeter brought up the rear, but valiantly fought to catch up with the others. He was more than halfway way up when he reached out his hand and grabbed hold of something thick and green and twisting.

  “Snake!” he screamed letting go quickly and nearly falling from the tree. Steve rushed below him to break his fall, but at the last moment Skeeter caught himself and pulled himself upright.

  “Oops!” he said red-faced. “It’s not a snake! It’s a vine.”

  The others burst out laughing in relief. “What’s a little snake, anyway, Skeeter?” Robyn teased. “Hey, I beat you to the top!”

  Skeeter climbed the last few feet and joined Dan, Pete
and Robyn above the treetops. It was bright up there compared to the gloom of the rain forest below. He blinked.

  A breeze was blowing off the ocean and refreshed them immediately. They could see the tops of dozens of kinds of trees stretching around them like a sea of green, and beyond that the blue of the real sea. All around them butterflies in a myriad of colors fluttered over the treetops.

  “You should see this,” Robyn called down to the others waiting below. “It’s beautiful! There are hundreds of butterflies up here—in all different colors—and some of them are huge! The breeze feels great, too!”

  “Come down now!” Mrs. Cameron shouted up to them. “You’re making me nervous! Someone’s going to fall!”

  “Okay, we’re coming!” Dan called back.

  “Wait—what’s that?” Pete asked, pointing.

  Dan looked across the treetops in the direction Pete was indicating. He didn’t see anything at first. “There—sticking up above the branches about 200 feet to your left,” Pete clarified.

  Dan looked again and then saw it. There was something angular protruding from the trees, something that reflected the sunlight. “Dad!” he yelled down to his father, “it looks like the tail of an airplane! I think there’s a small plane crashed in the trees!”

  The four teens in the trees climbed down as quickly as they could. “A plane?” Steve questioned his son as soon as they were all safely down. “You’re sure, Dan?”

  “Oh yeah! I’m positive. It’s that way—about 200 feet or so.”

  “Well, we’d better check it out,” Steve said. He led the way once more, cutting and hacking a path through the rain forest in the direction Dan had said.

  It was difficult to see into the treetops from below. They all craned their necks and peered through the thick branches as best they could. Pete finally climbed another tree to get their bearings. “Just a few more feet—maybe twenty or thirty,” he called down from his perch. “Over to your left now.”

  Five minutes later Anna spotted the plane in the branches above. “There!” she called in excitement. “Right above me! I see it!”

  A dark shadowy form, forty feet in the air, blocked the sunlight from penetrating the leaves. They could make out the shape of a wing, slanted crazily downwards. “I’ll check it out,” Steve said.

  “Aww, Dad! Let me go, okay?” Dan asked. “I know planes almost as well as you do! I’ll be careful! And besides, you’re a lot heavier than I am—the branches up that high may not hold you. Please?”

  Steve looked at his eager face. He knew he would have loved an adventure like this, too, when he was that age. “Okay, Dan, but be very careful! When you get up there, don’t touch the plane. We don’t know how solidly it is lodged up there. We don’t want it crashing through the branches. In fact, all of you, move back out of the way. If it does fall I don’t want anyone in its path. Dan, I’ll follow you part way up. If you need help, give me a yell.”

  They looked for the best way up, realizing that they would have to climb the tree next to the one in which the plane had crashed. Dan finally started up with his dad right behind him.

  They all held their breath as they neared the top of the trees. Dan finally drew parallel with the plane. He leaned forward, trying to see through the branches and leaves that covered the cockpit. “I can’t see anything,” he told his father. “I need to get closer.”

  “No!” Steve said. “It’s too dangerous, Dan!”

  “It’s okay, Dad. There’s a nice sturdy branch just three feet away. I’m sure I can make it.” Without waiting for his father’s reply he reached for the limb in the other tree and stepped across. He clutched the branch and inched his way closer to the small plane in the tree. Rachel held her hand to her heart as she watched her eldest son working his way through the trees forty feet above her head.

  Dan was finally close enough to push aside the small branches and vines that covered the window of the cockpit. He peered through the glass, his hand cupped around his eyes in order to see better. It was almost pitch black inside the cockpit, and he blinked to adjust to the darkness. Suddenly he cried out, losing his grip on the branches. He slipped and pitched forward. He tried quickly to catch his balance, leaning hard against the nose of the plane. The plane slowly tipped forward and began to slide.

  “Watch out!” Steve Cameron yelled. The four girls below clutched one another and screamed. Rachel cried, “Dan!” and took a step towards the tree.

  Just as suddenly, the plane came to a rest only a foot or two from where it had started. Dan began scrambling backwards, slipping and sliding his way down the tree. He passed his father somehow, and landed with a thud on the ground as he jumped the final six feet of the way. Steve was right behind him.

  Dan clutched his father’s arm, trying to catch his breath. His eyes were wide with panic. “The plane—” he panted. “There’s a—there’s a skeleton in the plane!” The rest of the group looked at him in horror.

  _____________

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  _____________

  The Hidden Glade

  “What!” “A skeleton!” There were cries of disbelief, and shrieks from the girls.

  “Eww, gross!” Skeeter said. “Can I go up and see, Dad?”

  “No! I think I’d better check it out, but no one else is going up there. I don’t want to take any more chances of that plane crashing down on us.” Steve carefully made his way back up the tree. A few branches had broken during their hasty descent, but at last he was as high as he could go on the slender branches. He looked at the precariously perched airplane in the other tree. The cockpit was not far away, but Steve was not sure if the limbs at the top of the tree would hold him. He studied the situation for a few minutes and finally came up with a plan.

  “Dan!” he called down. “Check my backpack! I think there’s a coil of rope in the bottom of the bag. If it’s there would you please bring it up to me?”

  “Sure, Dad!” A few minutes later Dan was reaching through the branches to hand the rope to his father.

  “Thanks, Dan,” he said. “Now get back down there and move everyone far out of the way, okay?”

  Steve lashed one end of the rope several times around the bole of the tree, and tied the other end around his own chest and under his arms. Finally, feeling a little more secure, he cautiously crossed over to the other tree.

  The branches swayed and groaned a bit under his weight but held. Steve slowly leaned toward the small plane. It was another Cessna, similar to the one he had piloted the day before. This one was much older, though—maybe twenty-five or thirty years old. It appeared that the plane had been resting in the treetops for many years. It was almost totally covered with vines, and branches were growing through a few broken windows. It was a miracle Pete had seen the tail section sticking up above the trees, Steve thought. The rest of the plane was swallowed up by greenery, making it almost invisible from the air, he was sure. The wing closest to him was torn up pretty badly. There was a large hole in the cabin section, as well, and some damage to the tail. Steve moved slowly forward in order to look into the cockpit.

  The skeleton was lying back in the pilot’s seat. Steve could see that the poor fellow had never made it out of his seat—his seatbelt was still fastened. A quick glance was all Steve needed to confirm that the accident had happened many years before. He carefully opened the cockpit door and reached past the skeleton for the radio.

  Nothing. It was dead, too. The battery had probably drained years ago, he thought. He glanced over at the fuel gauge. A crack ran across its glass face, but the needle was stuck at a little more than half full! Steve felt a jolt of hope. Maybe they wouldn’t have to wait to be rescued after all! He gently closed the cockpit door and carefully backed away from the plane. As soon as he was safely back in the other tree, he untied his safety line and went quickly back down to the family and friends waiting below.

  “Well, Dan,” he said, brushing off his clothes and wiping his face and hands with a
wet cloth his wife handed him, “I’d say that plane has been up there for at least ten or fifteen years. I couldn’t get a real good look inside the cabin section, but I’m pretty sure the pilot was alone in the plane. Poor guy. He probably had engine trouble and tried to make it to the beach to land, and for some reason, never made it. When we get back to Oahu I’ll notify the authorities and they can check it out and take care of things.”

  “There’s good news and bad news,” he continued. “The bad news is that I checked the radio and it was dead as a doornail. The good news is that there appears to be about a half a tank of fuel up there—more than enough to get us safely back to Oahu if we can just figure out a way to get it out and back to our own plane.”

  “Well that is good news,” Rachel said. She brushed a leaf out of her husband’s hair.

  “Hey!” Skeeter said suddenly. “We keep missing lunchtime! We forgot to eat again and I’m starved!”

  Steve laughed. “Okay, Mr. Hollow Legs! Let’s move on a little further and see if we can find a nice clear spot where we can all sit down to enjoy our picnic.”

  Kristi and Robyn took Dan’s backpack from him and carried it between them. “You’ve been up and down those trees like a monkey,” Kristi said with a smile. “We’ll take a turn now.” They pushed through in single file on the path Mr. Cameron was cutting for them. Pete took over with the machete a few minutes later to give Mr. Cameron a break. Here and there they came across thick patches of bamboo and small pools of water.

  Skeeter was just about to open his mouth again in complaint when they suddenly stepped from the thick brush and trees into a clearing. To their amazement and delight, a waterfall rose twenty feet above them, falling like a curtain of silver and pearls, into a pool below. Birds flitted among the trees that bordered the clearing, and dozens of butterflies descended from the treetops to fill the space with color. Now that they had emerged from the trees, they could hear the sound of falling water.