Five days after it had left New York City, the superblimp was approximately a day and a half behind schedule. Had everything gone flawlessly, Kowalski and crew would now be in Colorado executing the search phase of their operation. Instead, due to some power lines that were both high in voltage and in distance from the ground, they had been stuck in Western Kansas for the past two days with a non-flightworthy airship.
"Here's the hammer you asked for, compliments of Rico," Private said as he waddled up to Kowalski and handed him the requested tool.
"Thanks, Private," he replied as he took it and began to bang it on the frame of the superblimp.
"Well, I think we're making good progress," Private then said.
"I suppose," Kowalski responded without much emotion. "But I still can't tell how long it's going to take to get all the repairs done. It took 11 days to finish this thing back home with access to my lab and an abundance of materials to commandeer, so it could take close to the same to fix all the damage using only the resources that Rico has inside his stomach."
"Don't stress, Kowalski," Private said as he patted Kowalski on the back. "You've gotten us this far, haven't you? Skipper would be proud of the leadership you've shown lately – I know I am."
"Thanks, Private," Kowalski smiled. "I needed that."
Meanwhile, on the fifth day since the tornado, Skipper continued his search for Marlene. Though he had covered every square inch of the tornado damage path already, Skipper decided to give it one more thorough look before beginning to search in some other region. This morning, Skipper decided that he would rely heavily on his binoculars to search deep into the brush to the right and left of the path he followed.
At a hillside he had traveled up countless times, Skipper peered through his binoculars far and wide. Suddenly, a blurry brown object lying in the distant brush caught his attention. He gasped as he adjusted the focus to bring the object into optical clarity.
"Marlene," he sighed sadly as he brought the binoculars down, incorrectly believing that his friend had been killed. "Oh, Marlene."
He then let his binoculars fall from his grip as he placed his right flipper over his face and sat on the ground. He didn't even try to fight back the tears.
"All she wanted to do was go see her parents," he wept to himself. "Why couldn't I have held onto her a little tighter? Why couldn't I have died instead?"
After a while, Skipper prepared himself for the only thing left that he could do for Marlene: give her a proper and dignified burial. His heart was broken and he was overcome by grief, but he knew it was the right thing to do. Slowly, Skipper picked up his binoculars once again and peered through them at Marlene so that he could plot the best route over to retrieve her. What he saw next would result in a joyful double take.
"She's alive!" he shouted out loud as he noticed Marlene standing up through the binoculars. "Holy tuna on rye, it's a miracle!"
Quickly, Skipper reached for his bag, opened it, and pulled out his flare gun. He loaded it with a 12-gauge flare cartridge and fired it into the air, hoping Marlene would both hear it and see it so that she would know she had been spotted. Glancing again through the binoculars, Skipper saw that his plan had worked.
Leaving all his supplies behind to be retrieved later, Skipper then waddled down the hillside to the edge of a small pond which was located at the bottom. While walking around it would have been easier considering his broken left flipper, Marlene was on the other side and Skipper wanted to reach her as quickly as possible. Carefully, Skipper entered the water and began swimming his way across, using an irregular stroke with his right flipper to avoid swimming in circles.
Soon, Marlene spotted a dark object just under the water's surface coming in her direction. She was curious but guarded as to what it might be – she assumed it was an animal, but didn't yet know if it was friend or foe.
That determination wouldn't have to wait very long.
"Skipper!" she exclaimed, delightfully shocked, as she reached down to help him up from the water's edge.
As Skipper came to his feet, Marlene was just too overcome with emotion to say anything more. Instead, she wrapped her paws tightly around her friend and embraced him in a way that made their post-ejection seat hug seem pale in comparison. Skipper placed his good flipper around Marlene as well – there was just nothing that could compare to being back with a friend once thought dead.
"I thought I had lost you forever," Skipper said, the first to speak after a minute or two had passed.
"I was beginning to fear the same about you," Marlene replied. "It was an awful feeling. I don't ever want to feel it again."
"Me neither," Skipper replied, sniffling. "I'm a tough bird, but there are some things that even I can't handle."
"I don't think I've ever seen you cry before, Skipper," Marlene commented.
"Well, I guess there's a first for everything," he replied. "And I don't feel the least bit ashamed."
The two then continued their tearful embrace as they talked with each other about joy and sorrow. After a while, Marlene began to be aware that Skipper was only hugging her with one flipper, so she glanced down to notice the makeshift sling Skipper had his left flipper placed into.
"How bad are you hurt?" she asked, concerned, as she dipped her head briefly in the direction of Skipper's injury.
"Well, I broke it in two places when I landed from the tornado," Skipper replied. "I'll heal, in time."
"Doesn't this now make the third time you've broken your left flipper in your life?" Marlene asked.
"Fourth, actually," Skipper replied. "But no matter, I've never been much of a left-winger anyway."
Marlene chuckled, still holding Skipper all the while.
"So, how about you?" Skipper continued. "You seem to physically be all right, considering all that must have happened. Do you have any injuries?"
"Nothing broken, but I sprained my tail and got a decent case of whiplash in my neck from being carried and dropped by that twister," she replied. "Just a short time ago, both still bothered me quite a bit, but I've honestly been pain-free ever since we reunited. Either having you back causes a placebo effect or you should consider patenting yourself as a pain reliever because I feel better than ever right now."
"Happy to be of service," Skipper smiled.
As time went on, Skipper and Marlene talked with each other about their experiences over the past five days of separation. Marlene told Skipper about how she felt that his spirit was with her the first night alone; Skipper told Marlene about Paula and the chain message he had sent to New York. Eventually, as their conversation deepened, they began to stroll away from the edge of the pond where they had reunited.
"So, where to, Skipper?" Marlene soon asked. "You're still on point, you know."
"Well, I'm thinking now that we should head back to where we so recently left," Skipper replied.
"The crash site?" Marlene wondered.
"Affirmative," Skipper replied. "With that message I sent to New York, the boys should come looking for us soon, so I think it would help to stay in one place. No more adventures for us – at least not on this trip."
And so, after first stopping to retrieve Skipper's bag, the two began their journey back to the place they had thought best to leave just five days earlier. Aided by his airplane compass and his gut instincts, Skipper led the way on the hours-long walk through the Colorado forest. Comforted by being back in each other's company, the walk seemed miles shorter than it really was.
As evening came, Skipper and Marlene arrived at their destination. It was both a relief and a nightmare to have returned to such a place; everything that had happened there was truly a mixed bag.
Not long after arriving, Skipper set up the survival tent once again. Although it was much earlier than the time they would normally go to bed back home, both Skipper and Marlene were quite tired and soon decided to call it a night. Moments later, they crawled into the tent one behind the other.
"You know, it feels so good to be inside a tent again," Marlene said as she sighed a relaxed, content sigh.
"I concur," Skipper agreed.
"What do you mean, Skipper?" Marlene wondered. "You had this tent with you in your pack."
"Yeah, that's exactly where I had it," Skipper continued. "I carried it with me wherever I went, but not once did I sleep in it. I wasn't going to afford myself some luxury while you were out in the open. Each night that you slept on the ground, I was doing the same."
"I gotta admit, that's pretty noble, Skipper," Marlene responded. "It shows you care. It's nice."
"There's more to me than meets the eye, I guess," Skipper replied. "But don't go thinking I've gotten too soft – my innermost thoughts and feelings are still overwhelmingly classified. At least for right now and the foreseeable future."
"That's OK, Skipper, I'm not going anywhere," Marlene responded.
"What was that?" Skipper wondered.
"Oh, nothing, nothing," Marlene replied, blushing slightly. "I meant to say that we should probably think about sleep. It's been a long couple of days, you know."
"Indeed," Skipper agreed as he yawned. "Nighty-night."
And so Skipper and Marlene once again shut their eyes to allow the Sandman to do his work. Moments later, both were under his spell.
When morning came, the two soon got back to their old routine. After a drink and a shower at the natural spring, it was off to the wild mint plants for breakfast.
"You know, Skipper, it's good to be back, but I think I'm starting to get tired of all this mint," Marlene said after she had chewed and swallowed her most recent piece. "I wish there was something else out there to add a bit of variety in my life."
"Yeah, I could go for some fish about now myself," Skipper agreed. "Maybe salmon, maybe tuna, maybe snapper. Heck, even some Swedish Fish would be a nice change. But beggars can't be choosers; we've got to make due with what we've got."
"Well, maybe if we looked around a little more we might find something different," Marlene continued. "Come on, Skipper, what do you say?"
"All right," Skipper replied. "We'll head in a little deeper and see if Mother Nature will have left us any treats. She's usually a pretty good cook."
The two then walked beyond the wild mint patch that had long sustained them and searched left and right for something else that they could eat.
"Hey, look what I found, Marlene," Skipper chuckled as he pointed at a three-leaved green plant a short distance away. "It's one of those 'organic moisturizer' plants you found last summer."
"Yeah, I'm sorry again about the whole poison ivy thing; I didn't know," Marlene replied. "Though now that I think about it, don't you still owe me an apology for believing that I was spreading cooties throughout the zoo?"
"Sure do," Skipper replied. "But not until your birthday, remember? You'll get it on March 26."
Skipper and Marlene then continued their hunt until Marlene soon spotted a plant with red berries.
"Berries could be fun," she said as she plucked a few off and placed them in her paw, handing Skipper a few as well. "Can we eat these?"
Skipper looked the fruits over, sniffed them, and then licked the outside of one before proceeding to eat it.
"Yes," he then responded. "I may not be as good a botanist as Kowalski might be, but I can tell you that these are pin cherries. They're not berries, but the fruits are edible. And tasty, too."
"Good," Marlene replied as she quickly downed five of them and proceeded to pluck off more.
After eating three more, Marlene felt warm all of a sudden and began to break out in a sweat. Seconds later, she felt a terrible pain in her stomach.
"Ugh," she groaned as she placed a paw to her stomach and hiccupped.
"You OK there, Marlene?" Skipper asked.
"I think those cherries are trying to come back up on me," she replied. "Honestly, I don't feel well at all."
Skipper then placed his good flipper on Marlene's back.
"Relax and try to think about something else," he said. "Close your eyes, breathe slowly, and–"
But that was all he was able to say before Marlene tilted her head downward and lost her breakfast on the ground. It happened so quickly that she was unable to turn herself away from Skipper in time, resulting in some of the upchucked material finding its way onto Skipper's right side.
"I'm sorry," Marlene apologized. "It just happened so fast I couldn't–"
"Marlene, I can wash my feathers," Skipper stated. "The only thing that matters is that you are feeling OK."
"Thanks," Marlene smiled weakly. "I really hate throwing up."
"I hear you," Skipper agreed. "How Rico does it with objects and without a care in the world I'll never understand. It's just clockwork with that guy."
"Hey, Skipper, I think I might–" Marlene then began, her words ending as she collapsed into Skipper before falling to the ground.
"Marlene!" Skipper gasped as he dove to the ground to be with her and began to support her head with his good flipper. "Marlene, please tell me what's wrong."
"I must be allergic to those cherries I ate," Marlene struggled to reply as she began convulsing. "Skipper, I can't breathe!"
"Don't you worry, Marlene, I'll get you through this," Skipper responded. "You cheated death twice already, and for the love of God, you will again."
"I'm not a cat, Skipper, I don't get nine lives," Marlene wheezed as her throat became even more constricted and a tear formed in her eye. "Oh, Skipper, I love–"
She was unable to complete what she thought might be her final words, however, for at that moment Skipper placed his beak to Marlene's mouth and forced air into her. The severe tightness of her airway made providing much of it difficult, but Skipper was determined that he would not lose her.
After around a minute of giving Marlene beak-to-mouth, however, Skipper realized that his method was not as efficient as it needed to be and was perhaps just prolonging the inevitable. He realized that the only way to keep Marlene alive was to ensure a clear passage for air to flow into Marlene's lungs, and this wasn't happening with her throat continuing to constrict as a symptom of anaphylactic shock.
Then suddenly, Skipper had a thought. Perhaps all those episodes of Rescue 911 he had watched during the '90s had finally paid off. He breathed two more breaths into Marlene and then stood up.
"I'll be right back," he informed her as he took off running toward the plane wreckage a short distance away. "Please, God, give me something I can use."
When he arrived at the wreckage – or at least at the largest pile in the strewn array of it – Skipper began digging through the debris to find something suitable to help Marlene with. In his search, he soon found a severed hydraulics hose which, because of its condition, was now devoid of its oil.
"Yes!" he exclaimed as he grabbed onto it and yanked it away from whatever it was connected to, yielding a length of about two feet.
As he rushed with the hose back over to Marlene, Skipper blew into it to be entirely sure it was clear of any remnants of oil or any other contaminants. When he reached her, he once again got down on the ground to tend to her. He blew another few breaths into her before he spoke.
"Trust my judgment here, OK?" he said quickly. "This isn't going to be pleasant, but it has to be done. Now open your mouth as wide as you can for me. You can close your eyes if you want to."
Marlene opened her mouth, but chose to keep her eyes open and focused on Skipper. She was absolutely terrified inside, yet at the same time completely calm, trusting Skipper with every fiber of her being. Carefully, Skipper then inserted the hydraulics hose into Marlene's throat, making out of it an improvised version of an endotracheal tube.
To Marlene, it felt like she was choking on a pinecone as she gagged on the intrusion, but Skipper couldn't stop until he got the tube into her airway. Somehow, perhaps with the Devine guiding his steady flipper, Skipper managed to safely and accurately work the tube to a suitable depth in Marlene's trachea with minimum difficulty for either of them.
"OK, Marlene, the worst is over," Skipper then said. "Now slowly try to take a breath through the tube. If you can't, raise a paw to let me know."
Marlene struggled for a few seconds, but could not draw any air into her body. Her lungs were just too constricted and inflamed and her body too weak. She lifted a paw in defeat.
Skipper then took the other end of the hydraulics hose into his mouth and exhaled into it, transferring air into Marlene's lungs as a sort of makeshift ventilator. He did this several times before stopping for a moment to speak to her.
"I'm going to be breathing for you like this for a while," he said. "Once your body gets past its allergic reaction, things should begin to return to normal. I'm not sure how long that might take, but stay calm and know that I will get you through this. I promise you that."
Skipper continued fulfilling Marlene's respiratory functions for the next few hours. Eventually, once the severity of her allergic reaction began to fall from its peak, Marlene became able to breathe again on her own through the hydraulics hose. Skipper soon decided that it was probably now safe to remove it.
"All right, Marlene, hold your breath," Skipper said as he began to gently work the hose out. "Almost there, almost there, got it."
"Hi, Skipper," Marlene then whispered, her voice understandably hoarse from all that had transpired. "Thanks."
"Rest your voice, Marlene," Skipper said as he patted her on the shoulder.
A short while later, Skipper escorted Marlene over to the spring for a much-needed drink of water. After drinking several soothing ounces, she sat down on the ground next to it and began to talk with him.
"Skipper, I have two major emotions running through my head right now," she said. "The first is a happy blend of joy, trust, and relief because you saved me. The other is a paralyzing fear because I know that I wouldn't have been able to save you."
"You've been through a lot, Marlene; I can understand how you might feel at two different ends of the spectrum," Skipper replied. "But you shouldn't dwell on fear; you're much too intelligent for that."
"But I couldn't have saved you," Marlene continued. "It breaks my heart to know that I wouldn't have known what to do."
"Marlene, you can't prepare for everything in life – sometimes you just have to improvise," Skipper responded. "If some perilous situation was to ever befall on some poor soul and you could do something about it, I'm confident that you would react to the best of your ability. If that person had even the slightest chance of surviving, they would."
"You really think so?" Marlene asked.
"Marlene, I know you better than you know yourself," Skipper replied. "And not just because I've run a background check on you."
"Come again?" Marlene inquired.
"No, it's cool," Skipper replied. "The boys and I run routine checks on everyone indiscriminately. Did you know that Alice has unpaid parking tickets?"
"Eh, I wouldn't have put it past her," Marlene shrugged. "But anyway, thank you for trying to make me feel better and for saving my life. I'll never be able to repay you for all that you've done."
"All in a day's work, Marlene," Skipper replied. "All in a day's work."
Eventually, Skipper and Marlene made their way back to their tent a short distance away. They passed the hours away with games of 20 Questions, charades, and tic-tac-toe in the dirt. After all was said and done, it was yet another day of highs and lows. But it was another day together nonetheless.
As night came, both Skipper and Marlene exchanged their usual goodnights and then closed their eyes for sleep. After about a minute of silence, however, Skipper reopened his as he looked over at Marlene beside him and smiled. After all that had happened that day, Skipper thought now might be the perfect time to ask her about something that had long been on his mind.
"Hey, Marlene, can I ask you something?" he asked in a whisper.
"Of course," Marlene replied.
"Do you know that you've been placing your paw on my side in your sleep each night that we've shared a tent together?" he asked.
"Oh my goodness!" Marlene responded, a little embarrassed. "I never knew I did that. I'm so sorry."
"Don't be," Skipper replied. "In fact, why wait for sleep? Go ahead and do it right now."
"You don't mind?" Marlene asked. "You don't think that it's a little weird?"
"Because it's you, Marlene, not at all," Skipper replied.
Marlene smiled and then placed a paw on Skipper. The two were then silent once again for a few moments until Marlene broke the silence.
"You know, Skipper, I might think to ask you the same thing," she said.
"Huh?" Skipper replied.
"You've been putting a flipper on me for many nights as well," she replied. "It used to be your left one, but it was obviously your right one last night."
"Really?" he asked. "I never knew that either. I'll sleep on top of it from now on to make sure that it doesn't happen again."
"Now that would be a shame," Marlene replied.
"Huh?" Skipper wondered.
"I find it rather comforting and reassuring, actually," she responded. "I like it. In fact, I wouldn't mind you doing it right now if you wanted to."
"Marlene, if we've both been aware of each other's appendage being on us at night for so long, how come neither one of us was ever aware that we were doing it to the other?" he asked as he placed his good flipper on Marlene.
"I don't know, Skipper," she answered. "All I know is that I'm going to miss it when we get back to New York."
"You and me both," Skipper replied. "Goodnight."
