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it!” Dink said, switching the flashlight back on. “It sounds like a helicopter!”
    “I hear it, too!” Ruth Rose said.
    Then they all heard it. But Marshall was the first to see it. “Over there!” he yelled.
    They all saw tiny blinking lights moving across the sky. They might have been fireflies except for the thud-thud of blades.
    “It
is
a helicopter!” KC said. “It’s the president looking for us!”
    “Do you think they can see us?” KC asked.
    “I don’t know,” Dink said. He waved the light wildly over his head.
    “We need more light!” Josh said. “Let’s make a bonfire!”
    “With what?” Dink asked. “And we don’t have any matches.”
    “Look inside the van,” Marshall suggested. “Some of that florist stuff should burn.”
    “Guys, we need matches,” Dink said again.
    Josh raced to the van’s passenger door and tore it open. He found some papers Dink had left on the seat.
    “Any matches in there?” Dink asked.
    “No, but there is a cigarette lighter,” Josh said. He punched it in and waited, then it popped out. “It works!”
    “Why don’t we burn that wooden crate?” KC suggested. “We could break it apart!”
    The kids worked frantically. They tugged the crate out the van’s rear door. Dink grabbed some tools from a shelf,and they were able to smash the crate into boards.

    “Kick some snow into a big circle,” Dink said.
    When that was done, Josh lit a few of the papers. They threw on some decorations from inside the van. They added splinters, then small boards, from the crate. Soon they had a bonfire that litup the area behind the van.

    “Now just come back, helicopter,” Josh said.
    The kids waited, warmed by the fire. No one spoke. Everyone was watching the black sky. Ashes flew upward, melting the snowflakes.
    “Wait, what’s that?” Ruth Rose asked, pointing.
    “A star,” Dink said. “It’s not moving.”
    Josh dragged blankets from inside the van, and they all sat. Dink felt his face warm up.
    Ten minutes went by without another sound from the sky.
    “Be nice to have a few s’mores,” Marshall commented.
    “Be nice to have one huge marshmallow,” Josh said.
    “You’d have to share it five ways,” Ruth Rose said.
    Dink added more wood to the fire.He was sure the orange and yellow flames could be seen from miles away, if anyone in a helicopter was looking down. If there even was a helicopter.

    Josh tossed the last few boards onto the bonfire. “We’re out of wood. I wonder if there are any dead tree branches around here,” he said.
    “I think we’re surrounded by woods,” Dink said. “But I’m not going looking in the dark.”
    “We need something that will burn for a long time,” KC said. She looked around. The van’s rear doors had been left open. “The spare tire!”
    “Will that burn?” Marshall asked.
    “Yes, it’s rubber. It’ll make black smoke!” Josh said.
    In a minute, they had dragged the tire out of the van. Josh and KC rolled it onto the fire. The rubber caught fire, and soon dark smoke and flames werebillowing up into the sky.
    But the new fire smelled so bad the kids were forced to move their blankets twenty feet away. Right away their warm faces felt chilled.
    The fire roared for a while, then settled into hissing and crackling. No one saw or heard the helicopter again.
    “Guys, we should go inside and sleep,” Dink suggested. “If a helicopter flies over, they’ll see the fire.”
    Nobody wanted to give up, but they were all freezing. They grabbed the blankets and crawled into the van. Josh pulled the doors closed as tightly as he could. He wound some string around the handles to keep the cold out.
    Now that the spare tire and crate were gone, there was room to stretch out. Dink kept the flashlight on only long enough for everyone to get settled.
    “You know, if we weren’t lost andfreezing and starving to death, this would be fun,” Josh said.

    Dink laughed out loud, but inside he wanted to cry. His