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

First Aid kit and went back to Cappy, stopping to rinse the towel in the icy cold lake. She wrung it out and started washing the dried blood from Cappy’s face.
“What kind of shape is the plane in?” Cappy asked.
“Looks ok,” Alex answered, “At least all the pieces are still attached. I think the left float is probably punctured because it sank, it’s completely under water, but it doesn’t seem to be sinking any more.”
“That’s good,” Cappy said, “but we need to get everything we can out of the plane. That’s where you come in, Alex, because all those totes that are in the back need to be unloaded. Especially that emergency kit, the one that’s behind the seats.”
Alex nodded, then realized that Cappy couldn’t tell if she was nodding or what she was doing. She had finished washing the blood off his face and the bleeding had almost stopped.
“Does it look like it needs stitches?” Cappy asked through a grimace.
“If we were in a hospital, they’d probably put stitches in it,” she guessed. The cut is pretty deep, about four inches across.”
“Ok, listen to me,” Cappy said seriously. “I always keep Super Glue in the first aid kit. It’s what they sometimes use in emergency rooms on cuts that would otherwise need stitches.
“So you want me to glue you back together?” she said incredulously.
“Something like that, clean out the wound as well as possible, then hold the skin together with one hand and spread the glue along the wound with the other. Try not to get any on your fingers,” Cappy explained.
She opened up the first aid kit again and got another gauze bandage. Rinsing out the towel, she cleaned the wound, daubed at the blood with the gauze and then approached the wound with the glue. “Hold your head back,” she suggested. Then bracing herself, she pressed the wound together and glued the skin as Cappy had instructed.” After a minute or so, she backed away and surveyed her handiwork. “Not bad,” she said. “It’ll have to do for now.” She spread some anti-biotic ointment on the wound and covered it with a bandage.
“Ok,” Cappy said, “I still have a monstrous headache and I can’t see anything, but I know what needs to be done. I’m sorry I can’t help you, but I’m sure you can do it. There are certain things we need to get done because if that snow storm moves in tonight, we could be in for a very uncomfortable night if we don’t get a shelter and maybe a fire going.”
Suddenly Alex got very scared. “You mean we survived a plane crash so we could freeze to death out here?” Tears began to well up in her eyes. “What about the radio call? Won’t there be someone coming for us?”
“They may not know we’re missing until dark,” Cappy said softly. “It’s possible no one heard my distress call. I think that the electrical fire was in one of my old radios and it’s just likely that no one heard us. I’m sorry.”
“But they will come looking for us, won’t they?” Alex’ voice quavered.
“Sure they will, Alaska has a very well organized search and rescue organization, but for now we’ve got to get that plane unloaded. There’s things on board that can make life much more comfortable, but if that plane sinks or turns over, we could be in big trouble.”
“Where do I start?” Alex tried to sound all grown up and unafraid, while inside all she wanted was to cuddle up in her Daddy’s lap and cry and cry and….”
“First thing is to get that emergency survival kit out. It’s going to be heavy, but there’s all kinds of equipment in there designed to keep us alive. Then we’ll worry about the other stuff, because I heard them say that there were some ropes and tarps, and if that little chain saw still has gas in it, it could be useful too. There’s a tool box in the back somewhere and all that stuff needs to come out.”
“Ok,” Alex acknowledged, and looked at the plane. “I’ll get started.” Her feet were soaked from wading ashore and that water was icy cold, but she headed back for the plane. Stepping up on the pontoon, she climbed up the steps and opened the cargo door. Because of the angle the plane was leaning, the door didn’t want to stay open and kept trying to slam shut on her. Finally she propped it open and crawled inside the cargo area. The survival kit was still up behind the passenger seats and Alex made her way forward. She grabbed the handle on the end of the box and gave it a tug. It didn’t budge. She pulled harder, still no movement. Then she noticed a strap around the big box. “Aha,” she said to herself, and reached for the clasp. She snapped it open and the strap fell away. Taking hold of the handle again, she gave another tug. The box barely moved. She braced her foot against the back of the seat and pulled again, pushing with her leg. The box slid toward the door. Pulling it uphill on the floor of the plane, she got part of it out the door.
“That thing’s going to be heavy,” Cappy yelled, “try not to drop it.”
“Right,” Alex grunted and gave another heave. The big box was about halfway out the door and Alex stopped for a moment. “Maybe if I stand on the float, I can let it down easy,” she thought to herself. She backed down the steps and stood on the float.
The plane seemed solid and she braced her footing and gave the box another tug. That thing was heavy!
“Is that too heavy for you to handle?” Cappy called to her.
“It’s really heavy,” Alex answered.
“Look up on the ceiling of the airplane,” Cappy said, “I built a winch to handle really heavy things. Just slide the rail right out the door until it clicks into place. There’s a hand crank on the opposite wall, crank out enough cable to run through the handles on both ends of the box. Then let it down slowly.”
Alex climbed back up inside the airplane and did as Cappy had told her. She pulled out several feet of cable and fed the hook through the handle on one end, then on the other.
“Now what?” she asked.
“Pull the hook up and hook it into the cable that comes down from the pulley,” Cappy said. “When you’ve done that, go crank on the handle, it should tighten the cable and pull the box out the door, then just let it down slowly and it should rest on the pontoon.”
Alex tightened the hand crank taking the slack out of the cable. The cable tightened and the box began to inch its way out of the airplane. In just a few minutes, the box was suspended in the air, hanging only by the cable.
“Now what?” Alex asked.
“Flip the switch on the crank,” Cappy said, “And crank the other way. It should set it right down on the float.”
Alex followed instructions and started cranking again, the box moved down slowly and in minutes was sitting on the float. Just like Cappy had said.
“How’d that work?” Cappy asked.
“Just fine,” Alex said, “Now all I’ve got to do is get it on shore.”
“It might float,” Cappy suggested. “Then again it might sink. I know it’s watertight, so we might get lucky. Or you could open it and carry the items over here one at a time. What do you think, Alex?”
“I know I can’t carry it,” she said, “and even if it does float, I’ll have to be able to get it out of the water and up the bank. Besides, if it sinks, we may ruin our supplies.”
“Then you’d better open it up and carry some of the bigger items separately,” Cappy helped her solve the problem. “Just flip up those catches and then lift the lid.”
Alex snapped open the locks and pulled up the lid. The big box was jammed full of all kinds of survival gear.


Chapter 4

“Settling In”

Bess Benson and Cappy had been high school sweethearts. Then he went on to college and eventually into the military. All he had ever wanted to do was fly and Bess decided she’d better get used to it. Over the years she had learned not to worry about him, but today she was glancing at the clock, then out the window more than usual.
Finally, at 4:00 PM, she looked out the window one more time, then called the local Fixed Base Operator.
“Hey Ben, this is Bess Benson,” she said. “Is Cappy back yet from that supply run?”
Ben Darnell ran the little office that kept track of local air traffic and all the charter operations checked in with him every day. They told him where they were going and when they’d be back, and he sold them Avgas, worked on their planes and scheduled flights for them.
“Not yet Bess,” he replied, “And I’m getting a little anxious, too. There’s supposed to be a snow storm come in late this evening. I don’t think Cappy knew about that because it wasn’t on the weather briefing this morning.”
“Well when he shows up, tell him I called,” Bess said. “He’s not usually this late,” Bess said to no one in particular as she hung up the phone.

Alex made at least a dozen trips back and forth as she emptied the survival kit. Her feet were almost numb with cold from the icy water she had been wading in. Finally she got the box unloaded to the point she thought she could carry it. Grasping the handles, she hefted the box off the airplane’s float and lugged it to shore, depositing it with a ‘thud’ on the ground.
Cappy was still sitting on the log with his injured ankle sticking out in front of him. “How are you doing?” she asked.
“So far so good, splitting headache, ankle hurts like everything and still can’t see anything, Cappy said. “So how’s the unloading going?” he said, turning the attention away from him.
“I’ve the emergency kit all unloaded and the box is here too, now I’ve just got to get those totes,” Alex said.
“The totes shouldn’t be as heavy,” Cappy tried to encourage her; he could tell she was getting tired. “Also don’t forget that sack of smoked fish, we might need that, and there’s a toolbox in there somewhere too.”
Alex struggled to keep her cool, “I’m on it,” she said as she turned to wade out to the plane again.
The totes weren’t nearly as heavy as the survival kit. She set them all down on the floats then climbed up in the plane one last time. She found the tool kit that Cappy had mentioned and the smoked fish was right between the passenger seats where they had stashed it. Within just a few minutes everything was on dry ground and Alex sat on one of the totes. “Everything’s off the plane,” she announced.
“Great!” Cappy said, “Now we’ve got to turn our attention to getting shelter set up and a