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Chapter 11: The Return
It took the boys another two hours to cover the distance across the
open range to the cabin. The snow was now coming down faster and they had
pulled blankets over their heads to keep warm but they kept walking. They
had come to far now to be deterred by a little snow. Taylor’s arm began
to bleed through the bandage, but he ignored it. As they walked past the
barn and corrals a dog ran out began to circle them and bark. It wasn’t
aggressive, just friendly. As they stepped onto the first step of the porch,
the front door opened and a older, stockily built man stood in the doorway
with a rifle cradled in his arm.
"Who are you and what do you want?" an man yelled out to them gruffly.
Ike instinctively pulled Zac and Antonio behind him and Taylor stepped up beside him to shield the boys.
"My name is Isaac Hanson. We were in a plane crash up on that mountain a couple months back." Ike said pointing backwards over his shoulder.
The man stepped forward to get a better look at them and then stepped back inside the doorway, leaned his gun against the door frame and stepped out onto the porch.
"Sweet, Mary, Mother of God!" the man exclaimed. "Come on, get in the house."
Ike hesitated and the man ran down the steps. "You’re just kids!’ he exclaimed in disbelief. "Get on up in the house out of this snow. My name is Harold Crowley and my wife is Annie and we won’t hurt you. I promise you that son. Lord, you’re hurt."
The man hustled them inside the house and once he had them inside the door started shouting for his wife.
A small plump woman came down the hallway. "Harold quit shouting. I’m not in the barn." the woman exclaimed.
She looked at the beragged group of travelers and looked at their faces carefully. "Lord, have mercy," she exclaimed. "It’s those kids from the paper."
Harold was pulling off their blankets and coats and throwing them on the floor into a pile.
"Annie, get the first aid kit, this one is hurt," Harold told his wife and pulled Taylor forward.
"Son, where are the rest?" Harold ask directing his question to Ike.
"Its just us," Ike said quietly. He pulled off the backpack he was using to support Katie and helped her crawl out.
"Why she’s just a little one," the woman said leaning down to pick up the little girl.
Katie squealed and Zac picked her up and balanced her on his hip. "She used to us," he said in explanation.
"Can we use your telephone?" Ike ask.
Harold shook his head. "We don’t have a telephone son. Line don’t come out this far. And the shortwave isn’t worth spit in this weather."
"You have electricity," Zac said. "How come you can get electricity but not telephone?"
Harold laughed. "Son, out here we use a generator."
"Annie, I’ll bet these kids are starved," Harold said to his wife. "Why don’t you take them into the kitchen, see what you can do for that one’s arm and feed them while I talk to the oldest one here."
All three boys looked to Ike before moving. "Go on,’ he said to them and then directed his remarks to the Mrs. Cromley "Tay, needs a disinfectant on his arm."
Harold put this arm around the boys shoulder and when the others followed his wife down the hallway he turned to Ike. "Son, what happened to the other people on that plane?"
"They are all dead," Ike explained. "There were six dead in the crash, three unconscious. Before the next morning, they died. The cockpit of plane was ripped away sometime during the crash, we never found any trace of the pilot or co-pilot."
"Why don’t you come on into the kitchen and tell us what happened. I want the whole story," Harold said.
"We need to get in contact with our parents," Ike said. "As fast as possible."
"Son, its forty-two miles to the nearest junction, another thirty-five to get to Gardner and that’s just a hole in wall town." Harold explained. "It’ll be dark in another hour, and the roads are going too slick to travel on tonight. If the temperature drops again that little snow we had today will freeze and it’ll turn the roads to solid ice. The weather is pretty damn unpredictable this time of year. We’ll get you fixed up, feed you, bed you down for the night and get you as Shepherds Junction first thing in the morning. From there, we’ll be able to call the sheriff and you can call your folks."
"Thank you," Ike said. "Believe me any help you can give us, we appreciate. No offense, but we want to get off this mountain really bad."
Harold laughed. "Son, there are times, when I want to get off this mountain real bad, and I ain’t been through near as much crap as you have been."
They sat in the kitchen of ranch house. Harold redressed Taylor’s arm while his wife stood over his shoulder directing until he shooed her away. At one point Tay started getting dizzy and had to put his head down between his legs to keep from spinning and losing consciousness
Annie scrambled a dozen eggs for them to eat. They devoured the eggs and the bread she toasted, covering it with jam and butter. Ike held Katie in his lap, feeding her off his plate. They ate until they were full and satisfied.
Ike answered Harolds questions with Taylor and Zac interrupting him to add a fact or two about their survival adventure.
Harold slapped his leg and shook his head in disbelief at their tale. He inspected the knifes, both Ike and Taylor carried and looked over the bow that Taylor handed him to inspect.
"You kids, are the smartest bunch of city kids, I’ve ever run across," he declared. "My son and me were just up by the falls last weekend. Hunting a cougar. Now if that cat had found you, you’d had big problems. Been killing stock for year now.."
"Big cat, six or seven feet?" Zac questioned innocently.
"Yeah, no meaner animal on earth." Harold claimed.
"Dead!" Zac exclaimed. "Taylor shot it yesterday." He made motions like he was shooting a bow. "Pow!"
Harold looked at Taylor. "That how you got hurt?" he ask and the boy nodded his head.
"I think it got the idea that we were going to be dinner." Taylor said.
"I’ll be damned. Been hunting that cat for three months, ain’t never got a sight of him. You’re sure?"
"I’m sure I killed one," Taylor said.
"Damn. Like I said, you kids, are the smartest and luckest kids I’ve ever run across." Harold exclaimed.
"We figure we had someone in our corner looking out for us," Ike said softly. "Finding the cavern, saved us. Taylor learning to hunt, saved us. We never gave up hope that we were going home."
"Son, you had a whole army of guardian angels looking out for you." Harold laughed. "Even the Mountain Rangers called off the search for that plane. Not that it would have made any difference. They were looking in the wrong damn direction."
"Harold watch your mouth," Annie admonished her husband.
Ike and Taylor smiled at the interaction between the man and his wife. It sounded good to them. Any voices other than their own sounded good.
The Crowley’s offered the boys a bedroom and with a double sized bed and they all piled into it fully clothed and were sound asleep in a matter of minutes.
By morning the snow had stopped, so Harold gassed up his truck and they threw all their bags in the back under a shell camper. They arranged themselves into the cab of the truck. Ike sat by the window with Antonio on his lap, Taylor sat in the middle with Katie on his lap, and Zac squeezed himself into the small space behind the seat. The ranch road consisted of dirt ruts, rough from the winter ravages of weather and years of no maintenance. They bounced around the cab of the truck, hanging on to whatever they could grab to keep their balance. Taylor was desperately trying to keep his arm up and away from moving arms and body parts.
"Sorry the rides so rough," Harold yelled over the sound of the truck squeaking and groaning as it bounced. "One of these days I’m going get me one of those fancy four wheel drive vehicles. Sure make the trip to town easier."
By the time they had been on the road a half-hour, Ike was watching his younger brother closely. Zac was pale and swallowing compulsively.
"Pull over," Ike shouted suddenly. As Harold pulled the truck off the road, Ike was already opening the door, jumping out and dragging Zac with him. Zac got sick repeatedly.
"Guess we shouldn’t have feed him up," Harold said.
"It wouldn’t have made any difference," Ike explained. "Zac always gets car sick unless he takes medication."
Then he rummaged around in their backpacks and brought out a juice bottle full of water. He handed it over to his little brother and waited until he had rinsed out his mouth.
"Feel better?" he ask.
Zac nodded, still looking a little pale.
They climbed back into the truck, this time with Antonio stuffed back behind the seat. Zac leaned back against his older brothers shoulder and as soon as they got on he smooth surface of the paved road, he fell asleep.
It took over two hours to finally reach what Harold called the junction. It consisted of a small roadside cafe, and a gas station/grocery store combination. Harold pulled up in front of the cafe and parked the truck and led the boys inside.
The waitress behind the counter looked up and shouted across the room. "Harold, what’re you doing in town. It ain’t Saturday."
Harold walked over to the counter. "Millie, this here is Isaac Hanson and his brothers, Taylor and Zachary and that little boy there is Antonio, and this little sprite is Katie. They were on that plane that was supposed to have gone down over by Grand Junction. We need to get a hold of Frank Harris and they need some privacy to call their folks and tell them their still alive."
The woman’s mouth was hanging open in surprise, but she pulled herself together quickly. "Lord, O’Lord," she exclaimed. "You, young’un’s go right through that door and up the stairs. That’s where I live, and you just make yourself at home and use the phone as much as you want." She guided them through a back room and pointed to the stairs. "Now I’m perfectly serious. You make yourself at home, and you don’t worry about the cost either, the sheriff’s office will pay me back later."
As the boys climbed the stairs, Millie turned to Harold. "Get yourself over to Earls and call Frank, I only have one phone line."
Harold walked over to the gas station and called the Sheriff’s office in Gardner. Sheriff Frank Harris responded immediate with the same shock and disbelief that everyone had shown so far. He said he would contact the authority’s and be there to pick up the boys as soon as he could get there. Harold walked back over the cafe and sat down to have a cup of coffee feeling very satisfied with himself.
The boys entered the small apartment immediately focused on the phone sitting on the end table. Ike and Taylor sat down on the couch and chair arms facing the phone. Ike picked up the receiver and then looked over at Antonio and put the receiver back down.
"Antonio, do you know your phone number?"
"Si," the boy answered.
"Ike!" Zac protested.
"Zac, we’ve had each other. Antonio hasn’t had anyone, and he’s younger. He needs to call first." Ike explained and called the operator to get a long distance operator to find out the area code for San Pedro, Texas, and then dialed the number and handed the boy the phone.
Antonio spoke exclusively in Spanish for a few minutes and burst into tears at sound of his mothers voice. The little boy talked excited and finally turned to Ike and exclaimed.
‘How I get home?"
Ike took the phone and spoke directly to Mr. Estaveg who spoke English quite well. He explained that even he didn’t know exactly where they were but that the authorities were on the way and to please stay by the phone because someone would be calling with details. He handed the phone back to Antonio who said a teary good-bye and finally hung up the phone.
Now it was their turn.
* * * *
Life in the Hanson household had gradually resumed an almost normal demeanor. Walker and Diana had children to raise and they had to preserve the family structure. Daily activities went on, lessons had to be taught, meals had to be prepared and they had to make those children feel that they were the center of their world, as they were. But, the house was haunted by a silence of music. Instruments were untouched, unplayed, a constant reminder. Diana and Walker no longer had the heart or the spirit left bring music to their offspring and when they tried, the children would cry.
Walker Hanson was sitting in the den, filtering through the endless paperwork involved with marketing and contracts. The music label was pressuring him to release an album using songs that had been used as lyric demos. When the phone rang he didn’t answer it. He seldom did these days.
Anz Franklin picked up the phone on the third ring. She was the part-time nanny, part-time tutor, general handy person, for the Hanson family, and extended member of the family.
"Hello?"
"Anz?" Ike questioned.
"Ike?" Anz screamed.
‘Yes," Ike answered. "It’s really me and Taylor and Zac. We’re all okay. Is Mom or Dad around."
"Oh my God," Anz screamed into the phone. "Oh my God! Hold on, I’ll get your Dad. Are you sure you’re all right?"
"Yes, I’m sure," Ike repeated. "Can I talk to Dad now?"
"Of course, of course." the woman exclaimed. "Just hold on."
Anz ran down the hallway and burst into Walkers office and ran over and hugged him. "They’re alive! They’re alive! They’re on the phone!"
Walker snatched up the phone "Hello?"
"Dad!" Ike yelled.
"Ike!" Walker yelled back. "You’re alive!
"Hi Dad." Taylor yelled into the receiver.
"Hi Dad." Zac repeated.
Walker started to cry. "Are you all okay?" he ask brokenly.
"Dad we’re fine," Ike responded. "We just got off a mountain in Idaho and they have called for the sheriff. I’m not sure what is going to happen from here on out but I’m sure you’ll be getting a call from somebody."
Walker spoke to each of his children in turn. They cried and bonded the best they could over the phone. Finally, Walker let the boys hang up the phone with a reluctance to let go of any contact with them, even as fleeting as a telephone line. When he pushed the button to end the phone call, he put his head down on the desk and cried freely. After a few minutes he pulled himself together and got up. He ran out into the playroom, gathered his children and told them the good news. After more tears and hugs, he went to find Anz again. She was out on the patio, her head buried in her hands, crying.
"Anz, this is good news" Walker exclaimed. "Where is Diana?"
"She went with Linda to the grocery store," Anz explained indicating where his wife had gone with one of her friends.
"I’ve got to tell her." Walker exclaimed. "Keep the phone line clear. Someone will be calling with more information."
Then Walker jumped into his blazer and drove out of the driveway and down the street at an unusually high rate of speed for him. He pulled into the parking lot of Diana’s favorite grocery store, spotted the van and double parked in front of the loading area. He ran inside the store and started running across the front of the aisles calling her name. People were stopping to stare but he didn’t care.
"Walk, what is it?" Diana ask looking at her husband like he’d lost his mind. Walker never made a spectacle of himself.
"They’re alive!" Walker shouted and grabbed his wife in a wide body swinging hug. "The boys are alive. I just spoke to them! Our boys are coming home!"
Diana burst into tears and hugged her husband in joy.
Everyone in the store started clapping and cheering. Walker and Diana walked outside hand-in-hand with a returned joy that lifted the heavy load of sorrow that weighed upon them for so long. Now they had to go home to wait for the call that would bring their boys back into their arms after sixty-seven days.