He swung them around while telling her, “That large vent down there on Pele’s backbone is named Pu’u O’o. It’s the most active of all. The goddess has been flowing nonstop since the late eighties.”
He directed her gaze to another vent spewing lava. “That one’s named for Martin Luther King. It broke through around his birthday in 2004.”
Anita was so blown away she couldn’t find words.
“One more sight,” he told her smiling.
Next she knew they were descending so she could get a better view of the veins of hot lava sliding off Pele’s cliffs and crashing into the ocean. “That’s how the black sand beaches are formed.”
Anita had never seen anything so terrifying and yet so beautiful. It was like watching the birth of an alien world.
“Don’t want to get too close,” he voiced. “The lava hitting the water produces hydrogen sulfide gas.”
She turned to him startled.
“We’re okay up here, Counselor. Promise. Ready for the rest of the tour?”
Excitement sang in her veins. She nodded and gave him her first smile.
“Let’s head back to Kauai. You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
And he was right. He swung them over the grand Kilauea lighthouse and then rendered her speechless once again as he flew over the Wailua Falls. What looked like hundreds of tons of water poured down the cliffs. “They used those falls in the opening shots of that old-school show Fantasy Island.”
That surprised her.
“Lots of movies were shot here. Raiders of the Lost Ark. King Kong. Throw Momma from the Train.”
That earned him another smile. They buzzed another waterfall even more spectacular than the last. “Manawaiopuna Falls. Recognize it from Jurassic Park?”
Her wide eyes met his and his soft laugh came through her ears. “Yep, that’s it. Impressed yet, Counselor?”
“Very much.”
“Good, now for the big finale, my favorite spot on earth, Waimea Canyon.”
Anita couldn’t believe there was more. She’d also lost track of time. According to her watch, they’d been flying for more than an hour.
* * *
He flew west and all Anita could do was stare down as he presented her with the island’s beauty. He’d said at one point that Kauai was known as the Garden Island and it was easy to see why. Waimea Canyon with its rugged peaks, high plateaus, deep green valleys and waterfalls was absolutely stunning.
“It’s called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Fourteen miles long, one mile wide and more than 3,600 feet deep. We can’t even see the parts that are under the ocean.”
It looked like the old Hawaiian gods had scooped out the center of the land for miles around. Jagged hills that appeared to be made of centuries-old hardened lava sprang toward the sky beside other peaks made of red and brown earth. The canyon was enormous. She saw wind-eroded walls of striated stone and lava that resembled gigantic stands of carved Christmas trees. She stared down surprised at what appeared to be animals bounding up the side of a cavern. “Are those sheep?”
“Yes, ma’am. Most of the area is so wild, people can’t get in, so there’re quite a few up in these mountains if you know where to look. I’m going to swing over my buddy’s place to make sure things are okay and then head us back to the coast.”
A short few minutes later, he said, “Cabin’s there. Can you see it? Belongs to the guy in the hangar office back in L.A.”
She could but it looked like a flat-roofed doll’s house against the vast open area surrounding it. He swung the chopper around and headed east. She was about to ask why anyone would live so far away from civilization when raindrops began hitting the windshield and a gust came up that rocked the helicopter. She saw him peering at the sky and she did the same.
“Going to call the airport,” he told her. He hit a button on the dash and said into the mic, “Hey, Max, what’s going on weather-wise here at the canyon?”
The rain was steady now and the wind had picked up considerably.
Max was the weather tech at the airport at Lihue. “There’s a front forming. Looks like a big one. Seems to be moving pretty fast so I don’t think it’ll last too long, but there’ll probably be damage. We’re sending out an island-wide alert right now.”
The rain was coming down harder.
“We’re going to try and make it back. Tell the tower to pick us up on the scope if they can, just in case.”
“Will do. Good luck.”
Anita asked, “Trouble?”
“Maybe.”
As if to counter the maybe, a big gust of wind suddenly blew hard from the west. “Make that a yes!” he stated.
And as he said that, wind, pouring rain and streaks of lightning replaced what had been, up to that moment, a beautiful and calm blue-sky day. Now it was dark and foreboding. She held on and tried to keep her panic under wraps. “Weather always this unpredictable?”
“For the most part.”
She knew the last thing he needed was to be distracted by a bunch of inane questions, so she kept quiet, waited and watched.
“We need to get out of this. Going to swing back up to my friend’s place. He has a chopper pad. We’ll land and wait there until this blows over.”
Anita nodded tightly while the chopper rocked and rolled in response to the furious wind, witchlike fingers of lightning flashing through the downpour and the answering bass booms of the thunder. Yes, landing would please her a lot. Even if they wound up in the middle of nowhere, it was better than being in the air at the mercy of the growing storm.
But wanting to land and doing so were two different things. The bird was pitching crazily due to the angry wind. Rain pelted the windshield so forcefully she hoped Blair could see because she couldn’t see a thing. A flash of lightning exploded so closely she stifled a scream and gripped the armrest in reaction. A quick look behind her showed the copter’s tail ablaze. Fear grabbed her and she looked to him anxiously.
“Not good!”
The wind was tossing them around like it was offended by their presence. His next words scared her even more than the fire.
“We’re going down, Counselor! Brace yourself!”
Terrified, she prayed and swore if she died, she’d come back and haunt Jane Sheridan for the rest of her natural-born life. Then the chopper leveled out, but they were roaring through trees and foliage at a high rate of speed. Branches broke through the windows and windshield. Blinding rain poured in. She heard herself screaming and felt his iron arm holding her back in her seat, and she was still screaming because the nightmare seemed to go on forever, and then they crashed into something so solidly, the impact threw her forward and her head exploded with pain before everything went black.
CHAPTER 6
Anita came back to life slowly. When she opened her eyes, all she saw were trees. Everywhere. Where am I? The pounding in her head made it difficult to make sense of anything. Branches, leaves and pieces of glass covered her lap. She turned to the left and saw a man in the seat beside her. His head was tipped forward, his eyes closed. A thin rivulet of blood coursed down the side of his face. For a moment, the fog of confusion refused to let her brain do anything other than puzzle over his presence, and then her memory kicked in. Alarmed, her eyes flashed his way.
“Oh, my God!” Fighting the grogginess and the pain, she tried to reach him. “Please don’t be dead. Please!”
She couldn’t move though, and it took another minute to glean the reason. Her seat belt. She forced her disembodied fingers to undo the buckle. “Please don’t be dead. God, please don’t let him be dead!”
She pressed her palm against his heart but felt nothing. She leaned over and placed her ear against his chest. The strong steady beat
flooded her with so much relief tears sprang to her eyes. Dashing them away, she saw his eyes flutter open. The brown orbs locked on her and she froze. He assessed her for a long, silent moment as if trying to figure out who she was, then as if it was the most natural thing to do, he ran a bent knuckle over the tear sliding down her cheek. “Why’re you crying, Counselor?”
“I thought you were dead.”
“Wouldn’t mind going to heaven with you.”
His crooked smile opened up a spot in her heart she never knew existed. What was it about him that affected her so? Grabbing hold of herself she backed out of range. “Do you remember the crash?”
He closed his eyes momentarily as though trying to make his memory work, then said, “Yeah. Shit!” He cursed softly. He felt blindly for his belt, unsnapped it and slowly struggled to sit up straight. “Damn, my head hurts. How’re you?”
“Alive.”
“That’s a good thing.”
“How do we get back to the resort?”
Steve checked her out. He wondered if she knew she had a knot on her head the size of Texas. “Let me get my bearing a minute.” He took mental stock of his body. Nothing seemed to scream broken, but he was pretty banged up. His head was throbbing. He was sure he had a concussion. “You certain you’re okay?”
“My head’s pounding, but I’m breathing.”
He looked over and gave her a small smile.
“What?”
“Figured a high-priced lady like yourself would be in hysterics by now.”
“Since you don’t know a thing about a high-priced lady like myself, I’m going to ignore that and ask again. How do we get back to the resort?”
Even though he knew this wasn’t the time, he enjoyed baiting her. In response to her pointed question, he shrugged. “No idea, but it may take some doing.”
Her mouth dropped. “Why?”
“There’s no cell service out here because of the mountains so, being able to call on a standard phone for help will be problematic. The radar guys at the airport know we’re out here, but unless they saw us drop off the scope, they’re not going to know we’re in trouble until we don’t show up. The good news is my buddy Ferg has a satellite phone at his place, so if we can get there, we’ll be able to make a call.”
He peered out of what was left of the window, looking first up and then down in an effort to ascertain their position. It wasn’t a good one, but at least the rain had stopped. “I’m going to need you to sit real still, Counselor.”
“And the reason being?”
“I believe we’re caught in the trees.”
Her eyes went wide as plates and she quickly peered around as if to ascertain the truthfulness of his words.
Moving as gingerly as the aches and pains allowed, Steve attempted to open the battered door beside him, but it didn’t budge. He surveyed the area by the door. From what he could make of things, there was a huge splintered limb wedged against it that was probably a companion to the big leafy branches filling the shattered windshield, and the ones taking up the backseat. In Iraq, he’d found himself in more sticky situations than he cared to remember. He’d even piloted a few choppers brought down by rocket-propelled grenades, but he’d never been stuck in a tree. And at the moment, he’d no way of knowing if they were a few feet off the ground, or hanging in the canopy a hundred feet up. Not good.
“So, what do we do?” she asked.
“The jarhead in me wants to rock this sucker and see if we can’t shake loose.”
“No! What’s plan B?”
“Not sure yet. Maybe we can try and climb out, but there’s no way of knowing how far up we are. Can you see the sky or the ground from over there?”
He waited while she peered through the leaves and limbs.
“No.”
“Nothing on this side, either. Let’s try this.” Ignoring whatever was paining his lower right leg, he tried to stand and the chopper immediately began to rock. He stopped.
Anita’s heart pounded in her throat. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Please sit down.” She’d never been in a situation like this, and holding it together was hard. Hysteria seemed much more appropriate, but she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
“I need you to do something for me.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“I want you to try and stand. Need to see how the weight is distributed.”
She wanted to argue that didn’t make sense, but being in a helicopter wedged in by a bunch of trees made even less sense.
“Easy now,” he cautioned.
Bracing one hand on the seat, Anita stood slowly. The copter didn’t move.
“Weight’s all on this side, then.”
She sat down just as cautiously. “And that tells you what?”
He looked her in the eye.
She felt fear wanting to scream its way free. “You are not going to rock this thing! I’m not playing with death twice.”
“Then we stay here and starve.”
She looked away and blew out an exasperated breath. Granted, starving to death would keep her from getting back to L.A. and wringing Jane’s neck, but what if they were killed by this jarhead plan? Starving to death or dying in a plunging helicopter. Some choice. She surrendered. “Okay. The jarhead plan it is.”
He nodded grimly. “Put your belt back on and make sure it’s good and tight.”
She complied and watched him do up his own belt.
“We may drop fast, or it may be slow. For sure we’re going to be bounced around.”
Steve prayed this would work and they didn’t crash and burn. He glanced her way. Her hard-set features were a mixture of fear and resolve. No hysteria for her. He liked that. “You ready?”
She nodded tightly and gripped the armrests.
Steve prayed again and threw his weight against the door. The pain in his messed-up shoulder exploded like a shot of lightning, but he gritted his teeth and kept pounding away until the bird began to rock. He hit the door hard one more time and they were falling.
Anita’s terror clawed at her throat. She expected the chopper to plummet like a rock but as they bumped and bounced and ricocheted off trunks and branches, and the metal cried and shuddered, it was more like being in a pinball machine. The rain had apparently doused the tail fire but she kept envisioning them bursting into flames. As the chopper tumbled, the sheer scariness of it all made it hard to breathe. One moment the bird would catch on a large branch and come to a rest, only to have the branch snap a few seconds later and send them falling again. All around were sounds of snapping limbs and protesting leaves. Her heart was pounding and thoughts of dying rushed through her blood like white water over rapids. The impacts with the branches rattled her spine and snapped her teeth together.
“Don’t bite your tongue!” he yelled through the chaos.
The warning registered but she couldn’t respond. She was too busy praying and hanging on. After what seemed like a lifetime, they came to rest again, nose down and this time the stop held.
They both sat still as each held their breath. In the echoing silence, they shared a look.
As if her words might jar them loose, she asked softly, “Do you think we’re on the ground?”
The trunks and limbs filling the interior when they woke up had come along for the ride, so there was no way of making an immediate determination.
Steve hesitantly undid his belt and raised up in the
seat as best he could. The bird stayed put. He knew not to be too relieved but allowed himself a glimmer of hope. “See if your door will open. Easy now.”
Anita tried her door. Because of the trees in her window it protested, but it opened. She wanted to sob with relief.
“Can you see anything?”
“Yes! There are still trees below us but I can make out the ground now.” It was such a wonderful sight she wanted to cheer.
“Okay, good. That’s better.”
Steve thought for a moment as how to best end this mini adventure. He tried his door again. Still nothing. Hoping the chopper would stay put for a few more minutes, he began pushing the limbs and branches out of his busted window. He needed to be able to see for himself just how close to the ground they were. He noted that without being asked or told she began clearing her window, too. “Careful not to cut yourself on the glass.”
She nodded and undid her belt. Removing her shoulder bag, she knelt on the seat with her back to him to give herself more leverage. He knew it was inappropriate, but ran admiring eyes over her lower anatomy in the snug white capris. He smiled to himself and returned his attention to what he was supposed to be doing.
It took a while but they finally managed to free the windows and what remained of the windshield of most of the excess foliage. Steve tried his door again. Like hers, it protested but it opened.
He could see the ground about forty feet below. The blood rushing to his aching head made him dizzy. He righted himself and sat back against the seat until the wooziness passed.
“Are you okay?’ she asked in a concerned voice.
“Probably have a concussion but I can’t worry about that now.” He swung his head her way. “I’ve been in worse shape. I’ll get you home in one piece. Promise.” He then added, “Sorry about all this.”
You Sang to Me ; Holiday Heat ; I'll be Home for Christmas ; Hawaii Magic ; Overtime Love Page 30