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Grade
8

“Wouldn’t Be My Last”

 

 

 

     I stressed and worried at the day ahead; it was my first missionary trip with my church God’s House.

     It was 5:30 AM and my stomach was churning. I would be flying on a plane, and spending four weeks in Africa with no cell reception. What could go wrong? In my mind a lot could go wrong.  

     “Esther, the bus is here,” my mother told me. I jumped off the couch and grabbed my bags; kissed my mother goodbye then went outside.

     “You excited? This is your first trip, right?” the bus driver asked as I climbed in. I nodded and went to the back of the bus. I didn’t really know anyone in the bus except for the preacher, Stan, who was busy with a crossword puzzle.

     “Could I sit here?” I asked the only person who had space next to him. He nodded his head yes, but didn’t look too happy.

     I sat down awkwardly. “I’m Esther.” He nodded and continued to look out the window at the dark clouds. I wondered why he was coming if he looked so unhappy about it, but maybe he was just nervous like me.

     I wished I had made more friends at church before this trip because I only had one, and she couldn’t come. I hoped this guy would be my friend in time.

     The bus stopped; we were at the airport. I grabbed my luggage and followed the people in front of me to where we would be boarding the plane.

     “Do you have your passport?”

     “Here it is,” I gave my passport to the ticket agent; she then let me board the plane.

     “E-13… E-13…” I mumbled until I found my seat; the guy I had met earlier was sitting in the seat next to mine. This’ll be an awkward flight.

     The plane shook causing me to wake up. I had no idea how long I’d been asleep. All I knew is that when you’re on a plane that’s shaking, it’s not fun.

     “Don’t worry, all planes do this,” the guy assured me. I guess it was kind of obvious I was scared because I was gripping my seat like I was about to die.

     “Yeah, it’s my first plane ride… kind of freaked,” I laughed awkwardly.

     “I’ve been on a plane a few times before, but never in this weather,” he said. Lightning struck and thunder roared. “Oh, and I’m Hampton,” he added. I smiled. I felt more comfy knowing he had been on a few planes and hadn’t died. 

     “When will we be landing?” I asked. The plan was to land then find our way to Banza-Sanda located near the Congo River.

     “Should be landing really soon,” Hampton replied.

     About thirty minutes later the plane landed to drop off all the missionaries. It was pouring rain; I was soaked by the time I got to the helicopter. Wait…

     “I didn’t know we would be flying in a helicopter!” I said very loudly.

     “Me neither, but cool.” He grinned.

     The pilot took the first four missionaries to the destination; Hampton and I got onto the second trip along with two other missionaries.

     “Esther, look at this view,” Hampton laughed.

     “Holy cow!” I faked a happy smile. I was terrified. We were flying above a river, probably the Congo River.

     Suddenly, a bolt of lightning hit the helicopter with a bang. The helicopter went down. Water was all around me. It was so dark.  I was able to unbuckle my harness, but with difficulty. I felt arms wrap around me and I felt my body surfacing.

     Hampton held on to me tight; we were in the river. I wanted to shout, but I couldn’t speak.

     “Can y-you swim?” Hampton shivered. He began to have difficulty holding on to me.

     I couldn’t speak, couldn’t think, and couldn’t move.

     Hampton shook me to make sure I was awake. The water was flowing hard; we were going down the river. A few moments later I felt my back slam against something hard. Hampton and I had hit a very big rock; we held on.

     “Hampton…” I cried.

     My hands were slipping off the rock. I couldn’t hold on.

     “Grab my h-hand,” he stuttered.

     I did what he told me to. He then helped me climb up on the slippery rock; I helped him up too.

     The crashed helicopter got stuck on a few rocks to the right of us. Hampton told me to jump onto it, so I did.

     “Hold on tight!” he told me. I had been slipping off the wet roof of the copter.

     Hampton jumped on and we both held onto the now steady blades of the helicopter.

     Eventually the water calmed down, and the sun was rising. The storm was soaring away.

     Hampton and I climbed off the roof and went into the half-sunken helicopter.

     The pilot was gone; he must have flown through the front window when we crashed. The two other missionaries were still strapped in their seats - unconscious, or dead.

     The helicopter started to get tip over. We would have to hurry. We realized we couldn’t get them both on the roof at once, so we decided to lift the younger girl first.

     “Grab her hands!” I told Hampton as I tried to push the girl up to the roof where he was. The girl was very limp and slippery. Before Hampton could pull her up her backside slid off my neck and she went into the water.

     “Hampton!” I screamed. I had no idea what to do.

     “Esther, don’t!”

     I jumped in and swam after the limp girl in the water; I heard Hampton jump in behind me.

    I dove down deep, feeling the cold muddy bottom for the girl. I gripped a small hand then pulled her up to the surface. Hampton helped me hold onto her.

     “Just swim,” he told me. I kept swimming until I had arrived at the muddy shore with the girl. I held her arms and dragged her up until we were safe.

     Hampton was nowhere to be seen. I screamed for him until I saw his head pop up from below the water. He quickly made it to me.

     “I-I tried to get him, the helicopter was s-inking too f-f-fast,” Hampton explained defensively.

     The helicopter was no longer in sight. 

     My body shut down.

     I woke up. Hampton was asleep while the girl was still unconscious. I quickly tried to feel her pulse. At first I couldn’t feel anything, but then I found the spot on her neck where her heart was beating. I praised God silently, but then my heart filled with anger.

     “How could you let this happen? How could you MAKE this happen? Why would you make a world like this… a world with death?” I whispered.

     God wasn’t kind. He wasn’t good. How could he do something like this?

     My mind was racing, it was like there was a net that only captured the bad times and let the good times disappear. My heart told me this wasn’t me thinking and saying these mean things, but my mind overpowered it with horrible thoughts of God.

     “Esther…?” Hampton woke up. There was much need for me in his voice.

     “I’m here, Hampton. And the girl’s alive.”

     “We gotta go… We gotta find where the others are.”

     “They should be in Banza-Sanda. WE might be in Banza-Sanda. Or we could be miles and miles away from there,” I paused. “There’s no way of knowing.”

     “Well let’s get on with it. We aren’t going to find the others sitting here,” he groaned as he stood up.

     Hampton and I lifted the girl by her arms and legs. We then started to walk down the river.

     We were quiet as we walked. All I could hear was the water flowing gently and birds singing in the forest. It didn’t take long before no energy was left in me.

     “Let’s stop here, get a drink,” I panted. Hampton didn’t speak. He helped me sit the girl down and then we began to drink the river water.

     “What if we don’t find anyone?” Hampton said as he wiped water off his chin.

     “I don’t know, I mean… there has to be a village somewhere near here.”

    There had to be a village somewhere, which was the only way we could survive. Survive… There was never a time in my life I thought I’d die young. I mean, I knew it happened a lot, but I never thought it would actually happen to me.

     “Esther, it’s taking us too long to walk with this girl. What if we leave her?”

     “No way are we leaving her! Are you insane?” I shouted.

     “Let me finish,” he paused in frustration. “What if we leave her, find a village, and then come back to get her?”

     My stomach churned as Hampton and I walked. I had chosen to leave her… I had picked ME over her.

     Things happen in this world you never expect, and things turn out opposite of what you thought, and the innocence we once had seems to disappear… and we need to find it again. There was no way I could find it again. I had done too much. I don’t even know if I ever had any. I was born messed up. But aren’t we all?

     “We’ll go back for her. Don’t worry,” Hampton said.

     His words did not comfort me.

     “Hampton, you keep going. I gotta get her.” I forced the words out of my mouth, but it was painful.

     “Yeah….” he huffed, “come on lets go.”

     I didn’t want him to feel obligated to come with me, but I chose not to fight with him.

    We turned around and began to walk back, at this rate we weren’t going to survive. We just weren’t cut out for this, which isn’t surprising.

     “Gosh I’m hungry,” I said as my stomach growled.

     “Yeah, but… with water we can make it for a while,” he replied, trying to point out a positive.

     Positive… I’ve never been that type of person. It wasn’t just glass half empty, because there wasn’t even a glass in my mind.

     The dark brown mud started to get thicker. The golden sun beamed onto my hot back. I felt horrible, but everything was so beautiful. The bright blue sky and the delicate trees swaying in the wind...

     If I were going to die here maybe I wouldn’t mind. Maybe my body would sink into the water, peacefully. Or maybe my head would lie against a rock, like I was sleeping. Maybe I’d die up in a beautiful green tree. Or maybe I’d just die on the mud, with wild animals tearing at my flesh.

     “After we get the girl we need to find something to eat.” Hampton interrupted my thoughts, which was a good thing.

     “I agree, if I die of poison mushrooms at least my stomach will be full,” I chuckled.

     Hampton did not find any humor in my words.

     “God can’t be real after all this,” he finally spoke.

     I agreed with him, or I didn’t… I’m not sure. My mind was spinning in all different directions. The thought of God now reminded me of Santa Clause.

     “We need to remember why we came here,” I paused. “We came here because of God. Because we believe in him; we were going to help poor people and spread the word that God and Jesus Christ are real. The devil is just testing us.”

     “Whatever. Let’s just focus on surviving right now,” he said angrily.

     I bent over the water to get a drink and wash my face. As I looked up something on the other side of the water caught my eye. It was a basket, just sitting there.

     “We need to get across the water. There’s a basket, maybe people are nearby!” I said excitedly.

     “Come on!” Hampton said with much enthusiasm.

     The water was calm, gentle and inviting. Hampton removed his shirt and jumped in. I decided to keep all my clothes on. We both began to swim to the other side. I got a little scared of fish attacking me.

     When we reached the other side I crawled up onto the mud as fast as I could. I followed close behind Hampton.

     “Corn husks…” he mumbled under his breath. I peeked over the basket and saw the green and tan corn husks; someone had been shucking corn here.

     I quickly picked up a green strip and started to chew on it. It tasted non edible.

     My stomach growled like a hungry bear. I looked to my right and saw Hampton eating the husks also. He had those strings hanging out of the corner of his mouth, but I probably did too.

     I bent over and vomited right after I had finished my half of husks. My stomach did not like it, at all. I had thrown up everything in my stomach… everything.

     Hampton gagged at the sight of my vomit, but he kept his food… or, shall I say substance, down.

     “We need to find the people that left this here,” I said as I stared into the lonely forest.

     “Okay, come on.” Hampton and I started to jog into the forest, we occasionally ran into thick spider webs or green snakes crawling at our feet.

     Before we knew it, it was dark. We held hands to not get separated, walked slowly, carefully. I was terrified of the snakes, because every once in a while I’d hear snakes’ hiss.

     “That light, it’s over there,” Hampton whispered.

     I saw the light, it was like a fireplace. Hope.  

     Hampton and I ran as fast as we could towards the light; we almost ran into the fire we were running so fast.

     “LOOK!” screamed a girl, an English girl; a missionary. We were quickly crowded by many familiar faces I had seen at church before along with African people.  

     All this time, they were so close, yet so far. God had saved us.

     I had come here to help people, but they ended up helping me. They made my faith stronger than ever; making me stronger than ever, emotionally that is. I was physically exhausted.    

     The next night I was on an airplane to home with Hampton by my side.

     Many people didn’t believe my story, but I didn’t blame them. A helicopter crash seems pretty unrealistic… unbelievable… There are so many words to describe it.

     When I got home I heard that the girl I had left behind was found. She was in critical condition, but I think God will save her, just like he saved me.

     Hampton and I became great friends. Best friends. We were like siblings.

     Even though my first mission trip was tragic, I knew it wouldn’t be my last.