Girl of Mine (17 page)

“That’ll be my bed,” Troy told him. “We gotta share the emergency blanket.” Troy rummaged through the pile of clothing. He found a sweatshirt and a heavy sweater that had belonged to his father. He donned the sweatshirt, then placed the sweater on over it. “My dad always says layers are the best way to keep warm.” The clothes were too big for him, but the added bulk provided extra warmth. Troy grabbed another one of his dad’s sweaters and tucked it around Luke’s torso, then re-zipped his coat and replaced the survival blanket.

“Thanks, Troy.”

Troy kept busy, as if stopping meant he’d have to face reality. He opened small packets from the emergency supplies and handed Luke two pills. “I found painkillers.”

Next, Troy took out a metal cup from the emergency bag, filled it with fresh snow, and held it by the fire, until the snow had melted and the water was warm.

“I’m saving the good water for the middle of the night. Drink this, Luke.”

“No, you drink first. You’ve gotta be freezing.”

“I’ve been moving around. I’m fine. You drink it. I’m not gonna let you die,” Troy said, sounding angry.

Troy had just lost his father and Luke couldn’t imagine how he must be feeling right now. But he wasn’t going to make things worse for Troy by dying on him too. Luke drank the water and the warmth seemed to spread right down to his toes.

Troy tore open an emergency energy bar with his teeth and handed it to Luke. “Here, it’s supposed to fill you up.”

Troy downed an energy bar too and they both stared into the fire.

“A rescue plane will come for us, Troy. They’ll be here soon.”

“Yeah.” Troy started to cry again and Luke did too. But neither of them made a sound.

“Dad told me planes have Emergency Locater Transmitters. It helps people find a plane that has crashed. A radio signal will help them find us.” Troy stared at the huge mountain face. It was like nature had built a rock wall. “You think the signal can get through rock?”

Luke wasn’t sure. “Of course it can.” At least he hoped it could.

“Do you think it’s still working? I tried the transceiver. It’s broke.” Troy added a few more branches to the fire.

“Yeah, those kinds of things are supposed to work after a crash. That’s what they’re for. Otherwise they’d be stupid.”

“It’s getting dark. We’ve got one flashlight and a couple of light sticks.”

“We’ll be all right,” Luke told him, trying to convince himself too.

“I found some long branches with pine needles on the end. If wild animals come, I’ll light them and scare ‘em away. I won’t let ‘em eat you.”

“That was smart, Troy.”

“Gotta do something. I can’t just sit here and be a cry baby. It’s too cold.”

“Sorry ‘bout your dad. I really liked him. He was nice and all.”

Troy stared into the fire. “Yeah, he was the best. He read to me every night before I went to bed. I know I’m too old for that stuff, but I liked it.”

Luke swallowed the lump in his throat. “That’s cool.”

“He was fun too, ya know. Whenever we drove in the mountains and we reached the summit, he’d always make us all yell ‘summit!’ at the top of our lungs.”

“Summit,” Luke said with waning strength. “I think we’re there.”

“Yeah. We’re way up high.” Troy wiped at his eyes angrily. “Whenever we arrived home after a trip, he’d say ‘home-again-finnegan.’ I don’t know why. It was just a thing he always said.” Troy frowned. “Guess I’ll never know why now.”

Luke said nothing. Troy needed to speak about his dad and that was okay with him.

“Me and my dad, we had the same middle name. His name is Errett Guy Kelley and I’m Troy Guy Kelley. It’s a family name. I always liked sharing a name with him, you know?”

Luke nodded in response.

“Whenever my dad sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to someone he sang, ‘Without a shirt,’ at the end. It always made me laugh. I never asked him why he did it.”

Luke smiled. “I always wondered why your dad did that. Maybe your mom knows.”

“Maybe. Why didn’t I ask him when I had the chance? I should’ve asked him.”

Luke remained silent. He didn’t know the answer.

“When I was little he always gave me pony rides on his knee. At the end, he’d say, ‘Shave and a haircut, two bits.’ Then he’d straighten his leg and I’d slip down as if I was on a slide.”

“Shave and a haircut, two bits?”

“It was some jingle from an old commercial or something like that. His grandpa used to do it, so my dad did too. He used the same tune from ‘Shave and a haircut’ whenever he knocked on a door. If we heard that knock, we knew it was my dad. It was like our secret code or somethin’.”

Luke remembered hearing that knock just this morning as Mr. Kelley had knocked on their hotel room door. Troy had immediately said, “Oh, that’s my dad.” Luke hadn’t given it a second thought.

“On Christmas, my dad always wore a red vest and handed out the presents. He made us open them one at a time. It made Christmas last longer.”

Christmas would be very different this year. If they survived to even be there. All Luke wanted this year was to actually be home for Christmas. If he made it home, he wouldn’t ask for one more thing.

“Every time I accidently left the light on in my room, he’d turn it off and say, ‘That’s okay, Troy, I got your light.’ It was a nice way of saying, ‘Hey, you left the light on in your room.’ He liked to save money on the electricity bill and stuff.”

“Grown-ups always worry ‘bout money.”

“My mom’s gonna do all the worrying by herself now. She won’t like that.”

“She’s not alone. She has you.”

“Not the same thing.”

No, it wasn’t. Luke wanted to make Troy feel better, but he couldn’t. Nothing he said could fix it. “Hey, Troy?”

“What?”

“Thanks for takin’ care of me.”

Troy continued to stare into the fire, his eyes angry. “Should I bury my dad?”

“No. I think your mom will want him buried close by.”

“He did a good job landing the plane. The snow was too slippery. He couldn’t stop. I didn’t see the cliff coming.”

“I didn’t either. He saved us, Troy. He saved our lives.”

“Yeah,” Troy said, but he didn’t sound happy. Silent tears dripped down his face, yet he didn’t allow himself to sob out loud.

The night was miserable. In spite of all Troy’s efforts, they couldn’t seem to get warm. They may not have been comfortable, but at least they weren’t freezing to death. They were alive and shivering, which was better than frozen and dead. Troy stoked the fire several times in the night and every time Luke awoke the fire blazed next to him.

“That’s okay, Troy, I got your light.”

Troy’s father’s words echoed through his mind. When Luke peeled his eyes open, he could’ve sworn he saw Troy standing next to the fire, staring at him intently while saying,
“That’s okay, Luke, I got your light.”

Troy kept the fire burning bright—the fire that was saving his life, his light.

No, that’s not right. It was Troy’s bedroom light.
Wait, how did the story go again?
He felt confused. And when he looked around, Troy wasn’t standing there anymore. He was snoring right next to him as he lay on his makeshift bed.

By morning, Luke felt dizzy and nauseated. His leg throbbed with never-ending pain. Even though he was cold, sweat beaded on his forehead. Opening his eyes seemed like a monumental task. He awoke to Troy handing him two Tylenol and making him drink more warm water. He slept fitfully to the sounds of the finger saw cutting away at branches and the fire crackling and popping next to him.

He was positive he heard Troy say,
“That’s okay, Luke, I got your light.”

The pile of firewood grew throughout the morning. Troy was still keeping himself busy. Luke never once caught him simply sitting. He spent the afternoon spelling out the word “HELP” in huge letters in the snow. He used whatever he could find: rocks, pinecones, and bunches of pine needles.

“Luke! Luke! You gotta wake up and eat.”

It was dark again and the day had been a blur.

“You’ve gotta fever, Luke. You’re blazing hot.” Troy’s hand felt like ice against his brow.

Luke tried to eat another energy bar, but was only able to down half of it. He drank more warm water and it seemed to ease his nausea. “It’ssssss night already?”

“Yeah. No one came today, Luke. No rescuers. No planes overhead. I don’t think the transmitter thing is workin’.”

“You gottttt my lightttttt, Troy?”

“What? Luke, you’re not making any sense.”

Luke drifted off again, feeling as though he was floating outside of his body. He couldn’t quite grasp onto a thought and hold it in his brain. The world seemed to be spinning through space and he longed to reach out and hold onto something that would ground him. A violent shaking of his shoulder momentarily brought him out of his dreamlike state.

“Luke, Luke, do you hear that? Wolves, Luke. I hear wolves.” Troy sounded frantic and Luke could hear the pure terror in his voice.

Howling echoed in the distance, sounding hopeless, as if it were the battle cry of his impending death. The sound rumbled through his brain, making his ears ring. He wanted to tell Troy to stay calm and don’t panic, even while fighting the rising fear gathering in his gut. He tried, but nothing came out. He wanted to get up off his deathbed and help Troy defend them from wild animals. Only his body wouldn’t respond to the command and he knew it was useless to try. Every time he pried his eyes open, he saw Troy sitting next to the fire while holding a brightly burning branch, his wild eyes scanning the darkness as he jumped at every snap and crackle of the fire.

As near as Luke could tell, Troy didn’t sleep that night. He kept watch, trying to keep them safe from the hungry wolves. Luke dreamt a wolf had once again taken hold of his leg, refusing to let go, growling with rage as he protected his food source.

When it was morning, the world turned fuzzy and when he tried to open his eyes, everything looked like a reflection in a funhouse mirror. A distorted Troy stared at him with wide unblinking eyes, his entire body seeming to shiver in the frosty air. “You still alive, Luke?”

“Yeah,” was all he could manage. Luke knew his light was fading. And fast.

Time seemed to stand still and he felt as though he’d been on the mountain top for days on end. Occasionally he caught a glimpse of his surroundings. Troy was always busy doing something while mumbling under his breath, his words meant for no one in particular. Luke couldn’t understand a word he said.

In the next moment of consciousness, he realized Troy was moving him. He didn’t have the strength to respond or ask him what he was doing. He couldn’t even shout when the pain became unbearable.

Then he was traveling, constantly moving forward and being jostled this way and that. Every once in awhile he swore he heard the low grumble of an angry wolf. Troy’s fury would then rattle through his head, “Leave us alone!”

The world tumbled and shook, a constant and steady never-ending rumble. His entire body was shaking and shuddering, pitching backwards and forwards. The pain in his leg almost brought a scream to his lips, but never quite made it into the air. It was a constant silent scream, loudly vibrating through his entire body.

Then there were voices. Lots of voices. Red flashing lights swirled through the air, hurting his eyes.

And then blackness.

Nothingness.

17

Luke and Jill
April 2003

Present Day

“Troy saved you. He saved your life,” Jill said, her voice cracking with emotion. Tears wandered down her cheeks and landed on her lap. She didn’t bother wiping them away.

“He did. While I slept, ravaged with fever, he built a platform out of branches and cord. He put me on it and he dragged me down the mountain, walking through thick snow. It took him around ten hours.”

Jill gasped. “Ten hours? I don’t know how either one of you survived it.”

“I slept through it and don’t remember much. Just motion and pain and cold and fear.”

“Were there really wolves surrounding you?”

“Just one. A lone wolf. It was tracking us.”

“Did it attack?”

“No, Troy somehow managed to scare it away.”

“What happened next?” Jill asked while contemplating the terror such an experience would evoke.

“Troy stumbled across a remote cabin. It was like finding a needle in the proverbial haystack. The man who lived there called for help.”

Jill felt utterly impressed with the actions of a twelve year old boy. “Troy did that for you. That’s incredible.”

Luke’s expression was grave. “If he hadn’t done it, I would’ve died on that mountain.”

Jill absorbed this knowledge with all it implied. “It explains so much. I always wondered why you stood by Troy’s side when he was so . . .”

“Unpleasant?”

“Well, yeah. I understand now. I’m glad you told me.”

“I can’t abandon him. I
won’t
abandon him.”

“No, of course not.” Luke’s loyalty was inspiring. “After all that, it’s so sad that Troy was injured later while he and his dad built the tree hou . . .” Jill stopped short.

Luke shook his head in the negative.