We gave the Search and Rescue applications to our parents Tuesday evening. My parents were on the phone to Penny’s mom for hours. I’m not sure who was trying to convince whom, but they finally decided it would be good for us to channel our boundless energies in a useful direction. At nearly midnight, my mom and dad signed the form.
We gave them to Mr. Neils on Wednesday, and promised to do a swimming demo for him in May.
Late Thursday afternoon, the Search and Rescue leader called. His name was Jack. He talked to me first, and asked me more about my skills and why I wanted to be on the team. He said he would help arrange my transportation, but in all other ways I would be treated like an adult member of the team.
Then he talked to my parents and answered some of their questions. He arranged to pick us up on Saturday for the monthly training meeting.
Saturday morning Penny and I were bouncing off the walls, so Mom kicked us out of the house. We ran three miles together, then just wandered around until lunchtime.
Finally at 1:00 Jack arrived. He had a large pickup truck with a canopy on the back and all kinds of camping and climbing gear. “I’ve never had anybody as young as you two on the team. Eleven and how old?”
“Nine,” Penny said.
“You look older than that, probably because you’re so tall. You know the team is mostly adults. And they’ll tend to think you can’t do anything, or even
if they know you can, they’ll want to protect you.”
“We don’t need or want protection. We want to be treated like everyone else,” I said.
“Okay. I’ll try to help with that, but you have to prove yourselves worthy of that adult treatment, both in skills and in just cooperating with the team. And often that’ll mean others more experienced or stronger will have to do a job.”
“Oh, we know that!” Penny said.
“What’s the training today?” I asked.
“A guy from the Fire Department is going to tell us about getting people out of crashed airplanes. Sound interesting?”
“Kind of,” I said. “Do airplanes crash around here a lot?”
“Oh, once a year or so. We’ll take some time to introduce you to everybody today, too.”
We arrived at a house and went inside. We were about the first ones, but people started arriving soon. There were about 15 people in all. Everyone found places to perch in the living room.
“We have a couple of new candidates for the team,” Jack said. “Since the Fire Department isn’t here yet, we’ll go ahead with introductions. Let’s just be glad we hadn’t called them to a fire!” Everyone laughed.
Jack turned to us. “After everyone introduces themselves, you two will go, and there might be questions. Then we’ll vote to see if you’re on the team as trial members. After about a year, the team will vote again for you to become permanent members, at which time you’ll get your Search and Rescue receivers.”
“What are they?” Penny asked.
“They’re radio receivers that respond to a special frequency that only Central Dispatch can use. They’re for getting in touch with us fast, or when other lines of communication are out.”
They started going around the room.
“I’m Sam, and I’m a carpenter. On the team I specialize in water rescue. I can also drink more beer than anyone here!” Laughter.
“I’m Jeff, and you guys might steal my position as youngest member of the team. I’m 16. I’m good at packing, fire fighting, and rock climbing.”
“I’m Mabel,” a lady of about 40 said. “I’m not 16.” Laughter. “I specialize
in coordinating supplies, and I’m also a damn good swimming rescuer.”
They continued around, and Jack went last. “I’m Jack, and if we’re on a rescue and you do something dumb, I’ll tell you so bluntly you’ll call me Jackass!” Laughter. “I do communications, coordination with the gov’ment, and just about everything else.”
It was our turn. I looked at Penny.
“I’m Ariel. I’m 11. I’m not really sure what to say.”
“Go down the list on the application, and tell us what you can do,” Jack said, handing me one.
“Okay. Swimming. I can swim more than 2 miles now, and I’m used to cold water like the inlet or a lake. I’m going to do the four miles across the inlet this summer with Penny. I know water rescue, and I’ve done it in a real situation once already. I know CPR for a drowning person. How’s that?” I looked at Jack.
“Fine! Keep going!”
“Free climbing. I haven’t done much rock climbing, but I’m good in trees.
I can climb up a maple as high as the branches will take me, and I’ve climbed 50 feet straight up an alder.”
“You used crampons and straps, didn’t you?” the 16 year old guy asked.
“No. That was just free climbing, hands and feet. I don’t know much about equipment yet, but I’d like to learn.” I told them about the other stuff I could do, and they asked me a few more questions. Then Penny went.
“I’m Penny, and I’m nine.”
“Come on! Isn’t this getting kind of ridiculous?” the teenage guy said.
He was instantly on my black-list for attacking Penny.
“Let’s hear what she can do. She comes highly recommended by Tom Neils,” Jack said.
Penny told them about all the thing we did. Jeff stayed silent, and only the others asked her questions. They voted on pieces of paper, and Jack collected the votes.
“Well, there is one NO vote for Ariel, and two NO votes for Penny. Would the nay-sayers please express their reservations?”
“I just can’t believe they can do all that stuff,” Jeff said.
“Mr. Neils checked the boxes on our application forms, we didn’t,” I said
with a very straight face.
“And we’d be glad to show you anything,” Penny said. She was looking daggers at Jeff.
“I cast the other NO vote for Penny,” a lady said. “Ariel, I can see, but nine years old is just too young. She just won’t have the endurance.”
“Penny says she can run 6 miles. How far can you run, Maxine?” Jack asked.
“Yeah, yeah,” Maxine said.
“I’ve
seen Penny run 6 miles,” I said, “which is 2 more than I can. And . . .
we only come together.”
Everyone looked at me.
“You are loyal to each other, as it should be,” Jack said. “It seems to me that the reservations expressed are all based on proof of stated abilities. Isn’t that the purpose of the trial membership period?” He looked at Maxine, then at Jeff.
They
nodded.
“Ariel and Penny, you are now trial members of the County Search and Rescue team. Welcome!”
Everyone
clapped.
“I want to say that I will expect completely adult behavior by these two, and equally adult behavior from anyone who has doubts about them.”
“Jack is hard-nosed, but he’s fair,” a man said.
The doorbell rang. A guy from the Fire Department was led in, carrying cases full of charts and equipment. He showed us diagrams of different airplanes, and pointed out where the doors and escape hatches were, where fires usually broke out when the planes crashed, and things like that. Then he showed us some special tools the department had just bought — super-lightweight crowbars and hydraulic jacks and stuff.
After he left, one of the guys showed some slides of a recent rock climbing trip. I was looking forward to learning more about climbing with ropes.
Then we all went out for fried chicken, and people told hunting, fishing, and climbing stories. We mostly listened, but at one point Mabel asked Penny what the funniest thing that ever happened to her was. Penny told the story of the swimming race at our first demo with Mr. Neils, and everyone listened.
They loved it, and I think even Jeff was starting to thaw toward us.
Penny faithfully studied the Tarot, and every week she started a new page in the Grimoire about one of the astrological symbols, which was also about one of the Tarot cards.
☉ SUN
strong,
vital
body XXI
The
Adept
dignified
manner skill,
success
self-esteem, pride
considerate,
kindly
number
21
rulership
letter B
fond of praise
metal Gold
herbs - helianthus, gallardia
color Orange
Since we weren’t doing demos anymore, we started swimming again, mostly in the pool, but sometimes in the inlet. We continued our night-time romps about once a week, and one Saturday we combined the two and went swimming in the inlet after dark. It was spooky at first, but the flashing light on the channel buoy helped.
At the Search and Rescue meeting in early March, we went out on a Coast Guard boat and practiced putting out pretend fires on the boat. Jack made all us females and Jeff practice with the fire extinguishers, so we would know how hard they kicked. Then we did some swimming rescues, and Jack made sure that Penny and I had to rescue the heaviest men on the team.
“How’d she do?” Jack asked Sam after Penny brought him in.
“I made it as hard as I could without actually fighting her, and she saved me, fair and square.”
Spring started to show herself in late March, and at the April meeting we went to a rock cliff and started to learn about climbing with ropes. Several other people on the team were new at ropes too, so we weren’t alone. Jeff almost peed his pants when he saw me climb 50 feet straight up a rope hand-over-hand without stopping.
Penny and I started to prepare for Beltane. I gathered rocks for the Magic Circle — not just any rocks, they had to be rounded but kind of long, and they had to look nice. Penny asked her mom’s boyfriend to help her make an altar, but he just thought it was a little play table or something. Penny and I had worked it all out — 3 feet long, 2 feet deep, and one foot high. The top would be thick cedar and the legs stout alder poles.
I was reading some books on philosophy and enjoying the springtime, but I was restless too. Something was missing.