It was a bright, cool, sunny morning in October in a small town in Maine close to the border. The population of this small town was about 1900 people. Every morning, the air smelled of fresh baked bread and sweets from the local bakery where almost everyone stopped on the way to work or school. Hayley and Jacob Forrester were two of the children in the Forrester family. They attended the local middle school and their dad, Henry Forrester, was one of the top doctors and researchers in the area. This made the family a very well known family in the small town where everyone knew almost everyone.
Henry Forrester was always busy at work, with his high demanding job, but he always made time for his family as well. It was only a couple days away from their family vacation and the family was busy packing and getting things ready for the trip. This year the family was traveling to the other side of the United States. They were taking there small family plane to the area of Mount Whitney. Here the family was to spend a week in the mountains hiking. This would be a complete change of scenery from what the family was used to in Deer Isle, Maine. As the family was packing”,” Dad exclaimed”, “I cannot wait to see the beauty and the peacefulness of the trails.”
Haley said, “Jacob, I cannot wait to see all the different colors in the mountains.”
The family finished packing their bags and Mom, Alice Forrester, and Dad packed it all on to the plane. The family was all set and ready to take off at sunrise the next day. Full of excitement, and ready to make many memories, the family settled into bed to get some rest for the long trip in the morning.
The next morning, Jacob was up before the rest of the family. “Good morning,” Mom told him as she went to start a pot of coffee on the kitchen counter. The smell of fresh coffee and homemade biscuits baking woke the rest of the family up. Dad came down the stairs first, followed by Haley carrying the baby of the family, Emily. Emily was the sweet two year old that was everyone in the family’s favorite because she was so young and aways so happy.
“Good morning,” Mom and Jacob told the rest of the family as Emily began to babble and smile. The family sat down for breakfast together and quickly ate as they were all ready to begin their family vacation.
After breakfast, when they were as full as they could be, the family loaded into the Silver Bullet and buckled up. The Silver Bullet was the name the family agreed on for their plane because it was fast like bullets and as silver and shiny as metal. “I cannot wait for takeoff” Jacob exclaimed.
“Come on, Dad!” shrieked Hayley, “Lets go!”
“Go, go, go!” yelled Emily and everyone laughed.
“Cleared for takeoff, cleared for takeoff. Everyone buckle your seatbelts.”
Dad laughed “We are taking off in 3 2 1… and we are off! The family was so excited to be on their way. It was a nice beautiful clear morning for the first part of the flight. Slowly, the clouds started to darken and it began to rain. The rain quickly went from a light mist to a pretty heavy downpour. You could hear the thunder from the inside of the plane and the ride had become as rocky as a rocky road. The fun and excitement in the plane quickly turned to worry and concern as Emily started to cry. The family had been on the plane for hours and they knew they were almost to their destination.
With the storm picking up and the turbulence getting worse, Henry knew it was no longer safe for his family to be in the air, so he started to prepare for landing at the nearest airport. As hard as Henry was trying to get his family to safety, the struggle of getting them there was harder and harder. The family’s private plane was starting to go down from the storms and almost crashed. Henry was able to get the plane back in the air, but not for long when the plane finally came down. As the plane crashed into an empty field along a river, miles from anyone and not close to their destination, a fire began as the plane was forced to the ground. With only seconds to think about his family’s safety, Henry began to panic as he heard the screams from his family behind him.
With the plane on fire, and Henry trying to rescue all of the family members, he quickly realized that Jacob and Emily were in need of immediate medical care if they were going to survive. With no one or anything in sight to get the kids the medical attention they needed, Henry and Alice were scared they were going to lose their children. The family started to pray and ask that something please be done to help their children. With Henry’s medical knowledge, he began to think of what could be done with what they had around them. Alice and Hayley found a part of the plane that could be used as a bucket and quickly got water from the river to start cleaning up the wounds of the siblings. Henry then took his shirt and tore it in strips to try and stop the bleeding from his children’s weak bodies. After many many tries the bleeding finally stopped and things were looking better for the family. Henry and Alice knew that things were still not good, but they hoped that their children would recover.
After the children were as well as they could get them in the situation they were in, Henry and Alice realized that they were many miles away from anywhere that they could sleep for the night and they would have to camp where they were. Thankfully the fire was still burning from the plane to keep them warm for the night so they continued the fire by adding wood, and ate some of the snacks that were left from their trip. They all settled in to sleep for the night, hoping that the kids would be okay in the morning.
Hayley could not fall asleep”,” so she got up and began to explore the area. Since it was night time, there was only the light from the fire and the moon and stars for her to see with. While she was walking”,” she tripped over a wire. Not sure why a wire would be in the field she began to follow it. It led her to a tent of another family that were sleeping in tents not to far away. With Hayley getting excited and thinking that they may be able to help them get back to where they needed to be”,” she quickly ran back to her family to tell them about the other family they had found. By the time Hayley got back to her parents and siblings, it was almost morning time. It was perfect timing for them to go meet the other family. With her parents now awake, the first thing they did was check on the condition of Emily and Jacob. They were still alive, but neither one of them had woken up. Knowing that the children could not stay by themselves the family decided that Alice would stay with Emily and Jacob while Henry and Hayley went to meet the other family and ask for help. When they got to the other family they realized that this family had a camper and may be able to really help them get to the nearest city. Waking up to the family”,” they heard the sounds of children playing. Getting closer they realized the family was like them with a mom, a dad, a brother and two sisters. This made them feel really good.
Jacob walked up closer to them. “Hello,” he shouted. “Can you help us?” Quickly the family ran out to see who was there. They were shocked that another family was there. The families introduced themselves to each other and they quickly told them the help that they were needing. The Brown family was quick to pack up their things to help the Forrester family. Within an hour they were on the road to the nearest hospital to get the children the help that they needed. On the way to the hospital, Jacob opened his eyes and began to talk. Emily opened her eyes as they were pulling up to the hospital. Overjoyed that the children were getting better, the Forresters thanked the Brown family for their help. This would be a family vacation that they would never forget.