Searching for Anna, Jenifer Carll-Tong [cheapest way to read ebooks TXT] 📗
- Author: Jenifer Carll-Tong
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"He will hit solid ground eventually, right? The sinkhole can't go on forever, can it?"
"Yes," the officer blocking her said, "if he can hang on that long."
Phoebe gasped. She hadn't thought of that and seeing how the rope had jerked when the ground gave way, losing grip was a very real possibility.
"Shut up, Rogers!" Officer Little yelled at him. "Have a heart when speakin' to her!"
"Sorry, ma'am. I wasn't thinking," the officer named Rogers apologized, but she didn't really hear him. She was mesmerized by the rope – she couldn't look away from it, knowing Will's very life hung from the unseen end of it. She was oblivious to everything and everyone around her. It was just her, the rope, and Will…and God. She fell to her knees before her Lord.
"Please, dear God, please. Don't let him die. We need him – I – I need him. Please God, save him. Please save him!" she sobbed.
"Harder boys!" someone yelled. "Almost there!"
The officers heaved. One officer lay on his belly, another two clasping his ankles. He was stretching toward the hole, reaching for an unseen hand. Then, suddenly, Phoebe saw something. Was she imagining, or could she actually see fingertips? Yes! Yes, it was Will's hand.
She watched without breathing while he grasped for something - anything - to hold tightly to. The officers pulled the rope one last time and in one quick motion, the officer on his belly grabbed Will's hand. The rope was pulled, the officer on his belly was pulled, then, suddenly, Will was above ground and rolling down the incline, away from the sinkhole.
He stood bent over, hands resting on his knees and breathing heavily as the other officers patted him on the back and spoke encouragement. Phoebe watched it all unfold, cemented in place. She didn't know whether to laugh, to cry or to pass out. It was over, and Will was alive.
Will stood upright, still out of breath, and his eyes locked with Phoebe's. Unconsciously, she took a step toward him. Then, he took a step toward her, and suddenly she was running into his arms. She was sobbing uncontrollably, but she didn't care. All that mattered was that he was alive. Will was alive!
He held her, stroking her hair and whispering, "It's ok, Pheebs. I'm ok." His voice soothed her with unbelievable swiftness. Her racing heart slowed, and she was able to breathe more regularly. Her mind began to clear. It was then that she had another horrifying thought.
"Wendell! Will, they need to save Wendell!"
Will took a deep, ragged breath, but said nothing.
"Will! What about Wendell?"
"He fell," Will whispered.
Phoebe's mind could not process what Will was saying. "Then, they must go in after him. Tell them, Will! They will listen to you!"
Will shook his head. His eyes were closed tight - his lips, a thin line.
"Will! They must hurry! Before it's too late!" she shrieked. Tears began to plummet down her face again, her slender body trembling. "Before it's too late!"
"It's already too late!" he cried, his voice cracking. "It's too late. Wendell fell, Phoebe. A long, hard fall. It's too late. He's gone."
His words sliced her heart in half like a dull butcher knife, ripping and shredding along the way. She felt her knees crumple beneath her as the truth of his words finally broke through the foggy barrier of her mind. Will's arm tightened around her as the sobbing overtook her body. As she crumpled into a heap of mourning, Will knelt, wrapping her in his arms, as the tears consumed her completely.
By late afternoon, they still had been unable to retrieve Wendell's body from the mine. Mr. Speer and Mr. Wiggins had been summoned for their expertise in the matter, as well as some of the more veteran mine workers. There was talk of leaving his body in the shaft until the tunnel could be tested properly, a thought that horrified Phoebe. Blessedly, Mr. Speer and Mr. Wiggins argued emphatically against the idea. They said that he wasn't that far in, and with proper preparation, they could have him out by nightfall.
Several times, different townsfolk encouraged Phoebe to leave, to rest, to eat something, but she turned each person down. It didn't seem right to leave until her friend Wendell had been recovered.
Will was there and appeared to be refusing rest and nourishment as well. Wendell's first two friends would be there until the last, Phoebe realized. She took a deep breath and turned away from the commotion for a moment. It was then that she noticed her – Mrs. Smith. She was still there as well, although Phoebe had forgotten her long ago. She approached the old woman, not certain what to say or do.
Mrs. Smith broke the silence. "I had begun to think that God was no longer angry with me." She looked older, more tired than she had that morning. "I was never sure as to why the Lord was so upset with me that he would punish me by takin' my husband and my two boys…"
"Oh, Mrs. Smith, God doesn't work that way…"
"You say that, but my life says otherwise." Some of the sharp edge returned as she muttered the last, but she continued in the same melancholic tone in which she'd begun. "But I had begun to think that God was happy with me again, that he was sending me – well, another life. That boy – he was somethin' special. Before I realized what was happenin', he had gotten under my skin and grown into my heart. I loved him like he was my own," she stopped when her words caught in her throat. "An' now, the Lord has taken him, too."
Phoebe knew she should say something, but she had no words. She felt like the most miserable excuse for a pastor.
"Well," Mrs. Smith said, "the other boys will be expectin' supper. You think you can catch a ride with Simmons?"
When Phoebe walked back up the incline, Will was standing at the top, watching her.
"You alright?" he asked as she neared.
"No," she answered honestly. "Are you alright?"
"No," he answered, offering his hand to help her to the plateau. It was then that she noticed the fresh bandages wrapped around them.
"Rope burns," he answered simply.
She remembered the sight of the jerking rope. "I was so afraid you would lose your grip."
"I did a couple of times - I never would've been able to hold on for that long, but the rope had a knot at the end that I was able to steady my feet on."
The knot. God's wisdom in the midst of chaos.
They stood in silence, looking at nothing, but just being in Will's presence comforted her. He had spent most of the time since the accident speaking to other officers who in turn were writing everything he said down in notebooks – reports, Phoebe assumed. But that seemed to have concluded, and he appeared to be as comfortable with their silent companionship as she was.
Phoebe noticed some state troopers coming down from farther up the hill. They had a large branch of some sort on their shoulders. Hanging from the wood was a doe. Phoebe looked at Will.
"It's Wendell's deer. We were tracking it up this hill when the ground…" Will didn't finish his sentence. His eyes followed the two men down the hill.
Phoebe's temper flared. "Why are they bringing it down? Who cares about that silly deer now, after what has happened?"
"Wendell told both Jack and me that he wanted to get a deer today so he could split the meat between you and Mrs. Smith. He said it would help feed you through the winter." Will looked at her. "Jack is insisting on seeing that Wendell's wishes are completed."
"For…for Mrs. Smith? For me?" Was Will saying what she thought he was - that Wendell had died in an effort to keep her alive?
Greater love hath no man…
"No," she uttered weakly. "That can't be."
She shook her head pathetically as the tears began anew, coursing down her cheeks in a torrent of misery. Overwhelming grief ravaged her once again and she felt her knees begin to wobble. "I'm sorry," she cried again and again, her heaving sobs distorting her words. "I'm so sorry."
Will pulled her tight against his chest. "You aren't to blame, Pheebs. How on earth could you think this is your fault? It just happened. It was an accident."
There in Will's arms, she was transported to the past. She could smell her mother's roses, feel the adult-sized despair of two children. But they were no longer children. And this time, it was Will who comforted her.
"They're coming out with him."
The words of the State Trooper broke through the fog of misery that had overtaken Phoebe.
Will bent his head toward her. "What do you want to do?"
Phoebe took a couple of ragged breaths and pushed away from him. "I want to be there."
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