Cell phones can be a pain in the neck. Whenever I seem to need mine, I can never find it. And this was one of those times, standing by my SUV shivering and wet.<\/p>\n
It was whitetail hunting season\u2014a day my three buddies and I had been anticipating for months.<\/p>\n
We parked our SUVs on a private, rural lot just after dawn and hiked two miles\u2014lugging rifles and backpacks filled with food, water, flashlights, extra clothing, twoway radios and, yes, cell phones\u2014into the Pennsylvania State Game Lands wilderness.<\/p>\n
The weather was overcast and chilly, but we were determined to get us some deer.<\/p>\n
We weren\u2019t in the woods but an hour before we lost our will for the hunt. The wind started, and then the rain. Oh, did it pour!<\/p>\n
The four of us huddled like soaked dogs under a stand of hemlocks before we gave up and slogged an hour back down the now-muddy mountain we had climbed.<\/p>\n
Now, hunching under the raised hatch of my SUV, I stripped off my wet clothing and quickly changed into dry clothes. From force of habit I reached into my backpack for my cell phone. I felt around. Nothing there. I checked and double-checked.<\/p>\n
I knew that I had packed it before we headed out. Somehow, the phone must have fallen out of my bag at the spot where we had hunkered down in the woods, near the hemlock trees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have two options,\u201d I told my friends. \u201cOne, I can forget the phone. Even if I hiked back to the stand of hemlocks and found it, it would probably be ruined by now.<\/p>\n
“But I\u2019m a stubborn guy. I can hike back up the mountain, in this pouring rain, and scrounge around in the brush trying to find it. I\u2019m leaning toward option two.\u201d<\/p>\n
My friend Bill thought I was crazy but insisted for safety\u2019s sake that he come along.<\/p>\n
Back up the mountain Bill and I went. What had been a rocky path was now a muddy stream. Rain pelted us. Our feet slipped.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know,\u201d Bill said, \u201cthis isn\u2019t the brightest thing we\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n
At last we reached the hemlocks. We looked everywhere. No phone.<\/p>\n
Light was fading. Time to give up and head home. Down the mountain we went, the only sound the squishing of our boots in the mud.<\/p>\n
Then from somewhere I thought I heard a voice. I immediately turned to Bill. \u201cDid you hear someone?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he said, keeping his head down, trying not to slip.<\/p>\n
I heard the sound again.<\/p>\n
\u201cBill?\u201d I said. \u201cYeah, I heard something,\u201d he admitted. It sounded like it came from somewhere up the mountain. We peered through the trees and the rain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere!\u201d I said. \u201cUp on that ridge!\u201d Bill\u2019s eyes followed where I was pointing.<\/p>\n
A man was up there, waving his arms frantically. He was headed toward us, slipping and sliding. \u201cHelp!\u201d he yelled. \u201cPlease help!\u201d<\/p>\n
We stood there. What kind of nut would be out here in the rain\u2014well, other than us?<\/p>\n
The man eventually reached us. He looked to be in his mid-twenties. \u201cPlease help me,\u201d he said, panting. \u201cI came up here with a friend. I can\u2019t find him, and I don\u2019t know how to get back to where we parked.\u201d He told us his name was Tim.<\/p>\n
I looked the young man up and down. His clothes were soaking wet. Not insulated or waterproof. Totally inadequate. He had an empty thermos. No food. He had a cell phone, but it was dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome with us. We\u2019ll get you out of here,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
The three of us started down the trail, Bill and I helping him as best we could.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you sure we\u2019re going the right way?\u201d Tim asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust trust us,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
It was clear that Tim was disoriented. He couldn\u2019t even tell us his friend\u2019s name. We tried to keep him talking, so that he wouldn\u2019t pass out on the trail.<\/p>\n
By the time we reached my SUV about 45 minutes later, Tim was shivering uncontrollably. We helped him into the backseat. Bill gave him some almonds from his snack pack and coffee from his thermos. I started the car, cranked the heat up and we wrapped him in a dry blanket.<\/p>\n
Tim mentioned a general store he and his friend had passed on their way to the wilderness. I knew where it was. On the way there, a vehicle pulled up behind us and flashed his lights. For a second, I thought it was the cops. The driver got out. I rolled down the window.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you Tim?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
I pointed to the backseat. \u201cThat\u2019s Tim,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
The driver said he had Tim\u2019s friend in his truck. He\u2019d found him in about the same condition that we found Tim.<\/p>\n
Tim stumbled out of my SUV and into the truck. Bill and I drove on home.<\/p>\n
On the way, we had a serious talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know the danger he was in,\u201d I asked. \u201cWhat would have happened if we hadn\u2019t been up there and he had heard our voices?\u201d<\/p>\n
And then it hit us both\u2014we would never have been up there to rescue him if not for my silly phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess there was a good reason I lost it after all,\u201d I said. Together we offered a prayer of thanks.<\/p>\n
But I hadn\u2019t lost it. Back home I finished unloading my backpack. That cell phone was right where I had put it.<\/p>\n