So Close. So Far.
Ben looked at his watch:
10:50 AM
In the distance he could still hear the sound of a fire engine, but it seemed like it was getting further away. Ben wondered if the rescuers were having trouble getting a signal from his phone so he pulled it out of his pocket, looking at the signal bars.
“Did it sound to you like they were getting further away?” asked Ron.
“Yeah, that’s why I took my phone out, but it looks like it has a good signal,” replied Ben.
Just then Ben’s phone rang.
Ben answered, “Hello? Yeah, I’m the one who called. You say they are having trouble finding us?”
In Ben’s head he was thinking, “No, duh.”
“Here, let me see if I can figure out a cross street we are near.”
Ben put his phone on speaker, “Can you still hear me?”
A voice on the other end responded, “Yes. I’m also patching in the fire department.”
“Let me see if I can pull up a map,” yelled Ben, at an unnecessarily loud volume, thinking he needed to yell into the speakerphone for the person to hear him.
Ben swiped some screens on his phone, opening one of five navigation apps, and after looking at the dot showing their location, began to explain how to find them, “It looks like if they park at the end of Maple Street, they can get directly to the Prairie Path. They would go east on the path about one hundred feet and the entrance to Trail Ridge will be on their left. They should go to the left when the path splits.”
A voice on the other end of the phone answered, “Hi, I’m one of the firefighters. I think I know that spot. I think we should be there in about five minutes.”
“That would be great. You might want to bring a chainsaw if you have one. The guy is stuck under the tree but doesn’t seem to have anything broken,” said Ben.
As Ben was finishing his sentence, Ron yelled, “Yeah, I’m okay, just stuck.”
The firefighter commented, “Okay, I’m going to hang up. If we have trouble finding you, I’ll call you back.”
“Thank you,” said Ben, and he looked at his watch:
10:57 AM
Ben could hear the fire engine getting closer as he patiently waited with Ron. While he and Ron were having small talk, Ben received a text message from Amy, “I hope you’re ready, but I was looking at that map you shared this morning, and it looks like it parked for about fifteen minutes on the way here. I’m sure you know that though. Love you. Good luck!”
Ben tapped back, “Love you, too. Thanks. Hope I get a picture.”
There was a slight bit of relief in Ben’s head, thinking maybe he could still make it to his spot to take his pictures, but the thoughts quickly changed when he heard, from the ridge, “Hey, are you all okay down there?”
Ben turned to see the firefighters at the top of the ridge. They went to the right on the path instead of taking the path on the left. Suddenly the rescue would add another few minutes.
“Yeah, we’re down here. You have to go the other direction,” Ben yelled. “There is a path in the other direction where the trail starts.”
“Okay,” yelled one of the firefighters, “We’ll be right there.”
Ben noticed that they didn’t seem to be in that big of a hurry probably because Ben told them things were fine.
Down the path, Ben could hear the commotion of the firefighters coming around the corner. He heard one of them say to the crew as they were getting closer, “Be careful where you walk, I think there is poison ivy around here.”
As the crew of firefighters arrived, Ron exclaimed, “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes!”
Ben asked one of the firefighters, “Did you need me anymore?”
“No, we’ve got things from here. It’s a good thing you came by.”
Ben picked up his backpack, noticing his water bottle. As he was slinging his backpack on, he thought, “Guess I should have offered him some water.”
“Looks like you are going to be okay, I’m going to get going,” said Ben to Ron.
“Dude, thanks so much. I owe you one. I hope you get to get that picture. I think the train is running late.”
In the distance Ben could hear the faint sound of a helicopter, and he received a text from Amy, “It looks like a helicopter is following the train. It should be there soon!”
Noticing the time, it read 11:10AM
One of the firefighters started a chainsaw, and Ben quickly started trotting back along the path, his pants filled with a blanket of tick tree-foil seeds, making the turn to where the path led to the upper ridge.