The Wreck Emerged

by Joseph Webers

  “When I was ten, between fourth and fifth grade, my sister and I went to vacation Bible school and gave our hearts to the Lord, too. Our family moved that October, and I never pursued it after that. I always kept religion at arm’s length. Not that I disliked it, but I guess I was just watching, looking for a real reason to embrace it. There seems to be too much phoniness. In my profession, I have to be a tough guy, and I’ve learned to never take things at face value. I will say, though, that I’ve always been tender toward stories where God is merciful to those in need of it. Like you two.”

  “Is that why you were so interested in the life preserver?” Matt asked.

  “Yes. I am by nature a skeptic, and by trade an investigator. But everything about your story checks out.”

  Matt and Maggie continued their story up to the arrival of the second King Stallion. Maggie felt comfortable relating about her trauma as a twelve-year-old, her forgiving those who did that to her, being completely healed, and being able to start nursing when Jenny was three months old.

  As they finished, Matt asked, “Those symptoms Captain Palova asked us about, what were they an indication of? He seemed pretty specific.”

  “Right now,” Phil said, “there is an ongoing investigation into who shot your airplane down and why. I hope you realize, both of you, that some of what we are about to tell you, if it got out, could hamper the investigation or allow the perpetrators to escape. Or, heaven forbid, set you up as a target for them.”

  Matt and Maggie both expressed their understanding and cooperation with the investigation.

  “Some things the world already knows or will know shortly. We don’t mind you confirming you were shot down, or anything else you tell us. Things we tell you, however, we are asking you to keep to yourselves, like the symptoms you asked about. Those are symptoms of nerve gas poisoning. I won’t say any more about that, since it appears you were not exposed to any nerve gas.

  “For some reason, someone was willing to kill three hundred people to accomplish his or her purposes. There is one thing I would ask everyone on board, but obviously only you two can answer. Is there any way you could have been the target?”

  “I teach year fives in Bristol,” Maggie said. “I’ve never had a problem with any of the parents, and the oldest of my former students would be fifteen or sixteen. No one knew I was on that flight except my mum and my cousin in Macon.”

  “I retired about eight months ago, after the death of my wife,” Matt said, “and while I was still working, I traveled a lot, but my job was mostly administrative. No, I can’t imagine I’d be a target.”

  “Thanks. Have you ever been on a frozen lake and heard the ice crack?”

  Neither Matt nor Maggie had.

  “I have,” Penny said, pausing from her note-taking task. “It makes a most unusual and unforgettable sound. It’s hard to describe, a sharp crack and a dull boom at the same time.”

  Phil showed them a copy of a report which had a lot of names and agencies blacked out. It detailed the findings of a NOAA representative as reported by one of his own agents. “It appears this exact location was experiencing these cracking sounds for years. We don’t know when they started. NOAA didn’t start monitoring the Atlantic until around 2005.”

  “Wow!” Matt said, after reading through the report. “Exactly every eight years a set of three, exactly eight days apart.”

  “I would have told you about this anyway, since those sounds took place here, but it leads to an important question which could help the investigation. These sounds didn’t happen randomly, but precisely on a schedule. There’s an orderliness to it that defies chance.”

  “God knew the plane would be shot down right here,” Maggie said.

  “Yes,” Phil answered, “but why did he need an island? Why did he need the plane to surface? And I don’t mean to sound callous, but why did he need two survivors?”

  “He could have done it with one,” Maggie said, “as long as it was Matt. I was lost and clueless. I couldn’t even swim. God saved me from the plane in order to save me from hell.”

  “I understand that. Our question is, when you were sensing the things God was having you do, did you get any idea of the purpose for any of it?”

  “No,” Matt said. “We discussed this even before we spoke the words to cause the island to come up. We believed God had purposes for the island we knew nothing of. At the time, we realized that was a secret he was not telling us. We didn’t know the plane would be on the island. It just never occurred to us. In fact, we weren’t even sure that we would end up on the island.”

  “Okay,” Phil said. “We’ll have to go where the physical evidence leads us, then.” He glanced at Penny, who was busy taking notes, then back at Maggie. “You mentioned dirt. I’m telling the skeptic in me that if you were making this up, you never would have promised dirt. Tell us about that.”

  “There’s not much to tell,” Matt said. “It will be a wow for us just like for the rest of the world. We don’t know how God will do it, just that he will do it. We don’t know when, and we don’t know where the dirt will come from.”

  “There’s no need for dirt,” Maggie said, “unless people were going to be here to enjoy things growing on this island. When we called it up, we called for the dirt to be full of life. Things of beauty, flowers, maybe even petunias.”

  “Things will have to grow fast,” Phil said. “With no roots to hold the soil together, the dirt and this dried mud will wash off into the ocean.”

  Paul Washington joined them, carrying a metal box with a pink and gold strip tied around the handle. “This is for you, Maggie. Matt told me you’re a fourth-grade teacher, so I had my engineers put together a memento of your time here.”

  “Thank you, and your men too,” she said.

  Inside the box, she found three large zipper bags full of the now-dried white mud, six various-sized chunks of basalt, eight manganese nodules ranging in size from five to twenty centimeters, and two full water bottles.

  Maggie was delighted. “Wow! Now I can do show-and-tell along with my students.”

  “There’s one set for Jenny when she’s older,” Paul said, “and we gave you enough so you can give Matt a set if you want to. The bottles are full of water from the river. We are sending some water back to be tested, so don’t open those until we send you the results.”

  After Paul left, Matt asked Penny for some of the photos she had taken. “Email us pictures of the three of us on the GSM, and one of the coffin end plate showing the details of the Hardwood Casket Company. Maggie and I need to write them a nice thank-you for letting us use their coffins.”

  “And one showing just the two of us,” Maggie said. “The before-and-after photos of God bringing Jenny back to life!”

  Phil wanted to address one more issue before their meeting ended. “I’ll be here tomorrow when the insurance adjusters and airline reps come. Unfortunately, we can’t look through personal items before the bodies are taken out, and you’ll be gone by the time that happens. We expect the cargo will be determined to be a total loss, which the insurance companies may abandon in place.

  “The airline will attempt to retrieve all personal belongings and luggage not damaged by fire or the exploding bullets, and try to deliver what is identifiable and practical to the next of kin. Most likely, that will only be what is on their person, under the seats, or in the overhead bins.”

  “If the GSM coffins are a total loss,” Matt said, “then they belong to the insurance company. In that case, would you ask if Maggie and I could take ownership? The pallet and coffins wouldn’t need to be moved. They can stay right where they are.”

  “Sure,” Phil said, “Penny or I will have to escort the insurance adjusters, so I’ll ask. What do you want them for?”

  “One day we’ll come back,” Matt said, “and build a museum around them.”

  92

  Kevin Bhatt was waiting at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi for his flight to São L
uis, Brazil. He had been seated less than three minutes when a young man wearing sunglasses and a turban plopped his backpack on the floor and sat next to him.

  “Hello, I see you’re flying to São Luis, as I am,” he said. “Then I’m catching the short hop to Macapá.”

  “Do you live in Macapá?” Kevin asked.

  “No, Jaipur, just southwest of here. I’m going on a scouting expedition in the state of Amapa for my father. I’m to meet a guide in Macapá.”

  “Have you been to Macapá before?” Kevin asked. “Where will you stay?”

  “The guide told me I should have no problem finding a hotel.”

  “I am from Macapá,” Kevin said. “I can recommend a few places.”

  “Wonderful! I am Manan Ganguly. Please tell me about Macapá. Do you know anything of the Amazon rainforests in that area?”

  “I am Kevin Bhatt. I’ve spent about half my life near the Amazon and the rainforests. In fact, my business takes me there frequently. What sort of scouting expedition is it?”

  “My father is a hunter. He has a large exhibition hall for a trophy case. He has one of every kind of monkey in India, and many from South America, but not many from the Amazon. So I’m to set up hunting parties, and he will come during the fall.”

  “The rainforest monkeys are small and hard to find. He will need a good guide and lots of patience.”

  Manan adjusted his sunglasses. “My father will have both. He knows that’s the only way to catch monkeys. There are several varieties of spider monkeys he wants to start with, and he won’t consider the trip a success unless he goes home with a black-bearded saki.”

  Kevin knew that a good many Brazilian monkeys were threatened or endangered, but that was the guide’s responsibility. “Good luck getting them out of the country. By the way, I have several days’ worth of errands when I get back, but I’ll be in the office on Thursday. If you’re still in Macapá, call me and I’ll take you to dinner at my favorite restaurant.” He gave Manan his business card.

  “Thanks, I’m looking forward to it. I don’t fly back here until Friday.”

  93

  It was still dark when Jenny started to cry. Maggie picked her up, checked her makeshift nappy, and nursed her. As she was finishing, she woke Matt per his request from the night before. They quietly exited King One and headed east, where there was the faintest glow on the horizon. The sky was completely clear.

  As they walked, Maggie said, “This is awesome. I’ve never seen the sky this bright. The stars seem like they’re alive!”

  “The heavens declare the glory of God,” Matt replied. “It’s easy to see why some civilizations worshiped them. Now we worship their creator. Just a little farther to go.”

  They reached the rock with the cloth tie. “This will be a special sunrise,” Matt said.

  “Yes, our last one on the island. In a very small way, I will be sad to leave. Our two days here have been extraordinary, absolutely brilliant.”

  “When I met you, Maggie, you were in some ways still a child of twelve. Since then, you have died, come very much alive, and are now an adult, a full-fledged woman in every sense of the word. And I’m thrilled that God chose me to be your dad.”

  It had been growing lighter. Suddenly, a bright green flash appeared briefly on the horizon as the first edge of the sun broke over it.

  Maggie was momentarily speechless. “Wow!”

  “I’ve never seen that either, just read about it. I was hoping it would be clear enough this morning for it to appear. We need to go back soon and eat breakfast, since we’ll be leaving in about an hour and a half, but let’s sit and enjoy the sunrise. There’s a couple more things I want to talk about before we get back to civilization.”

  “There’s one I want to talk about too, Matt. It’s what I promised you on the GSM.”

  “Let’s pray first. We need to ask God for wisdom concerning the island, safety for the trip back, and courage for what lies ahead. We should start by worshipping God, in English and in the spirit. I’ll start, and you join in when you feel comfortable.”

  “That would be right away!”

  They worshiped and prayed. As they were finishing, Matt said, “Lord, help me be an adequate father to Maggie and Jenny.”

  “Maggie, last night when I was thinking about my other daughter Rachel, I realized there was something very important missing from our father-daughter relationship.”

  “Yours and mine?”

  “Yes.”

  “But what could that be? You’ve been so wonderful and patient with me, helping me to live and grow up and know Jesus!”

  “You don’t know it because I think you’ve never experienced it. It’s a very important part of a father’s job to show his kids affection. I gave a lot of that to Todd and Rachel.”

  Matt noticed Maggie starting to tear up, her lower lip quivering. “With Rachel,” he said, “even when she was an adult, we’d be sitting on the couch, and I’d put my arm around her. She’d just sort of melt. She’d relax, lay her head on my shoulder, and just be happy. Amy and Jack would see this, and jump on my lap, wanting some of the love, too.

  “With you and me, I think it has to be a little different. It would be awkward for me to hold you like I did Rachel. I know we’ve set boundaries for ourselves, and it would be tempting to relax those boundaries for the sake of my showing you the affection you so richly deserve and sorely need. I would like to figure out a way to show it that would honor each other and God as well.”

  Maggie just nodded, and burst into tears. “I’m starting to remember,” she said between loud sobs.

  “Let me hold Jenny,” Matt said gently. Jenny had started crying along with her mother, but relaxed and became quiet as Matt held her close.

  Maggie closed her eyes and shuddered, weeping. Matt watched as she struggled, sometimes crying out in anguish, sometimes giving looks of shock and fear and abject helplessness, sometimes rigidly holding in her breath as if in expectation of a horror, pressing her palms against the middle of her chest. At last, she relaxed and wiped her eyes on her shirt sleeves.

  “Come here and sit by me,” Matt said.

  Maggie complied, and he put his arm around her shoulder and held her tight. “I know what I said earlier, but right now you need a hug from a loving father.”

  “Thank you.” The tears were still flowing.

  Matt held her until the tears subsided, then relaxed and waited for her to speak.

  “I didn’t know there was that much to remember. I don’t know if there’s more, but I’ll tell you some of it. I know I need to forgive him, and I’m hoping you can help.”

  “Yes, by God’s grace I will.”

  “We may have been on holiday. I don’t remember. I was four or five and it was summer. We were in a house not our own, and not on the ground floor. I was playing with my favorite doll, made from an old sock, with button eyes. I wanted to show my father. Maybe I was being a pest, but suddenly, he picked me up by my wrist, and took my doll in the other hand. He opened the door onto a balcony and lifted me up over the railing, still holding my wrist.

  “The street was far below. He looked back and forth from me to my doll, as if deciding on one or the other, and suddenly threw my doll away. He never said a word. I remember we looked at each other—he looked mean and grumpy—and finally he brought me back inside. I ran to my mum and cried, but she didn’t know what to do.

  “He was always poking me in the chest if I got too close. Right here, in the center, where it hurts the most. I learned to not cry, but he would laugh. I don’t remember him ever doing that to Charles. Sometimes he would grab my hair and pull my head back, then stroke my chin. I was terrified he would hurt me.”

  “Oh, Maggie! Wow, you were really brave, both enduring it and telling me about it. You said he died when you were fifteen?”

  “Yes, he did, but he quit poking me and pulling my hair when I was ten, after 9/11 in New York. I don’t know what made him quit, maybe my mum, or m
aybe he realized life was short.”

  “I can see those memories would be very painful to carry around.”

  “It was like they were locked in a secret room, secret from me that is. Your telling me about Rachel smashed the door wide open.”

  “How can I help you forgive him?”

  “I don’t know. I know I have to, and I am going to say the words like I did with Charles and his friends. I think I need something to get the words started.”

  “Okay.” Matt held Jenny up and gave her a good look. He cradled her in his arms and kissed her.

  “Maggie,” he said to Jenny, “you are so beautiful! So little, but so full of promise! I am so glad you’ve finally come. You are my pride and joy! I’m really lucky to have you as my daughter.” He kissed her some more. “You are great and wonderful. I’m sorry I didn’t treat you with the honor and respect you deserve. I’m so sorry I ever did anything to hurt you. I don’t deserve your forgiveness. How can I ever make it up to you?” More kisses. “I’m —”

  “Stop!” Maggie was laughing through her tears. “You can’t.”

  Matt looked at Maggie, back at Jenny, and at Maggie again.

  “Thanks,” she said, wiping her eyes once more. “I needed that. I needed to hear every one of those words. It’s what my father should have said. And I could tell you weren’t just playing, but you really meant each one of them.”

  “Yes, and I’ve already sung the song for you. I meant every one of those words, too.”

  “Okay, I’m ready now.”

  Like she had done for Charles and Ted and Billy, she forgave Adam Trillbey. Soon the secret room was completely empty.

  The sun was slowly rising. Soon they had to turn away from it. “We still have a few minutes,” Matt said.

  “I can be in student mode for a few minutes, then it will be time for snack.”

  Matt was getting hungry, too, and promised to keep it as short as possible. He handed the baby back to Maggie as they sat facing west, toward the Stallions and the wreckage of the Dreamliner.