Pushed to the Limits Hadley Powers

I could feel the cold air on my face. As always, there was no sun and the reason for no sun is quite simple. I live somewhere you would never guess. Hello, I’m Andy Collins I live at Fort Miles in Delaware, specifically a World War Two retired bomb shelter. It's a nice place small but roomy for three people: my dad, my little sister Clara and I. My Mom died when I was young and Clara was just a baby. It was hard for all of us, but especially Dad. After Mom died, he started going to work more. He is Sargent Josh Collins and he is a communication specialist at a base about two miles away.

One morning in August, I was getting ready when my Dad called, “Andy I’m leaving.” I was distracted so I just said, I love you Dad,” and he headed off to work. But right then and there, I felt something bad in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t know what was wrong, but I knew I had to find out. I had to take Clara to school, but I just couldn’t focus so I decided to do something for the first time ever. I was going to skip school. Even though I had never skipped school before, I knew what to do. After I dropped Clara off at school, I started walking to the base. After a little while, I started to hear voices. It sounded like my Dad’s boss, General Cliff Pierson. I couldn’t really hear what they were saying, but then I heard the worst case scenario, “he will never see it coming” said General Pierson. It was then I knew that my Dad was in trouble. I started running back towards the school. I picked up Clara, we ran back home, then I went next door to see my best friend, James. As soon as he answered, he knew something was wrong. I told him about what I heard from General Cliff and he agreed with my suspicions. We knew we had to do something. It took all night to plan and James slept over at our house.

My dad sometimes stays overnight at the base, so I wasn’t super worried when he didn’t come home. And Clara was used to it too, but usually he calls to say goodnight. He didn’t do it this time, but I didn’t say anything to Clara because I didn’t want her to worry. The next day while Clara was playing with dolls before school, someone knocked at the door. I thought it was James’ mom to walk with us to school. But it was my Dad’s best friend who he knew from the base, Sargent Robert Smith. He said, “kids we just got news your dad has gone missing.” I knew something was wrong. I invited Robert in, and we talked for a while. Clara sat on my lap as he talked to me. She said she was fine, but I could tell she was crying. Robert told me that General Cliff had left the base right after my dad had disappeared. He didn’t say anything just that he was taking some time off and he was going to leave Robert in charge. No one saw my dad for one hour between the time he got done with daily training and went into his office. This must have been when he went missing. General Cliff was on his lunch break during that time which was even more suspicious. Then Robert told me something I was not expecting. He said that I needed to try to rescue my dad. He needed to take care of the base. He said, “Andy you need to protect Clara, but your dad is in great danger and you have to help him and find out where he is.” After he left, I put Clara to bed and then started planning with James. He slept over again. While James looked at maps, I brought out a small duffel bag and packed clothes for Clara and I. I also included our most important items, some packaged food from our supply and our family savings. James packed his bag, then we got some sleep.

In the morning, we woke up Clara and dressed in our warmest clothes. I grabbed the family cell phone and our map of the area with all the hiding places or nooks outlined where

my dad might be. James was a bit worried about finding a missing person who is in the army, but then I told James what Robert told me. “Your dad is in great danger you have to help him then James agreed to go on with the plan because he wanted to find my dad. There were five spots that we planned on checking. My dad had taken me on his military route before, but the places were pretty far apart so it was going to be a long journey.

The first spot was a little shed under Cape Helopen pier which from our house was only ten minutes walking. When we arrived, there was ice cream for one dollar so I got Clara some. While Clara was enjoying her raspberry ice cream, me and James checked out the shed, nothing but driftwood. Then James went pale; he saw something on the wall. It looked like a marker and it was very messily written. But what it said was the most interesting. It said, “check the woods.” I realized then it looked like how my dad would write. Then I said to James, “maybe he’s leaving us a clue.” James agreed although he was very nervous about trusting this mysterious phrase because we didn’t know if the writing was actually my dad’s. Even though this path was unknown, we had to try and take it. Robert had told me last night after Clara went to bed and right before he shut the door to leave, “try anything to make sure you find him. You have to help him Andy.” So, we had to trust it was him. Clara finished her ice cream, then we went on. I looked at the map to the nearest woods. I could see on the map the nearest woods was on the edge of Maryland, which was three days away.

We started walking along the road towards Maryland. After a little while we saw someone I thought looked a bit familiar, but I knew it was dangerous so I told James and Clara to duck under a patch of trees while I peeked around the corner.

Standing right there was General Cliff Pierson. He had something in his hand, and he started walking towards the river. I told James and Clara to stay quiet and follow me. It looked like he was going to the same place we were going, so we just kept quiet and followed him. I could tell James was extremely worried that we were following the General, but I told him it was going to be okay.

After a couple hours of walking, we came upon a river. Clara had been complaining about being hungry for a little while, so I suggested that we stop and have some lunch. We found a patch of bushes and sat down to eat. We had bread and butter with some ham and then I packed all the food back up in the duffel bag. We saw the General cross the river in a little rowboat. I realized that he was crossing the river to Maryland, and we had to follow him, but if we went right then he would see us so we had to watch him cross the river before we went over. Once he got over, we were ready to go, but we didn’t have a way of getting there. I had James and Clara hold our things while I looked around for something to use to get across. Then I saw it!

I knew it was dangerous, but we had to follow him or else I might never see my dad again. I tied the duffel bag straps to my waist. James tied his bag to him and Clara held the map and put the cell phone in her sweatshirt pocket. We got ready to swing. I had found a long vine that snapped off a willow tree. I tugged on it to see if it was strong enough to hold our weight, then I tied it to a rock and looped it over a tree branch to make a rope to swing across. I told Clara to go first. I tied her up to the vine then I told her Clara once you get across untie yourself then swing the vine back and duck under the bush. She was a little nervous, but she thought mostly that it was going to be fun. She jumped, made it over, and pushed

the vine back over and ducked under the bush. I told James, “you go next” and tied him into the vine. Then he said, “Andy I’m going to be sick.” He got really scared. I told him that we had to do this, that he was a part of something bigger. Then he agreed. He looked a little pale, but then he jumped. I knew he wanted to scream, but we couldn’t risk the General hearing us because we didn’t know how far away he was. When he made it over he untied himself right away. Then he ducked with Clara behind the bush after pushing the vine back to me. I tied myself up. The weight of the duffel made me more heavy, but I thought it would be fine. Little did I know that this was the moment that things would go very wrong.

When I jumped, my foot touched the ground on the other side then slipped away. I stopped swinging and I heard a crack that sounded not good. I panicked. I had to do something or else the tree branch would fall on me. I untied myself from the vine and stepped on a rock near the other side. I had James come over to the rock then I reached out and said to James, “come get the bag,” once he grabbed it, he ducked back under the bush. I had to think fast. I could hear another crack. There was another rock not too far away, so I jumped. I got a little wet, but it was fine. Then all the sudden the tree branch fell.

There was a giant loud boom then it fell right next to me. I climbed up one of the branches, stepped on to the base of the branch, and crawled across it to the other side. Then ducked under the bush with James and Clara. While me and James were thinking about what to do next Clara said, “Andy there is a man over there by that apple tree.” I looked over and it was none other than General Cliff Pierson.

We had to start following him again, so once he started moving, we followed. We had to sneak behind trees and bushes because it was a small area and easy to see someone behind you. We came to an entrance to a small wood, and I knew we were here. We made it. I was going to see my dad again. We just had to get to him. The General kept walking so we walked with him. He came upon a shed then I heard, “I just want to talk to them.” The General opened the shed door and there he was my dad. The first thing I did was tell Clara and James to hide behind a bush. Then I told Clara to give me the cell phone from her pocket. I called 911. I also called Robert and told him I found my dad. He said that he would tell everyone at the office General Cliff was not to be trusted. We were going to get my dad back. After about twenty minutes the police arrived. The General heard them, but didn’t do anything. He snapped the door of the shed shut. The police came over to check out the scene. They put handcuffs on the General, opened the shed door and found my dad. They untied the ropes on him and let him come over to us. Me and Clara gave him a giant hug and then we went home. James saw his parents and I think he is going to stay away from the base for a long time. This experience taught me that my bravery and courage has no limits and that is how we found my dad, Sargent Josh Collins.

Hadley Powers, Grade 5 Meadowbrook Elementary School, Golden Valley Teaching Artist, Stephen Peters