Scott was at the car almost before the vehicle had stopped. He wrenched open the driver's door and pulled at the sleeve of the man inside. "You've got to start digging!" he yelled, "I'll show you where."
"Whoa! Hold on! Let me get my safety belt undone," the young man protested as he reached for the restraint. He no sooner had it undone and Scott was pulling at him again, willing him to get out of the car.
More senior members of the team went to check on Jeff and his mother. Both were incoherent. "Mr Tracy! Keep calm! We'll get to them as fast as we can."
"She said goodbye!" was all they could understand.
Scott, meanwhile, had dragged the driver over to where the boys had been digging. John and Virgil were still hard at it. Both were wet with snow. Their hands were raw; John's were bleeding in places where blisters had ruptured.
"There!" Scott instructed. "We worked it out! If you keep digging that way you'll reach them."
"How'd you work that out?"
"With the radios! You've got to start digging!"
"Okay, kKid. Hang on."
The rescue team wasted no time in setting up their equipment. Much to their surprise their own scanners confirmed what Scott had said.
"Come on, kids. Keep out of the way." One of the officials directed the three boys away from the rescue zone. They sat, quietly watching the proceedings, from the back seat of their car.
Virgil had started shivering. Much of the snow that the older two boys had shovelled had landed on him and he was soaked to the skin. Scott could feel his brother's trembling and decided that they all needed to get changed. Once again he opened the rear of the car, this time pulling out their bags. "John," he called. "Come and get something dry on." He handed John his backpack. Scott then set about ensuring that Virgil was dressed in dry clothes before changing his own.
They had just finished when there was a shout from the avalanche. "We're through!" The boys ran to the avalanche site.
"Whoa, kids. You can't go in there. Get back to the car." They were herded back.
"We've got a live one!" Like a game of loud Chinese Whispers the word was shouted from rescuer to rescuer.
A man came running out of the hole that they'd just cleared. He was holding a bundle in a blanket. "We need oxygen here! Quick!"
John managed to see a little tuft of copper hair sticking out of the blanket. "It's Gordon," he said simply.
Soon afterwards another man came running out. This time they got a clear glimpse of Alan's face; its blue colouration blending into his blond hair. He was bundled into the back of a waiting ambulance.
"Where's Ma?" Virgil asked.
"They'll get her out soon," Scott reassured him. To himself he added, 'Please get her out soon!'
"We need a stretcher!" the shout went up, and one vanished into the hole. It emerged a short time later carrying Lucille. A man, who had up till now stood back from proceedings, examined her efficiently. Once finished, he solemnly took the sheet that covered her body and extended it to hide her face.
"No!" Scott whispered. He'd seen enough late night movies to know what that meant.
"Ma!" John yelled and ran towards her still form.
"No, John!" Scott managed to catch his younger brother and hold him back.
'Hey! What are those kids doing over there?" someone yelled. "They shouldn't be seeing this!"
"Come on boys." It was the man that Scott had dragged from the car. "Come around here." He led them unresisting away from the disaster site.
"Ma's dead, isn't she?" Scott said through a face full of tears.
The man nodded sadly. "I'm sorry, boys. We just got here too late." He was silent for a moment. "What are your names?" he asked gently.
Scott told him.
"My name's Dave. How old are you, Scott?"
"Ten," Scott said with a sniff.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to keep an eye on your two brothers, and look after them for a bit. Your dad and grandmother are going to have to travel with your other two brothers. What are their names?"
"Gordon and Alan. He's the baby."
"Thanks, Scott. They're still alive but they're very sick." Looking at the three young faces, Dave felt a pang of misgiving. "Can you look after your brothers?"
Scott nodded. "Ma said I had to. It was the last thing she told me."
"You're a brave boy. Your mother would be proud of you. Will you three stay here a moment? I've just got to see someone."
All three nodded solemnly.
Scott leant back against the car and took a deep breath. He suddenly felt the weight of the world on his shoulders. Then he felt a small hand slip into his. He looked down at Virgil. "I'll help you, Scott." There was determination in his young voice as he gazed at his oldest brother through a curtain of tears.
"Yeah, Scott. Me too." John was trying to look brave.
"Thanks," The word caught in Scott's throat.
When Dave came back all three were in a huddle, crying as if their hearts would break.
"Mr Tracy." Jeff barely felt the touch on his arm. "Mr Tracy, we've got to get Gordon and Alan to the hospital. Will you and your mother come with us?"
Jeff nodded dumbly. He felt as if his whole world was collapsing around him, wiped away in an avalanche of snow. He allowed himself to be led to the waiting ambulance. He didn't hear an ambulance chaser say to him, "Hey! Aren't you Jeff Tracy, the astronaut?" and see the man get escorted away by a policeman.
Once in the vehicle, the ambulance officer continued on. "We'll get someone to bring your other sons along in your car. They'll meet you at the hospital. Okay?"
Jeff couldn't take it in. He sat in the back of the ambulance, almost oblivious to the fact that his two youngest sons were fighting for their lives and his mother had been sedated and was lying on the stretcher beside him. "Lucille," he whispered. "I'm so sorry."
For the three boys, sitting in the back seat of their father's car, the trip to the hospital seemed to take an age. Eventually the car pulled up and Dave said to them. "Time to get out."
John undid his safety belt, opened the door and jumped down only to be blinded by a flash. He rubbed his eyes, already red and puffy from crying.
"What's ya name, kid?" a large man with a notebook asked him gruffly.
"Leave him alone!" Dave placed himself between the reporter and the child.
"That's the astronaut's kids, isn't it?" the reporter asked. "This is news."
"And this is a hospital not the press gallery. Clear out!"
"Look pal! I'm trying to do my job."
"And that involves preying on defenceless kids?"
The reporter grabbed his bag and moved back to the hospital boundary. He contented himself with getting long shots of Scott undoing Virgil's safety belt and helping him out of the car.
That night the three oldest boys stayed at Dave's. He took them out for a meal at a popular fast food chain, and took them to the movies, trying to take their minds of the events of the day. Scott and John appeared to be in a daze. When asked the next day they had no idea what they'd eaten, or what the movie had been about.
Virgil was confused by all that was happening. He'd seen his mother lying on that stretcher, as if she'd been sleeping, and now he was being told that he'd never see her again, that the pile of snow had taken her away from him.
Dave tried his best to explain to the young boy what had happened. "The noise of their car caused the snow to fall down the mountain. It covered the car and they couldn't get any air. Your mother and grandfather just went to sleep. A deep sleep that they will never wake up from again."
"Scott said Grandpa had flown up to heaven."
"That's a nice way of looking at it. When they went to sleep, they became angels and flew up to heaven."
"But I saw her lying there…"
"That was the shell of her body. Her spirit is flying around, looking after you, your brothers, your father and grandmother; you just can't see her. Don't worry, she'll be happy and she won't want you to be sad for long."
Virgil frowned. A terrible idea was forming in his young mind. "If they hadn't been driving past then, the snow it wouldn't have covered the car, would it?"
"No. They were just unlucky that they were there at the time that the snow fell…" Dave stopped talking as Virgil burst into tears. He hugged the young boy, wishing there were some way he could comfort him.
At that moment Scott came into the room. "Virgil!" he said in concern.
Virgil broke away from Dave and ran over to Scott. "Sorry, Scott!" he cried. "Sorry!"
Scott held him close. "For what, Virgil?" He could feel his own tears start to form again.
But five-year-old Virgil couldn't find the words to say what was in his mind, and so he said nothing, just cried…
The following months were a living hell for Jeff Tracy. He resigned his place in the space agency and watched on TV as the man who'd replaced him successfully completed the flight to the moon.
Every media article on the mission seemed to include a sidebar on the astronaut who'd missed the flight due to tragedy – usually accompanied by official photos of Jeff and Lucille's wedding or else unofficial ones of his sons after the accident. In later years the boys believed that the distrust of the media, born out of this never ending pain, was as much of the reason for Jeff's desire for lack of publicity as the desire to keep their machines away from evil hands.
Jeff not only had to learn how to raise five sons as he had to cope with the loss of his wife and his father, but find a way to earn a living, while still trying to be there for his boys.
Their home had come with the job. Now unemployed, Jeff had to find new accommodation for the family. Initially the boys and Mrs Tracy went to stay with the dreaded Aunt Gertrude, while Jeff travelled about, trying to find someone who would employ a grieving ex-astronaut.
Grandma Tracy returned to the family farm just once after the funerals. Jeff tried unsuccessfully to comfort her as she walked through the empty rooms. Finding it more than she could bear, she left forever. The farm was sold and Mrs Tracy bought herself a small home near the family. The money that was left over after the house purchase she gave to her son. "Your father would want you to use the money to raise his grandsons."
A friend had given him an offer to go into partnership in an engineering firm and he had been going to turn it down due to lack of funds, but now he grasped at the opportunity as if it were a lifeline. They called the company 'Tracy Industries' as the friend had thought that Jeff's name would give them an advantage over the competition.
To his surprise, Jeff found that he was good at his new job. Growing up on a farm had given him engineering experience that he was able to utilise in the company. He was even more surprised when he found he was enjoying the work and was finally starting to climb out of the depression that had dogged him.
The Tracy boys also initially found it difficult coping without their mother. The dreaded Aunt Gertrude fussed about them and smothered them with her over protectiveness. They felt stifled in her neat, small home that had never had to deal with energetic boys. They were greatly relieved when Jeff found a house that was big enough for them all and they moved into their new home. Alan and Gordon recovered enough to come home and Mrs Tracy took it upon herself to be a surrogate mother to the five boys.
The older boys started at new schools and were pointed out as being 'the sons of the astronaut who quit'. They had to put up with some teasing, but grew closer as they supported each other. Eventually they made new friends, but their closest friends remained each other.
Virgil waited to do the paintings as his mother had asked him to. He was initially upset that he was unable to do the painting at fussy Aunt Gertrude's, but understood when Scott had explained that his mother had said, "When you get home…" and this was certainly not home!
When they arrived at their new house, the first thing that was set up in his new bedroom was his paint set. After thinking for a while, he decided on a subject and painted two paintings. One for his mother and one for his grandfather. Each daub of paint was carefully placed. Never again did Virgil splatter paint around the room; each stroke was carefully thought out and positioned just right.
John had always been a quiet child. It was strange then when one of his two great passions turned out to be communications. The radio set that had played such and important role in their lives was carefully packed away and he worked hard to earn enough money to buy another, better set. This achieved, he set about to improve it even further. He also developed an interest in languages, reasoning that you couldn't communicate with someone if you couldn't understand them.
His other great passion continued to be astronomy. He would spend hours looking into the night sky. Often his father had to order him to bed so he'd be fresh for school the next day. One lonely day while looking through his telescope on board Thunderbird Five, he did eventually find a new star. He named it Lucille.
Scott took his mother's final words to heart. He cared for his brothers and looked out for them. He especially took Virgil under his wing. If Jeff was ever looking for either of them he invariably found them in each other's company. When Virgil started learning to play the piano, Scott would be beside him encouraging him, playing the tunes so that Virgil knew what they sounded like. That was until Virgil started showing more aptitude than his oldest brother and the roles became reversed. But Scott never bore a grudge, instead finding pleasure in his brother's success.
Slowly, surely, the family got their lives together again…