by Nancy Adams
I was in a great mood as I got to the office. My only daughter was about to be married, to a great young man who also happened to be, as he put it, “stinkin' rich!” That meant that he'd always be able to provide for her, of course, so a father's greatest worry was pretty much relieved. I smiled at my receptionist and went into my office to get my day going, I knew I had a couple of clients coming in later in the morning, and wanted to brush up on their cases.
The intercom on my desk buzzed and I hit the speaker button. “Yeah?”
“Mr. Burke, there's a call for you from San Francisco. It's Mr. Simmons' father.”
I grinned as I picked up the handset and touched the blinking button to take the call. I'd wondered which one of us would be the first to make contact and break the ice.
“Jim Burke,” I said with a smile.
“Mr. Burke,” said a voice that sounded like an older version of Nate. “This is Norman Simmons, Nate's father.”
“Yes, Mr. Simmons, and please, it's just Jim.”
There was a moment's hesitation on the other end, and I got a strange sensation in the pit of my stomach.
“Jim, their plane has gone down somewhere over Colorado. The last message from the pilot was that both engines had failed, and they were trying to find somewhere to land. They were about eighty miles west of Denver, but we don't have an accurate fix. A search is already underway.”
That feeling in my stomach turned into a red hot sword that pierced me all the way through.
“Of, dear God,” I said. “Has there been any word since it...”
“No, nothing. The plane's transponder isn't sending out a signal, so the assumption is that it's been so badly smashed that it can't come on. As for the kids, in that area, it's possible there isn't any cell reception, so their phones probably won't be working. If the radio was damaged or destroyed in the crash, there just won't be any way for them to get word out. But, Jim, remember this: Nathanael is a Marine, just as you were, and he was always the outdoors type. Boy Scouts, every hunting and camping and fishing trip he could manage to wangle, that boy was out in the forest every minute he could be. He'll take care of Katelynn, you can count on that.”
I nodded. “I know he will, Sir,” I said. “I'd better go home and let my wife know. Let me give you my cell number, and please call if you learn—anything.”
“I will,” he said, and then the line went dead.
I told the receptionist to cancel all appointments for the rest of the week, and not to reschedule any until I got back. I knew my wife; we'd be leaving for Colorado within an hour.
I called her cell phone as I walked out of my office, and she answered on the third ring.
“What are you doing, playing hooky?” she asked with a smile. “You never call me in the mornings. Feeling a little frisky with the kid away?”
“Where are you?” I asked, and I think she knew instantly that something was wrong.
“I'm at home, I haven’t left the house yet. What's the matter?”
“I'm on the way, I'll tell you when I get there.” Rebecca wanted to know more, I was sure, but she respected my decision and said she'd be waiting.
When I got to the house, she was in the kitchen, and she had a cup of coffee waiting for me as I sat down at the table beside her. “Norman Simmons called me,” I said. “The kids' plane has crashed, somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. We don't know if they're hurt, or anything else at the moment, but remember that Nathanael is a good man, and a Marine knows how to survive things. He'll take care of our baby.”
My wife is an incredibly strong woman when she needs to be. As I said those words, I felt the tears begin, and it was she who held me as I wept.
“Shh,” she whispered. “Nate will take care of her, he will. They'll be okay.”
It took me a few moments to pull myself back together, and then I held her close. We sat there without speaking for a good ten minutes, and I finally broke the silence.
“We need to pack up and head for Denver. That's where the search will be based out of, and I want to be close when they're found.”
She nodded and rose, and we went to our bedroom to pack. I called a friend of mine in Omaha who owned a private jet, a much smaller one than Nate's, and arranged to hire it to take us to Colorado. He said he'd have it fueled and be at our airport in two hours to fly us out there himself.
There is not much worse than the feeling that your only child might be dead. Katelynn was so vibrant, so full of life and love and excitement, that it was almost impossible for me to imagine the world without her, but I was being forced to consider the possibility that I would never see her alive again. A part of me was screaming, No, she's alive, I know she is! I'd know if she wasn't alive! Yet another part was weeping, afraid of what knowledge the day would bring before it ended.
I think a third part was trying to figure out how I could be of some help to the kids. Maybe I could rent a jeep and go off roading through the area, or a dirt bike. I used to ride them, and was very good at it. Some of them can go almost anywhere.
There really wasn't anything I could do, though, because I didn't know what any of the procedures were. Put me in a courtroom and I can do almost anything, but I was lost in this situation.
Then, of course, it could be days before we even knew anything. The Rockies are wild in some areas, and heavily forested; depending on where the plane went down, it could be lost in trees so thick that sunlight never reaches the ground at all. Those kids could be lost in darkness.
We gathered up everything we thought we might need and headed for the airport in time to meet the plane. I hadn't thought about the fact that the kids had flown out of this same spot that morning; Nate's rental Caddy was parked right there beside the gate to the private flight entrance, and both of us sat and stared at it for a moment. When we heard the little jet coming in for a landing, we got out and I carried our bags through the gate and waited for it to taxi over to us.
“Jim, I can't tell you how sorry I am,” Bob Milar said, my friend who was flying the plane. I thanked him, and we all climbed inside. This plane was small enough that it didn't have a separate pilot's compartment, so we could sit in the seats right behind him as he turned it around and took off.
The flight wasn't long, only about an hour and a half, and most of that was taken up with ascent and descent. We touched ground at Denver International at around eleven our time, and a man was waiting to take us to the office of the Civil Air Patrol. The CAP was involved in the search, and already had planes in the air looking for any sign of wreckage along a projected flight path, but no reports had come in yet.
A man in uniform met us. “Mr. and Mrs. Burke, I'm Colonel Mason, unit commander. We're coordinating the search with other units from around the region, using Denver as an HQ. If you'll follow me, we have a waiting room that will be more comfortable than the office, and you can monitor our efforts there.”
“Thank you, Colonel,” I said, and we followed him to the room he had indicated. A young woman in civilian clothes there brought us coffee and asked if we wanted some lunch, but we declined. She said to let her know if we needed anything and went to sit down at a table near the front of the room. She had a telephone on the table, and I gathered that it was the way we would be notified if anything were found.
Rebecca leaned against me. “I wish there were something more we could do, other than just sit here. I feel so useless. This just feels like when you're waiting at the hospital, to find out if someone...”
“Hush,” I said softly. “Our baby girl is in the best possible hands right now, and all we can do is trust in Nathanael and in God. They'll bring her home to us, just hold on to that faith.”
There really wasn’t anything else we could do, and in all honesty, we probably should have stayed at home to wait for word; but parents can't always think with the logical part of their minds, not when it involves a child. Katelynn may be an adult under the law, but she's still, and always will be, our baby girl.
“Jim, I wish I had something to tell you. I know you're in Denver, and I wish I was, but I can probably do more here, right now, and I'm quite sure you can handle anything that comes up out there. This is my personal cell, so if you need anything, and I mean anything at all, you just call and I'll arrange it.”
“Thank you, sir, I appreciate it. Mostly, we just wanted to be here.”
“I understand, but stop with the 'sir' stuff; it's Norm, like everyone else calls me.”
I smiled. “Thanks, Norm. I'll let you know if anything develops.” I put the phone back in my pocket and turned to my wife. “Nate's dad. Says if we need anything, let him know.”
“That's nice of him,” she said, and I nodded. Trouble was, the only thing we needed was our baby back safe and sound.
An hour passed, and then two, then three. I sat there, and like my wife, I wanted to be doing something, anything, to try to help my daughter and her fiance. At two o'clock, we asked the girl where to get a bite to eat, and she led us to a small restaurant not far from the CAP offices. We ate burgers and fries, then went back, but there was still no news. I went to Colonel Mason.
“Colonel, where can I charter a helicopter? I can't sit here and do nothing, so maybe I can be another set of eyes up there.”
The Colonel looked up at me, but shook his head. “Mr. Burke, there isn't a helicopter available within five hundred miles; Mr. Simmons already has them hired and searching, along with everything we could put together. I'm afraid the only things on the ground that aren't commercial or military are crop-dusters and barnstormers.”
I smiled. “And where can I find some of those?”
Colonel Mason got hold of a barnstormer’s group that flew out of a nearby small field, and put me on the phone with their manager. These guys normally do things like air shows, demonstrating their skills at flying close to the ground, and they were exactly what I wanted.
“Mr. Rangel,” I said after the Colonel made introductions, “my daughter and her fiance were on a flight from Nebraska to California this morning when their plane apparently went down over the Rockies, about a hundred miles or so west of here. I'm trying to hire a plane to get me up there to join the search, and wondered if any of yours might be available.”
The man seemed friendly enough. “Mr. Burke, I heard about the Learjet going down, and I'm terribly sorry. I've got a few guys who go out on searches now and then, but we're talking open cockpit biplanes. Are you sure you'd want to go along? Gets mighty chilly, up there in the sky.”
“Definitely,” I said. “How soon do you think I can get one over here?”
“Hang on a sec,” he said, and then I could hear him talking to someone else in the background. “Hey, Leo—you feel like taking a man up to join the search for the jet that went down this morning? It's his daughter was in it.” I heard some mumbles, and then he came back on. “Okay, Mr. Burke, Leo MacEntyre says he'll go. He'll be over there to get you in twenty minutes or so, soon as he gasses it up. You, um, you might want to find some really warm clothes and a scarf, real quick.”
I thanked him and hung up, then went to tell Rebecca what I was doing. She smiled at me, and gave me a kiss. “You go find her, Jim,” she said, “find both of them and bring them home!
Nathanael
Chapter Five
Rocky Mountain High
* * * * *
Katelynn's eyes got wide when I handed her a rock to use as a plate, then slid a big slab of the trout onto it with some “mashed potatoes” I made from the cattail roots, but what really got her attention, I think, was the bread twist I'd made.
The leftover cattail roots still had a lot of the starchy material on them that made the “mashed potatoes,” and when I'd boiled it a bit more, I was able to strain it off and work it into a paste. That paste I twisted around some green sticks, and stuck them into the ground so that they leaned over the fire, then watched and turned them so that they got even heat. The result was a bread that peeled off and tasted quite delicious.
“Nathanael,” she said as she chewed a piece of it, “you are the most amazing man I have ever known! We're crashed in the middle of a mountain forest, and I'm eating a meal worthy of the finest restaurant I've ever been to! This is incredible!” She broke off a piece of fish and tucked it into a curl of the bread, and then moaned with delight. “Oh, we're gonna have to raise cattails close to home! You're gonna make this again, buddy!”
“Aw, shucks, Ma'am, 'tweren't nuttin',” I said, in my best Huck Finn impersonation. “All us ol' Tennessee boys knows how to do that there stuff!” I leaned over and kissed her, and then had to remind her to eat. We finished our meal, occasionally smiling and blowing kisses to one another.
Katelynn suddenly looked up at the sky, and I caught the sound that had drawn her attention: an airplane, a small one, with one of the loudest engines I'd ever heard, but it was some distance away. I stood up and tried to see through gaps in the trees, and off to the northwest I spotted what looked like an old biplane. It wasn't anywhere close enough to see us in the clearing, but I thought that, if the pilot happened to be looking for us, then he might spot a flare, so I got the flare gun out as quickly as I could, loaded a shell into it, and fired it straight up into the sky.
It flew up about three hundred feet, shining brightly as the magnesium burned white hot. The flares were small, and were designed to burn out before hitting the ground again, so I wasn't too worried about starting a forest fire, but the biplane didn't seem to react at all. The flare shot up, burning very brightly for about eight seconds, but it went out as the plane flew off to the east.
Katelynn sighed. “Oh, well,” she said. “At least it's a good sign, right? I mean, they're probably out looking for us, don't you think?”
I nodded. “They're searching,” I said. “Sooner or later, the search grid will get close to us, and then we'll get their attention.” I sat back down beside her.
The sun was getting low in the afternoon sky, and though it had been pretty warm as we'd been walking through the brush, it was beginning to cool off. Neither of us was dressed warmly, since it had been warm in Nebraska when we'd left, and would be even warmer in California, and our bags were back at the plane. I knew it would be hard enough to fight our way through the forest without trying to carry that extra weight, so I had left them on purpose, planning to recover them after we were found. Thank goodness Katelynn had used her brain and grabbed those blankets.
I made another leaf bucket and set it on the rack to boil more water, then mashed up raspberries to use to sweeten the tea I would make from white pine needles. The trees were all around us, and I'd made the tea when I'd been a boy scout; it would be a nice part of dessert, after this good dinner. Once the water boiled, I added the needles and mashed berries and let them steep in for about twenty minutes, then got the folding cups and dipped some for each of us. With a handful of fresh raspberries, it made a delightful ending to a delightful meal, and left us both feeling full and satisfied.
I wrapped the remaining fish in some leaves and set it in the crotch of a tree at the edge of the woods around the clearing, then sat on the log I'd dragged up and watched the fire with Katelynn. My arm was around her, and if we were there for any other reason than a plane crash that had killed two men, I think we would have considered it idyllic.
Katelynn said, “I feel bad for the pilots,” and I wondered if she could read my mind. “Did you know them very well?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “Stan had been with us for about ten years. Max was fairly new, but he and I had gotten to know each other pretty well, gone out together a few times to games and things. Stan had a family; I dread telling his wife and sons, but I think I should be the one to do it, if possible. Max was single, but I know his parents are still living.”
I held her close, because she had tears falling down her cheeks. I felt my own eyes growing moist, and leaned over to
tuck her head under my chin. “Babe, they did their jobs, by getting the plane down with us alive. I'll always be grateful to them.”
We said a prayer for them, then, and for their families, and gave thanks to God for our own survival. Katelynn said, “How did I get so lucky?”
“I think I'm the lucky one,” I told her. “I've got the most beautiful, wonderful, courageous woman alive.”
We kissed, and sat there enjoying each other's company for a while. The sun sank lower, and I kept the fire up while we watched the evening move in. It kept us warm, despite the cooling air, and was quite romantic. Even the sadness we'd felt earlier couldn't destroy the mood completely. We had each other, and that was more than enough.
A sound caught our attention, and we both looked into the forest, back the way we'd come. The sun was quite low, but not gone, and we could see something—or maybe it was some things—in the shadows of the trees.
“Sit still,” I said to Katelynn, and rose slowly to my feet. I had the pistol in my waistband, but I didn't draw it out. I was worried that what we were seeing out there were wolves, and while they're not always aggressive, I've heard stories that a gun in your hand is enough to make them attack.
I leaned forward to look closely into the area, and realized I'd been wrong—there were no wolves. Instead, I was staring right into the eyes of a massive cougar. I expected it to run, but it merely squinted and kept looking at me.
I started walking toward it, slowly, and said, “Okay, Kitty, we're just passing through. I'm a big man, and you're just a little kitty cat, so you don't want to mess with me. We're not that good to eat, and if you decide to try, you’re going to get a fight like you've never seen before, so if you go on your way and leave us alone, I won't have to kill you.” I'd gotten to within about thirty feet of it, well within its striking distance, and stopped there. I kept looking straight at it, maintaining eye contact, and stood my ground. After a moment, the big cat turned and walked off into the forest, going around us.