Henry is dying. With only a few months left to live, the seventy-five-year-old man embarks on an epic journey to find his daughter and make peace with her after years of estrangement.
Henry looked up when Doctor Hutchins returned to the examination room. The tense, serious look on the doctor’s face told Henry everything he needed to know about his latest test results.
“So, how much longer do I have, doc?” Henry asked.
Doctor Hutchins frowned and pursed her lips. “There are several factors to consider, Henry. New research suggests that a different treatment—”
“I appreciate your optimism, doc, but let’s be realistic. You and I have done this treatment, remission, and recurrence dance for a long while, but I’m seventy-five years old now.” Henry sighed. “My dancing days are over, and I just want to know how much time I have left.”
Doctor Hutchins nodded and sat in the empty chair on Henry’s right. “If that’s what you want, Henry, then you have about three months to live. Like before, surgery isn’t an option, but treatment can prolong that time to years, perhaps.”
Henry folded his hands together and stared out the window. Bare tree branches waved in a slight breeze, and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. Three months was just enough time for him to enjoy another Spring.
“I guess I’ll have an early Summer funeral,” Henry said, and headed home.
His apartment was only a few minutes away on foot, but Henry had no reason to rush. He studied the faces of the people he passed on the sidewalk and remembered what it was like to be young. A brunette woman stepped out of a clothing store, and Henry’s heart skipped a beat.
The woman looked just like Jane, his daughter. He recalled his daughter’s sunny smile and how her eyes lit up when she was about to share one of the bad puns she liked so much. But all those memories came from before the fierce argument that split them apart.
Would Jane agree to meet him? Regret and longing made Henry’s heart ache as he stuffed his hands deep into his jacket pockets and hunched his shoulders against a sudden gust of chilly wind.
He knew now what he needed to do with his last three months of life: reconcile with Jane.
Henry ran into Joe, his neighbor, on his way up to his apartment. The pair had spent the last few months practicing together for a local chess tournament, and Joe was disappointed when Henry told him he wouldn’t be able to participate in it anymore.
Henry felt guilty about bailing on Joe, but he had more important business to attend to. When he arrived home, he went to his desk and searched his drawers. Finally, he found the letter Jane had sent him six years ago.
Watermarks on the brown envelope reminded him of the tears he’d cried when he first read the letter. He removed the page inside even though he still remembered every word, like scars etched in his memory.
Jane listed a number of past arguments Henry hadn’t even realized she still felt resentful about. It never occurred to Henry that his stoic daughter had so many unresolved feelings. The worst part was right at the end:
‘Don’t even bother answering this letter. You don’t have a daughter anymore.”
Henry stared at the sender’s address written on the first page of Jane’s letter. He’d respected her wishes and, honestly, was too deeply hurt by his daughter’s words to attempt to contact her. Now, the situation demanded he get in touch.
Henry searched the internet on his phone until he found a way to get a phone number for the address on the envelope. Nerves made his fingers shake as he typed in the number, and he felt queasy while listening to the call connect.
Then he heard Jane’s voice. Tears ran down Henry’s cheeks. He was about to speak when he realized it was just a recorded message for her voicemail.
“Hi, Jane,” Henry said. “I know you probably don’t want to hear from me, but I’d like to speak to you one last time before…well, I just want…” Henry sighed and put his head in his hands. This wasn’t going well at all!
He ended the message by asking Jane to call him back and hung up. A sick, sad feeling in his chest made it hard to believe she would return his call, but Henry was determined to make peace with her while he still could.
Maybe he should fly out to her instead. She couldn’t avoid him if he were on her doorstep. Henry had just started searching for flights to Seattle when his phone started ringing. It was Jane!
“Jane! I’m so sorry for everything that happened,” Henry said. “If I could go back—”
“Sorry,” a deep voice interrupted Henry, “but this is Jane’s husband, actually.”
“I heard your message, and it sounded important, so I wanted to let you know that Jane isn’t here.”
“Then where is she?” Henry frowned. “And when did she get married?”
“About four years ago.” The man cleared his throat. “I’m sorry you weren’t invited, sir. I tried to convince Jane to get in touch but…well, she wanted a small wedding.”
“You don’t need to explain, but I must know when I can speak to her. It’s very important.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. You see, Jane won’t be back for another six months. She received a grant to conduct research in Antarctica.”
“Antarctica?” Henry almost dropped his phone.
Jane’s husband continued speaking, but Henry barely listened. He’d become so attached to the idea of seeing Jane one more time and possibly reconciling with her. Now, he had to accept that he would be buried long before Jane returned.
Henry stared out his window until the sun set. Lights appeared in the windows of the apartment building next door, and Henry imagined all the happy families within sitting down to dinner. What was he going to do now?
Henry turned on the lights and roamed his apartment. Maybe he could send Jane a letter for her to read when she returned, or, he could ask his lawyer to keep it with his will. Jane would get everything, of course.
Henry walked down the hall to Joe’s door. His friend welcomed him inside with a grin, but it faded when Henry explained:
“I can’t believe I won’t get to see my daughter before I die!” Henry sobbed.
“But you can, Henry!” Joe put his hands on Henry’s shoulders.
“Antarctica isn’t reserved for scientists anymore. Tour groups visit Antarctica all the time these days. I’ll show you.”
Henry watched over Joe’s shoulder as he pulled up multiple web pages on his laptop for cruises and tours to Antarctica and several nearby islands. Hope returned to his heart as he stared at photos of tourists mingling with penguins and hiking across thick snow.
“There are lots of places you can visit, but we need to figure out which destination is closest to where Jane is working.” Joe glanced back at him. “Did her husband mention which base she’s stationed at?”
“Uh…I think he mentioned a place called McMurdo.”
“Here it is!” Joe pointed at the screen. “Now, we must find a tour package to take you there.”
Henry soon discovered that wasn’t as simple as it seemed. Only a few tour packages stopped at the permanent bases in Antarctica, and when Henry called the travel agents to confirm the details, he only received vague assurances.
“It all depends on the weather,” one woman told him. “We work closely with the ship captains, and if they feel it’s unsafe to visit a certain area, then we defer to them. They are the experts, after all.”
“I don’t know about this, Joe,” Henry said once he’d ended the call. “It’s an awful long way to go with no guarantee that I’ll get to where I need to be.”
Joe shrugged. “It’s your call, but what other option do you have? You either take the risk to see Jane or give up.”
Joe’s words haunted Henry when he tried to fall asleep that night. It was ridiculous to travel all that way based only on a slim hope that he might reunite with Jane. When you factored in the dangers of his remote destination and the fact that he might not come anywhere close to Jane’s base, it was clear: this was a fool’s errand.
But this was his daughter, and this trip was his only chance to see her before he died. In light of that, did it even matter how greatly the odds were stacked against him so long as he had even the smallest chance of succeeding?
By morning, he’d made his choice. Henry quickly arranged to sell his apartment, put his affairs in order, and booked his trip to Antarctica. It wasn’t long before Henry stepped off a ship into a world of white. A desperate worry gripped him. He wasn’t exactly where he needed to be, but if luck was on his side, he could still reach McMurdo station.
Henry hugged himself as he approached a series of low buildings. If the Antarctic summer was this cold, he didn’t even want to imagine what the winters were like! Several people pulled up to the closest building on snowmobiles. Henry waved to catch their attention and ran toward them.
“Hi, any chance one of you can help me? I’m trying to reach McMurdo station.”
“Are you mad?” A woman stepped forward. She studied Henry with a skeptical look. “You’re one of the tourists, aren’t you?”
“Yes, because that’s the only way I could get here. I need to see my daughter; she’s a geologist based at McMurdo.”
“Sorry, mate, but we can’t help you. We don’t run a taxi service, you know.”
Henry watched the group walk inside in disbelief. He hadn’t come this far, only to fail now. He started toward the buildings, determined to convince someone to help him, but then he noticed the keys dangling from the nearest snowmobile’s ignition. Henry remembered Joe’s words about either taking the risk or giving up.
“The time for giving up is long past,” Henry muttered. “Only way to go now is onwards.”
Henry glanced back at the ship. The rest of his tour group was disembarking now, and someone from the station stood at the dock to greet them. There was nobody else around to stop him.
Henry climbed onto the snowmobile and started it up. His heart beat fast, and his hands shook as he drove toward the edge of the camp. Which way was McMurdo from here? Henry scanned the horizon but found nothing helpful.
“Hey, you! What do you think you’re doing?”
Henry looked over his shoulder and saw two people running toward him. Another was starting one of the snowmobiles. If they caught him, it was all over.
“Sorry!” Henry shouted as he opened the throttle. He hoped he was heading in the right direction as he sped away over the snow.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Henry didn’t stop until he was certain he’d lost his pursuers. Only then did he remove his compass from his jacket pocket to check his direction. To his dismay, the compass needle moved erratically.
“Well, it should be west of where I was,” Henry said, looking back over his shoulder to check the tracks his snowmobile left in the snow. He remembered the direction his ship came from and figured that if he veered right for a while, then he ought to be on track.
“It won’t be long now, Jane,” Henry said as he drove off again.
“I can’t wait to see your face when I get there.”
Henry drove for hours. Every couple of miles, he stopped to recheck his compass. It was still misbehaving, but since the needle only seemed to jump between certain points, he felt it was good enough to estimate the general direction.
There was nothing to break the monotony of Henry’s snow-covered surroundings. Everywhere he looked, the world was covered in white. It even seemed to stretch up into the sky along the horizon ahead of him. The continent seemed endless.
Henry smiled as it dawned on him what a remarkable experience this was. Not only had he journeyed across the world to find his daughter, but he was one of the few people to set foot in one of the most remote areas in the world.
Henry’s wild laugh echoed across the snow. It felt like the whole world belonged to him in that moment, but then the snowmobile stalled. Henry turned the key, but the engine didn’t start. Henry then noticed that the gas was empty.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Henry cussed and kicked at the snow. He’d driven for hours, and there was no way he could walk back to the base he’d stolen the snowmobile from. What good would that do him anyway? It wasn’t where he needed to be.
No, there was still only one option that made sense. Henry stared across the expanse of white as he tucked his hands into his armpits. After everything he’d done to reach this point, this lonely spot in a barren landscape, all he could do now was carry on.
“It’s not like it’ll make much difference if I die out here,” Henry said as he started walking. “I’ll be crossing that threshold soon enough anyhow. I just hope I get to see Jane first.”
As he walked, Henry pictured his daughter’s smiling face on the day she graduated from college. He also remembered the angry words in her letter. What would he do if she refused to see him after all of this?
Henry shook his head. He needed to keep his mind focused on walking and navigating. He removed his compass, checked the sky, and swore.
Ominous clouds were sweeping toward him at a rapid rate. Henry pushed his numb, tired legs to go faster. He had to be close to the U. S station by now. If he hurried, he might just make it there before the weather turned bad.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Henry didn’t make it far before the first snow flurries started to fall on him. He soldiered on but soon realized he couldn’t continue this way. The wind was too strong, and there was too much snow to see where he was going.
Nevertheless, he had to try. Henry crawled through the snow. The wind tugged at his jacket and threatened to blow his hood off several times, but Henry just pulled the drawstring tight and knotted it under his chin.
He had to be getting close now. Henry repeated those words like a mantra as he dragged himself through the snow. He’d been traveling in approximately the right direction, after all, and he’d seen photos of the base online. It looked far too big to miss in this otherwise monotonous landscape.
Not that he could see much right now. The whirl of falling snow blurred his vision and made it impossible to make out anything in the distance except a small spot of darkness.
That must be the base! Henry’s limbs were numb by this point. He flailed through the soft, freshly fallen snow. Then a thick flurry concealed the dark blob entirely. Henry grew frantic, pushing himself to move faster.
When the blob reappeared, it was definitely closer. Henry scrambled across the snow on his belly now. Just a little way further! Henry reached out, and a jolt traveled painfully up his arm. When he looked up, he realized he’d reached the blob. It wasn’t a distant view of McMurdo base, but the snowmobile he’d driven out here. Henry had been going in circles.
Henry used the last of his strength to crawl up beside the snowmobile. It didn’t provide much shelter from the cold and the snow. He curled into a ball and shut his eyes.
It seemed that he wouldn’t get to make peace with Jane after all. He’d traveled thousands of miles, sold his apartment, and stolen a snowmobile, but all of it was pointless now. He couldn’t even leave Jane a letter.
How long would it take before someone found his body? What would happen then? He imagined a pointless bureaucratic chain carrying the news of his death back to his lawyer in the States, who would then be unable to contact Jane right here in Antarctica, a few miles from where he lay now.
At least he got to go out with a bang. Jane would still inherit his money. He should’ve left a letter with his lawyer after all. Darkness closed in on Henry, making it hard to think. He was so tired.
Henry thought of Jane’s loud laugh and how she clenched her jaw when she was determined to do something. He remembered how she’d called him ‘henny’ when she first started speaking instead of ‘dad.’ His wife had found it so funny.
A bright light shone in Henry’s eyes. He blinked a few times, and a strange voice spoke over him.
“It looks like he’s coming around.”
“Thank God! You’re the best, Paulo.”
That voice was familiar! Henry opened his eyes wide and found himself staring into Jane’s face. Her eyes were red and puffy, but she grinned when she saw him looking at her.
“Dad! What on earth are you doing here?” she cried.
“Oh, I decided to go for a walk.”
Henry tried to sit up, but Jane prevented him.
“Don’t you dare move a muscle.” She pointed at him. “You were in a bad way when the rescue teams found you. I can’t believe you stole a snowmobile!” Jane shook her head. “Then again, I don’t understand why you’re here either.”
“I wanted to tell my wonderful daughter how much I love her and miss her.” Henry took Jane’s hand in his. “I just had to travel to the end of the earth to do it. You were right, honey. Arctic beauty is worth risking your life for.”
What can we learn from this story?
- The people who mean the most to you are worth every effort. Although he was estranged from his daughter, Henry was willing to do whatever it took to see her again and make peace.
- Don’t give up! Sometimes the goals you’re working toward will seem out of reach even though you’re much closer to achieving them than you think.
This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only.
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