6 Miles With Courage (17 page)

“Are you the ranger that comes by here every day,” Ryan asked. You see Ryan was not yet convinced that his ordeal to
find the ranger was over.

“And are you that certain ranger that spoke with a Rob Sykes
every day at lunch time for about six months?” Ryan asked as the steam coming off the hood stung his eyes, yet he never flinched, never moved an inch.

Ryan could see the ranger as he mulled the question over in his brain.

“He is a surveyor who was working near-by,” Ryan added.

“Oh yes, Rob, I got to know him pretty well, why he and I
—”

That’s all that Ryan had to hear
, it was time to give in to exhaustion. The blood left his brain, his knees buckled, and Ryan collapsed. He disappears in front of the truck leaving the ranger in mid-sentence.

Putting the truck in park the ranger ran around to the front of his vehicle and with both hands under Ryan’s shoulders dragged him to the side of the road. He retrieved a blanket and a rain coat from his truck. He put Ryan on top of the blanket and covered him with the rain coat. He went back to his truck and pulled out an umbrella. He bent down
alongside of Ryan and with one hand gently lifted Ryan’s head up.

Ryan heard a distant voice calling to him.

“Are you alright sir? Sir, are you ok?” the ranger called to Ryan.

At first Ryan did not know who the stranger above him with the umbrella was talking to. It had been sometime since anybody called him
sir!

“I’m fine,” Ryan said weakly batting his eyes trying to clear them to get a better look at the ranger. The ranger wiped
Ryan’s eyes with a towel he pulled from his jacket.

“I’m Ryan Sir, Ryan Sykes!”

“Son is that supposed to mean something to me?”

“My father is the land surveyor that you had lunch with,” Ryan said.

“Oh, ok,” He said looking at Ryan intently.

“Have you
not
heard of a missing or overdue airplane?” Ryan asked.

“Well yes I did, not more than forty five minutes ago,” the ranger said, “Why?” he seemed puzzled.

“That was our plane,
we
were the ones that crashed and I have to get back to him, I have to save my father, he’s
dying
!” Ryan said growing faint.

“Are you sure, I mean are you really sure you were on that airplane and that it did indeed
crash?” The ranger asked with considerable skepticism. And rightfully so, there had been no report of a crash only of an overdue airplane and after all the report did just come in.

“Oh I’m sure alright
. I just spent twenty hours walking six
miles through a miserable swamp to get here!” Ryan exclaimed with a raw truth in his eyes.

The Ranger now convinced set Ryan’s head
down gently. His eyes grew big as pie plates as he stood up telling Ryan, “You don’t go anywhere, now you just stay right there a minute, I have to make a call on the radio.” He danced with nervousness and excitement on his way to the truck. He was halfway there when suddenly he turned around and shimmied back to Ryan saying again, “I mean it now don’t you go
anywhere!”
and turning he ran back to the truck to place the call that would set the rescue operation into full motion.

Ryan lay there in the grass. He could hear the ranger on the radio
. The traffic, as little as it was, slowed down to gawk at the young man on the side of the road covered by a rain coat. The ranger’s truck was still in the middle of the road, its lights flashing.

Ryan had a
great feeling of content wash over him. He had done it! He had gone the six miles, and he had done it with courage.

Everything should be routine from here on out. The fate of his father now lies with God and the skillful hands of the first responders and
also with Sheriff Bob Mallory. The weirdness is over—
or is it?

Ryan will feel the need to lead the search party down the river for it’s his ribbons and his ribbons alone that mark the trail to his father. And as Ryan will soon discover things
are about to get a whole lot
freakier!

The ranger station is but a short distance from where the ranger found Ryan. It would be the staging area for the rescue attempt. The ranger helped Ryan into the pickup truck and drove him to the safety of the station at the boat ramp. Sherriff Mallory notified him that they would be landing to question Ryan. When Judy got the call she dropped everything and headed for the station.

Judy made the wise decision not
to inform Ryan’s siblings of the situation for there was not a thing they could do but worry. Ryan’s brother was off at college and his sister was on a mission trip. Neither did she take the time to call Ryan’s best friend Brent.

She grabbed Ryan
some clean clothes and took with her towels, snacks and drinks. As if the ambulance was
not
going to have supplies! But that was Judy.

Judy did not pay very close attention to what the sheriff’s deputy told her either.
All she heard was that Ryan had been through an ordeal and that a rescue operation was being organized to go back and get her husband. She was on her way hoping that this was not much more than the stunts her husband had pulled before. She would get the details when she caught up with her son.

When the ambulance pulled up Ryan
looked out the window of the ranger station and asked, “Who is that for?” thinking that they were there a bit early for his father. Surely it couldn’t be for him, he was expecting to see the boat and rescue party so that he could lead them down the river.

“It’s for you,” said the
ranger, “nothing serious but you should be looked at by professionals.”

The ranger told Ryan to stay inside a moment while he went to talk to the ambulance
personnel. He knew it was Ryan’s intentions to get on that rescue boat just as soon as it arrived. He had listened to Ryan’s story of the crash and he was worried that Ryan may be hiding injuries or that he may have internal ones that he knows nothing about.

Ryan purposely withheld the details of the death of Jebediah and Obadiah for fear that the search party would be
distracted. Ryan would give all the details once his father was rescued.

For now t
he drizzle had stopped and the early afternoon sky, although grey, seemed to brighten up somewhat as the ranger stepped out of the station. The paramedics were taking the stretcher out of the back of the ambulance but before the ranger could speak with them two sheriff cruisers came sliding into the lot with their lights flashing. Out of the first cruiser stepped Judy. They had intercepted her as she was speeding to get there.

Ryan saw his mom through the window and went to the doorway where he stood and watched her
as she stepped out of the car. She spotted him in the doorway wrapped in a blanket. She walked towards him with a plastic shopping bag, one in each hand. One has clean clothes the other snacks and drinks.

“Happy Birthday honey!” she said. Ryan did not answer—his face quivered—he was too choked up with emotion at the sight of her.
Her steps slowed as she grew nearer to him. The closer she came the less it looked like Ryan; the dirty face, the matted down hair, the far-off look in his eyes. When she was three feet from him, both bags dropped to the floor.

“Ryan?” she said faintly.

“Oh mom!” he said.

A
fter raising his arms she saw the rest of his mud-caked body. But it did not matter to her as she embraced him in a very long hug.

“Mom I have to go to him! I have to go to him soon! I promised him I would be back!”

“Who Ryan, go to who?” Judy asked with both hands clasping his face.

“Dad!” he said.

“Where is your father?”

Before he could answer her she turned towards the ranger and the ambulance crew
who were caught up in the reunion of a mother and her son.

“What are you people waiting for?” she exclaimed, “don’t you have a shower in this place?”
she said as she ushered Ryan back inside with the others in tow.

“Where is your father?” she asked again as she scrambled around looking for a shower. She found one and turn
ed it on.

“He’s in the plane mom
and he’s trapped!” Ryan said, “I have to go to him!”

“Oh!” Judy said raising
a hand to cover her mouth.

“Well then you
will
go to him and you will
bring him back!”
she said, “now here, take this bag of clean clothes and get in the shower, they need to check you for injuries. I will fix you something to eat,” she said as she ushered him into the bathroom.

“As soon as he gets out of the shower you can check him over,” she said addre
ssing the paramedics. Then she turned to the ranger.

“Where is Sherriff Bob Mallory? I need to speak to Bob!” she said.

“He is on his way in the helicopter and should be here momentarily,” he replied.

He had no soon
er finished speaking when the sound of a chopper could be heard in the distance. Leaving Ryan in the shower they all walked to the door and stepping out, watched as the
circling helicopter was preparing to land.

After what seemed like an eternity the chopper put
down. Judy stepped out and waited for the blades to come to a stop as the engine wound down with a whine. Bob Mallory stepped out and started walking to Judy. They met halfway and embraced tightly. It was out of concern not passion.

Ryan had
stepped out of the shower and watched their embrace from the window. He knew about the situation between his mother and Bob and he certainly didn’t trust him. He knew the rescue team was needed to extract his father but the last thing he wanted was Bob
alone
with his father. Ryan felt he
must
be present when Sherriff Mallory arrived on the scene.

As Bob
, Judy, and the ranger headed back inside Ryan turned to the paramedics.

“Let’s get this over with,” he said
, “My father is waiting for me.”

The
paramedic’s checked his vital signs and dressed his wounds. They were minor wounds but they were telling him that they wanted to take him in for observation as Bob and Judy walked into the room.

“Absolutely not, I told you I have to get back to my father,” he said. He waited for them to argue with him
but surprisingly they began to pack up their gear and grant him his wish. After all he was an adult now and the decision was entirely up to him. They reluctantly left but not before getting an assurance from Ryan that he would get himself thoroughly checked out when he returned from helping his father.

“Ryan how are you son?” Bob asked sincerely.

“I’m fine Bob but my father isn’t. He’s in a bad way Sherriff!”

Judy
said, “I’ll go and heat you up something in the microwave Ryan,” as she rushed out of the room leaving the two of them to discuss the gravity of the situation. The ranger went to help Judy find her way around the kitchen.

“Ryan, please sit and tell me what you can. I need to know as much as possible to properly organize the rescue operation,” Bob said taking a seat next to Ryan.

“Mike told me that your plane crashed about—”

“Mike? Who is Mike?” Ryan asked.

“That would be Mike the ranger that found you,” said Bob.

“Oh, how rude of me, I never even asked him his name
.”

“You do have a boat coming don’t you?” asked Ryan
.

“Yes, yes I do!” answered Bob.

“And we are going to need a raft also because there are too many trees—”

“Ryan,” Bob said cutting him off, “I need you to start from the beginning and I need you to just give me the important
details like you just said, the trees, but start from the beginning,” Bob took out a pad and pencil.

“We were on our way up to scout a job when we were passing over the river,” Ryan said gazing off into some far corner of the room.

“Dad asked if I wanted to get a closer look and I said sure! He cut the engine and took us down low. He was explaining to me about the job when he said he would take us back up and then that’s when it happened,” Ryan paused.

“What happened
?” Bob asked as he wrote.

“There was a bang and a shudder and then silence, there was oil on the windshield and the propeller, the propeller
had stopped still! And we were sinking!” Ryan said.

“Go on, go on,” Bob said.

“Dad said to brace yourself we had no time for a “Mayday”. We hit the trees in less than a minute. The last thing I saw was netting or vines, yes it was vines in the treetops and then came a big bang and then everything went dark, I woke up ten minutes later.”

“You were alright but your
dad, not so good?” Bob asked gently.

Ryan started to sob but he quickly
regained his composer for his mother’s sake.

“He is pinned in
so bad
that the only thing I could see was the back of his head. I mean just a patch of his black hair and there was blood on it. He told me he could hold out until tonight.” Ryan said.

“I know your father and if that is what he told you than you can hang your hat on it, so now tell me how are we going to find him? How on earth did you get here? Mike told me that you told him
that you walked out? Is that right?” Bob asked in disbelief.

“Yes that’s right, my dad had a G.P.S. unit and with his machete I hacked my way out to the river where I built a raft
. After crossing it, I came to Forest Road 77 and then to Highway 19 where Mike found me.”

“Do you have the G.P.S. unit?”

“No, but I marked the trail with bright survey ribbon like my dad said. Just in case something happened to the G.P.S. unit. All we have to do is motor down the river for 2 miles, launch the raft to the shore, than hike in 2 miles to my Dad!”

“What happened to the G.P.S. unit? If we can get our hands on it the chopper can fly right to the spot and lower down
everything we need. Ryan we need that unit!” Bob said.

“I left it on my raft,” Ryan said
, and he left it at that.

Judy walked in with a nice hot plate of food that she and the ranger cooked up. She handed it to Ryan and he eagerly dove in.

“You know Ryan, as soon as the media gets a hold of this you’re going to be a local hero.” Bob said as he watched Ryan wolf down his food.

“Yep, I can just see it now, “Local boy walks six miles—
alone
—with the greatest of courage.” Bob said.

Ryan was just about to finish up his plate, just about to take the last bite when he inadvertently let it
slip.

“Oh, I wasn’t alone,” he said!

Ryan kept his head down, his fork came to a stand-still, and he closed his eyes for he knew what was coming next. Man! He said in the silence of his mind
.

“Ryan?” Bob asked waiting for Ryan to open his eyes and
raise his head. He opened his eyes and took the last bite of food, and after setting the plate down on the table in front of him stared blankly at the plate. It looked to Sherriff Bob and his mother that he was hiding something. His mother knew that he was
indeed
hiding something.

His mother spoke, “Ryan?”

Ryan does not look up as they patiently wait for an answer. Now he is in a quandary. Does he tell them that he was
not alone
because he
carries within him all the love and courage of all the generations of Sykes that came before him
, like his father told him? Or does he tell them the truth, the whole truth?

His mother spoke again, “Ryan?” she pause
d and then said, “What did you mean, you were not alone?”

Ryan
comes up with of a way out.

“Do you want me to lie to you
, or do you want me to tell you the truth?” Ryan asked.

“We would like the truth of course,” his mother said.

“Ok, after leaving the wreckage with dad’s G.P.S. unit I was tracking on the bearing that dad gave me to follow and tying ribbons on trees along the way when I fell into a deep hole. A tall dark stranger in bizarre clothing helped me out. His hair was piled up in a bun and he was every bit of seven feet tall.”

Ryan paused for a moment as Mike and his mother now took a seat, all three of them looked at each other
, then they looked back at Ryan. He continued.

“
I think he was an American Indian re-enactor or something, he looked like a Seminole. Anyway I wanted to thank him but he just vanished.” Ryan paused again at the creaking of the chairs as they all sat back.

“I made it to the Oklawaha
River where two monkeys tried to take my pack and a panther tried to attack me after nightfall.” Ryan’s mother gasped.

“A big dog by the name
of ‘Red’ ran the panther off after a vicious fight. In the morning I crossed the river in a raft I built. Halfway across ‘Red’ jumped off and swam to his owner, an old man in a wooden rowboat.” They all had gapping looks on their faces.