more time at the almost completely hidden campsite. Protect her while I’m gone, please. He winced. And if You could find a way to keep her asleep while I’m away, I’d sure appreciate it. Otherwise I’m going to have one angry female on my hands when I get back.
The heavy thud of a chopper flying overhead startled Joy from a sound sleep. She sat up too quickly, forgetting her shoulder and knee. Pain lanced through her body and she moaned. She could have bitten her tongue,expecting Brian to come rushing to her side at any second with his solicitude and practiced bedside manner. But then she realized he was probably too busy waving one of the highly reflective solar blankets at the chopper. More carefully this time, Joy inched forward and pushed back the parachute material that formed the front wall.
Their small, makeshift campsite was utterly deserted.
Full-blown panic blossomed in her heart. Brian was gone. He’d left her. She was alone in the vast Adirondack Forest Preserve in the most dense and dangerous area of the mammoth Forever Wild preserve lands. Only then did she realize how quiet it had suddenly become. The chopper had moved on, never seeing their campsite.
And with it had gone their chance for a quick rescue.
Then Joy glanced back in the shelter and saw a power bar, a bottle of water and a note. She read it aloud. “Joy, I woke with the sun and I decided to chance the hike to the top of this peak. If my cell phone works, they’ll be able to find us from the locator chip in my phone and you’ll be home before nightfall. I have to try before the phone runs out of power. I should be back before noon if we landed as far up the mountain as I think we did.”
“High noon. The perfect time for a showdown,” she grumbled. She was furious, afraid and, worst of all, completely powerless.
She couldn’t believe he’d do this to her after his show of concern for her injuries. Especially since that annoying concern had included waking her from a sound sleep in the middle of the night to ask his dumb questions. After that she’d lain awake listening to amyriad of scurrying and scratching noises coming from outside the shelter. She’d lain there for hours waiting for something huge to tear apart the flimsy shelter with its razor-sharp teeth and claws in a quest to get to her and make her its next meal.
She’d dozed off only once in the darkness and had awakened abruptly thinking bugs were crawling on her. She’d scrambled to turn on the flashlight Brian had left with her, managing at the last second to stifle a pathetic scream for help. There hadn’t been any bugs, of course. Even self-respecting bugs were smart enough not to camp out in the last days of April.
That had done it. Joy had decided to stay awake until she could at least see her hand in front of her face. She’d filled the rest of her night with prayer until the noises faded with dawn’s approach. Only then had she felt safe enough to let sleep take her.
Joy inched back into the shelter and wrapped her blanket around her shoulders to ward off the chill in the April air and the feeling of desertion that threatened to crush any reserve of courage. She glanced at her watch for about the hundredth time since making it safely to the ground and began counting the minutes till Brian’s promised return. Once again prayer was the only thing that kept her sane, but for the first time in years she was tempted to blubber like a baby.
Last evening, as dusk rolled solidly into night, Brian had sat across the blazing fire waxing poetic about the beauty of the forest and about how he saw God everywhere he looked. As far as Joy was concerned, God had allowed man to invent the internal combustion engineas well as the trains, planes and automobiles it powered so they could look at His Creation from a nice, safe, glass and steel enclosed safety bubble.
She looked around now and could feel nothing of the wide-open spaces, freedom and quiet Brian found
The heavy thud of a chopper flying overhead startled Joy from a sound sleep. She sat up too quickly, forgetting her shoulder and knee. Pain lanced through her body and she moaned. She could have bitten her tongue,expecting Brian to come rushing to her side at any second with his solicitude and practiced bedside manner. But then she realized he was probably too busy waving one of the highly reflective solar blankets at the chopper. More carefully this time, Joy inched forward and pushed back the parachute material that formed the front wall.
Their small, makeshift campsite was utterly deserted.
Full-blown panic blossomed in her heart. Brian was gone. He’d left her. She was alone in the vast Adirondack Forest Preserve in the most dense and dangerous area of the mammoth Forever Wild preserve lands. Only then did she realize how quiet it had suddenly become. The chopper had moved on, never seeing their campsite.
And with it had gone their chance for a quick rescue.
Then Joy glanced back in the shelter and saw a power bar, a bottle of water and a note. She read it aloud. “Joy, I woke with the sun and I decided to chance the hike to the top of this peak. If my cell phone works, they’ll be able to find us from the locator chip in my phone and you’ll be home before nightfall. I have to try before the phone runs out of power. I should be back before noon if we landed as far up the mountain as I think we did.”
“High noon. The perfect time for a showdown,” she grumbled. She was furious, afraid and, worst of all, completely powerless.
She couldn’t believe he’d do this to her after his show of concern for her injuries. Especially since that annoying concern had included waking her from a sound sleep in the middle of the night to ask his dumb questions. After that she’d lain awake listening to amyriad of scurrying and scratching noises coming from outside the shelter. She’d lain there for hours waiting for something huge to tear apart the flimsy shelter with its razor-sharp teeth and claws in a quest to get to her and make her its next meal.
She’d dozed off only once in the darkness and had awakened abruptly thinking bugs were crawling on her. She’d scrambled to turn on the flashlight Brian had left with her, managing at the last second to stifle a pathetic scream for help. There hadn’t been any bugs, of course. Even self-respecting bugs were smart enough not to camp out in the last days of April.
That had done it. Joy had decided to stay awake until she could at least see her hand in front of her face. She’d filled the rest of her night with prayer until the noises faded with dawn’s approach. Only then had she felt safe enough to let sleep take her.
Joy inched back into the shelter and wrapped her blanket around her shoulders to ward off the chill in the April air and the feeling of desertion that threatened to crush any reserve of courage. She glanced at her watch for about the hundredth time since making it safely to the ground and began counting the minutes till Brian’s promised return. Once again prayer was the only thing that kept her sane, but for the first time in years she was tempted to blubber like a baby.
Last evening, as dusk rolled solidly into night, Brian had sat across the blazing fire waxing poetic about the beauty of the forest and about how he saw God everywhere he looked. As far as Joy was concerned, God had allowed man to invent the internal combustion engineas well as the trains, planes and automobiles it powered so they could look at His Creation from a nice, safe, glass and steel enclosed safety bubble.
She looked around now and could feel nothing of the wide-open spaces, freedom and quiet Brian found
Similar Books
