witnessed. “I talked to Captain Meyer!” Jack was speaking into Em’s ear from a mere few inches. “He said these islands just keep getting bigger! The lava never stops creating new land! I can’t wait to get down there! This is it, Em!” They looked back toward the rear of the plane, and Morton was waving his arms. Evidently, it was time to land this thing.
The second time that Em and Jack were on an aircraft as it returned to the earth was quite different from their first. The initial thing they noticed was the temperature. As the giant cargo vessel lost altitude, the temperature rose. Before they were on the ground, the airmen wished they had removed their cold weather gear. By the time the plane had nearly come to a stop, Em and Jack were sweating profusely. It surprised them to see the six other people that were on the plane disembark in only their flight overalls. Neither Em nor Jack had seen anyone remove his heavy winter gear.
As they exited through the rear of the plane, the sunshine was so bright they were temporarily blinded. As Em’s squinting eyes began to adjust, he looked out across the airstrip at the greenest picture he had ever seen. Even the hills of Kentucky had never looked so green. The colors of everything seemed to be brighter here. He could count at least ten different shades of green.
They were following Sergeant Cannon. He had not said a thing to them since the engines had stopped, and he declared, “Welcome to paradise.” Now he was almost running across the flight line.
They trotted to keep up. They were not worried about their gear. Sergeant Cannon’s gear was also on the plane. Jack and Em were trotting and removing clothes at the same time. Sergeant Cannon looked as crisp as ever in his olive drab fatigue uniform. He walked with a purpose heading for the enormous opening in the aircraft hangar that stood before them. As if he had been raised here, Sergeant Cannon headed straight through the building and beyond the back wall. He walked through another set of doors and proceeded into a hallway. His brisk pace led them to believe that he knew exactly where he was going.
No one else from the plane was following. They walked toward another door at the end of the hallway. When they walked through, the only thing they saw was a jeep and more of the green landscape. Sergeant Cannon jumped into the driver’s seat and said, “Hop in, boys.”
Chapter 3
Paradise
He looked through the small window of the train; across the hazy distance, the white dress was somehow fading into the gray walls of the station. Em squinted and put his hand up to block the rising sun and looked desperately to see her smile one more time. Now he couldn’t see her at all. She simply was not there. He could still see his family and the platform, but Irene was gone.
He ran through the cars looking for someone to stop the train. He frantically searched for a way to stop it before it was too late. He saw the emergency brake line running through the top of the train car. He reached up and pulled and heard rain pouring through the trees onto the sloping mountainside. Where was he, and why was he soaking wet under a canopy of trees bigger than any mighty oak that grew near the creek bottoms back home in Kentucky? Where did Irene go?
Em came out of his fitful sleep and instantly panicked. He knew he could only have slept for a few brief moments, but the dream was so agonizingly long and realistic it seemed he had slept a long time. He even thought he could smell the brakes on that train.
The rain was coming down hard, just as it did almost every day. He knew it would not last long. The sun would win, and the rainclouds would scatter for another day. A rainbow would be visible for a brief moment of time. “Paradise! Yeah, right,” he said to himself.
Hawaii was beautiful, and the last twelve weeks had been the longest weeks of his life. The training had started immediately. He and Jack had followed Sergeant Cannon around like puppies for the first three days. They were each issued new gear. Everything they thought they would ever need compacted into one olive-green utility bag. Instructors told them that before they left this island, they would be able to survive anywhere on earth with just the contents of this bag. As soon as each item had been inspected, catalogued, and labeled with both S and T, it was put back into the bag in reverse order. On their first three attempts, the bag did not condense to the size that would please their new instructors. Finally, on their fourth try, the bag would zip the entire length.
In total, the bag, with all its contents, weighed 51 pounds. There was enough food to survive for six weeks if it was used sparingly. To Em, it looked like enough for one good supper. There were knives ranging in size from about an inch long up to daggers with seven-inch blades. Six in total. He could scale and filet fish if he could figure out how to catch them with just a few feet of line and three hooks. A belt with tools that Em or Jack had never seen before could be stored in the pack or worn. If worn, it removed 4.8 pounds from the bag. They were told to get used to wearing the belt.
There were canisters filled with some powdery stuff, labeled “water purification.” A small chart explained their usage. A few other small gadgets, a compass, a flare gun, and a pistol were carefully packed into a waterproof container. The ammunition weighed close to fifteen pounds. Em hoped he would not need that. The food packets weighed a mere 10.2 pounds. It was difficult for Em to believe that he could survive for six weeks on that small amount of food.
The most amazing items in the bag were the clothes and boots. There were three pairs of pants, three shirts, long sleeve, three pairs of socks, underwear, one rain slicker, one stocking cap, all packed into a smaller canvas bag. It weighed only six pounds and measured just seventeen inches by seventeen inches. Remarkable!
The last thing the two of then inventoried was the first aid kit. The size of a cigar box, it held unimaginable things. Aside the bandages and tape, there were pills in several different colors. Em could only imagine their use. There were clean rags and iodine. There was enough iodine for an entire family to use for the better part of their lives. There were three different kinds of antivenom serum. At least, Em thought, he wouldn’t need that while he was in Hawaii. Two syringes filled with who knew what were secured to the bottom of the kits.
As soon as each bag was closed, they were told to put it on their back and told not to be seen without the bag for their entire stay in paradise.
The rain was still coming down hard. Em thought about what was now left in his bag. He had used some things and replaced some things that he thought would be handy here in paradise. For eight weeks, he had carried it and used it. It now weighed a little less, but Em had gotten so used to carrying it that he felt it was part of him. The weight felt ominously light. Even though he had added a few things, the bag was still considerably lighter than when he began his training.
Em reached into his bag and pulled out what he had decided was the greatest thing produced here in paradise: pineapple. During the past forty-eight hours in the mountains of Hawaii, he had first found the plantation-sized pineapple fields. He had only had pineapple three times in his life before now. He carried three of them in his bag. He knew that as long as it was raining, it was safest for him to sit still, so he sat back on his heels and got comfortable and carved into his breakfast. As soon as it stopped raining, he would signal Jack.
He and Jack had been dropped in separately about five miles apart. The easy part had been finding Jack. The small pieces of mirror that each of them smuggled into their bags had worked just like he had hoped. When the helicopter had dropped him on top of the mountain just after four o’clock in the afternoon two and a half days ago, he immediately climbed to the highest point he could see. From there, he began to scan the horizon all around him. He held his small piece of mirror close to his eyes trying to reflect the sunlight in all directions. He was patient because he knew that Jack was going to be dropped after him. After nearly thirty minutes, he was looking east with the sun behind him when he saw the flash. It lasted just a fraction of a second, but
