> Stories and Games

> About XL

> XL Story

XL Story Chapter Menu

Chapter 17 continues...

"O.K., let's go find her!" exclaimed XL. He switched the airship's navigator to a secondary view screen, and set the course to the new destination. Then he turned to the back of the airship and shouted, "Anna, mom, come see this."

They came right away, and XL showed them the alert. Larissa contacted the search-and-rescue office, and informed them that Saucer1 was on the way. Moreover, Larissa was trained in first aid, which could be useful if the girl was hurt.

The office was glad to hear that they volunteered to help. The helicopter would still be on the way too, to help if needed. "Sometimes little children don't have enough sense to stay put once they have been spotted," they said. "The child may be disappointed when the plane flew away, and she may wander off. The sooner you get there, the better."

"We'll go at maximum speed," said XL. He figured they would pick up the girl from the clearing long before the helicopter could get there.

Soon they arrived at the longitude and latitude coordinates that the plane had reported. There was a clearing at the top of a small hill, as expected. But there was no girl in the clearing. All around, there were trees, and they couldn't see through them.

Beeba turned to XL. "Didn't you tell me that your dad added some special searching features to Saucer1?"

"Yes, there is a system that deploys drones with cameras, but I don't know how to use it." answered XL.

"The girl can't have gone far," said Anna.

"We'll go and find her the old fashioned way," said Larissa.

"So you don't know how to use the search system, either?" said XL.

"No," replied XL's mom.

Larissa, Anna, and Beeba headed toward the elevator.

"I'll wait here in case the search-and-rescue office calls," said XL. Don't go out of sight of Saucer1," said XL, "I don't want you to get lost too!"

"We're not stupid," retorted Anna.

XL waited at the airship control panel while the others searched below. About 15 minutes passed, and he was getting anxious. Then he heard his mom's voice through a speaker on the console. She had come back to the elevator to use the intercom.

"We have looked all around, but we haven't found Wendy," she said. "We have been yelling her name, but there is no answer. Also, we haven't found any tracks. Everything is dry here."

"I'll contact the search-and-rescue office and notify them of the situation," said XL.

Half an hour later the rescue helicopter arrived. XL spoke with the pilot on the radio. He moved Saucer1 out of the way, so that the helicopter could hover over the clearing. The clearing was too narrow for the helicopter to land safely, but a man was lowered by rope from the side of the helicopter. He reached the ground in a couple of minutes, and joined Anna, Larissa, and Beeba at the side of the clearing.

"Hi, I'm John," he said. He was a slim man of average height, with a short beard and brown hair. He was wearing bright orange overalls with a harness that attached to the rope. Also there was a large cloth bag which had been attached to the rope, that he carried with him. He opened it, and it was filled with small black boxes."

"These are hand-held GPS boxes. On each of them, I have set this position to be the home location. "The screen shows a compass direction, and also it points which way to go to get back. That way we can go deeper into the forest without getting lost. Please take one, and each of us will head out in a different direction: to the North, East, South, and West."

"Also, here is an air-horn for each of you," John continued. Each horn had a small air canister with a horn with a button at the top, and a cloth belt attached so it. "It is very loud. If you spot the girl, honk it and I will come to you."

"We will search for 20 minutes and then regroup. Meanwhile, my pilot will arrange for your airship to bring more searchers. Wendy's parents and her aunt and uncle want to come to search too. They are at their home 15 kilometers from here."

Anna could see that the pilot had already contacted XL. Saucer1 was departing toward the east. The helicopter, however, continued to hover over the area. They hoped that Wendy might hear it, and come back. It was much noisier than Saucer1.

20 minutes later, they were back at the clearing, but still without having found Wendy. Saucer1 had returned, and the elevator was coming down. When it reached the ground, the elevator door opened and four people rushed out, plus one more: a big, shaggy brown dog, on a leash.

A tall, husky man among them spoke to John: "I am Wendy's dad, and this is our dog Rufus," he said. "Rufus is well trained."

Immediately Rufus began sniffing the ground. He walked across the clearing, still sniffing. Then he stopped, turned to face one end of the clearing, and headed in a straight line toward the edge. He was going much more quickly now, pulling Wendy's dad behind him on the leash, with the others following.

Soon they came to a stream. There was a shallow part of the stream about knee-deep, and there were small footprints in the mud on the other side. The dog splashed across and the others followed.

The dog continued on to a tree and stopped. He sniffed the tree, and then went around it slowly. Then he continued on from the other side. Meanwhile, all the searchers were yelling out Wendy's name.

Within ten minutes, they found her. Anna was the first to see her, as they approached. She was a little girl, about 7 years old, dressed in torn jeans and a light jacket. She had long blond hair, and wore a small red cowboy hat. They all ran to meet her. Her dad picked Wendy up in his arms, and give her a hug. Then her mother did the same. They were overjoyed to find her. Rufus was also overjoyed to see her, as he stood with his fluffy tail wagging. She gave him a hug too.

"I can see who is the true hero here," said John, as he looked at the dog.

As they walked back to the clearing, Anna told everyone what happened. "Yesterday instead of getting off the school bus at my home, I stayed on until I got to my friend Suzy's house. I didn't tell my parents I was going to do that." Wendy looked down at her toes. She was a bit ashamed and embarrassed.

"The regular bus driver was sick, and the substitute driver didn't know I wasn't supposed to get off there. But Suzy wasn't home. I tried to walk home and take a short-cut through the forest. But I was confused about which way to go, and I got lost. I'm so sorry! I was cold all night, and I'm so hungry!"

"Don't worry dear, we are so happy to see you," said her mother to her. "We have some nice food waiting for you."

"Didn't you see the airplane at the clearing?" said John. "The pilot said he flew around the clearing several times so you would know he saw you. You should have waited there."

"I stayed a few minutes," said Wendy, "but then I saw something move in the forest. I heard that there are bears in the forest, so I ran away as fast as I could. After I crossed the stream, I climbed a tree to be safe. After a while I climbed down, but I couldn't find my way back to the clearing. I just got further away."

Soon they came back to the clearing. When Wendy saw Saucer1, she was delighted. "I get to ride in a spaceship!" she exclaimed. She had seen the movie, and she was thrilled.

"Can you all fit in that airship?" asked John.

"It's a small airship" answered Larissa. "It will be near its maximum weight capacity, but we can do it. However, no more than four at a time can take the elevator."

"Fine," said John. "Please take them home, and I'll go back with the helicopter." He picked up his bag, and retrieved the GPS boxes and air-horns that he had leant to them earlier.

Then Wendy went up the elevator with her parents and the dog, with XL meeting them at the top. Next the elevator came back down empty, and Wendy's aunt and uncle went up. Finally, Larissa, Anna, and Beeba returned.

At the front of the airship, XL turned the fan control to "up" and Saucer1 began to rise. "Boy, it sure is sluggish with this much weight," thought XL to himself. "I have the fan at almost full power."

While Saucer1 headed for Wendy's home, the helicopter hovered over the clearing. In a few minutes, John was on his way home too.

In Saucer1, Beeba joined XL at the front. He sat in the chair next to XL. As he sat down, he noticed a bin near his foot marked "Rescue supplies."

"Hey, what's this," he asked XL, as he pulled the bin open. Inside there were a bunch of small boxes with display screens on them, very similar to the portable GPS units that John had brought with him from the helicopter, but a bit bigger.

XL looked in the bin. "Oops, I guess I should have learned about those sooner," he said. "You could have gone deeper into the forest before the helicopter arrived."

They continued to Wendy's home. They arrived in ten minutes, and then they unloaded everyone via the elevator, in 3 rides as before. XL went down too, leaving Saucer1 set to hold its position overhead.

Wendy's parents brought out some watermelon and other treats to a picnic table behind their house, and offered some to everyone. Wendy was very happy to be eating at last, after missing supper the night before, plus breakfast and lunch this day. Her parents thanked XL's family and Beeba for all their help. "We appreciate John and the rescue helicopter, but with your help we were able to find Wendy much sooner," said Wendy's mother.

They stayed for a while, and then Anna, Larissa, XL, and Beeba returned to Airship1. "You see, I was right that we should go to help" said Beeba to XL as they went back up the elevator. "Anyway, it sure makes me feel good," he said.

"Yes," agreed XL. "You were right. Maybe John would have found Wendy eventually, but we were able to get there first, and we were able to help, so in that case we had a duty to help."

"So you decided to help because of duty?" asked Beeba.

"Partly," answered XL, "and partly because I wanted to. No one person can solve all the problems in the world. Therefore, the duties are divided among all people, and that's why we have shared services like police, ambulance, and rescue. But sometimes there is a situation where one person can help better than just leaving the problem to others--and that is why it was up to us to help this time."

"So duty is sometimes based on proximity--because we were closest?" suggested Anna.

"Yes," agreed Larissa, joining the conversation. "It's the same reason why, when a car is stuck in the snow in the winter, that nearby people will help to push it out. They are conveniently located to help, so the duty falls to them first. But if they can't do it, then the tow truck is called."

"Well, I'm glad we were able to help this time," said XL.

"Me too," said Beeba. "However, the afternoon is almost over, so we have missed out on our plans to go hiking or boating at Waskesiu today."

"That's O.K.," said XL. "Our afternoon adventure was much better than that anyway."

Copyright Arthur de Leyssac, 2017. All rights reserved.