Randa (22 page)

“Okay. Just have Randa call me later when she gets a chance.”

“Scott, is it flight #543?”

The representative nodded his head confirming John’s fear.

“I’ve got a passenger list now. What is her name?”

“‘Randa Dean” and he began to spell it, “R-A-N-D-A D-E-A-N.”

After a moment, Scott’s words came to John’s horror, “she is on it.”

“Can you tell me where they were when the airport last spoke with them?”

“Certainly, just come with me and I’ll give you the information.”

“Great, thank you.” In the meantime, John called Pete, the pilot of the company plane with a request for him to get the plane ready and advised him of the task that lay ahead of them. Pete also got first aid and other supplies ready to go.

John knew that he had to let Fox and Taylor know and of course Randa’s parents. John called Randa’s parents. Then he called Fox and told him what he knew.

“Oh my gosh.”

“Yes, it’s not good, but Pete is getting the plane ready and we’re going to search for them. One way or another, I will find her. I have a favor that I need to ask you,” John said.

“Sure,” came Fox’s response and John proceeded to give him the details.

“Certainly, I will do that. Be careful and call us as soon as you can. I love that girl like she was my own.”

“I will Fox and thank you for everything.”

“I haven’t done anything.”

“Yes, you have. You stood by me when I was too crippled by fear to step up and be the man that I am.”

“I would do anything for you John. Besides, that’s what you do when you love someone.”

“Yes it is,” John said as he hung up.

John gave Pete the last known coordinates of Flight #543. They put the airplane on the edge of the Phillip Smith Mountains. John loaded the supplies and boarded the plane. They departed the Deadhorse Airport and flew south on the same route that they had taken so many times before. John refused to think anything other than soon he would be seeing Randa and she would be in his arms and alive and well. The one advantage that they had was that they were able to be in the air and on their way is a very short period of time. It had only been forty minutes since communication had been lost. The harrowing disadvantage would be if the plane had crashed.

They made it to the mountain range in record time. Pete adjusted their altitude and they began searching section by section. Time was crucial. It was slipping away as they combed each peak and peered into each crevice from afar.

“John, according to the coordinates, they should have been somewhere in this area, but there’s nothing here,” Pete told him.

“I know. Something just doesn’t seem right though.” John, remembering that the Thunderegg always brought Randa luck, put his hand in his pocket, wrapped his fingers around his own half, and closed his eyes. He had put it in his pocket that morning, soon after he realized that Randa most likely had the other half that fit perfectly. He took it into his hand, closed his strong fingers around it, and shut his eyes concentrating all of his thoughts and energy solely on his love for Randa and how their destiny and future was meant to be spent together.

“Pete,” John said opening his eyes after a few moments, “we haven’t flown over the Phillip Smith Mountains west of Dalton Highway, have we?”

“No because planes usually avoid that area.”

“But, there is a possibility that they could have went in that direction?”

“Slim, but yes anything is possible,” Pete said as he turned the direction of the plane to fly westward without even needing John’s verbal instructions.

John stared out the window looking down at the white crisp mountains. It was starting to snow. He knew that a storm was coming. He just couldn’t believe this was happening. He had come so close to having Randa back once and forever and now it was all slipping away and he had absolutely no control over it this time. He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes, but he hung onto his firm resolve, once again chasing his fears away and thinking of what a beautiful spirit and kind heart Randa had, thinking of how her love had transformed his life and how he had almost surrendered to a life without her.

“John, how much farther west do you want to search?” Pete asked.

Another 30 minutes had passed with no sight of the plane and the snow was coming down much harder. Visibility was becoming limited.

“Edge out a couple more miles if you would.”

“Sure thing,” Pete said and flew further westward.

John knew that the chances were now meager. They would have to head back to Prudhoe Bay soon and rescue efforts wouldn’t be resumed until the weather cleared which could be a couple of days.

John staring out the window heard the words that he had been dreading.

“We need to head back before the conditions become unsafe for us.”

John couldn’t speak. The lump in his throat was gargantuan and he could barely breathe. About to choke, he nodded. Tears began to swell in his blue eyes and they had no option but to run down his cheeks trying to escape the agonizing sadness that they were mired in.

How cruel can life and fate be?

John swallowed hard, intent on trying to maintain his composure. Pete put his hand on his boss’s shoulder trying to offer comfort.

John felt the plane turning northward. Hanging his head, he could now only cling to the miniscule amount of hope that he had left. A soft whisper deep inside was urging him to look out the window. John raised his head and slowly looked to the far right. At first, he almost didn’t see it. Then the glint caught his eye.

“Pete, I think I found them!” John yelled excitedly.

“Where?”

“Back just a hair to the far right.”

Pete circled the plane into the direction that John indicated.

“You did John, you did!” Pete radioed in to the Deadhorse Airport to let them know where the downed plane was.

“Can you get us close?” John asked.

“I will do my best.”

Pete set the plane down as softly as he could. As they approached the plane wreckage, they spotted people moving around, but they also saw people on the ground that weren’t moving. John was quickly scanning the faces searching for
her
. His heart was beating madly as he was rushing around. He went to the front part of the plane, which was partially intact and saw fatalities still strapped into their seats. He ran to the tail section of the plane and then he heard the sound, the soft, gentle moan of the incredible lady that he had desperately missed and ached for every single moment of each day for the past three and one half years. She was still strapped in her seat. She was looking at him or so he thought. Her beautiful serene face seemed to be locked frozen with a confused expression on it. John’s own heart stopped beating in paralyzing fear that she might not be alive.

The pain was intense. Randa didn’t know where she was. It all seemed like a dream. The Fates and their snipping of their lives still weighed heavily on her mind. She was about to slip back off into sleep when she heard
him
calling her name. She moaned, trying to get his attention, but no sound came out. She opened her eyes and saw him. She couldn’t believe that he was there! She wanted to throw her arms around him, but she couldn’t seem to move.

“I’m here Baby Doll, I’m here,” John said as he wrapped his arms around her gently.

“John,” she choked out his name and a slow smile crept across her face.

“Yes.”

“I was coming to see you on the Slope,” she said slowly.

“Yes, I know.”

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” she whispered as her eyes closed.

John’s heart stopped. Randa couldn’t be leaving him know when he just got her back after three years without her love, so he just kept talking.

“Yes and I’m so sorry that your surprise for me got ruined, but if I hadn’t known that you were coming, I wouldn’t have known to come looking for you and it may have been too late when an official search plane came looking for you. I love you so much Baby Doll and if you take me back, I promise you that I will never let you go,” John said as tears rolled down his own cheeks.

Randa smiled again, “Oh John! I love you and I never stopped loving you for one minute the entire time we were apart.” She whispered and closed her eyes again. John saw her breathe, so he let her rest and went to find Pete and see how long it would be until rescue teams would arrive.

Randa was flown to the hospital in Fairbanks and luckily only had a broken arm from the plane crash. The doctor said that her arm most likely got broken because she was clutching her pink notebook so tightly during the crash. She was hospitalized overnight purely for observation. John had stayed to help with the rescue effort, so he didn’t arrive in Fairbanks until the next morning.

Randa’s face lit up when John walked into the room. He walked over to her and kissed her forehead and then her soft, sweet lips. They talked for a little while about how she feeling and the plane crash. She didn’t remember any details of the actual crash, which they were both thankful for.

Then she said, “John, why did you wait three years? I waited so long for you. I ached for you. I cried. I don’t think I slept the entire time we were apart. Memories of us haunted me every single night. I remember how it felt to be in your arms. I still remember how it felt to have your lips against mine making me melt and making me yearn for your touch. I fell so madly in love with you John.”

“Randa, when we were together it was as if I were peering into your soul and drinking from your well and feeling the warmth of your fire. I basked in the glow of your spirit. I felt your heart beating and your blood flowing. The love that flowed from your incredible soul brought me to life, but I feared failing you and us. I was always afraid that we wouldn’t make it and that I would disappoint you. I simply couldn’t stand the thought of us getting a divorce.”

“John, I couldn’t even be mad at you or hate you when you left me. I
felt
for you. I felt not only my pain of losing you, but I felt the pain that you were experiencing. I knew that it had to be something unbearable to make you leave me, something that you thought that you couldn’t overcome. But I knew in my heart and in my soul that whatever it was, it wouldn’t last forever, but our love would. I told myself that as long as I felt hope, that I would never give up. I never ran out of hope. Some days, I only had a teeny-tiny amount, but that was enough. One tiny speck would do.”

“You waited for me Baby Doll?”

“How could I not John? I just couldn’t stop loving you, even on the days when my brain told me to.”

“Randa I’m so sorry that I ever doubted us.”

“It may have taken more than three years, but it was worth every moment that I had to wait for you.”

“Thank you for your graciousness Baby Doll. I love you more than life itself. I have to ask you something.”

“Okay.”

John pulled out the Thunderegg from his pocket. “Does this look familiar?”

“Why yes,” Randa said as she reached out to take it, “it’s my moon rock that always brings me good luck. The one that I told you about when we first met that the little boy had given to me. Did the nurse give it to you? I know that I had it in my pocket when the plane crashed and it was still in my jeans pocket when they checked me in here.”

“The nurse told me that all of your things are in the closet,” John said as he walked over to it and opened the door. Picking up her jeans, he pulled it out of her pocket. He walked over to Randa and handed the Thunderegg half to her. “Here is yours.”

Holding both halves, Randa looked confused. “I don’t understand.”

“Randa, the one in your left hand is my half of the rock or Thunderegg as I know it.
I was
the little boy at the airport all those years ago that gave it to you.”

Randa sat in stunned silence, “Oh my gosh. It was you? How do you know?”

“Yes, it was me. I didn’t know it until yesterday morning. It actually came to me in a dream. I had just never put two and two together.”

“You’ve been with me in spirit and provided me comfort throughout my life since you gave it to me. That rock brought me good luck. I wished so many times that we would meet again.”

John told her the story that the shopkeeper had told he and his family about the Thunderegg all those years ago and how the two people possessing the halves would have a lifelong bond.

“That just blows me away John. I always knew there was something unique and so different about us. I could never put my finger on it though and now I know. I’m so glad you remembered.”

“Randa, I have absolutely no doubts about the deep love and passion that I am capable of. It’s not perfect and I’m not perfect, but it is pure and real and good and sometimes it is even astonishing. Maybe something will happen and it won’t work, but I have to try. I can’t live without you, because without you, I am truly not alive. Will you marry me Randa Renee Dean and be my wife and give me the honor of being your husband?” John asked as he pulled the heart shaped diamond engagement ring out of his pocket that he had bought for her in Nashville and slipped it onto her finger.

“I will John Williams, I will!”

Thank you for joining me in the story world of Randa and John. I truly hope that you enjoyed reading their love story just as much as I loved writing it! Any comments that you have are very welcome! Please contact me at any of the following:

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www.adornic.com

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Nicole Burkhart grew up on her family’s cattle ranch on the Kiamichi River near Talihina, OK. She received a merchandising degree from Bauder College. She has one son, Ross, who is currently a high school senior. Her dream trip is Alaska. She loves writing stories with a ‘Happily Ever After,’ partly because it has been so elusive in her own life.