A Mircle in the Tropics

     The twin-propeller jet streaked across the midnight tropical sky with its rear on fire. Lightning struck the tail section rocked the aircraft, putting it into a  graveyard tailspin. Suddenly, the pilot is surrounded by hazy darkness. He’s disoriented and confused. Nothing on the instrument panel behaves as it should.  The experienced pilot feels the plane descending. His arms shake as he struggles to pull the jet’s nose up.  But the aircraft’s spin gets tighter, and its descent faster. He wipes the sweat out of his eyes with the back of his hands. Thinking he’s pulling out of the dive, he hears the dreaded warning phrase, “Sink rate!”  The pilot tries again to lift the jet’s nose. “Pull up!” blares through the speakers. A few seconds later, the ground proximity warns, “Terrain.” Bailout!  is his last thought before he screams.

         Brenda White knew three in the morning visits to your home usually mean bad news.  Armed with her Sig P365, she eases down the steps and peeps at the caller through her living room window blinds. It’s fellow members of her elite, secretive military unit.

         She opens the door and greets them with a big smile.

         “Well, what an unexpected surprise!” She says as she hugs their necks and invites them in. “How in the hell is everybody doing?”

         She looks into their faces; no one makes eye contact. Something is the matter; she knows it.

       “Can I get you guys a beer? I’m sorry, Jack’s not here, but I’m…”

         When she gets shoulder shrugs and mumbles for answers, she glares at Peter, Jack’s closest friend, and demands, “What’s going on, guys? Where’s my husband?”

         Peter begins slowly. “There’s no easy way to say this. Jack accepted a black market mission to island-hop and bring medical supplies to hard-to-reach locales. Black marketeer offered him a lot of money. I didn’t mention it to you because he knew you would disapprove. unfortunately, his plane’s gone missing somewhere in the Caribbean.”

         Mouth open, Brenda plops onto the sofa.

         Mary rushes over to comfort her. With her arm around Brend’s shoulder, she explains. “Peter called us this evening with the news. We felt we had to be here when he broke the news.”

         With tear-filled eyes, Brenda lays her head on Mary’s shoulder.

         “He told me this assignment was a piece of cake, a ground ball, a can of corn,” Brenda said between sobs. “He wanted to pick up a little extra money. And now this.” Brenda buries her face in her hands.     

         “Geez, we’re sorry, Brenda,” George offers.

         Pablo, holding back tears, says, “You know how we all felt about Jack. He was the best commander I ever served under.” Pablo’s voice cracks as he turns towards the pictures on the fireplace mantel.  

         Brenda looks up. Blowing out a sigh, she asks, “So, where is my husband’s body?”

A collective groan fills the room.

Brenda stands and walks towards Peter. “Peter, where is Jack’s body!?”

“They haven’t found Jack’s body yet. But they are looking.”

Mary walks over and hugs Brenda again. “Mary, there’s so many islands and so much area to search. We don’t know where to start.”

They sat in silence, trying to grasp their loss.

Brenda composes herself and announces. “We are not going to give up on Jack. You all know if one of us were out there somewhere, Jack would stop at nothing to bring us home. “

They all shake their heads in agreement.

Brenda declares, “Let’s bring Jack home.”

In the jungles of a Caribbean island north of Brazil, two native islanders rush into Doctor Liz Coles’ clinic. In their native tongue, they frantically describe to the doctor the man they’ve found in the jungle. They explain, he is black like them but not dressed like them. The doctor inquires if the man is still alive? They nod. Doctor Coles grabs her medical bag and, with the two islanders, runs and climbs into her jeep. With her two passengers guiding her, she drives along rough and bumpy winding paths of the jungle. In frustration, she turns to her guides and gives them a puzzled look.  They point to an area shrouded by bushes. They leap out of the jeep, and the doctor follows. They cut their way through the forest a few yards, then turn stop, look at her as they’re pointing.  There’s the man, lying on his back, with an obvious compound fracture of his left leg. Doctor Coles thanks her two guides, and they look on as she examines him. He’s alive, barely.  His left arm is broken. Besides a few cuts and bruises, he appears to be okay. The man is dress in an aviator’s outfit. Her two guides called to her and pointed towards the tree-tops. Shaking her head, she explained to her companions what they were seeing. But how could she define a parachute to people who had no concept of the outside world? She motion for the two men to pick up the man and place him in her jeep. As they bent to pick up the man, they kept glancing up at the parachute. Her friends quickly put the man in the back of the jeep. They hop in and return to the clinic. Watching him as we drove over, they ask will he live? The doctor looks down at the man and answers, “I don’t know.”

Brenda’s unit decides to make her home their base. Speaking with their contacts, calling in every favor, they began to amass Jack’s flight information.

Pointing at an island on the wall map, Peter. “Jack started from here. According to sources, he was heading south towards Brazi?

“Was he scheduled to stop in Brazil?”

“No. The source says Jack was heading to a destination north of Brazil.” Peter explains.

“You know,” Pablo says, “some of those islands are off-limits for many reasons. Some have cannibals, some as crime-ridden., some have serious problems with the Covid-19 Virus.”

As George sips his coffee, he looks over the rim of his cup. “Has anyone got any news on the whereabouts of his plane? Maybe if we find the plane, we’ll find Jack.”

Mary agreed. “But to get to some of these islands an extreme length. Like phony passports, payoffs to certain officials, and clandestine flights.”

Brenda thumbs through her contacts book as she says, “I’ll get on that right away. Be ready to meet at Republic Airport in Farmingdale tomorrow at 23:45 hours, everybody; wheels up by midnight.”

Doctor Cole treats the mystery man and instructs her nurses to monitor him 24 hours a day. With his leg in a cast, arm in a splint, his cuts and bruises tended to, his vital signs were rapidly improving.

One afternoon while working in her lab, she hears her nurse arguing with someone. She walks out of the room, expecting to find a disgruntled patient in the waiting area. To her surprise, no one was there. Turning, she realizes the commotion is coming from the mystery man’s room. The doctor hurries to the room. Doctor Cole couldn’t believe her eyes. The man’s legs are swung over the edge of the bed, and he is trying to stand.

“Excuse me, sir. What’s going on here?”

“Oh, finally, someone who speaks English. Where in the Hell am I?”

In the nurse’s language, the doctor tries to explain the behavior of the unruly patient. When she is sure her nurse is calm, doctor Cole turns her attention to her patient.

“Yes, you’re right. I do speak English. Here’s hoping you understand English. Two days ago, two young native men found you in the jungle. They ran for miles to inform me you were there. Together, we drove out to get you and bring you here. My staff and I, including the nurse you were so rude to, doctored your wounds. She is assigned to watch over you. And besides you and me, none of them speak English. But that did not interfere with you receiving the best medical treatment we had to offer. Half our meager medical supplies were used on trying to keep you alive. I don’t know when our supplies will be replenished.”

The man sat on the side of the bed. He looks at the nurse. “I’m sorry. I apologize.”

The frowning nurse looks at him, and then the doctor. In her language, the doctor tells the nurse what the man said. The nurse smiles, curtsies, and leaves the room.

The man looks sheepishly at the doctor before saying, “Look, Doc. I meant no harm. How would you react if you woke up in a strange place and the first person you saw didn’t speak English?”

“Okay, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.” She said as she pulled out her blood pressure machine. “Here, let me check your blood pressure.”

As she affixes the cuff to his arm, she casually asks, “By the way, what’s your name?”

“Jack Strong.”

“Well, Mr. Jack Strong. What happened to your plane? Good pressure, by the way. ”

Jack rears back.

“No. Mr. Strong, I’m not prying. You were found wearing a pilot’s jumpsuit.”

Jack chuckled. “I guess you’re right. Kinda obvious, huh?”

         As the doctor checks Jack’s vital signs, she asks, “Where were you heading? To Brazil?”

         “No. I rather not say my destination.”

         “Okay. I hope you’ll be a little more careful next time.’

         “Next time?”

         “I don’t know what went wrong, but you don’t appear to be the type to give up.”

         Jack laughs. “You know me already.”

         “well, I don’t think you should be leaving-“

         “I can’t stay here. I’m sure my friends are looking for me. Do you have any means of communicating to the outside world?”

         “No, not really. On a clear day, if the wind is right, Our satellite phone may  get through.”

         Frank stands up to test his leg strength.  It collapses under his weight.

   “Okay, doctor, I guess I deserve that smirk. But my wife and my friends are out looking for me. With their resources, they’ll find me real soon.”

         The unit met at Republic Airport promptly at 23: 45 or 11:45 hours at night. Brenda breaks the bad news to them.

         “We’ve got a problem, guys. The security officer who was working with us tested positive for Covid-19 this morning. He was forced into a 14-day quarantine. But I got another of getting. It’s going to require some climbing, crawling, and running. Is everyone okay with that?”

There were no objections.

The unit, dressed in Black camouflage, moves stealthily along the New Highway side of the airport.  Walking a few feet, Brenda signals to George that this was the place to cut the chain-linked fence. George creeps up and cuts a hole large enough for each of them to climb through one at a time.  The car lights on the Southern State Parkway illuminate their path.

“There it is,” Brenda calls out. “The plane that taxiing on the runway. He’s going to stop at the end of the runway and turn around. We have to climb on board during the minute it takes to get clearance from the tower.”

The plane rolls slowly down the runway. It stops for a moment. In New Highway’s distance, a Suffolk County police car pulls up the hole in the fence. The officer sweeps the field with his searchlight. The airplane slowly begins to turn around. In a few seconds, it will be in position. Timing the searchlight sweeps, the unit waits for the searchlight to sweep by before advancing towards the airplane.

Brenda was the first to reach the aircraft. She grabs hold of a chain ladder and pulls herself up. As they run towards the plane, the searchlight is slowly making its sweep towards them. There’s no time for a misstep, no time for looking back over your shoulder. There’s only time to run.

George was the last to reach the ladder. The pilot began to rev his engine> George struggles with pulling himself up the ladder.

The team stands in the doorway, urging him on. The plane begins to roll down the runway in preparation for takeoff. Peter looks into George’s eyes. He wasn’t going to make it. With George dangling from the ladder, Peter leaned out the door and begs George to reach for his outstretched hand. George takes a deep breath, and with his last ounce of strength, lunges and grabs Peter’s hand. Peter and Pablo reach down and yank George into the plane. Brenda and Mary pull in the ladder and slam the door. They lie on the floor for a moment to catch their breath. Suddenly, George lets out a nervous chuckle. Peter looks at him and can’t help but chuckling himself.  Pablo says, “Oh, Dios.”

Soon their all laughing, knowing they just escaped disaster.

Doctor Cole watches as Jack struggles through physical therapy. She admires his courage as he grimaces during each moment. Each day, Jack tests his leg. Each day it’s getting stronger.

Doctor, I can’t lay around here all day. Isn’t there a chore or something I can do to earn my keep?”

“Are you sure you’re strong enough? I think we can find a little something for those idle hands.’

Jack smiled. The first time since the crash, his jawbone didn’t hurt.

Brenda and the unit made calls during the eight-hour flight to Brazil. Each of them contacting people they knew in the region. After several hours of calling with no results, Pablo has an animated discussion on the phone. The two parties spoke in Spanish.  Brenda gave Pablo a curious smile.

“Look, amigos, this could be something or nothing. But my friends in Sao Paulo said there’s a rumor going around that a pilot was found in the jungle on Trinity Island. That’s about 90 miles north of Brazil. I say it’s worth checking out.”

They all agreed.

“Okay, then. I’ll arrange for a flight to the island as soon as we land in Brazil.”

Doctor Cole’s nurse prepares dinner for the hospital staff.

“How do you like your lamb stew, Mr. Strong?”

“Oh, is that what this is? Never had it before. It’s delicious. Are there seconds?”

Doctor Cole tells the nurse that when a dinner guest asks for seconds of a meal, it’s a high compliment. Then nurse grins and graciously bows.

“What made you come here to practice medicine?”

“My father was a missionary on this island. I spent a great deal of life in these jungles. My dream was to finish medical school and work here with my father: me,  healing bodies, he healing souls and spirits.”

“Why do you laugh, doctor?”

“It seems rather silly now. I thought about leaving so many times. But where else can I go where medical attention is rather sorely needed. I’ll admit, it gets tedious at times, never having enough medical supplies. Fortunately, the jungle provides all the food we’ll ever need.”

“And I thought I was brave. Doc, you are the bravest.”

“Thank you. Mr. Strong. I get a monthly stipend from an inheritance, and I use the money to buy supplies on the black market. The prices are high. But what else can I do? My patients need them. I pray that things will change.””

Jack smiles at her. “Don’t give up hope, Doctor Cole.”

Ten o’clock the next morning, two jeeps drive into Doctor Coles camp.

“Brenda jumps out the jeep and looks around.

Doctor Cole comes out to greet her.

“Hello, my name is Doctor Cole. May I help you?”

“We were told you found—”

Before she could finish her sentence, Jack appeared in the doorway.

Brenda runs to Jack as he hobbles down the stairs to meet her. The other members of the unit rejoice as they hoot and holler. The doctor turns to the islanders and explains the beautiful thing that’s happened to their friend, Jack. The islanders began to rejoice as well.

         Jack’s friends gather around him. The word miracle is heard more than once. Pats on the back and hugs are freely exchanged. 

After formal introductions to the team members, Jack senses it’s time to go.

         “Doctor, thank you for everything,” Jack says as he shakes her hand.

         Brenda leaned forward and kisses the doctor on her cheek.

“Thank you, doctor, for taking such good care of my man. It’s so good to have him back.”

After a hearty lunch and final goodbyes, Jack, Brenda, and the unit were on their way to their plane.

“Are you ready to fly home, Hon?” Brenda asks as she squeezes Jack.

He looks down at Brenda and says, “Not quite.”

The next morning, loud voices awake Doctor Cole. She slips on her boots, puts on her housecoat. When she gets to the door, she stops dumbfounded.

Someone had delivered a mountain of supplies overnight. So happy, the doctor cried as she thanks God. And perhaps, Mr. Strong.