Getting Air

by Dan Gutman

  “We could really use some paper,” she said.

  “Where are we gonna get paper?” David said.

  “Oh, I have some,” said Mrs. Herschel. She reached into her pocket and took out those hundred dollar bills.

  “You’re going to use bills to get the fire started?” Arcadia asked.

  “The money won’t do Annie any good,” Mrs. Herschel said. “I don’t think you can change a hundred in heaven.”

  “Rip it into the thinnest strips you possibly can,” Julia told Mrs. Herschel.

  “That’s a hundred bucks!” David said as Mrs. Herschel tore the bill down the middle. “What if we can’t get a fire going?”

  “Then I wasted a hundred dollars,” Julia admitted.

  Mrs. Herschel gave each of us a hundred-dollar bill and we shredded them into tiny strips. Julia mashed the strips up into a big, fluffy ball the same way you would make a snowball. Then she pushed one of the Vaseline-covered cotton balls partly into it.

  “This has got to rank up there with the dumbest things I’ve ever seen,” David said. “That’s six hundred bucks you just tore up.”

  “It’s a fireball,” Julia explained. “Vaseline is petroleum jelly. Petroleum burns.”

  “But how are you going to light it?” Arcadia asked.

  “Does anybody have a magnifying glass?” Julia asked.

  “Of course we don’t have a magnifying glass!” David said. “Why didn’t you think of that before you ripped up the six hundred bucks?”

  “Oh, get stuffed,” Mrs. Herschel told him. “It’s not your money.”

  “Any glass might do,” Julia said. “Do we have a bottle? Binoculars? A piece of the windshield might even work.”

  “My friend, Agnes, loved taking pictures,” Mrs. Herschel said excitedly. “I’m pretty sure she had a camera in her suitcase.”

  “Can you look, please?” Julia said.

  Mrs. Herschel went through the suitcases until she found her friend’s camera. It was a nice one, not one of those junky little disposables or a PHD camera (push here, dummy).

  “Would it be it okay to take it apart?” Julia asked. “We only need the lens.”

  Mrs. Herschel tried to pull the lens off, but it wouldn’t unscrew. She looked at the camera for a moment, and I thought she was going to hand it to one of us, but she didn’t. Instead, she raised the camera up over her head and smashed it against a rock. It broke into a few pieces and the lens fell off.

  “Agnes won’t mind,” said Mrs. Herschel.

  “Maybe it’s still under warranty,” Henry said.

  Julia breathed on the lens and wiped it with her T-shirt. Then she looked up into the trees. It must have been around noon. We were in the shade, but I could tell the sun was high in the sky.

  “Let’s move over there,” Julia said, pointing to a patch of sun between the trees about thirty feet away.

  Each of us grabbed a pile of sticks. Julia carried the camera lens and her fireball. She sat down on a patch of dirt in the sun and put the fireball on the ground.

  “A convex lens takes a beam of light and concentrates the rays on one spot,” she said. “If you hold it at the right distance from an object, it generates a lot of heat.”

  “That’s not gonna work,” David said.

  “Maybe not,” Julia admitted.

  She held the lens above the cotton ball. The circle of sunlight was about an inch wide, so Julia moved the lens closer. The circle got smaller, until it was a tiny white pinpoint.

  “I used to do that with bugs in the field across from my house,” Henry said. “But they never caught on fire.”

  “Burning bugs is sick,” Arcadia said.

  “All guys do that,” I told her.

  “All guys are sick,” Arcadia said.

  Suddenly, a tiny puff of smoke came off the cotton ball.

  “It’s working!” Mrs. Herschel said.

  Julia held the lens steady and the smoke kept puffing up, but there was no flame.

  “We need a spark,” Henry said. “We need some friction.”

  Friction? I had an idea. I ran to get my skateboard.

  “This may not be the best time for skating,” Arcadia said when I got back.

  “The grip tape on the top of the board feels a lot like that little black strip on a matchbook,” I told them. “Maybe we can use it to make a spark.”

  “Genius runs in the family,” Henry said.

  There were plenty of sharp objects around. I grabbed a shard of metal and scraped it against the grip tape. Nothing. I tried throwing it at the grip tape. No sparks. A piece of glass from the windshield didn’t do anything either. Maybe grip tape wouldn’t work.

  Henry picked up some rocks and rubbed each one against the grip tape. The first few didn’t do anything, but the fourth one made a tiny spark.

  “Bring it over here!” Julia said excitedly.

  Henry held the skateboard right next to the fireball and scraped the rock back and forth against the grip tape. Julia kept the beam of light focused on the spot and leaned over and blew gently on the fireball. The little plume of smoke kept puffing away. Then, somehow, Henry managed to shoot one of the sparks on the spot where Julia was focusing the sunlight.

  A flame leaped to life.

  CHAPTER 12:

  Democracy in Action

  “Fire! We have fire!”

  It was so cool! The Vaseline ignited. That set the cotton ball on fire, which set the shredded money on fire, which set the little twigs on fire. It was beautiful.

  Mrs. Herschel and Arcadia started dancing around like a couple of cavewomen who had discovered the secret of fire. Henry and I jumped up to join them.

  Julia didn’t join in the fun. She grabbed more skinny sticks and made a little tepee over the flame. When that caught fire, she took some of the thicker sticks and crisscrossed them on top. Then she took the biggest sticks and put them on. With each layer of sticks, the fire grew bigger.

  “We have to make sure to leave a little room for air to get in,” Julia said as she added wood to the fire and poked a stick into it to arrange it the way she wanted.

  “Julia, you are The Man!” I said, so proud of my little sister. Everybody except David clapped her on the back.

  The smoke rising off the fire wasn’t all that visible as it snaked up through the trees. It didn’t look like anyone would be able to see the signal. But Julia said we would build the fire bigger and that if another plane came by, we could throw some green leaves on the blaze to make the smoke darker. Until then, we had a nice little fire going that we could use for cooking, heat, light, and to keep bugs or animals away.

  For the time being, there was something comforting about just staring into it. I always loved staring at a fire.

  “I wish we had marshmallows,” Henry said, “and some hamburgers and hot dogs.”

  I had been feeling hungry for a while, but it wasn’t until Henry said the word “hamburger” that I started to get that feeling in my stomach. It wanted to be filled. A hamburger would taste so good.

  I tried to figure out how long it had been since my last meal. A day, at least. And that was just a bowl of corn flakes. I wished I had stuffed myself with food back then.

  Maybe it would be better not to think about it, I decided. Just think about something else.

  “Now that we’ve got a fire,” David said, “we have to get something to cook. Something to eat.”

  “What are you going to do,” Arcadia asked. “Catch a bear?”

  I shivered, imagining in my head a bear chasing us around and devouring us one at a time. What if there were bears in these woods? Or something more dangerous?

  “Maybe we should sit down as a group and figure out what to do next,” Henry suggested.

  Sounded like a good idea. David snorted and rolled his eyes.

  “Do we have to debate everything?” he asked. “Next you’ll be telling me we need a Congress and a House of Representatives. You know, sometimes you just have to act and
not sit around deciding what to do next. We waste so much time. It would be so much faster if one person made a decision.”

  “So you’d prefer a totalitarian form of government?” Mrs. Herschel asked.

  “Yes!” David said. “We’re hungry! Let’s go get some food! End of debate. What’s to discuss? What could make more sense? What’s wrong with you people?”

  “Y’know, you don’t know everything,” Arcadia said to David. “You were wrong when you said we didn’t need a fire. You were wrong when you tried to make the fire too.”

  “Was I wrong about going after those hijackers?” David asked. “Lucky we didn’t have to vote on that, huh? If I hadn’t done anything, we’d all be dead now.”

  He was right, I had to admit.

  “I have an idea!” Henry piped up. “Let’s vote on it!”

  “Vote on what?” I asked.

  “Let’s vote on whether or not we should vote on stuff.”

  I wasn’t sure if Henry was kidding or not.

  “That’s stupid,” David said.

  “All in favor of voting on stuff raise your hand,” Henry said, sticking his hand in the air.

  Mrs. Herschel put her hand up right away. Then Arcadia raised her hand. So did Julia. I put my hand up too.

  “All opposed to voting on stuff raise your hand,” Henry said.

  “You expect me to vote against voting?” David asked.

  “It doesn’t matter whether or not you vote,” Arcadia said. “We already have a majority.”

  David stood up abruptly and started marching around, like he was really mad.

  “Do you guys remember why we started the Woodpushers?” he asked. “We didn’t like rules. We didn’t want to play football or soccer or basketball with their rules and clocks and uniforms. We didn’t want to be on a team. We wanted to do our own thing. Remember?”

  “We’re not skateboarding here,” I reminded him. “This isn’t a sport. We’re trying to get along. And survive.”

  “We are a group,” Mrs. Herschel said. “It will certainly be better for all of us if we can find a way to work together instead of separately.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you what,” David said. “I say it’s every man for himself. You folks can sit around gabbing and voting until you all starve to death. I’m going to get something to eat. See you later.”

  “Fine,” Arcadia said. “Have fun.”

  David took a few steps, and then turned around and stopped.

  “Hey, Zimmerman,” he said, “can I borrow your board?”

  “What for?” I asked.

  “Maybe there’s a halfpipe in the middle of the forest,” David said.

  I laughed and handed him my board. The nearest flat surface was probably a hundred miles away. David took the board and headed out into the woods.

  “We shouldn’t let him leave,” Mrs. Herschel said.

  “I’d like to see you stop him,” muttered Henry.

  “Good riddance, I say,” Arcadia said once David was out of earshot. “How do you deal with that guy?”

  “He’ll be back,” I said. “He always comes back.”

  CHAPTER 13:

  Water

  As soon as David left, I felt better. We all did, I think. It was like a big sigh of relief. That’s the way he is. I love the guy like a brother and all, but he just gets on your nerves sometimes.

  I wondered who would be our leader now. Not me. I didn’t want the responsibility. Julia’s not the leader type. Henry pretty much just likes to sit back and make fun of the world. I didn’t know Arcadia or Mrs. Herschel very well, but neither of them seemed like a real take-charge kind of person the way David is. Mrs. Herschel was certainly the oldest in our group, so I guess she felt she had to start things off.

  “Okay, our first order of business—”

  “Um, may I say something?” Arcadia asked.

  “Of course, dear,” Mrs. Herschel said.

  “I have to go to the bathroom,” said Arcadia.

  “So go,” Julia said. “There are plenty of trees.”

  “Uh, that’s not the problem,” Arcadia said.

  “Well, what’s the problem, dear?” asked Mrs. Herschel.

  “None of the trees…have toilet paper,” Arcadia finally said.

  The rest of us had a good snicker, and even Arcadia giggled a little.

  “Use leaves,” Julia said. “All of the trees have them.”

  “Leaves?” Arcadia asked, turning all red and squishing up her nose.

  “Just do it, dear,” Mrs. Herschel told her. “Don’t be embarrassed. We’re all friends here.”

  “Just make sure you don’t use poison ivy,” Julia suggested. “That could be…uncomfortable.”

  We all groaned and Arcadia went off into the woods. I didn’t laugh or make fun of her, because I knew that sooner or later we would all be doing the same thing.

  We talked a little bit about what we should do next, but Julia felt we should wait for Arcadia. She came back in a few minutes, with a little smile on her face.

  “Feel better, dear?” asked Mrs. Herschel.

  “Much,” Arcadia said.

  “So…how did it go?” I asked. “With the leaves, I mean.”

  “Fine,” Arcadia said.

  “Did everything…come out all right?” Henry asked.

  “I’d rather not discuss it,” Arcadia said.

  “Let’s get down to business,” Mrs. Herschel said. “Your friend David wasn’t the only one who was hungry. I’m sure we all are. Do you think he was right? Should we go off and search for food?”

  That sounded like a good idea to me. I figured we could hunt down some berries or nuts or something that might tide us over until we were rescued.

  “I don’t think so,” my little sister said, and we all turned to look at her. Julia tends to fade into the background until she says something really smart that nobody else thought of.

  “Why not, sweetie?” Mrs. Herschel asked. “Aren’t you hungry too?”

  “I learned in Girl Scouts that the average person can survive for more than a month without food,” Julia said. “But we can’t go more than a few days without water.”

  “Is that so?” Mrs. Herschel said.

  “We’re already dehydrated,” Julia said. “Water accounts for almost two thirds of your body’s weight. So I think it might be smarter to look for water before we worry about getting food.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at my little sister. She was always the smart one in the family. I used to make fun of her because her head was always stuck in a book. But I guess she actually learned a thing or two.

  “It sounds like the Girl Scouts taught you a great deal,” Mrs. Herschel said, stroking Julia’s hair. “Do you know anything about finding water?”

  “A little,” Julia said.

  She was being modest. She knew a lot, about everything. The rest of us knew one way to get water—by turning on a faucet. So we were all ears.

  “Let’s go through those suitcases again,” Julia said.

  Julia told us to look for anything that could be used as a container. The cap from a can of shaving cream. A camera bag. An upside-down umbrella. We collected a bunch of containers. Julia said we should set them out in a clearing and use them to catch rain when it fell.

  “Hey!” Henry said. “I found a bunch of plastic bags.”

  “Jackpot!” Julia said excitedly.

  They were those really big black bags, the kind you use to line a garbage can. Julia ripped off a leafy bough from a bush and stuffed it into one of the bags. She sealed the opening with a rubber band she had in her pocket.

  “What’s that for?” Arcadia asked.

  “It’s called a solar still,” Julia replied. “We’ll leave it out in the sun. The moisture in the leaves won’t be able to escape into the atmosphere, so it will collect in the bag. We should have a little water tomorrow.”

  My sister is a genius.

  Julia said the solar still wouldn’t produce n
early enough water for all of us, so we’d have to go out and hunt for more. We were all a little nervous about leaving the safety of our little campsite, but it had to be done. Julia added some wood to the fire to keep it going while we were gone, and then she led the way. Julia grimaced as she limped along, putting her arm around my shoulder and using me like a crutch. It was slow going.

  “Listen for a fast-moving stream,” she advised us. “There might even be a river around here.”

  As we marched through the woods, I was looking all around me. There could be animals out there, I knew. But I was more worried about getting lost. What if we couldn’t find our way back to the plane? What if a search and rescue team found the plane while we were gone? Well, at least they’d find our fire. They would know there were survivors somewhere.

  I hadn’t really been out in a forest since I was a little kid, when we used to go on family hikes. There were some woods near my house, but they cut them down and put up condos on that spot. Ever since then, my only experience with nature consisted of mowing the lawn.

  Julia seemed to know where she was going, hobbling through the woods as if she’d been there a hundred times. The splint kept her bad leg straight, and she had picked up a long stick to use as a cane. Julia told us to keep an eye out for large rocks, which might have a big dent on top where water could collect.

  We hiked around for a long time. I didn’t tell the others, but I was starting to feel weak. It must have been even worse for Julia. Walking around looking for water uses up a lot of energy. And the more energy we used, the more water we’d need. I wondered if it might have made more sense to stay back at our campsite and wait for some rain or a rescue. Maybe we should have been conserving our energy. I stopped to wipe the sweat off my forehead when I turned my head and saw something through the trees.

  A pond!

  It was a sort of bowl in the ground where water collected. Not very big, maybe the size of a small house. But there was water in it. There was plenty for all of us.

  “Water!” I shouted, pointing.

  We went running over there like we were in the Olympics. Henry was the fastest, so he got to the edge of the pond first. He got down on his hands and knees and dipped his face into the water.