Far Country

by Malone, Karen

  This year no one had asked ‘The Question.’, but clearly, something was very different. She thought back on last night. She had liked the way he had gotten embarrassed the time she had caught him looking at her with a shy, almost questioning look in his eyes. Kelly wondered if he would come back again tonight. Jenny was certainly hoping so….Okay, maybe she was too!

  Her handheld radio crackled and beeped on her hip. It was Megan. “Aunt Kelly, where are you?”

  Kelly pulled the radio off of her belt and pressed the button. “I’m still here on the point. Where’d you wander off to?”

  Megan responded, “We’re near the picnic rock. There’s somebody climbing the rocks and I don’t think they’re using any ropes! It’s hundreds of feet to the ground!”

  Kelly considered the angle they would need to be standing at to clearly see climbers on the sides of the cliff. “You’re all staying on the center rock like I told you, right?” Kelly asked. They climbed Hanging Rock every year and the girls knew her rules, but she figured it never hurt to remind them. When Megan did not reply, Kelly grew suspicious. She walked back from the point and veered down a trail to the left, which she knew offered some spectacular views, as well as some tempting rock formations to climb out on. People climbed out on them all the time, but she never let the girls go unless she was with them. It would be too easy to get silly or distracted, and a careless step could leave you in a hundred foot freefall! And as Ranger Williams had said last night, a fall from a cliff was not something to dwell on.

  Kelly clicked the call button again. “Megan, I’m heading your way. Where exactly are you girls?” Her voice was a little sharper than usual, but it was still several more seconds before Megan replied. “We’re Okay, Aunt Kelly.”

  Hmmm. Kelly shot back. “Meaning you are okay NOW? You girls went out of bounds to see those climbers, didn’t you?” Kelly guessed. “You stay on picnic rock,” she commanded. “I’m almost there.”

  When Kelly came out off the trail to the large flat rock where they usually sat to eat their snacks, she found three of her four charges looking nervous and guilty. Kelly was steaming. She compressed her lips into a thin line and surveyed their uneasy faces.

  “So who’s going to ‘fess up? Where did you go? And where is Alyssa?”

  Rachel, who’d come on the trip with them for the past two years finally broke the silence. “We only climbed out on the first rock, Miss Kelly. Just so we could see the free climbers,” she said. “We were really careful!” She pleaded, seeing Kelly’s look of anger and disappointment.

  “I’m sure that you were careful,” she said evenly, “but that’s not the point. You all know my rules.” She scanned the rocks for her missing niece. “Now will you please tell me where Alyssa is?”

  Megan shifted her feet. “She went out on the second rock, Aunt Kelly. I told her she couldn’t be out there, but she called me a scaredy cat. When I told her I was calling you, she took off that way!” Megan pointed past the picnic rock to an area they had never really explored before.

  Kelly let out a deep breath of frustration. It had taken a great deal of coaxing, and finally an out and out “you’re coming with us and that’s final” command to make Alyssa accompany them on the hike. Her sullen mood had seemed to wear off on the way up, but now Kelly suspected that her niece was deliberately challenging Kelly’s authority. First by going out of bounds, and now by heading off by herself down an unmarked trail!

  Kelly pressed the call button twice. “Alyssa? Answer me!” But there was no reply. Kelly continued to try and contact Alyssa for a couple more minutes, but Alyssa would not respond. Thoroughly aggravated with the girl, Kelly started down the faint trail Megan had indicated.

  “Come on girls. Let’s stick together now. Be looking around, in case she cut off this trail. In the mood she’s in, she’d probably think it funny to sneak back around and laugh that we wasted the whole trip looking for her in the wrong place!”

  The group made their way along what appeared to be a seldom used rabbit trail. Kelly’s long legs accumulated several new scratches from the undergrowth. It was now past noon. She was getting hungry and very frustrated with Alyssa. The sun was almost directly overhead, shining down on them in all its early autumn intensity. Kelly could feel the burn on her neck and shoulders.

  After nearly ten minutes of slow progress, Kelly tried calling again, but there was still no response.

  Gritting her teeth, Kelly made a decision. She pressed the call button and held it down. “Fine!” She snapped angrily into the radio. “You win, Alyssa! Come back in and we’ll pack up and head home this afternoon. I promise.”

  Kelly waited awhile, wiping the sweat out of her eyes. A seed of worry sprouted in her mind, and began to overrun the anger she had been feeling up until now. Alyssa wasn’t’ behaving rationally and she had been sullen and ill tempered for two days now, but would she deliberately refuse to reply to her Aunt? Or…had something else…happened? Doubt and anger warred in her head. Suddenly she realized that Megan, Jenny and Rachel were watching her anxiously.

  Kelly tried calling Alyssa one more time. “Okay, Alyssa. This has gone far enough. I am sorry if I did not take your feelings as seriously as maybe I should have, but honey, you know that I love you, and now you are scaring me. Just answer me, Alyssa. Come out of your hiding place and we’ll talk this through. No repercussions, I promise.”

  She waited a minute and pressed the button. “Come on, Alyssa. Time to come in.”

  They waited a long time, but there was nothing. Not even static. Kelly rubbed her forehead, and tried to breathe normally. Panic was about to fuddle her thinking. Was it time to get help? Should she keep searching? Carefully she looked at the girls’ worried faces, still silently turned to her.

  “This isn’t like her,” Megan said, a quiver in her voice. “Even when she’s mad, she wouldn’t not answer you, Aunt Kelly.”

  Kelly smiled wanly. “I agree, Megan. I think it’s time we ask for help.” She thought for a moment. “Turn off your radio and give it to me, in case my batteries die,” she instructed Megan. “Now listen to me girls. I want the three of you to go back down the trail and head for the Visitor’s Center. Tell everyone that you meet that Alyssa is missing. Let them know what she was wearing, what she looks like, and ask if they’ve seen her, but don’t waste a lot of time. Find a park ranger and tell them that I’m still up here looking. Let them know that Alyssa got mad and took off and we haven’t had contact with her in,” Kelly looked at her watch. “Wow, in almost two hours, now.” Kelly took a deep breath to still her nerves. “You three must stay together, no matter what,” she cautioned them. “Promise me!” She insisted as she saw Jenny start to form the words ‘but what if’ in protest. “I can’t worry about your safety, too, so just do it, okay? When you find a ranger give him or her one of your radios so they can call me.” Kelly thought a second. “You should probably head to our campsite, just in case she went back there. Then either stay there, or stay with a ranger until we figure out what happened with Alyssa. I don’t care how worried you are, you three must stay together, okay?’

  The girls nodded, their eyes wide in apprehension. They hurried back up the trail ahead of Kelly. For awhile, she heard them calling Alyssa’s name as they went, but soon their voices grew fainter.

  Kelly took a deep breath and pushed on down the trail a bit further, then stopped and looked at the thick undergrowth critically for the first time since Megan had told her Alyssa had come this way. The further she went, the more overgrown the path became. There was no sign that anyone had broken a trail through here except for her. Kelly shook her head. Alyssa would not have come this way. The spider webs alone would have slowed her to a stop. Alyssa hated spiders! She must have turned off the trail, Kelly reasoned, and we missed her.

  Feeling certain of this, she turned back, walking slowly and looking for some sign of where Alyssa might have cut off of the meandering trail. Occasionally she attempted to call her on the radi
o. Once, Megan called to let her know that they were off the top and heading down the gravel trail, and that so far, no one had seen her sister.

  Kelly sighed. She had hoped that Alyssa had simply walked to the head of the trail under Hanging Rock and that the girls would find her sitting on one of the benches waiting for them on their way down.

  Shaking her head to clear away the panic, Kelly retraced their steps. She searched the trees behind the popular areas of Hanging Rock and checked some alternate and seldom traveled side trails that led down the steep hill.

  Less than thirty minutes had passed when Kelly’s radio beeped to life. “Aunt Kelly?” Megan called.

  “Yeah honey, where are you?”

  “Aunt Kelly, we’re with one of the rangers. He just drove us to the campsite. She’s not here, and none of her stuff is missing.” Kelly’s heart went cold. She realized now how much she had been counting on the girls finding her at the campsite. She stood limply in the middle of the trail, unable to think what to do next.

  “Aunt Kelly? The ranger wants to talk to you.”

  “Yes,” Kelly called back faintly. “I’m here.”

  A deep voice came through the radio waves. “Miss McGuire? This is Ranger Bergan. We’re getting together a search party now, and we’ll be on our way up to join you in about fifteen minutes or so. If it’s all right with you, we’ll keep the girls down here at the Visitor’s Center.”

  Kelly could hear the chorus of protests at the ranger’s suggestion, and for a moment she smiled. “Yes,” she called back, her voice firm. “Please keep them down there.”

  “Fine. We’ve also alerted the campsites next to yours to watch for her, in case she shows up.”

  Kelly squeezed the talk button. “I appreciate it,” she responded. “Just, please hurry.” Kelly heard the quiver of fear in her own voice. Don’t panic, she warned herself sternly. Think of Alyssa!

  “We’re loading the truck right now,” came the calm and reassuring reply. Kelly just wished that she felt reassured. Numbly she walked down the steep half mile of trail that led from the top of Hanging Rock to the base of the huge overhang. She was relatively certain that Alyssa was not still at the top. She knew that the truck could drive up the wide gravel road to the trailhead, and she wanted to make contact with the rescue party as quickly as possible.

  Rescue party! Kelly shivered. How could those two words contain so much hope and so much fear at the same time? Kelly waited forlornly where the road ended. She couldn’t believe one of her girls was missing! She wiped away a tear, with some surprise. She hadn’t realized that she was crying.

  Once again, but no longer with the expectation of receiving a response, Kelly pushed the call button twice, which she knew would cause Alyssa’s radio to ring like a telephone. She pushed the button several more times, willing her niece to respond to the ringtone. Where are you, Alyssa? Are you sulking somewhere? Hearing this, but refusing to answer? Or are you lying hurt and alone and lost out there, unable to call for help? Or, had somebody kidnapped her…? No! Kelly refused to even think of that possibility! But what if she was running away and LET someone pick her up? Kelly felt sick, even thinking about it.

  It was getting so late, Kelly thought looking up at the sky. Soon, she would have to call Alyssa’s parents and tell them…oh, what could she tell them? They had gone to Tennessee for the weekend. They wouldn’t be able to make it back tonight, even if she called them right now. Kelly decided to wait until the rangers had a chance to look for Alyssa. It would be better if she could at least tell them something.

  Unable to do anything else while she was waiting, Kelly began praying in earnest. Every minute or two she paused and hit the call button, then she paced and prayed some more, the radio clutched tightly in her hand in case Alyssa should decide to call her. Kelly had lost count of the number of times she had hit that call button when suddenly her radio crackled to life.

  “Aunt Kelly?” The voice was thin and waivery. Kelly stared at the little radio. Had she really heard it, or had she imagined it?

  Trembling she pressed the talk button. “Alyssa?” She cried desperately. “Honey, where are you?” The silence stretched interminably. Finally, the weak voice spoke again.

  “Aunt Kelly, I fell…” the voice trailed off and Kelly’s heart was in her throat. She thought of the free climbers on the huge cliffs. Surely Alyssa had not climbed down there…?” The instant joy she had felt course through her at the sound of Alyssa’s voice was quickly drowned by the reality. Alyssa was hurt and she had no idea how to get to her.

  “Alyssa? I hear you, honey.” Kelly spoke loud and slow. She clutched the radio in front of her, as if willing a map to appear to show her the way to her niece. “Alyssa, where are you? Where did you go to? We’re looking for you, honey. Please help us!”

  “I went to the left,” she said. “I was going to climb back up, but my foot slipped on the edge. I fell over…’

  Left? Kelly thought wildly. Left of What?

  “Alyssa!” she called back. “Alyssa! Left of what? Where were you when you fell?” Alyssa, speak to me!”

  But Alyssa didn’t reply.

  At last, a white truck rounded the curve and pulled up as close to the base as it could go. Four rangers piled out, carrying ropes and flashlights. Kelly did not wait. She charged up to the driver of the truck. “I heard her! She called me just now! She fell and she’s hurt, I think.”

  The ranger’s face lit up. “Is she still talking? Did she tell you where she fell from?” He asked eagerly.

  Kelly shook her head. “She faded off after a minute, but I was just getting ready to try her again.” Kelly pressed the call button fiercely. She repeated the call process making the radio ring over and over, hoping the noise would rouse Alyssa. “Alyssa!” She called loudly into the mike. “Alyssa!” She called several times.

  “Aunt Kelly?” At last! Kelly blessed the little radio.

  “Alyssa! Listen to me! Don’t fade out, honey. Tell me where you were when you fell! We’re trying to find you, but we need your help!”

  Alyssa called back again, and Kelly’s heart jumped with hope. “I came down to wait for you, but I got bored. I was going to climb up the crevice but I got too close to the edge and I slipped.” Alyssa’s voice was tired and weak. Something about it didn’t sound right. Kelly bit her lip.

  “But where did you fall from, Alyssa? Where is ‘left’?” They waited but Alyssa did not respond. Kelly looked up at the tall brown haired ranger standing beside her, who had been listening intently to the thin tired voice on the radio. She saw his name tag. PETE BERGAN.

  Ranger Bergan looked at the other rangers. “ Okay, she said she ‘came down, got bored and went left.’ My guess is that she was right here, and went left,” he pointed to the rocky ground opposite the trailhead. “around the barrier and along the wall.”

  “Yeah, it makes sense. Let’s walk that way first.” At the sound of the second man’s voice Kelly’s head jerked up and she looked around. “Steve?” She whispered, feeling idiotically glad that he was there. She found herself smiling happily into his grave blue eyes.

  “Hey Kelly,” Steve said gently. He took her hand for just a moment and gave it a firm squeeze of encouragement. “She’s a fighter. If she’s where we think she is, we’ll have her back to you in no time.” He assured her.

  Quickly they skirted the barriers and worked their way along a narrow deer path that wrapped around the base of the summit. The ground to their left was a tree covered slope that rapidly fell away near the base of Hanging Rock until the track was a narrow ribbon of horizontal trail in a nearly vertical plane. Kelly stepped carefully, following close on Steve’s heels. Ranger Bergan was leading the way, and two other rangers, a Charles McIntyre and a woman named Jill Jamison, were close behind her. At a gully wash, Steve automatically reached back and took her hand to help her over the loose tumble of shale rock, and Kelly clung to his fingers, reluctant to let go. Steve held her hand for a moment as he sc
anned the area, then he looked at Kelly and said “Maybe you should try ringing her again. I think we might be close enough now to hear her radio ring.”

  Quickly Kelly pressed the call button again in rapid succession. Everyone seemed to hold their breath, listening intently for a sound…”I hear it!” The female ranger exclaimed excitedly. “She must have been planning to climb up that crevasse,” the ranger said, pointing to a narrow chimney between two great slabs of stone that seemed to reach all the way to the summit. Kelly looked up and tried to imagine Alyssa climbing it like the freestyle climbers she had watched on the Cliffside just a short time before.

  “But she never made it over to the chimney,” Steve pointed out. “She slipped somewhere back here in the shale.” He moved back along the narrow path and looked at Kelly. “Ring it again,” he instructed her. Kelly hit the button and a faint ringing seemed to float up to them.

  Kelly looked around. To her right, the wall of rock towered imposingly. It appeared tempting and even possible to climb. But to her left the land leveled off into a sparsely treed woodland, that abruptly fell away into the jagged cliff below. If you were looking ahead and studying the chimney, how easy it would be to step carelessly and fall!

  Kelly’s knees went weak. How had Alyssa fallen down that and survived this long? She called Alyssa again. “Alyssa! We can hear your radio, but we can’t see you.”

  Kelly sighed with relief when Alyssa’s replied this time, even though her voice sounded even weaker and more disconnected. ‘I’m on a ledge…. My backpack caught on a… scrubby tree… and I kind of hung there… then I fell down to this ledge thing.”

  Pete Bergan stepped dangerously near the edge and peered off into the void below, searching for some sign of the girl. “There!” He said at last. “I see a scrub birch with some broken branches. It’s got to be the one she was talking about. The cliff side bulges right there. I think she’s probably below that lip.”