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

fire going. But first could you get in the First Aid kit and get that Ace bandage. My ankle is killing me.”
Alex looked at his ankle. It had swollen some and was still at a funny, twisted angle. “Is there anything we can do?” Alex asked in a concerned tone.
“I remember, in my First Aid training,” Cappy said, “they talked about reducing fractures. That means you pull straight out on my foot and try to straighten it. It’ll probably hurt like crazy, but I could suffer permanent damage if we don’t do something. Of course, I realize that I could suffer permanent damage if we do something, but I’m willing to give it a try.”
“Are you sure?” Alex wasn’t convinced.
“I’ll let you know,” Cappy said as he slid off the log and extended his leg out in front of him. “Go ahead and pull off my shoe.”
Alex knelt down in front of him and untied his hiking boot. The pilot winced a couple of times as she tugged it off his foot.
“Back in the old days,” Cappy attempted a lame joke, “They’d give the guy a bullet to bite while they set his leg.”
“Sorry, fresh out of bullets,” Alex retorted.
“Ok, get a good grip on my foot, both the heel and the top of my foot,” Cappy directed, “then pull with a good firm pull, don’t jerk, but a good steady pull, then position my foot like you think it ought to be, straight, if you understand what I’m trying to say.”
“I think I’ve got it,” Alex said with a false bravery.
“When ever you’re ready,” Cappy gave the go-ahead, “just make it quick.”
Alex placed her hands on his foot, her right hand on the heel, her left hand on the top of his foot and pulled as gently, but firmly as she could.
Cappy took a quick, deep breath and clenched his fists, “MMMMM!” he screamed through his lips.
Alex rotated his foot to what seemed to be the correct position and released pressure. “Are you all right? Are you all right?” Alex cried!
“I think so,” Cappy grunted through his pain. Sweat breaking out in beads on his face. “You did exactly as I told you, time will tell if it was right.”
Alex collapsed on the ground with tears in her eyes.
“Come on girl, pull yourself together, now I need you to wrap my foot and ankle with that Ace bandage.”
Alex took the elastic bandage and began winding it around his foot. She’d seen this done before at school when one of her fellow basketball players turned an ankle.
“Not too tight,” Cappy cautioned, “I imagine it’s going to swell some and I don’t want it too tight.”
“How’s that?” Alex asked when she finished.
“Feels pretty good, now we’ve still got a lot to do,” Cappy gave her a reality check.
Alex could not believe there was more. First they’d survived a plane crash, then she’d unloaded the entire plane, including the pilot. Now her feet were freezing, she was cold, she’d had to fix his ankle and he’s telling her ‘we’ve still got a lot to do!’
“There should have been a tent in that emergency kit,” Cappy said gently. “We need to find a flat, smooth spot to set it up so we can have some shelter.”
“I put the tent right over here. It’s not very big though,” Alex said.
“No, it’s just a two person dome tent,” Cappy replied, “But it’ll keep the snow off us tonight. And there should have been two sleeping bags in there also.”
“That’s right,” Alex said. “I put them right beside the tent.”
“Good,” Cappy said, “Now go ahead and see if you can find a good campsite.”
Alex stood up and glanced around. The beach they were on sloped down to the lake and wouldn’t make a good place to put the tent. “I’ll have to move back from the lake a little ways,” she announced.
“I’ll wait right here, I promise,” Cappy said.
Alex walked up the slope and started searching. There was a thick stand of evergreens and basically no underbrush. Alex looked around and found a nice grassy, flat spot that looked big enough to pitch the tent. She walked around the area looking for rocks or twigs that might poke through the bottom of the tent.
“I think I’ve found a good spot,” Alex reported back to Cappy.
“Good, I hope it’s not too far,” Cappy said.
Picking up the tent, she started back for the clearing. Alex opened the drawstring and dumped the tent out of its bag. “Oh no,” she said aloud, “how does this thing go together anyway?”
Running back to Cappy, “How does it go together?”
“There may be some instructions,” Cappy offered. “It’s brand new, so there are probably directions in there somewhere.”
Alex ran back to the tent. Digging through the bag, she found a paper with a drawing of the tent. “Directions” it said. “Step one” showed a picture of the tent rolled out on the ground.
Alex spread the tent out as best she could. She had been camping with family several times, but somebody else had always put up the tent. Then there was step two, step three, four, and before long the little tent looked like a tent. It was bigger than she thought, and looked like it could sleep two comfortably.
Alex went back for more. “I got the tent up,” she said proudly.
“Outstanding,” Cappy encouraged her, “There should be some mats in the kit, too. Then we can roll out the sleeping bags.”
Alex gathered up the sleeping bags and found the mats and made another trip.
“Our bedroom’s ready,” she announced.
“Ok,” Cappy said, “Now let’s take a look in those other totes, we need to see what’s in there and if there’s anything we can use.”
Alex snapped the lid off the first of the six totes. It was full of coiled-up rope. “Rope here,” she sang out.
The second one held a small chain saw, plus a can of gas and some kind of plastic bottle tied to the gas can. “Chain saw here,” she reported.
Next there were several folded up blue plastic tarps. Each find was duly reported to Cappy. Inside the next three were some electrical wiring, two more cans of gas like the one for the little saw and the last one had some carpenter tools, saw, hammer and some nails.
“How’re you doing?” Cappy asked.
“I’m fine, my feet are wet and cold and I’m a little tired, but I’m ok.”
“Are you hungry yet?”
Alex realized she had only had a brownie since breakfast, “Yeah, come to think of it, I am hungry,” she said.
“You still got those sandwiches in your backpack?” Cappy said.
“They’re probably smooshed by now,” Alex guessed.
“Well, let’s get ‘em out and see if they’re still edible,” Cappy suggested.
Alex grabbed the backpack and dug inside. The sandwiches were still intact inside their baggies, and they looked ok. She unwrapped one and handed it to Cappy. “Ham and cheese,” Alex reported, “Aunt Bess made them this morning.” ‘Was that just this morning?’ Alex was shocked; it seemed like a lifetime ago.
“I’ve got a couple of bottles of water here. You want one?” she asked.
“Sure,” Cappy said, “Also there should be some kind of pain pills in that first aid kit. Some Ibuprofen or something like that.”
Alex leaned over and picked up the first aid box. She found a bottle marked ‘Acetaminophen’ and unscrewed the cap.
“How many?” she asked.
“The way my head and ankle feel, I could use the whole bottle, but I’ll take three,” Cappy answered.
The pair ate their sandwiches and drank their water. For the first time, Alex noticed the clouds moving in. The sun was threatening to sink behind the mountain ridge, and she knew that it was only a matter of time before it grew colder and night would be upon them.
“We’d better get up to the tent,” she suggested.
Cappy agreed, “Have you seen anything around that looks like firewood?”
“Some,” Alex replied, “There’s a few dead branches at the edge of the lake, and some other downed trees around.”
“Good, but first we’d better move our stuff up by the tent. Can you help me up?”
Alex helped him up on the log, then he got his good foot under him and she pulled on his arm. “Can you see anything yet?” she asked.
“I can see light, and a while ago, I thought I saw some movement, but nothing for sure. My head feels like it’s about to come off.”
Alex moved to his right side and he leaned on her. “It’s going to be pretty slow going,” Cappy said.
Every step brought an agonized grunt from Cappy. They took their time, pausing after each step. It took a full ten minutes for the pair to make it to the tent. Alex unzipped the tent door and pushed it open. The tent wasn’t tall enough to stand up, so she helped him kneel down and held the door back while he crawled inside. “Off to the left,” she directed.
Cappy did a sort of a crab-crawl inside and lay down on his sleeping bag.
“I hate to ask, Alex,” he said, “but we need to bring that emergency kit and the food up here. We don’t want animals tearing it all up. Then push those other totes together and cover them with one of those tarps, so if it does snow tonight, at least it won’t get all wet. Also bring one of those tarps here and toss it over the tent, just for extra insulation.”
“I’m on it,” Alex said as she got to her feet. “I’ll be right back.”
Alex went back down to the lake shore and did as Cappy had directed. She shoved the totes together and chose a large tarp to cover them all. Then she grasped one end of the survival kit and dragged it back to the tent. Two more trips gathered up the loose survival gear, the extra tarp and the bag of smoked fish.
“You can stow most of that stuff in the emergency kit,” Cappy suggested. “It should be safe in there.”
Alex did as he said then spread the tarp over the tent. Light was beginning to fade, the entire sky was covered with gray clouds and the temperature was dropping.
“One more thing before I can let you have any rest,” Cappy said apologetically, “you need to gather some firewood so we can have a fire in the morning. Get some small twigs for kindling then some bigger pieces for firewood.”
Alex set about picking up dead pieces of wood and dragging them back to the tent area. She had helped her family get wood before but this was different. That was for comfort, this was for their survival.

Bess Benson never said anything to Bailey, but kept looking at the clock, then checking the weather out her kitchen window. It was way past time for Cappy to be back. If he were going to be late, he always called and let her know where he was. There had been no call. Finally she decided to call Ben Darnell at the seaplane base. Reaching for the phone, it rang as her hand