It was the first warm day of spring, and the sun poured over the hill that borders Doyle and Rose Martin's countryside property outside Mifflinburg. It had rained heavily the day before, melting the better part of the long winter's snow, and the sun was now taking care of what the rain left behind. Water was running down the hill, filling the normally shallow rivers until they nearly jumped their banks. The stream that ran through the Martins' yard was usually ankle deep, but now it coursed (奔流) angrily at an unexpected speed, up to a man's waist (腰). And the water was rather cold.

The Martin boys, Henry,11, and Greg,7, would not waste such a lovely afternoon. After the school bus dropped them off, they ran outside to ride bikes along the stream. They were what people call free-range kids. Doyle and Rose had three boys, and they expected their children to learn independence and responsibility, the older ones looking after the younger. Now, Henry and Greg were chasing (追逐) each other on their bikes with little Gardell, who was not yet two, playing nearby. Doyle, a truck driver, was away from home. Rose was busy in the kitchen, where she could check on the boys now and then through the window.

Suddenly Greg burst through the door, his face wet with tears. “I can't find Gardell!” He screamed. “He was just with me!”

Rose rushed outside immediately and ran around with Henry and Greg calling Gardell's name anxiously.

Their neighbor Bob was reading a newspaper by the window when he heard the shouts. He looked out and saw Rose and her two sons running and shouting wildly. “Something must have happened,” Bob thought to himself and went outside quickly.

“What's wrong?” He called out to the Martins.

“We can't find little Gardell!” Rose shouted back, half crying.

James Bradley had developed a strong passion for skiing. On a freezing cold Sunday in 2019, James, then a 16-year-old boy, headed to Aspen Mountain with his father to go skiing. They took a cable car to the top of the mountain and conquered the most challenging part of the long trail. Afterwards, they decided to follow different trails to go down the mountain respectively. That was when everything started to veer off course.

In the late afternoon, after finishing the final run through the side trial, his father arrived at the parking lot. Anxiously, he had waited here for his son for several hours. However, James never showed up.

It turned out that a fierce snowstorm had swept into the area as James was on his way down. Unable to see far and clearly, he turned off the path by accident and got lost. The dreadful snowstorm coupled with strong winds gained strength and enveloped everything, blocking his way back to the ski trails.

Before long, James slid down the mountain slope on his skis and stopped at the bottom of the mountain in the valley. Thanks to the thick snow, James didn’t get hurt and the winds weren’t as strong in the valley as they were up on the mountain. Looking around, he saw nothing but the branches of trees and the pure white snow. James had no idea where he was. Worse still, the sun began to sink and he was getting colder by the minute. Most worrisome of all was that he didn’t have any food or water with him, let alone his mobile phone or other supplies.

Standing alone in the wild and holding his large skis, cold and thirst, he couldn’t help thinking about the survival show Man vs. Wild that he used to watch. In the show, Bear Grylls was abandoned in a wild area like this and had to help himself out by using all sorts of survival skills. Yes! It was time to put the tips he had learned to use.

Without hesitation, James took action immediately.

Two days later, James saw several figures approaching his shelter.

Mark was a boy admired by his classmates and friends. He was happy, confident, brave, social, and had good school performance. But when Mark was ten years old, all this changed.

During that year, Mark met with an accident, and his left leg got terribly injured. After recovery, he could no longer walk normally like before though he didn’t need the crutches (拐杖), which made him sad and hopeless. Worried about Mark’s situation, his parents tried to entertain him and cheer him up.

On a cool Saturday morning in summer, Mark’s mother, Nicole, wondered how to entertain and encourage him. Suddenly she remembered Mark had said he wanted to learn to row a boat. Mark said it before the car accident. But after the disaster, Mark never mentioned it again. Wondering whether Mark still liked it, Nicole asked. But Mark just replied, “No, Mom!” He was thinking to himself, “With this disabled (残疾的) leg, I could do nothing. I’ll be a loser for the rest of my life.” But Nicole kept telling him that it would be fun and easy for him to row a boat under her guidance. Not wanting to disappoint his mom, Mark finally decided to give it a try, but didn’t hold any hope. Then he and his mom set off for a lake.

Mark was a little anxious all the way because it was his first time that he had rowed a boat. Nicole tried to comfort him. After about an hour of driving, they arrived at the lake. There were already many people who came for entertainment. Some were driving boats on the lake. And some were fishing. There were also some people doing exercise, running around the lake.

After parking the car, Nicole came to a building with Mark. There Nicole rented a small boat driven by oars (桨). After putting on life jackets, Nicole and Mark headed to the boat stopping by the lake. A worker showed them the boat they had rented.

Nicole first stepped onto the boat.

Observing his mother, Mark also took an oar, trying rowing the boat.

I Survived Being Caught In A Mudslide(泥石流)

It was May 2018, and my boyfriend, Gabe Smith, and I were driving from my home in Weyburn, to visit friends in Nelson.

At around 5:30 p.m., we were driving along the Crowsnest Highway, a steep and winding mountain road. I was texting my mother when I happened to look up in time to see a huge tree in front of us on the highway. It was being pushed down by a torrent (洪流) of mud that was swallowing everything in its path. We didn’t know about the recent flooding in the area, and now we were trapped in it. Gabe and I looked at each other unbelievably and said, “Oh, god.” Within seconds, our car was rolling 30 meters down the cliffside (悬崖边).

I don’t know how long we were unconscious (昏迷的), but I woke up to the sound of Gabe moaning (呻吟). He laid beside me and his blood was everywhere.

Our car had landed on a small area among trees that had come down with the mudslide. On one side of us was the mountain. On the other, a steep drop of about 1,000 meters into a river.

I tried opening my door with a sharp pain in the chest. In addition, my left ankle had been broken. Gabe had broken his nose and cheek, as well as his chest bone, leaving him blind in his left eye and having difficulty in breathing.

As the doors were crashed out of shape, and my window failed to be opened, the only way out was through the driver’s side window. Although it was difficult and painful, we both managed to get out of it.

We sat on a rock with no phone signal, realizing all we could do was shout for help.

With the help of them, we finally reached the highway at around 8:00 p. m.

It was a very cold morning as it had been raining very heavily the previous night. As my mother was feeling a little under the weather, my sister volunteered to drive me to school. I had overslept and as a result, was running a bit late for school. We got into the car hurriedly. The road was already crowded with traffic. It appeared that everyone was late as well.

My sister was a careful driver and despite the fact that I was already late, she refused to drive fast on the slippery road. I was lucky she was such a resolute and careful person because a few hundred meters away from the school, we witnessed a tragic accident. It all happened very quickly, as most accidents do. A car full of school children had made a left turning without signaling and as a result, a school bus crashed into it. A few cars behind the school bus rammed into the bus as they could not brake in time and soon it became a pile-up. The already crowded road became jammed with vehicles that came to a crawl. I told my sister that I wanted to help the victims and she nodded silently. She stopped the car not too far from the accident spot.

The scene that greeted us was something I would never forget. It left an unforgettable memory in my mind to date. The impact of the accident had made the school children seriously injured in the car. The driver, a lady, lay on the steering wheel. I rushed to the children who were preschoolers. Two of them were seriously hurt and bleeding from the heads and hands. They were conscious although too weak to realize what had happened. In the meantime, passers-by had called the ambulance and while waiting we tried as best as possible to help the victims.

The passengers on the school bus were injured too.

When I arrived at school, I was already late for half an hour.

The Littlest Hero

Angela Shymanski was in a hurry to hit the road. It was 8.30 am, the kids were fed and the car was packed with all the necessities for a road trip: a pop-up tent, toys and snacks for five-year-old Lexi, and, for ten-week-old Peter, a pink blanket and seven days' worth of clothes, all of which had been worn. No matter, thought Angela. It was 26 ℃ in central Alberta, the hottest June 8 on record, so her baby would be fine for the eight hours home to Prince George in nappies (纸尿裤)only.

The 28-year-old Canadian had driven these nearly 800 kilometers alone before to visit friends and family. Her husband of eight years, Travis, a worker at an oil factory, couldn't come on the week-long holiday, but Angela, a swimming and first-aid instructor, was eager to show off Peter to her friends.

It was an important trip for Lexi, too. The morning they had left Prince George on June 1, 2015 marked the beginning of the 100-day countdown (倒计时)to kindergarten.

Exactly one year earlier, Lexi received the most important lesson of her young life, preparing for a future emergency. Lexi absorbed every instruction. She knew how to react in an unexpected accident.

As she was driving along the Icefields Parkway, Angela missed her first turnoff (岔道)， but decided to continue west on a slightly longer, more scenic route. The lost time would have been insignificant had it not been for a 30-minute stretch of road construction. The stops and starts had begun to bother Peter, who was now screaming in the back-facing car seat next to Lexi's. This calls for a nursery rhyme, Angela thought. She inserted a CD and hoped for the best.

“Zoom, zoom, zoom. We're going to the moon. Zoom, zoom, zoom. We're going to the moon.”

In no time, both children were napping in their car seats. Once out of the construction zone, Angela sped to just below the 100 km/h speed limit along the evergreen-lined road. The warmth of the sun, combined with the calming music, soon began to have a relaxing effect and made her sleepy, so Angela opened the window, hoping the breath of wind would keep her alert. She began searching for a rest stop.

Suddenly, in front of her appeared a sharp turn.

Lexi finally climbed to the highway her mother had driven off and spotted Jim.