Buck and Caitlin set out to recover the men inside the Eye as soon as possible the next day. But, they had a visitor.
Cold destroys the body, regardless if the person is alive or not. News regarding the Eye was released the night of Hal’s death to those connected to the bodies. The next morning, a woman arrived. She had all the gear she would need. She knew crevasse rescue, and she recounted her history as a ski instructor. According to the team, there was no reason to turn her down, especially since she was the sister of James Melendez, the man who first fell into The Eye.
I still had the day off, but I couldn’t resist knowing about the rescue as soon as it was over. Once they returned in the afternoon, I set out to join them at Caitlin’s house for dinner, hoping to hear everything about the mission. I arrived just in time to help Caitlin’s wife, Jeanie, pull a recently killed deer out of the back of her truck.
As dinner was being prepared, I took an audio recording.
Me: Alright, it’s on.
Buck: Do I look good?
Me: It’s just audio.
Jeanie: (yelling from the kitchen) The answer is no!
Buck: Aaaah I don’t think so. She right Davy?
David: Please don’t call me that.
Buck: What were we gonna talk about?
Caitlin: (bringing drinks to the table) The rescue with, uh, Sasha, from today. You feeling better, kiddo?
Me: Yeah.
Caitlin: Good, good. Okay, so, Sasha…
Buck: What was she, like, thirty?
Caitlin: Wasn’t much older than her brother. She had way more experience though. Smart too.
Buck: I don’t know if this is true, but it seemed like she raised him. You think that?
Caitlin: I can see it.
Buck: I took care of my siblings when I was a kid and you can tell when someone got that kind of maturity… wait, Jeanie what is this?
Jeanie: Uh, it’s an IPA from the brewery down the road. It’s good, right Cate?
Caitlin: Yeah! (shaking her head at Buck)
Buck: It tastes like batteries. Tell me it tastes like batteries, David.
David tastes it. He shrugs.
Buck: That’s a yes. The California boy can have it, right?
Me: Sure. (I pushed away a glass I had already emptied glass)
Caitlin: Jesus, you’re crashing on the couch.
Me: Fine. What was Sasha like?
Buck: You know, she’s a ski instructor from Anchorage so she’s all business and familiar with all the kind of stuff we do.
Caitlin: Very knowledgable. She asked all the questions she could, I guess, before the chopper ride in.
Me: What do you mean all she could?
Caitlin: Well, she didn’t want to know too much about her brother. She just wanted to know how to get him out, you know?
Buck: We landed and immediately set up a belay. We were confident about the ice holding so we got her in there quick.
Me: Her? She went in?
Buck: Trust me, I know. (he raised his hand in disbelief, looking at Caitlin)
Caitlin: She had a way about her. It took us a couple minutes to try and talk her out of it, but it wasn’t going to work.
Buck: I just said fuck it and radioed the rangers to see if we’d get in trouble.
Me: And?
Buck: They said they had no problem with us letting her in there as long as she got out, and she did.
Caitlin: Much quicker than we expected too.
Me: She didn’t stay in there long?
Buck: How long’d she stay in there David?
David: I’d say after her head dipped below the hole, she descended slowly for about thirty seconds. Then, she radioed back up.
Me: Why? Was she scared?
David: (shrugged)
Caitlin: Well, in the moment, we had no way of knowing. The radio malfunctioned and wasn’t carrying her voice. It was really quiet. We were lowering her down and suddenly we heard static.
Buck: When it came through we started to pull her up, just to be safe. When she came up, she didn’t complain.
Caitlin: She scrambled up the side, and, oh, that’s when I noticed what you noticed!
Me: What?
Caitlin: The ice. It was suddenly getting slippery. She had to slam her crampons hard into the side, and even then it only held for a second.
Buck: Wasn’t much of a problem since we just pulled her out quick, but yeah, she seemed to struggle with it.
Me: Did she say anything?
Caitlin: Well, when she stood up she started smacking the side of her flashlight.
Buck: She said it was broken.
Caitlin: Yeah. Looked like it was working fine to me, and then she was just quiet.
Me: Was she acting weird?
Buck: I don’t know what weird would be in this situation. Not being able to find your brother when you’re right above him is definitely weird, you know? She just… (he gestures at Catilin)
Caitlin: She didn’t say much on the way back.
Buck: Just looked at her feet.
Caitlin: Yeah. Poor girl. She said thank you when she left, but that was it. She was really meek when she said it too.
Buck: I won’t lie, it was heartbreaking. She seemed like a little kid. Wouldn’t look us in the eyes. The sun was setting and she was just sitting in her car as we left for the day.
Me: Damn.
Buck: I need another beer. Jeanie!
Jeanie: What? I’m not bothering the recording, am I?
Buck: Absolutely not, Ji Ji.
Caitlin: He’s just whining about another beer. He (she points at me) definitely does not need another.
Me: I don’t know what she’s talking about.
Caitlin: We can’t have him be a drunken idiot all the time!
Buck: What if we actually need his help out there?
Jeanie: I’ll see what I can do. (She points at me) Are you done encouraging my wife and her Indiana Jones fantasy yet?
Me: Never. (I smile and turn off the recorder)
