Chapter 31 Brynn #2
“Hang on. You’re . . .” He pointed at me, and then recognition registered on his face as he looked back at Sebastian. “And you’re . . .” He looked in the back seat, and Orly leaned forward with his hand out for the deputy to shake.
“I’m Orly. You don’t know me. But yes. She’s Brynn Cornell and he’s Sebastian Sudworth.”
The officer was still gobsmacked. “What in the world are you doing here?”
“We live in Adelaide Springs.” I had said it. I actually said, “We live in Adelaide Springs,” though I clearly hadn’t been
thinking when I said it. I certainly didn’t know what I meant by it. I saw Sebastian’s eyes dart briefly my way, but otherwise
he let it pass.
“You’re going to have to go the rest of the way on foot.”
Sebastian nodded. “That’s fine.” We all began stepping out of the truck. Sebastian kept talking with the officer, asking questions,
getting details... and he didn’t record any of it in his Notes app. He was just absorbing it all for later use in his report.
And I knew there wasn’t anything wrong with the fact that I had to take notes, but I did think it was very cool and sexy that
he didn’t.
I gestured to Orly that I would be right there, and then I dialed and lifted the satellite phone to my ear.
“Bob Oswell’s office. May I help you?”
“Yes, this is Brynn Cornell. I need to speak to Bob.”
There was a long pause, and then, “I’m sorry, Ms. Cornell. He’s not avail—”
“Okay, listen. I’m standing a hundred yards from an avalanche in Colorado where a group of teenagers is trapped. I know for
a fact that Bob’s news division is currently showing photos from a 2017 avalanche in Rigopiano, Italy, so they clearly have
nothing. If Bob doesn’t want to talk to me, that’s fine. Will you please just let him know that Sebastian Sudworth, Brynn
Cornell, and Orly Hill are about to jerry-rig together a live broadcast, and it’s going to the first network to answer my
call. He may want to go ahead and reach out to CNN or ABC or CBS to see if he can simulcast their coverage—”
“Brynn! This is Bob. So good to hear from you. Tell me what you need, my darling.”
***
Over the course of the next ten hours, a total of thirteen teenagers and two adults were pulled to safety, one by one. And
based on what Orly was hearing in his earpiece, the entire country was tuning in as, for ten hours, Sebastian Sudworth was
the authority on all that was happening.
It was about three hours into the saga when the Adelaide Springs cavalry arrived.
There had been so many lights and sirens and voices that they all blended together, but there was no mistaking the voice of
Mrs. Stoddard.
“Set up the tables over there. Cole, you and Laila set up the coffee and soup over near Roland’s truck. He’s got the generator.
Jake, do me a favor and unload the blankets. Who’s got the handwarmers? Larry, check in with Larsen and see if his guys need
anything.”
I was too cold and busy to cry, but I came pretty close when I saw Cole disregard Jo’s instructions long enough to army crawl
through a couple feet of snow to Sebastian, making sure he was out of Orly’s shot, and stuff handwarmers into Sebastian’s
boots. Never missing a beat, Sebastian reached his hand that wasn’t holding the microphone down and patted Cole’s head. It
was a small gesture that said everything.
We were four hours in when the first of the boys made their way to us. They’d been thoroughly checked out by medical authorities,
and hot food was served to them while they waited for their families.
It was around six hours in when the families began arriving, and in addition to hot food and coffee and blankets, each one of them was able to find a shoulder to cry on or a friend to pray with or a hug from Doc Atwater, who I knew from experience gave the best hugs in the world.
I took the chair I was offered, and I jumped up so Orly could sit in it each time he had a moment to breathe, but Sebastian
didn’t sit down the entire time. When he wasn’t live on the air, he was getting quotes from rescuers and the survivors of
an avalanche that, by all accounts, should have been deadly. In the end, it was a dramatic, suspenseful, feel-good story of
overcoming the odds, and Sebastian had been the constant voice uniting everyone together in their fear and relief.
“Repeating the headlines from the last few minutes here, all thirteen students and their two adult chaperones have been rescued.
There are broken bones and cases of hypothermia and frostbite at varying levels, and an immeasurable emotional toll on these
young people and their families, but as we reach the end of a night that, as it progressed, seemed to carry with it the dread
and promise of fatality, there is a sense of relief and gratitude that also cannot be measured. Wrapping up our live coverage
of the Adelaide Gulch avalanche, this has been Sebastian Sudworth, with Orly Hill and Brynn Cornell. Stay tuned for further
updates throughout the day.”
“We’re out.” Orly’s voice sounded as tired as I felt.
I stood up, letting the blanket little Jake Morissey had brought me during hour three fall into the chair, and began walking
toward him. He hadn’t moved since Orly said the camera was no longer rolling. He stood there, frozen. Maybe because after
ten hours he could no longer feel anything. Maybe because after ten hours he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do next.
“Hey.” I unclipped the lapel mic from the collar of his jacket and disconnected it from the receiver clipped onto the waistband of his jeans. I passed it behind me to Orly, who grabbed the equipment from my hand. “You were so good. You were . . . amazing. I just can’t get over how good you were.”
And I meant it. I had never been prouder to be part of anything in my entire life. I had never been prouder of anyone, or
more blown away by the talent a person possessed.
I placed my hands on his cheeks. My hands were cold, but in comparison his face felt like dry ice. So cold it burned. I ran
over to my chair and grabbed the blanket, then hurried back and wrapped it around him. I held his hands and rubbed them between
mine.
“Are you okay? What do you need? What can I do for you?”
Those were the magic words to bring him back to reality, apparently. His eyes slowly focused on mine, but once they did, they
were locked in.
“You could kiss me.”
“To warm you up?”
He smirked. “Sure.” He looped his arm around my neck and pulled me to him with all the pent-up urgency of the night.
“You included my name at the end,” I whispered against him. “That was nice.”
He kept his arm around me as we began walking. He pointed past my shoulder. “Ginger Zee from Good Morning America is over there.”
I pointed behind him. “Dylan Dreyer and Al Roker are over that way.”
“It was good of them to finally show up.”
Sebastian began helping Orly put his equipment away as the satellite phone rang in my pocket. I pulled it out and then held
it up for them to see.
“Hi, Colton.” I put him on speaker so they could hear.
“ Now she answers my call.”
“You caught me in a moment of boredom.”
He laughed. “Good job tonight.”
“Thanks, but I didn’t do anything. That was all Sebastian and Orly. You’re on speaker, by the way.”
“Good. I needed Orly too. We still want you to go live on Sunup .”
Orly’s head fell back. I didn’t know how much more the poor guy had in him. No matter how seasoned he was, it had been a while
since he’d spent this much time out of a studio. Truthfully, I didn’t know how much I had in me either. Sebastian, on the
other hand, seemed to have gotten a second wind—it would take a while to extinguish all that adrenaline—but while I had no
doubt it had been the right decision to hand off my last assignment to him, this one had to be all me.
“When?” I looked at my watch. Four forty-nine. Sunup went live on the East Coast in eleven minutes.
“Top of the hour. Just give a quick rundown of Sebastian’s report—”
“I’m not going to do that, Colton. There’s plenty of footage from the night.”
“Brynn, viewers need to see your face in front of that mountain...”
I looked out over the slopes Sebastian and I had sledded down yesterday. The slopes I had spent countless hours on, sledding
and skiing and throwing snowballs and building snowmen. At the base of the slopes, about twenty of the most kindhearted people
in the world, who had given up the warmth of their homes all night in order to care for strangers—and a couple of their own—were
packing up. No one had called them up and thanked them. None of them were going to turn the night into a career opportunity.
There weren’t millions of viewers gathering around their televisions in anticipation of seeing their faces in front of the
mountain.
“I’ll be in front of the mountain, but we’re not focusing on the avalanche. The plan was for me to apologize, and that’s what I’m going to do.” Sebastian grabbed my hand that wasn’t holding the phone, and I squeezed it as tightly as my frozen fingers would allow.
Colton was quiet for a moment as he no doubt moved the chess pieces around in his mind. “Okay. And then I want you back on
the couch with Mark on Monday.”
Sebastian smiled at me. Proudly. Sadly.
Orly gestured with his thumb that he was heading back over to reconnect everything he had just disconnected. Sebastian quietly
asked if he could do anything to help him, but not quietly enough.
“Is that Sebastian I hear in the background?” Colton asked.
Sebastian grimaced. “Hey, Colton.”
“I hope you know every news division in the country is going to be blowing up your phone... once anyone finds your number.
Broadcast journalism is better when you’re a part of it. That’s all there is to it. I’m not in a position right now to offer
you anything specific, but if you have time for lunch in the next—”
“Colton, I’m going to have to stop you there. I’m flattered, and I appreciate you guys letting me on your airwaves today.