I am a Search and Rescue Officer for the US Forest Service, I have never found a missing person.

The first few years I found bodies. Most were remains. Some were recent. The first few years I found a lot of bones. <br><br><br>I was buckling my equipment to my belt, getting ready roll out, when I got the call. This one was different. This was a little kid. A nine year old girl. <br><br>She had been missing for two days. That kind of disappearance was rare. Usually we find kids right away. They fall down an embankment and can’t get back over. They wander a little too far from camp and can’t find their way back. We find them fast, before anything bad happens. <br><br><br>Well, most of the time we find them before anything bad happens. <br><br><br>I thought about the bones I had found my first few years on the job. I thought about the bodies. I thought about the mother standing in front of me. Tears streaming, days without sleep, waiting for the worst. I thought I would just have to tell her that her little girl was gone. I thought I would have to tell her that she was dead. <br><br><br>I thought wrong. <br><br><br>When we found her, she was sitting in a little cave. It was a depressed area in the ground. The sides went up about three feet. Pine needles covered the floor. It was out of sight, but not far from the trail. I couldn’t see why she hadn’t wandered out on her own. I couldn’t see why she hadn’t been found. <br><br><br>She was just sitting. Her knees were up. Her arms were around them. She was rocking back and forth ever so slightly. She didn’t seem to see us. She didn’t react when I said her name. It was as if she was in another world. <br><br><br>I squatted down next to her. I put a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t react. I knelt behind her. I put my arms around her. I held her. She still didn’t react. I said, “You’re OK. I’m here.” <br><br><br>She didn’t react. <br><br><br>I lifted her up. She didn’t react. She was light. I held her against me. I held her like I would hold my own child. The ranger with me helped me over the edge of the depression and we set off down the mountain, toward the helicopter that was there to take her home. <br><br><br>I looked at her face. I looked into her eyes. I saw nothing. I saw an empty stare. It was the same look I had in my eyes when I looked at the remains I had found. <br><br><br>“Is she OK?” the ranger asked. <br><br><br>“I don’t know,” I said. <br><br><br>I never saw her again. I never heard anything about her. I wonder what happened to her, if she’s OK, if she ever came back. <br><br><br>I also wonder what happened to her. I wonder what had kept her in that little pit for two days. I wonder what had kept her from leaving. <br><br>I wonder what had made her the way she was. <br><br><br>I wonder what she saw up there on that mountain.