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CHAPTER FIVE
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The Golden Steps
The teens watched the ambulance pull away and then turned back to get in their own van. A ranger stopped them and took down the information on where they were camping.
The trip down the mountain road was quiet. Dan drove cautiously. The other teens let him concentrate, speaking only to help him with directions. Kristi scarcely noticed the scenery on the way back. Her thoughts were with her mother.
It was well past lunchtime when they got back to Aspenglen. Their mood was sober as they fixed some sandwiches and got drinks and fruit out of the cooler. Even Skeeter and Robyn were quiet. Finally Dan spoke up, “Come on, guys. We know Mom is going to be okay. We trust God, so why are we moping around? We should be praising Him that she wasn’t hurt worse—or even killed! So cheer up! Mom wouldn’t want us to be sitting around here crying.”
“You’re right, Dan. Your mom is totally cool and loves to have fun,” Pete said. “She’d be the first one to encourage us to perk up.”
Skeeter reached for another sandwich. “Well, what should we do then?”
“We need to stick around the campground until we hear from Dad, anyway,” Kristi reminded them. “The rangers said they’d bring us a message, and this is the only place they’d be able to track us down.”
“Right, Kristi. It’ll be two or three hours, at least, until we hear anything. Why don’t we straighten up the campsite and pack a few things in case we need to load up and leave suddenly. When that’s done let’s play a game or something, okay? We brought some cards and our dominoes, didn’t we?” Dan asked.
“Sure. Mexican Train is fun. Let’s play that.”
A park ranger found them playing dominoes at their picnic table a couple hours later. The shock of Rachel’s accident had worn off and they were back to their normal selves, laughing and teasing one another. Nevertheless, Kristi leapt to her feet as soon as she saw the ranger and asked quickly, “Do you have a message from our father?”
The ranger smiled. “I can do better than that! I can let you talk to him yourself! Hold on a second while I get him on the radio.” A moment later the two-way radio crackled and squawked and they heard Steve’s voice.
“Kids? Kids, can you hear me?”
“Yes, Dad! We hear you!” Kristi said in excitement. “How’s Mom?”
“She’s doing fine. Her leg is broken and she’s going to have to have surgery—probably tomorrow—but the doctors say it looks like she will make a full recovery and in a couple months her leg will be as good as new. She sprained her wrist, as well, and she’s got a lot of bumps, bruises and scratches. She had to have several stitches in that cut on her forehead but she was happy to know that her hair will cover the scar. She’s also got a concussion, but fortunately she didn’t fracture her skull. I’ve always said your mother was hardheaded,” he tried to joke. His voice broke a little and Kristi could tell her father was exhausted from the stress and strain of his wife’s accident.
“But she’s going to be alright, Daddy?” Kristi asked again.
“Yes, yes! I promise you, she’s going to be fine. Now, what about you kids? How are you doing? How was the drive back to camp? Did Dan have any problems?”
“No, no, Dad!” Dan spoke up. “The drive was fine, and we’re all doing great. We’re just sitting here at the campsite playing dominoes. We’ve got plenty of food and we’ll be fine until you get back. Just stay with Mom as long as she needs you. You don’t have to worry about us.”
“Well, they ended up taking her to a hospital all the way in Denver. I thought I’d be able to get back to you tonight, but now I may not make it back until tomorrow—or even the day after. Can you handle that, Dan? It’s a lot of responsibility…”
“Hey, Dad! You know Responsibility is my middle name,” Dan joked. “Seriously, Dad, you can trust me—and the rest of these guys, too.”
“I know, Dan. I don’t know what else to do at this point. You’re almost grown up now, and the rangers said they’d look out for you… Your mother won’t be happy about this, but right now she’s too out of it to know the difference… Okay, kids, I guess you’re on your own for a couple days. Dan, don’t leave the park, and if you go hiking again, stay on a marked trail and be back at the campsite by four o’clock. You sure you have enough food?”
“Yeah, Dad. There are all kinds of stuff left in the other cooler and that box in the back of the van. We’ve got a bunch of stuff in our backpacks, too.”
“Okay, then. I’ll call again tomorrow. Be careful! And keep praying for Mom.”
“We will, Dad—and for you, too. We love you!” Kristi said.
“Love you, too, honey.”
“Tell Mom we love her and are praying for her,” Skeeter put in before their dad said goodbye for the last time and they lost the signal.
The teens were exuberant in their relief over the news about Rachel. “Thank you so much!” they said to the ranger over and over again. “Would you like to stay and have a Coke?” Skeeter invited.
“Sorry, kids, but thanks. I have to get going. We just found out as I was leaving to come over here that there is a missing child in the park. We’re gathering a bunch of volunteers and going out to look for her before it gets dark.”
“A missing child?” Anna asked, her soft brown eyes filled with concern.
“Yes. Just a little thing. And to make things worse, she’s mentally disabled and doesn’t speak.”
“What!” Kristi cried. “What’s her name? Is it Patti?” Her heart was beating rapidly and she felt sick.
“Why, yes! How did you know?”
Kristi ignored his question. “But how could that happen? I’m sure her parents love her very, very much—they would never let her out of their sight!”
“Oh, so you know them?”
“Well, no, not really,” Kristi admitted. “We just met them briefly at the airport the other day, and then yesterday I saw them at Alberta Falls. What happened?”
“Well, it seems they took an easy hike today and the little girl got tired. They stopped for a picnic in a meadow and the child fell asleep in the warm sunshine. Before they knew it, the parents had fallen asleep, also, and when they woke up they discovered the little girl had wandered away. They looked for her themselves for over an hour and then came to us for help. The parents are frantic, of course.”
“Oh, no! Is there anything we can do to help?” Kristi asked. “That poor baby! And her mother! We have to do something!”
“Hold on there, young lady!” the ranger said. “We promised your parents we’d watch out for you. We can’t have you going off into the wilderness and getting lost yourselves.”
“But Dad said we could hike if we stuck to the trails.”
The man thought for a moment. “Well, the trailhead where they are starting the search is not far from here. If you all promise to follow the trails, I suppose it would be alright. Take your backpacks with you and make sure to take food, water, flashlights, warm clothes, a whistle and a first aid kit with you. I’m also going to give you a spare radio. If you run into problems, call in.” The ranger showed Pete and Dan how to operate the radio. “Meet me and the rest of the search party at the Lawn Lake Trailhead in fifteen minutes. It’s just a few minutes down this main road.”
The teens added the new sweatshirts and gloves they had bought that morning to their backpacks and made sure they were stocked with food and water. Kristi grabbed a blanket at the last minute, rolled it up and tied it to her backpack. “Just in case we find Patti,” she thought to herself.
The sun was getting low in the sky by the time they got to the junction where the search party was gathering. A ranger spoke quickly giving instructions and dividing the group into teams. The Camerons and their friends were going together.
“There’s only about two more hours before it gets dark,” the ranger said. “We don’t like to have anyone out there searching after dark, but
we also hate the thought of that little girl being out there alone in the night, too. It’s cold enough in the mountains at night that she could die from exposure—if an animal doesn’t get her first. You seasoned volunteers—you keep looking as long as you need to. You teenagers—I want you back in two hours, understand? Okay—let’s get going!”
The teens’ assignment was simply to follow the trail to its end, paying close attention to the underbrush on either side of the trail. Since Patti didn’t talk, or make much noise of any kind for that matter, they wanted to be sure they didn’t pass her by without seeing her. The meadow from which Patti had disappeared was less than half a mile from the trail and the little girl could have easily made it that far in the time she’d been missing.
Kristi led the way. She felt desperate. The traumatic day was taking its toll on her. Over and over she prayed, “Lord, please help us find her.” Finally she stopped in her tracks. “Guys, we need to pray together. The Lord knows where she is. If she’s anywhere near us, we need His help to find her.”
The group huddled together. Pete prayed, “Lord, you made this wilderness. It is beautiful, but dangerous. There’s a helpless little girl lost in this wilderness today, and without Your help in finding her, she could very well die tonight. Lord, if it is Your will for us to find her, please show us the way. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” The others fervently echoed the amen. Kristi felt a sense of peace come over her.
They moved as quickly and carefully as they could up the trail. They walked through the underbrush on either side of the path, always keeping the trail and one another in sight. They pulled branches back and looked behind rocks. There was no sign of the tot.
Just as they reached the end of the trail Skeeter let out a shout. Kristi rushed toward him. “What? Did you find her?” she asked eagerly.
“No, but look at this!” Skeeter was pulling back a bunch of weeds. Kristi saw an old board half-buried in the dirt. There were words on it, but she couldn’t make them out. By that time the rest of the kids had joined them. Dan gave the board a yank and it came out of the ground. They saw that it was in the shape of an arrow. He shook off the dirt and they were able to read the rustic, faded letters. “The Golden Steps,” it said.
“The Golden Steps? I wonder what that means,” Robyn said.
“Which way was it pointing?” Pete asked.
“Well, it was lying like this, as if it had simply fallen over, so I think it was pointing that way,” Skeeter said nodding toward the west side of the trail.
“We’re at the end of this trail,” Kristi said. “Let’s look for the Golden Steps. Maybe Patti went that way.”
“No!” Dan said. “We promised we’d stay on the trail! Besides, it’ll be dark soon. We have to get back.”
“Dan, can’t we just take fifteen minutes to look for the Golden Steps? If we find them, they’ll be like another trail themselves—we’ll just follow them back again. We can keep this trail and each other in sight if we spread out at short intervals. Do you see what I mean?”
“Uh, I think so. Okay, but I’m only giving you ten minutes to find them. If we do find the Golden Steps we have to have time to check them out, get back here and then still get back to the trailhead by dark.”
“Good!” Kristi said. “Robyn, you stay here on the trail. The rest of us will move forward as far as we can and still be able to see you. Then one of us will stay in that spot and we’ll move forward again to the next place where we’ll leave someone else, and so on.” She paused for breath. “Everyone understand?”
They all did. Every fifteen or twenty feet they left one of the group in view of the last person until they had stretched out almost one hundred feet from the trail. Dan was the last one to branch out. He looked around. He couldn’t see anything that resembled steps. Suddenly he realized what he was looking at—ledges going up the side of the mountain like giant steps.
“Kristi!” he called back to his sister who was next in line. “I think I found them! But it’s too late! We don’t have time to follow them!”
“No!” she wailed. “We have to, Dan! That little girl could die if we quit now.”
“Kristi, we don’t even know if she came this way! And besides, someone else could have found her by now,” he argued.
Kristi burst into tears. “We can’t give up now, Dan! We just can’t! I just have a feeling that this is the way she went. Please!” she pleaded.
Dan didn’t reply. He was torn. He wanted to continue the search as badly as Kristi did, but it wasn’t fair to worry the rangers or their parents if they didn’t get back on time. He was responsible for his younger sister and brother, and their friends. He bowed his head. “Lord, please show me what to do,” he prayed.
He looked again at the “steps.” The ledges were wide and not particularly tall, but Dan wondered if a small child would be able to climb them. Suddenly a dark shape on the second “step” caught his eye.
“Wait a minute, Kristi,” he called back to his sister. He moved forward toward the ledge. His breath caught in his throat as the shape took form before his eyes.
There, on the ground, was a teddy bear.
The answer to his prayer. The Lord had shown him—they had to move on.
Kristi was calling his name. “Coming!” he yelled back. He picked up the teddy bear and dropped his backpack in its place to mark the spot.
“Kristi, look what I found!” he shouted as he ran back to where she was pacing nervously.
Kristi stared in disbelief and then cried out for joy. She grabbed the teddy bear and clutched it to her, burying her face in its soft fur. “I knew it! I just knew it! Somehow I knew she came this way! Oh, thank you, Lord!” Tears were running down her cheeks. “Come on, Dan! We have to get everyone else and then get up those steps before dark.” They left Kristi’s backpack for another marker and then hurried on to the rest of the group.
Fifteen minutes later they were all back at the bottom of the steps. Their faces shone with excitement. They had left scraps of brightly colored cloth tied to branches along the way so that they could find their way back to the trail when they came back down the Golden Steps—hopefully with little Patti. Kristi and Dan had recovered their backpacks and now Dan was trying to call out on the two-way radio to let the park rangers know where they were and what they had found.
“Nothing!” Dan muttered in frustration. “All I’m getting is static.”
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now,” Kristi said firmly. “It’s too late to go back now. Patti might not make it if we don’t find her soon.”
“I know, Kristi,” Dan said in resignation. “I really feel the Lord is leading us on. We’ll just have to pray the rangers and our folks will see it that way, too, when we get back and explain things to them. I just hate to worry Mom and Dad at a time like this.”
“Me, too, Dan. But a child’s life depends on it. I know! Let’s leave a note with the arrow and a marker by the trail. At least they’ll know which way we went and that we’re okay.”
“Good idea! Wait here, everyone. I’ll run back to the trail. Anyone have any paper and a pen?” Dan asked. Anna dug her diary out of her backpack and tore a blank page from it. She handed it with a pen to Dan and he dashed off. Five minutes later he was back.
The teenagers eagerly pressed forward up the Golden Steps—hoping to find a lost treasure.
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CHAPTER SIX
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Lost!
Kristi held the teddy bear in her arms as they rested for a few minutes. She could barely see her brothers or friends as the last of the sunset dwindled away.
They were at the top of the Golden Steps—at least they thought they were. They couldn’t find any more ledges, and could only hope they weren’t missing something in the gloom.
They had called Patti’s name over and over again until they were hoarse, but had not seen or heard any sign of the child. They sat in discouragement now, not wanting to admit it was time to
turn back. Kristi could not believe they had not found the tot. She had been so sure they would.
“Come on, guys,” Pete said at last. “We have to go back.” He stood, brushing off his seat and stretching. “If we hurry, we’ll only be a couple hours late.”
Skeeter stood up and moved restlessly around the grassy area where the steps ended. He stooped to dig his flashlight out of his backpack and snapped it on. He shone the light around the area. “Wow! What’s this?” he said suddenly. The others turned to look.
“Look, guys! This looks like a cave or something. It’s a big hole in this mound of rock.”
“Stay back, Skeeter!” Kristi said. “It might be a bear’s den.”
“No,” Pete said, “I think this is the entrance to an old abandoned mine! See, there’s some old wood beams around the edges.”
“She must have gone this way!” Kristi said excitedly. “Maybe she was cold and she was looking for someplace warm.”
“But it’s dark in there!” Anna said.
“It’s dark out here, too! Come on! We have to keep going!” Kristi stepped cautiously through the doorway. Skeeter handed her the flashlight and followed her inside. Dan and Pete were right behind. Anna and Robyn were afraid to go in the mine, but they were even more afraid of being left behind. They held hands and followed the guys as quickly as they could.
It actually was a little warmer once they were inside the mine and out of the wind. Kristi moved forward carefully, keeping an eye out for holes in the floor. Pete brought out another flashlight and shone it over the walls and into the dark corners. There was no sign of the little girl.
Kristi moved further into the mine and discovered that it was deeper than it looked. The back wall disguised a sharp turn that led even further into the darkness. She hesitated, but then went on. The other teenagers followed. The path turned several more times until finally they came to another large area.
Rocky Mountain Rescue (Kristi Cameron Book 3) Page 4