Getting Air (7 page)

As soon as David left, I felt better. We all did, I think. It was like a big sigh of relief. That’s the way he is. I love the guy like a brother and all, but he just gets on your nerves sometimes.

I wondered who would be our leader now. Not me. I didn’t want the responsibility. Julia’s not the leader type. Henry pretty much just likes to sit back and make fun of the world. I didn’t know Arcadia or Mrs. Herschel very well, but neither of them seemed like a real take-charge kind of person the way David is. Mrs. Herschel was certainly the oldest in our group, so I guess she felt she had to start things off.

“Okay, our first order of business—”

“Um, may I say something?” Arcadia asked.

“Of course, dear,” Mrs. Herschel said.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” said Arcadia.

“So go,” Julia said. “There are plenty of trees.”

“Uh, that’s not the problem,” Arcadia said.

“Well, what’s the problem, dear?” asked Mrs. Herschel.

“None of the trees…have toilet paper,” Arcadia finally said.

The rest of us had a good snicker, and even Arcadia giggled a little.

“Use leaves,” Julia said. “All of the trees have
them
.”

“Leaves?” Arcadia asked, turning all red and squishing up her nose.

“Just
do
it, dear,” Mrs. Herschel told her. “Don’t be embarrassed. We’re all friends here.”

“Just make sure you don’t use poison ivy,” Julia suggested. “That could be…uncomfortable.”

We all groaned and Arcadia went off into the woods. I didn’t laugh or make fun of her, because I knew that sooner or later we would all be doing the same thing.

We talked a little bit about what we should do next, but Julia felt we should wait for Arcadia. She came back in a few minutes, with a little smile on her face.

“Feel better, dear?” asked Mrs. Herschel.

“Much,” Arcadia said.

“So…how did it go?” I asked. “With the leaves, I mean.”

“Fine,” Arcadia said.

“Did everything…come out all right?” Henry asked.

“I’d rather not discuss it,” Arcadia said.

“Let’s get down to business,” Mrs. Herschel said. “Your friend David wasn’t the only one who was hungry. I’m sure we all are. Do you think he was right? Should we go off and search for food?”

That sounded like a good idea to me. I figured we could hunt down some berries or nuts or something that might tide us over until we were rescued.

“I don’t think so,” my little sister said, and we all turned to look at her. Julia tends to fade into the background until she says something really smart that nobody else thought of.

“Why not, sweetie?” Mrs. Herschel asked. “Aren’t you hungry too?”

“I learned in Girl Scouts that the average person can survive for more than a month without food,” Julia said. “But we can’t go more than a few days without water.”

“Is that so?” Mrs. Herschel said.

“We’re already dehydrated,” Julia said. “Water accounts for almost two thirds of your body’s weight. So I think it might be smarter to look for water before we worry about getting food.”

I couldn’t help but smile at my little sister. She was always the smart one in the family. I used to make fun of her because her head was always stuck in a book. But I guess she actually learned a thing or two.

“It sounds like the Girl Scouts taught you a great deal,” Mrs. Herschel said, stroking Julia’s hair. “Do you know anything about finding water?”

“A little,” Julia said.

She was being modest. She knew a lot, about
everything
. The rest of us knew
one
way to get water—by turning on a faucet. So we were all ears.

“Let’s go through those suitcases again,” Julia said.

Julia told us to look for anything that could be used as a container. The cap from a can of shaving cream. A camera bag. An upside-down umbrella. We collected a bunch of containers. Julia said we should set them out in a clearing and use them to catch rain when it fell.

“Hey!” Henry said. “I found a bunch of plastic bags.”

“Jackpot!” Julia said excitedly.

They were those really big black bags, the kind you use to line a garbage can. Julia ripped off a leafy bough from a bush and stuffed it into one of the bags. She sealed the opening with a rubber band she had in her pocket.

“What’s that for?” Arcadia asked.

“It’s called a solar still,” Julia replied. “We’ll leave it out in the sun. The moisture in the leaves won’t be able to escape into the atmosphere, so it will collect in the bag. We should have a little water tomorrow.”

My sister is a genius.

Julia said the solar still wouldn’t produce nearly enough water for all of us, so we’d have to go out and hunt for more. We were all a little nervous about leaving the safety of our little campsite, but it had to be done. Julia added some wood to the fire to keep it going while we were gone, and then she led the way. Julia grimaced as she limped along, putting her arm around my shoulder and using me like a crutch. It was slow going.

“Listen for a fast-moving stream,” she advised us. “There might even be a river around here.”

As we marched through the woods, I was looking all around me. There could be animals out there, I knew. But I was more worried about getting lost. What if we couldn’t find our way back to the plane? What if a search and rescue team found the plane while we were gone? Well, at least they’d find our fire. They would know there were survivors somewhere.

I hadn’t really been out in a forest since I was a little kid, when we used to go on family hikes. There were some woods near my house, but they cut them down and put up condos on that spot. Ever since then, my only experience with nature consisted of mowing the lawn.

Julia seemed to know where she was going, hobbling through the woods as if she’d been there a hundred times. The splint kept her bad leg straight, and she had picked up a long stick to use as a cane. Julia told us to keep an eye out for large rocks, which might have a big dent on top where water could collect.

We hiked around for a long time. I didn’t tell the others, but I was starting to feel weak. It must have been even worse for Julia. Walking around looking for water uses up a lot of energy. And the more energy we used, the more water we’d need. I wondered if it might have made more sense to stay back at our campsite and wait for some rain or a rescue. Maybe we should have been conserving our energy. I stopped to wipe the sweat off my forehead when I turned my head and saw something through the trees.

A pond!

It was a sort of bowl in the ground where water collected. Not very big, maybe the size of a small house. But there was water in it. There was plenty for all of us.

“Water!” I shouted, pointing.

We went running over there like we were in the Olympics. Henry was the fastest, so he got to the edge of the pond first. He got down on his hands and knees and dipped his face into the water.

“Wait!” Julia yelled from behind us. “Don’t drink it!”

Henry lifted his head out of the pond.

“Why not?” he asked, water dripping down his face.

“It’s poisonous,” Julia said as she limped over near the water.

“How do
you
know?” Arcadia asked.

“There’s no vegetation around the pond,” she replied. “The plants died.”

“I’ve seen plenty of ponds that didn’t have vegetation around them,” Henry insisted. “This water looks fine to me.”

But he didn’t drink from it. We all watched as Julia walked around the pond for a minute. Then she kneeled down and picked something up.

“What’s that?” Arcadia asked.

“A bone,” Julia said. “It may be from a rabbit or a squirrel. Some small animal. I’m guessing it took its last drink here.”

“But how could a pond out in the middle of nowhere get poisoned?” Mrs. Herschel asked. “It’s not like there’s a bloody toxic-waste dump around here.”

Julia shrugged. “Who knows?” she said. “Maybe some big animal happened to die around here and was lying in the water. I don’t think it’s safe to drink.”

Oh, man! What a letdown. I could almost taste the water going down my throat. I could have gulped a gallon of it. A wave of depression swept over me. I think we all felt it. I
know
we all felt it, because Henry started crying. Mrs. Herschel and Arcadia went to comfort him, but he was beyond that.

“I just want a drink,” he sobbed, “and something to eat.”

“We’ll dig a well if we have to,” Julia told him. “We’ll dig until we reach the water table.”

“We’ll find something to drink soon,” I assured Henry. “I bet there’s a water fountain right out here in the woods. Or maybe a soda machine. Did you bring any change with you?”

“It’s not funny!” Henry shouted. “There’s no water out here. We’re gonna die in a few days! We’re finished! Nobody’s gonna find us out here, Zimmerman! At some point, they’ll give up trying! I should’ve gone with David. I’ll bet
he
found water. I’ll bet he found food.”

I couldn’t blame Henry for freaking out. We were all on edge. We had seen blood and death. We very nearly died ourselves. We were hot and sweaty, hungry and dehydrated. On top of all that, poor Henry had never even been away from home before. He wasn’t about to say how much he missed his parents, but I knew he did because that’s how I felt. I put my arm around him and held him while he cried.

That’s when we heard a loud crack. It had to be one of three things.

Lightning.

A tree falling.

Or a gunshot.

And then it started raining.

I hadn’t noticed the clouds gathering overhead while we were searching for water. But the sky had darkened and when we looked up through the trees, storm clouds were sliding across the sky and lightning was flickering in the distance.

There was never a drizzle. Almost right away, the rain came down in sheets. We were under the trees, so it didn’t hit us full force. But none of us needed to be told what to do. We ran out into the clearing and opened our mouths.

The rain tasted so good. It was like when you’re all sweaty on a really hot day and you’ve been skateboarding for hours and you take that first drink. But even better. The water was fresher, cooler. Or maybe it was just that my body needed it so badly.

“Drink up,” Mrs. Herschel advised. “It could be a long time until we see rain again.”

She didn’t have to tell me. I filled myself with water. Henry cheered up almost instantly. After we drank as much as we could hold, Julia took out one of the plastic garbage bags and we held it wide open to catch some rain for later. We got a couple of gallons in there when Julia said we’d better tie the bag up or it would become too heavy and burst when we tried to carry it back to the campsite.

The rain was still pouring down and we were all drenched and laughing and happily dancing around. My sister just laughed. For all we knew, we were about to get hit by lightning, but it was a risk we were willing to take. And then something really weird happened.

Mrs. Herschel took off her clothes!

“What are you doing?” Arcadia shouted over the storm.

“What does it look like?” Mrs. Herschel said. “I’m taking a blooming shower!”

I couldn’t believe it! I mean, I know we’re born naked and all that. I know it’s perfectly normal and natural to be nude. And when you think about it, wearing clothes is pretty abnormal, especially in the summer when it gets really hot. But here was this old lady peeling off her clothes like it was no big deal and dancing around in the rain! I didn’t know if I should look at her, look away, or what. Mrs. Herschel even pulled a bar of soap out of the pocket of her dress and started soaping herself up with it. Who carries soap around with them?

“I’m taking a shower
too
!” Julia declared, and she started peeling off her clothes.

“You are
not
!” I told her. I wasn’t about to have my little sister parading around in the nude with all these people watching.

“Oh, lighten up, Jimmy!” Julia said.

There was nothing I could do. She had already pulled the splint off her leg, and then her pants were off, and they were so wet there was no way I was going to get them back on her.

“What a great idea!” Arcadia said, taking off her flight-attendant uniform. “Let’s skinny-dip in the rain!”

I hadn’t mentioned it to anybody, but before the rains came, we were all starting to smell pretty bad. Especially the guys. And with the dirt and the sweat and the stress and everything we had been through, a shower sounded really good. My clothes were smelly and ripped and soaked anyway.

But I wasn’t sure I had the nerve to take my clothes off. Mrs. Herschel and Arcadia were holding hands and dancing around. Julia was hopping around on one foot while she soaped herself up.

“We’re singin’ in the rain,” they sang, “just singin’ in the rain…”

I looked at Henry, and he looked at me.

“Come on, boys!” Julia shouted. “It feels so good!”

Henry took off his T-shirt, so I took off mine. Then I took my pants off, and he took off his. Then he took his underwear off, and I took off mine.

If it had been just one of us or two of us, it would have been weird. But with all five of us stark naked, it just felt like the thing to do.

Julia handed me the bar of soap, and the dirt ran off me in little streams. Henry and I joined the girls in the song, shouting, laughing, dancing, and drinking more water as it splashed down on us.

Then, just as suddenly as it arrived, the rain stopped falling. It was like a faucet had been turned off. The storm cloud passed over our heads and the sky was sunny again.

It was weird, too. Before, we had been having fun being silly in the rain. Once it stopped, we were five people standing around with no clothes on. We covered ourselves up the best we could with our hands. Suddenly, I felt cold.

“My uniform is soaked,” Arcadia said. “I don’t want to put it on again.”

“My clothes are filthy,” said Julia.

“They’re the only clothes we have,” Henry said.

“No, they’re not,” said Mrs. Herschel.

We all looked at her, and one by one we figured out what she meant. Those suitcases we had recovered from the back of the plane were filled with clothes. Dry clothes. Clean clothes.

“What a great idea!” Arcadia said.

“Oh, no,” Henry said. “I’m not putting on old lady clothes!”

“Me neither,” I agreed.

“Suit yourselves,” Mrs. Herschel said. “But as soon as we get back to the campsite, I’m getting dressed.”

Julia picked up her clothes. Arcadia and Mrs. Herschel helped her walk. Henry and I didn’t have a lot of options. Neither of us memorized the route we took to get there. We didn’t want to stand around the forest naked. So we followed them.

By the time we got back to the campsite, we were almost dry. The girls rushed to open up the suitcases and they rifled through the clothes like there was a half-off sale at Target. Mrs. Herschel had no problem finding something that fit her. She put on one of her knitting buddies’ outfits and looked pretty much the same as she did before the rain came.

With Julia and Arcadia, it was another story. My eleven-year-old sister—who usually wears blue jeans and T-shirts—looked hilarious dolled up in an old-lady dress. She tried on a few of them before she found one she liked that fit her.

“I feel so grown-up,” Julia said, spinning around on her good leg so we could all admire her dress.

Arcadia found a green dress that she liked and slipped it over her head. She looked great, of course. She could wear a trash bag with holes cut out for her arms and she’d still look great.

Henry and I pretty much stood around awkwardly while the girls were playing dress up. Once the three of them had clothes on, it felt even weirder to be standing there naked. In the woods. The two of us. The girls were looking at us. Julia giggled.

“Okay,
okay
!” Henry finally said. “Get me something to wear.”

“Way to go, Henry!” Arcadia said.

The three of them dove into the suitcases looking for the perfect outfit for Henry. It seemed like they had even more fun dressing him up than they did dressing themselves.

“Don’t you think blue would bring out his eyes?” Arcadia asked, holding a flowered dress up in front of Henry.

“Oh, that is
so
you, Henry!” Julia said.

“Do you think it makes him look fat?” Arcadia asked.

“Let’s accessorize him!” said Mrs. Herschel.

“That’s enough!” Henry yelled, grabbing the dress. “I’ll put it on myself.”

Henry put the dress on, and I have to say, it was hilarious. He looked like he escaped from a Monty Python skit.

“Don’t slouch,” Mrs. Herschel ordered.

“You look ridiculous,” I told Henry.

“Not as ridiculous as you, Zimmerman,” he replied, adjusting the dress.

He was right. He may have been dolled up like an old lady, but at least he had something on. I was the only one who was standing out there in the middle of the forest, naked.

If I wanted to, I could tell you how the girls went through the suitcases until they found the perfect outfit for me. But frankly, it’s just too embarrassing to even discuss. Let’s just say I happen to look good in a purple polyester pantsuit.

“You should see yourself, Jimmy,” my sister said, trying her best not to laugh. “I wish we had a mirror.”

“A mirror?” Arcadia said. “It’s too bad we had to break that camera. This should be recorded for posterity.”

The two of them had a good laugh over me. Mrs. Herschel didn’t laugh, though. She took Henry and me aside and put an arm around each of our shoulders.

“I must hand it to you gentlemen,” she said. “That was not easy to do. But you’ve earned my respect. It takes a real man to dress up like a girl.”