Reader\'s Digest Canada - 10.2019

Now that the deputies had the drone

up, they could see the forest as clear as

a crow. But they saw little except white

rock and scattered trees, and after

about 20 minutes in the air, the battery

slipped below 25 per cent. They’d have

to land the device and switch batteries

if they didn’t get a bead on the lost

man pretty soon.

The drone flew up and over a ridge-

line capped by tall oak and pine trees,

less than a kilometre away. An orange

dot moved below. Zooming the cam-

era in, the image became clear: the dot

was a hunter’s cap. “I think we have

him!” Devaney shouted.

down below,McDonnell began walk-

ing more briskly—the terrain was

finally familiar, and he thought he had

to be less than two kilometres from the

Jeep. He saw a large animal bounding

toward him out of the corner of his

eye—a bear, maybe? He had seen

some scat. But before he could reach

for his gun, he realized it was a dog.

“McDonnell!” a voice called. “Wil-

liam! Bill McDonnell!”

“I’m up here,” he yelled back.

Damn trackers had beaten him

after all.

It’s not that he wasn’t thankful for

the “neat little contraption” that had

helped rescue him, or for the young

people who’d traipsed through the

cold forest in search of an old-timer.

It was more that he was embarrassed

and frustrated with all the fuss. Even

the local news channels had shown up.

“A half-hour more daylight and I

would have been fine,” he told the

group of rescuers.

The next day, McDonnell Jr. was

tasked with sitting his dad down and

having a talk. “I said, ‘The whole family

was extremely scared, especially

Mom,’” McDonnell Jr. recalls. “‘You

can’t go out alone anymore.’”

McDonnell swore to his son he

wouldn’t go out hunting or hiking by

himself again.

But a week later, during a short hike—

with company—he waffled a bit. “I need

to keep that promise,” he said. “But the

idea of it drives me crazy. I love walk-

ing around in these woods alone.”

WASHINGTONIAN (JULY 2018), COPYRIGHT © 2018 BY

ROBERT NELSON, WASHINGTONIAN.COM.

Dental Dismay

I get the same feeling at the dentist that I get when a cop car is behind me;

I haven’t done anything wrong, but I feel incredibly guilty.

ANNA KENDRICK, ACTRESS

My dentist told me I need a crown. I was like, I KNOW, RIGHT?

@SWISHERGIRL24

reader’s digest

58 october 2019