Maggie thought for a moment, gathering her hair in a bunch and retying the velvet strip around it. “You know, I didn’t like myself very much before.”
Matt nodded. “Those things I mentioned are all just externals, symptoms of something going on inside, which is really what God is working on. Your motives and attitudes especially. When you get back to Bristol, you will face the same circumstances as before you left. What will change is how you react to those things that used to bother you. Like when you walk to your school every day and Mrs. Smythe’s dog barks at you. Instead of kicking dirt on the dog, you would ask God how you could show love and compassion to Mrs. Smythe, so perhaps something you do would inspire her to want to know him like you know him.”
“Ask first, then act?”
“Exactly. There may still be times when you don’t like yourself, and that will almost always be when the old Maggie has temporarily gotten the upper hand. But realize God doesn’t love you any less when that happens. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, apologize if necessary, forgive yourself, and move on. Remember, we don’t always learn by doing the right thing, but sometimes by experiencing the consequences of doing the not-right thing.”
As they were talking, they got up and unwrapped all the suspect food. They put it into a couple of the metal bins, which they took back to the edge of the island and emptied into the ocean. Back at the GSM, they put all the wrappers and other trash in one of the plastic bags they found. Maggie fished the used diaper out of the top coffin, and they put all the trash into the empty stainless-steel cabinet.
“That’s enough to chew on,” Matt said, “so let’s take a break.”
“Okay. We need to name this island. I’ve been thinking about that. It’s God’s island, and maybe we can name it that.”
“God’s Island, like with an apostrophe?” he asked.
“Yes, that’s what I was thinking.”
“Hmm. I like it. Except that many maps won’t be able to put the apostrophe in, like Sana’a and Hawai’i have become Sanaa and Hawaii. That may lead some to think it’s an island full of gods, you know, full of idols.”
Maggie had another idea. “How about, ‘The Boy’?”
Matt chuckled. “I like that, but maybe we can call it that just between ourselves. I don’t think anyone else would get it.”
“Is there another name that means God we can use instead? I feel if we don’t name it, they will just call it by the latitude and longitude or some other silly thing.”
“The name Father comes to mind. Father’s Island, with or without the apostrophe. Although I think God wouldn’t mind if we named it Myrtlewood Island. Let’s think about it for a while.”
I wonder if I should tell her, Matt mused. He had been thinking about what he saw on the plane during the attack. Not now, he decided. Maybe later.
Their conversation eventually turned to their rescue. “Matt, do you think, once they find us, it will take long to get us back to civilization? We don’t know how far we are from anything. There’s nowhere for a plane to land yet. This part of The Boy is nice and flat like we asked, but it’s covered with this white mud.”
They examined the mud a little more closely. It appeared to be wet ashes mixed with crushed sea shells. The potato-like things crushed fairly easily with a metallic sound when Matt smashed two of them together.
“I don’t know, Maggie. That plane has been gone for hours. If we were somewhat close to land, we should have seen more planes by now, since someone should be looking for debris on the water. Not only that, but they know there are two survivors, maybe a third. And a brand-new island.”
“Eventually, a plane should come. I hope they can drop us some food and an umbrella or two. The airlines may send a scouting plane. Let’s scuff up the surface to spell out our names, so that unless the sun is directly overhead, the shadows should tell them who we are. If there were really a satellite, then they would already know.”
“Yes,” Matt said, “and we should use the names on our tickets.”
They carved out their names with block letters about ten feet high. Underneath RACHEL TRILLBEY, Maggie wrote JENNY. “She didn’t have a ticket, but of course they knew I had her with me. They will wonder how Jenny survived when none of the others did.” With her recollection of all that had transpired with Jenny, her face suddenly filled with tears.
Matt finished the thought for her. “She didn’t.”
When she could speak again, she continued, “I will have such a story for them!”
“It’s funny,” she went on, “but if I hadn’t been overwhelmed by this joy I feel, I don’t think I would have had any tears just now.”
“Yes, I could tell. Those were tears of gratitude.”
He decided to tell her. “When I got on the plane in Chicago, the business class section, where you were, was full. I’ve been thinking about this. After I went forward to find an oxygen mask and saw the front end of the plane had been shot off, I noticed a lot of blood up there, and there was an unoccupied window seat which looked like it had been blown apart.” He let that sink in briefly. “Your seat.”
She nodded, grimacing a little. “God called Jenny and me to go back and visit you. And he arranged that you should have an empty seat next to you. He is amazing! He was already proving himself strong on our behalf. Maybe we could add that to the list?”
“Technically not, however, it is part of our story. There is one thing to add, though, and that is that he provided us the GSM with all those cabinets attached. The one thing that rose out of the plane’s cargo hold was something that preserved our lives.”
“That reminds me, Matt, you said not everyone will be happy to hear about the brilliant things that happened to me. Who are those, and why?”
“There will be skeptics, even in light of Jenny’s foot and the rest of the supernatural things you will be telling them about. There will be folks who refuse to acknowledge God and resent any person who attempts to speak of him. They’ll ignore you, mock you, and try to make you irrelevant. There are others who don’t believe God cares enough about people to intervene in their lives. There will be those who point to your past, and say, ‘Who are you for God to do that for you?’ But it is actually the religious people who will be the strongest opposition.”
Just then, a second, more conventional-looking plane appeared from behind them. The pilot indicated that he saw them and turned around for another pass. He appeared to be flying out over the water, when they saw the plane abruptly dip down and disappear. Then all was quiet. Maggie and Matt exchanged alarmed glances. After a few seconds, the plane seemed to rise from out of the light-colored mud, unharmed. It flew away from them, toward the north, until it was out of sight. They heard the plane for the next hour or so, and occasionally saw it traversing east to west and back, starting in the north and slowly working its way south.
“Matt, they must have been below the sheer cliff at the edge. I bet they’re surveying your new island.”
“No. Our new island. If they let us have it, whoever ‘they’ are, then I say it’s half yours. After all, you helped call it up. People own islands all over the world, and I don’t see any reason we shouldn’t own this one. However, since we’re citizens of two different countries, it might be less sticky, legally, if a corporation owned it.”
“I don’t know anything about that. As far as I’m concerned, you can have my half.”
“Nope. And please don’t tell anyone that. Keep your options open.”
“That was the old Maggie, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. The Boy is a gift to us from God. To you and me equally. We don’t know the extent of the gift yet, but we need to ask God what we’re to do with it. Let’s do that now.”
They sat together on the GSM and asked for God’s favor from whatever countries might claim the island as sovereign territory, his success for whatever his purposes for the island might be, and his wisdom for accomplishing what he called them to do.
“Let’
s go back to what you were saying,” Maggie said when they finished. “Why would religious people be the strongest opposition? I would think they’d be happy that I’m telling people about God.”
“There are preachers and religious folks who, full of religious pride, will say you are a heretic, especially because of what you will say about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Or, they’ll try to nullify your influence and experience, or say women cannot do what you are doing. There are those with religious influence, you know, in leadership positions, who will be extremely jealous because of your joy, your communing with God, and especially the crowds you will be drawing.”
“Big crowds? Oh, Matt, I don’t know if I’m ready for that!”
“You’ll need help, but don’t be afraid. God will provide it at just the right time. Just revel in being that little bottle being carried about in the vast ocean!”
68
About fifteen minutes before the scheduled 1:30 VTC, Penny burst through the door to JC’s makeshift office. “I have bad news and good news,” she announced excitedly, “and since you didn’t specify, I’ll give you the bad news first. I thought I would be going with you to Brazil, but I found out it would be Harper. He’s a good choice, since he’s more used to hot weather.” All her words ran together, like it was just one long word. She took a long deep breath and continued, “And here’s the good news: I’m going to the island with Phil!”
That took JC by surprise. His jaw dropped open momentarily and his eyes got wide. A big smile replaced the gaping jaws. “Wow! Great! How did you swing that?”
“Phil called Dusty Mae and asked which of the three trainees would be best, and she chose me. I leave in about a half hour to go to the airport. We’ll be taking a helicopter from Camp Lejeune, an MH-53K like the one already there.”
That makes sense, JC said to himself. Phil wouldn’t need a seasoned agent, all he would really need would be an aide, a helper, a recorder. A trainee would be perfect.
“Well, she made a good choice. Congratulations! After all the help you’ve given me here, I think I’ll make out okay. Will you be carrying?”
“Yes, but just in my backpack. For just in case. It’s a 9mm Glock I started using when I got here. Do you have any advice before I go?”
“You probably know this already, but take a pocket notebook, and use it. Write down questions for later, observations, details and where the details came from, and especially people’s names. Learn to read people, especially your teammates, in this case Phil. He knows you’re in training and will have lots of questions, but ask intelligent questions, not ones he would expect you to find out the answers to yourself. There’s a fine line between being an eager learner and being a pest. Learn where that line is and don’t cross it.
“You’ll probably be among only friendlies, but don’t let your guard down. Don’t ever let your guard down! One other thing about this particular case: learn everything about the sea floor there, before you go. Knowing what that white stuff is might come in handy.”
“Thanks!”
“Send me a selfie with the survivors, and keep in touch. Let me know how things go. You may be back before I leave. And have a safe trip.”
69
They both heard it at the same time; a helicopter was approaching. It started descending when the pilot saw them. Matt was watching the dried-mud surface as it got closer. “Maggie, quick, get behind the coffins with Jenny! Then get down!”
She ducked down as he ran to the upper coffin and pushed it over the edge. Jenny screamed as a storm of white debris started blowing past them. The down-blast from the helicopter rotors was sending chunks of the drying mud flying in all directions. As the engines started to slow, the debris stopped. They were able to stand up and see the giant helicopter with US Marine Corps markings, parked in a large black circle. The names they had drawn were completely obliterated.
The rotor blades stopped turning, a door opened, and three uniformed figures stepped out. Matt and Maggie, who was carrying Jenny still wrapped in pink and gold velvet, came around the GSM and the trailing metal cabinets. They headed toward the Marines, whom they met halfway. The tallest appeared to be in charge. One carried a camouflaged bag with a bold black cross on the side, and the third carried a rifle pointed at the ground.
Matt spoke first. “Hi, and welcome to our island!”
“Hi, I’m Lieutenant Colonel Paul Washington from the Fourth Battalion, Second Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune. We are the first ones here. Others will follow. Are you Matthew Carven, from Gary, Indiana? And Rachel Trillbey, from Bristol, England? And more importantly, are either of you injured or sick in any way? We have medical help if necessary.”
He turned to the medic, who stepped forward, and nodded.
Matt and Maggie turned to each other and laughed, he proudly and she triumphantly. “You heard it exactly right, Maggie!”
Matt turned back to the senior Marine. “Yes, sir, Lieutenant Colonel Washington. I’m Matt Carven. We are all three in good health and uninjured, thanks many times over to God.”
“And I’m Maggie Trillbey. This is my daughter Jenny.” She proudly held her up for the Marine officer to see. Jenny’s anxious crying from the fright of the aircraft landing had subsided.
They showed their passports to LtCol Washington. Matt explained, “This is all we have left. Everything else went down with the plane.”
Matt addressed LtCol Washington. “We have a thousand questions, and I’m sure you do too, but I’d like to make a suggestion. This white mud is slushy underneath and crusty on top. If you hurry, you can fly your helicopter in a straight line at a low level and create quite a runway. This side of the island is perfectly flat for much of its length. On the other side of the river, it gets hilly on the north end. We saw what the rotors did to the mud. If you act now, you can make a runway several miles long before the mud dries out completely and hardens.”
LtCol Washington gave Matt a peculiar look before responding. “It does sound like a good idea, but we can’t do that. The debris would tear up our rotor blades. Your suggestion intrigues me, though, and I’ll get back to it in a bit. I have some news for you first. Your plane is on this island, too. On the south end, spread over about a mile-wide circle. There is debris everywhere.”
“Wow,” Maggie said, “I bet that’s why God wanted this island!”
“What?! What are you saying? Wait, let’s go sit in the helicopter. It will be more comfortable there. By the way, please call me Paul. All my Marines call me Sir or Lieutenant Colonel, of course, but I’d like to make this as informal for you as possible. There will be enough formality later on. Follow me!”
Matt was eager to show off their lifeboat. “Wait, before we go, let us show you what God provided for us to float on when we first hit the water, and while we were waiting for the island to come up. We named it the Good Ship Myrtlewood, or GSM for short. The coffins are made of myrtle wood. As you can see, there are three coffins strapped to a pallet, and the loose one was on top when we climbed aboard.”
The tour took no time at all, including taking pictures, and soon they were seated around a small table in the helicopter.
“This is a King Stallion,” Paul said. “Our aircraft wing at Cherry Point has had it less than two months. There might be another en route from Camp Lejeune which could be here in several hours.
“I have a checklist of questions to ask, because you are eyewitnesses as well as survivors. But I can tell there is a whole lot more to your stories than what’s on the checklist. That’s what I want to hear first. Before I do, I want to make sure you’re comfortable. Are you hungry? Do you need to use the head? Uh, the loo? Is there anything you need for your infant, um…”
“Jenny.”
“Yes, Jenny. We will be leaving here in about ten minutes for our base camp in the south. Is there anything you need to retrieve from the GSM?”
Maggie answered for them both. “There was some food in the metal cabinets and we’ve
been snacking. We’re hungry, but not ravenous. I think we could both use the bathroom but we can wait until after the flight,”—she looked at Matt, who nodded—“and I’ll need a bed or something soft for Jenny, along with her outfit and blanket from the top coffin. If you don’t have anything for her, we can rip out some more coffin liner, now that you’re here. Hopefully, you can cut through the straps on one of the lower coffins. A hot shower would be nice, but we don’t have anything to change into.”
“I’m afraid it will be fairly primitive while you’re on the island, and we don’t really have an exit strategy yet,” LtCol Washington said.
He spoke to a non-commissioned officer who was standing by; the NCO left with the medic and headed for the GSM.
“Okay! I’m dying to know, why wasn’t it a surprise to you that I knew who you were?”
“God spoke to Maggie and told her about the satellite overhead. So we waved and let it see our faces, so they could figure out who we are.”
“You heard God speak?”
“It wasn’t exactly a voice. I told Matt it was more like a powerful thought. I’m new at all this.” Then she added eagerly, “God became my father yesterday, when I gave myself to Jesus and received him as my Lord.”
Paul could barely wait for her to finish. “I gave my life to Jesus when I was a teenager. I knew something was up with you. I could see that joy all over you. A radiance not explainable by anything else. And I sense that same spirit in you, Matt.
“I want to hear the whole story. But that can wait until later. First, I want to ask, do you know where you are? When we were coming in, it was obvious to me you hadn’t ventured more than thirty feet from your craft, except to go to the water. That’s what your footprints told me. So how could you know about the river?”
The Wreck Emerged Page 21
