Courage by Joseph G. Udvari

CHAPTER ONE
    There was a family living in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Canada’s west coast. The father’s name was Jim Robinson, his wife was Mary and together they had a 10-year-old son Lucas and a 7-year-old daughter Jill, who would be turning 8 on Aug 20th. All their neighbors said they were an ideal family. The kids were polite and well behaved; Mary stayed home with the kids while Jim worked to provide for their needs. They lived in a pleasant subdivision, close to schools and shopping. Jim was an accountant and Mary taught school before she became a stay at home mom.
    In early August of 2010, the Robinson family decided to go on a camping vacation. After many suggestions and discussions as to where they should go, they finally decided to fly north of Williams Lake in British Columbia and maybe see the salmon run, do some hiking, fishing and just enjoy the great outdoors for a couple of weeks. Jim was a pilot and qualified to fly a small Cessna 210 Centurion prop plane. It had seating capacity for six people so there would be room for the four of them plus it had a small cargo area to hold their camping gear and other essentials. Jim had taken trips like this before with some friends, so felt confident that it was safe. He knew a couple of grassy fields where he could land the plane and the weather in mid-August was still good. They would need to be back before the start of school in September.
    The magic day finally arrived, the kids were excited and all ready to go. They had packed only the essentials, as there was only so much room in the small plane. Jim knew they could ‘live off the land,’ well, sort of. They had a four person tent, sleeping bags, some warm clothing and Jim had a Swiss army knife with ‘25’ different uses. Mary insisted on taking some canned and dried foods, just in case Jim had miscalculated about their ability to ‘live off the land’ which of course had been the case on other camping trips.
    â€œ Grandpa I think they should pack some stuff for around the camp fire for a special treat in the evening.”
    â€œYou mean like s’mores?”
    â€œThat’s exactly what I meant.”
    â€œGreat idea Alicia.”
    Mary also packed marshmallows, chocolate bars and graham wafer crackers for treats around the campfire. It would soon be Jill’s birthday and that would be a nice surprise for her. She hid the s’more ingredients in her backpack, and then stuffed a few extra chocolate bars in one of the duffle bags. They had netting to keep out the bugs, some bug repellent and since they planned on living in their bathing suits, Mary packed two bathing suits for each of them. “I nearly forgot the fishing gear,” Jim said, so he packed that as well.
    â€œJim did you pack your shaving gear?” Mary asked.
    â€œAre you kidding? We’re going to be roughing it, I’m not shaving for the entire two weeks!”
    â€œShould we take the cell phone Jim?”
    â€œThere won’t be a signal where we’re going, but I’ll throw it in anyway.”
    â€œLucas, did you pack your I-pod and extra batteries?”
    â€œ You know Grandpa, there are no extra batteries for an I-pod.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œIt has a rechargeable battery, not the kind that you replace.”
    â€œI guess my age is showing because I didn’t know that. You see, you are helping with this story already.”
    â€œI’ve got my I-pod Mom, but there are no extra batteries for an I-Pod; you have to plug it in to recharge it! And besides, we’ll only be gone two weeks and dad probably won’t let me play with it that much anyway,” Lucas added quietly. Fresh in his mind was last week’s lecture about restricting his I-Pod playing time to one hour per day and more time playing outdoors in the fresh air.
    â€œJill, you better make sure you have enough elastic bands for your hair.”
    â€œSure mom, I