Light Snow Falling, Dave Robinson [different ereaders .txt] 📗

made a batch of brownies, would you like one?”
“No thanks,” Alex said politely, “It’s a little early for sweets.”
“I understand,” Patsy replied as the two settled at a table. The men had poured themselves coffee and were chatting at a table nearby.
“Is Cappy your grandpa?” Patsy asked.
“Uh, no,” Alex said. “I came up to Cordova with my friend Bailey. Cappy is her uncle. Bailey got sick this morning and had to stay with her aunt and I rode along with Cappy.”
“Yeah, I’ve made the trip a few times with Cappy. He’s a real boring pilot. Never scares you, just seems to enjoy flying that old airplane of his.”
The two chatted back and forth for several minutes until the men got to their feet.
“Looks like it’s time to go,” Alex said. “It’s been nice talking to you.”
“Same here,” Patsy said, “I get kind of lonesome for girl-talk sometimes up here.”
“I think I understand,” Alex smiled.
“Hey Cappy,” Patsy said, “Would you like to take some smoked fish with you? One of the men caught a bunch of fish off the dock the other day and we smoked it up. We’ve got way too much. You want some?”
“Sure,” Cappy said, “We’ll always take smoked fish.”
Patsy handed him a plastic bag with several pounds of fish. “Here,” she said, “pass it around to your friends, we’ve got plenty.”
“Are you sure?” Cappy replied. “That’s a lot.”
Patsy waved him off, and then turned to Alex, “Here’s some of those brownies, you can eat ‘em on the trip home.”
“Thanks,” Alex replied, “they won’t go to waste, I promise you.”
“Let’s go, Alex,” Cappy called out. “Time to get on home.”
Alex hugged Patsy good-bye and followed Cappy and the other men down to the dock. Cappy stepped on a pontoon and then crossed over to the other to get in on his side. Alex climbed up in to the passenger seat.


Chapter Three
“Headed Home”

Just as Cappy was going through his pre-start checklist, one of the men he had been visiting with came back down to the dock and waved his arms. “Hold it,” the man shouted, “We’ve got a few things for you to take back with you, we almost forgot.”
Another man came out of the tool shed driving an ATV pulling a trailer. Alex could tell there were several totes on the trailer.
“Just some stuff we want to ship back to the main shop,” the man said. Some tarps, ropes and a little chain saw we don’t use anymore.” The man pulled open the cargo door and hefted the totes inside. “Thanks, Cappy,” he said, “see you next trip.”
Cappy fired up the engine and idled away from the dock. He taxied out of the cove and shoved the throttle forward; the plane was much lighter and fairly leaped out of the water. In no time they were climbing out of the valley the way they came. Alex leaned back in her seat.
The Beaver climbed to 7500 feet and Cappy trimmed it out for straight and level flight. “We’ll be home in about an hour and ten minutes,” he reported to Alex. “Don’t want to waste any time, those guys told me that the season’s first snow storm is supposed to blow in tonight and we want to be back in Cordova ‘way before then.”
Alex nodded her acknowledgement and reached for her backpack. She opened it up and dug through it for her cell phone. She had left her Daddy at the airport just yesterday morning and hadn’t texted anyone for at least 24 hours, that must be some kind of record. She slid open her phone. ‘NO SERVICE’ it read. “You gotta be kidding me,” she thought to herself, we’re one and a half miles in the air and I get ‘NO SERVICE’? She slid the phone shut and stuffed it back in her pack.
“You want a brownie?” she offered Cappy.
“Sure,” he reached for one of Patsy’s brownies.
Alex turned her attention to the scenery. It sure didn’t look like snow, the sky was still clear and there was no sign of bad weather, at least not to Alex.
The flight was smooth and the plane was humming along when Alex noticed Cappy reach forward and tapped one of the instruments. “Maybe it’s stuck or something,” Alex thought to herself. It was then that Alex smelled something unusual. It smelled like something hot. She had smelled it once before when her dad’s old pickup had an electrical fire!
Just then Cappy spoke into the microphone, “Mayday, Mayday,” he gave the plane’s call sign and said, “We’re making an emergency landing about 50 miles east of Cordova Peak, electrical fire! Mayday! Mayday!” Then he shut off the two switches that said “Master Magnetos.” The engine suddenly went silent!
Cappy looked at Alex, “we’ve got a problem, electrical fire somewhere. We’re going to have to make an emergency landing in one of those lakes! I want you to grab your backpack, Alex and use it as a cushion in front of you in case we land harder than I want.”
Alex reached behind her seat, grabbed the backpack and hugged it close. The plane was still flying, but it was going down fast. Alex saw that Cappy had apparently chosen one of the small lakes that lay in front of them. It was a tiny blue dot, but she remembered that the lake at the logging camp looked small too. This lake was even way smaller than that one.
Cappy pulled up the nose a little and reached for the flap lever. He pulled the lever to the third notch. Alex could feel the plane slowing and then the nose pitched down even sharper than before. There were trees just ahead and for a moment it didn’t look like they were going to clear them.
“Hold on!” Cappy shouted just as the treetops brushed the floats, “just a little more,” Cappy was coaxing all he could out of the plane.
That lake still didn’t look big enough, it was coming up fast!
“Brace yourself!” Cappy yelled as the plane smacked the water. Water flew as the plane skewed this way and that. Cappy fought to keep it under control but it bounced back in the air then smacked down again, this time up on one float and one wingtip brushing the water. Everything seemed to be happening in slow-motion as Alex buried her face in her backpack. Then there was a loud CRASH, and the airplane nearly went over on its nose, then fell back into the water.
Silence. Then Alex realized it was over and she was still alive! She let go of her backpack and looked out the window. They were at the edge of the lake. Apparently they had hit a rock or something just under the water and the floats looked like they were sinking.
Then Alex remembered Cappy. She was shocked when she saw his face. It was covered in blood and he was slumped over the control wheel.
“Cappy!” she yelled, “Cappy!” she tried to reach for him, but her seat belt held her fast. She flipped the catch and crawled over to him. He was still breathing but there was a huge cut on his forehead and it was bleeding.
She reached for the box marked ‘First Aid’ mounted behind Cappy’s seat on the side of the airplane, but the plane lurched and she thought it was going to tip over.
“Cappy!” she repeated, “wake up; we need to get out of here.”
The airplane was resting with the right float almost at the shore, the left was toward the lake and it seemed to be sinking. Alex pushed open her door, tossed her backpack out onto dry ground and turned to Cappy. She started to crawl towards him but the plane lurched again. “Come on Cappy,” she cried, “wake up, we’re sinking!”
Alex reached over and flipped open Cappy’s seat belt buckle. She shook his shoulder and he moaned aloud. Blood was pouring out of the gash across his forehead. “Come on Cappy, wake up!” She pounded his shoulder, more out of frustration than anger. She knew she couldn’t physically pull him out of the plane. Cappy raised his head.
“Cappy,” she shouted, “come on, lets get out of here!”
Cappy looked at her and blinked his eyes, as if to clear away the cobwebs. He moaned loudly and put his hand to his head.
“You’ve got a nasty cut there,” Alex said, “we need to get out of the plane, it’s sinking, but we’ve got to get out on my side, because your side is the deep water side.”
Cappy reached for Alex and started to climb out of his seat. “Aargh!” he groaned aloud. “My ankle, I think it’s broke!”
Alex looked down at his foot; it was twisted at an unnatural angle. “Yeah, it’s all twisted. Come on,” she said, “I’ll help you.”
Alex placed a foot against his seat, got his arm and pulled with all her might. Cappy pushed with his good foot and finally crawled up on the seat and fell over to Alex’ side. Alex noticed that through all the pushing and pulling, the plane hadn’t tipped any more. Maybe it was resting on the bottom, or at least on a rock. At least it hadn’t leaned over any farther.
Alex leaned across and snatched the First Aid kit off the airplane’s sidewall. She opened it up and grabbed something marked ‘gauze bandage’. She tore it open and reached for Cappy. “Here,” she said, “Let’s see if we can get that bleeding stopped.”
Cappy looked toward her as she pressed the bandage against his wound.
Finally she got him where he could back out the door on her side, down the steps and on to the float. “Looks like we’re going to have to wade a few feet to shore,” she said.
“Alex, something I need to tell you,” Cappy said flatly.
“Can’t it wait?” Alex said with an edge in her voice.
“I can’t see anything,” Cappy reported.
“What?” cried Alex.
“Must have been that crack on the head,” I can see some light, but not all of the time. I can’t see you at all, so you’re going to have to help me here.”
“Oh great,” Alex said to herself. But instead, she said aloud, “I’ll help you, just back down these steps here.”
“My ankle’s really hurting,” Cappy said, “But we’ll make it.”
Several minutes later, they were down on the float and a few minutes more they were both on dry ground.
“Let’s sit here,” Alex suggested and led Cappy to a log lying in a grassy spot. “We’ve got to get you patched up,” she said with a newfound authority.
“There should be an old towel under the seat of the plane,” Cappy suggested. “You can soak it in the lake and I can wash off with it.”
Alex waded back to the plane, climbed into the cockpit and found a not-too-grimy towel under the seat. “Anything else I should get while I’m here?” she called.
“Bring the whole First Aid kit,” Cappy said. “I think there’s an Ace bandage in there too for my ankle.”
Alex grabbed the