Just Tight

Broken, battered and trapped in a ravine for days, a desperate driver wonders, "Will anyone find me?"

- Melody Wren

THE RADIO WAS playing as Michael Cabeldu headed out of Victoria, British Columbia, on an impulsive late-night drive last November. Above him, stars twinkled.

He passed the community of Sooke and continued west on Highway 14. Few people live along this stretch, which winds through miles of forest and brush along the southern coast of Vancouver Island.

Road conditions were excellent. And then suddenly, they weren't. As Michael came around a bend, he plunged into a fogbank so dense he could no longer see the edge of the highway. The next thing he knew, his 1987 Toyota van had veered off the asphalt and was careening down a 45-degree hillside, crashing through bushes, past saplings and over old logging debris. Ahead lay a cliff overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca. He knew if he went over that, his body might never be found.

But his descent stopped abruptly with a massive thud as he slammed into a large stump.

The front of the van cracked. The entire vehicle pitched to one side. And Michael, who wasn't wearing a seat belt, got catapulted sideways. He smacked his head against the steering wheel and landed on the passengerside floor, under the dashboard, in shock and in pain.

I'VE KNOWN MICHAEL CABELDU for more than 50 years. We met in high school in Ontario, where I still live. In his early 20s he headed out west and settled on Pender Island, a 40-minute ferry ride from Victoria, and found work as a builder and carpenter. In recent years, he also set up a successful business growing greenhouse vegetables and flowers.