Joy in His Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

had.
    Relief washed over him. Joy was all right. What was that old saying he’d once heard from her uncle? “Any landing you walk away from was a good one.” Brian had to add, “any crash you walked away from wasn’t too bad, either.”
    Though her obsession with saving that plane nearly overshadowed his relief. He forced the troubling thoughts away, once again promising himself to take it up with her later. “Why? I understand that you were attached to the plane but it isn’t going to help us get home. I think that had better be our priority, don’t you?”
    “Actually it could help us get rescued. Right now, though, I have a bigger problem. This isn’t funny, Peterson,” she shouted. “I can’t get myself free.”
    So she might actually have to admit to needing his help? He was pretty sure that hadn’t happened to Joy in years—if ever. Oh, this was nearly worth the price of admission. And, considering that the price had been diving out of that plane and floating to the ground under a glorified umbrella, Brian really thought he deserved a little fun. “You’re stuck? Leave your Swiss Army knife at home, Joyless?” he chided, using an old nickname he knew really bugged her.
    “No! I have my knife in a pocket but I did something indescribably nasty to my shoulder and arm. If I could cut myself loose, I’d fall because I also sprained or broke my right knee and ankle…. Oh, and don’t make yourself sick laughing over this one, but if all that isn’t enough fun, I think I’ve got a concussion, too.”
    Brian stared up at her for a protracted moment, waiting for one of her usual one-line zingers that were always designed to make him feel like a fool for believing one of her wild tales. She’d been suckering him since she was just out of diapers.
    But this time she didn’t follow up with a single word. His stomach sank. “You aren’t kidding, are you?” he asked, feeling like a first-class creep. He’d let old hurts and rivalries goad him into betraying his Hippocratic oath.
    “No, Doctor Brain, I’m not kidding. And the really sad thing is, I have to depend on you and you’ve probably never climbed a tree in your life. How’s that for the end of a perfect day?”
    Now it was Brian’s turn to grit his teeth. He let the Doctor Brain moniker slide. He’d started this round of nastiness after all. But why did she always have to make him sound like a bumbling weakling?
    He slowly circled the tree, looking at it, all the while feeling her eyes on him. “I have climbed trees, Joy. In fact, I was quite good at it.” The first branch was over twelve feet off the ground and the first thirty feet of the branches were spread pretty far apart. “I need to tie the lines from my chute together and use it to scale the main trunk before I can get anywhere near you,” he told her.
    “There’s a rope with a grappling hook in your emergency pack. One in mine, too,” she said, then after some awkward twisting and turning, she managed to toss her rope to the ground. “Can you hurry?” she added softly. The soft winded sound of her voice shook Brian. Joy never used that tone of voice. The exertion and pain of unpacking the rope must have worn her out.
    Brian cringed, feeling like an idiot for having goaded her. But then, feeling like that around Joy was nothing unusual. No one on earth had ever gotten to him the way she could. But this time it wasn’t her fault. He was the one who’d made light of her situation. Why hadn’t he assumed she’d have injuries since she’d obviously crashed into a tree?
    But he knew why. Though he forgot about it each and every time she scared a year off his life, he’d always seen her as indestructible. Believing that got him through every wild story her brother ever told him about her escapades. Brian frowned and looked back up at Joy hanging limply in the tree. Maybe she was more fragile than he’d ever realized.
    Troubled by his rapidly changing perspective of Joy,