“Actually, it isn’t, but I don’t want him to know that.” The words echoed in her head, and she realized its double meaning. “Drew, I mean.”
Addison chuckled. “Does the boyfriend know it isn’t serious?”
“No, he’s pretty clueless.” She felt guilty immediately for casting Bobby in a bad light. “He’s a nice guy, but we don’t seem to want the same things.”
“You mean like Africa?”
Mary Kate was surprised at Addison’s perceptive grasp. “Yeah, but that’s just kind of symbolic of everything else. I like to do new things, but Bobby’s one of those guys who knows what he wants for breakfast next summer.”
“Ah, a creature of habit.”
A creature of boredom, she thought. “Yeah, but like I said, he’s nice, and he’s going to make somebody a terrific husband. Just not me.”
“We break here,” Luke called again. Their gait so far had been quite slow, and after the initial breathlessness, everyone had managed to adapt, at least enough that they could talk while they climbed.
Courtney was the only one still struggling. “How much farther to the camp?” she asked.
“One hour.”
Addison dropped her pack and sat down on the hillside. “I suppose I ought to tell you something before you make up your mind about the tent thing, and I guess the safari part too.”
“You mean that you’re gay?”
Addison’s eyes went wide. “Actually, I was going to say that I snore.”
Horrified that she might have been mistaken, Mary Kate felt her face grow hot. “I…”
“No, no. I was just kidding. I don’t snore, at least not that I know of. You’re right. I was going to tell you that I bat for the other team. I thought I should—”
“I can’t believe you did that with a straight face.” Mary Kate felt the blood drain from her cheeks. “You just took ten years off my life.”
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist. How did you know?”
“I saw your keychain back at the hotel.” She blew out a breath and tried to relax again. “My best friend has a bumper sticker like that.”
“So you’re okay with it?”
“Sure. I have lots of lesbian friends.”
“Good. Maybe you’ll have another one by the time we head home.”
“Not if you keep trying to give me a heart attack.”
“It was just a little joke,” Addison said, batting her eyes innocently.
“Just remember one thing, Addison Falk. Paybacks are a bitch.” She almost laughed as Addison gulped. “And I will not deprive you of that experience.”
Up ahead, Luke had picked up his pack. That was their signal the break was over.
Mary Kate pushed against the ground to stand. “Ouch!” Her hand was on fire. “What the hell was that?” The burning intensified as she waved her hand back and forth.
Luke hurried back to where they sat. “Nettles,” he said simply, his face visibly relaxing.
“Oh, those are supposed to be painful,” Ann said.
“They are! What the hell are nettles?” Mary Kate was staring at her hand, looking for stingers or bite marks that would account for this excruciating pain.
Luke pointed to the plant that was near where she was sitting. “These are nettles.”
“They’ve got tiny prickles with some kind of stinging substance,” Ann explained. “The sting only lasts about seven minutes, then it’s gone.”
“Seven minutes!” Mary Kate nearly screamed. The pain was growing worse by the second. It was going to be a very long seven minutes.
“Here, I’ve got some first-aid cream.” Addison took off her pack and dug inside. In moments, she had Mary Kate’s hand, gently applying the soothing mixture.
Mary Kate relaxed as the topical anesthetic took effect, and she pulled her pack into place. “Just in case anyone missed that little bit of drama, don’t touch the nettles.”
“Does this buy me a little forgiveness?” Addison asked quietly.
“You’ll have to wait and see.”
Chapter Ten
When they dragged into camp, Addison was thrilled to see their tents already set up. Tom had warned them they might have to do that.
Drew stopped in the middle of the camp, clearly waiting for Mary Kate to catch up.
“Which one do you want, Mary Kate?” she called loudly, thinking it best to head off an awkward moment.
“Let’s take that one over there,” Mary Kate answered, pointing to a small yellow and blue tent on the edge of the campsite.
Addison noticed it was farthest from the latrine. But then again…it was farthest from the latrine. Like everyone else, she had to go.
The latrine was a tall wooden structure, about five feet square, with a wall separating the two sides. The door was actually just an entrance, the right half of the structure. If one were looking down from the top, it would have resembled a capital “G.” In the inside compartment, a hole was cut into the floor. Extreme care and concentration were required, as the hole was barely the size of a brick.
The porters had stacked the ten yellow Summit bags in the center of the campsite. Addison’s stood out because it still had the Kenya Airways tag. Already, it was smeared with volcanic silt, fine black dirt that clung like toner from a printer cartridge.
Besides their smaller tents, two larger ones were erected for Luke and the porters. With the flaps open, Addison could see very little in the way of creature comforts. Evidently, the young men who were carrying their equipment and bags were planning to rely on body heat from one another to get through the night. Already, the temperature had dropped substantially, thanks to both the altitude and waning sunlight.
Beside the renowned Big Tree, for which the camp was named, was a third large tent, this one with screens on all four sides where camp stools surrounded a long folding table. A couple of thermoses sat next to tin cups, and assorted flatware lay across a stack of tin plates.
“Hot tea, hot water.” The porter known as Gilbert scurried back to the tent he shared with Luke, where he tended something on a camp stove.
Addison poured herself a cup of hot tea to ward off the chill.
Moments later, Gilbert emerged with a five-gallon yellow container filled with warm water. Pouring some into a shallow pan, he rubbed his hands together to show everyone this was for hand washing. Then he laid a funnel atop the container. “To drink tomorrow.”
Kirby volunteered to collect the water bladders from inside the backpacks, lining them up in alphabetical order to remember which belonged to whom. Most of the models held two liters. All of the hikers crowded around with their spare water bottles, readying for the next day. Ann presented her clear, one-liter bottle first, holding the funnel as Kirby poured from the jug.
“There’s stuff in the water,” she said. “The brochure said the water was supposed to be pure.”
“We can filter that and drop in some iodine tablets,” Addison said, pulling a pouch from her Summit bag.
“I didn’t bring any iodine,” Ann grumbled. “And I didn’t bring any toilet paper either, because Tom said that would be provided too. But Gilbert just told me they didn’t have any.”
“You’re kidding me!” Rachel exclaimed.
“Actually, that would be ‘you’re shitting me,’” Kirby said, earning him a glare from his girlfriend, but raucous laughter from everyone else.
“I’ve got plenty of iodine tablets for everyone,” Addison said, “but you better be sure you aren’t allergic. That would be nasty.” Luckily, Cyn had prepared her for both of those needs, but she wasn’t about to offer her extra toilet paper. “And I brought some cheesecloth to catch the bugs.”
Starting over, Kirby poured bottle after bottle, all through the finely woven filter. To each liter, Addison added a tiny tablet that turned the water light orange. The group effort took almost a half hour, but everyone’s water supply was replenished and readied for the hike tomorrow.
Gilbert had started to bring f
ood inside the dining tent. “Eat now.”
Three steaming dishes sat on the table, a bowl of boiled potatoes, another containing shell pasta and a third that resembled cabbage. Addison was the first to try the latter and declared it delicious.
“I can’t believe you guys are eating that green stuff,” Courtney said. “I read that you shouldn’t eat anything out of the ground.”
Drew scoffed. “Those potatoes you’re eating are out of the ground.”
“But they had a skin, which was peeled off. You guys go right ahead, but don’t come crying to me when you get the runs,” she said.
“And don’t you come crying to us when you get clogged up,” he countered jokingly.
“By the way, if there’s anyone who doesn’t want their dinner napkin, I’ll take it off your hands,” Rachel offered demurely.
“Yeah, right,” Neal said. “I have a feeling we’ll be using dollar bills on our butts before the end of the week.”
“And to think, just this morning, we were all being sweet and nice, asking where everybody was from,” Mary Kate said, her voice syrupy sweet. “Now it’s ten hours later and we’re talking about bodily functions at the dinner table.”
Addison chuckled to herself at Mary Kate’s prissy tone, though she suspected Mary Kate was anything but a prude. From her joke on the bus about the cookies, it was obvious she had a wicked sense of humor, and seemed more than capable of carrying out her payback threat.
Darkness fell soon after dinner, and the temperature plunged, driving everyone inside their tents for the night. Addison unscrewed the valve on her air mattress and it inflated automatically. “I don’t know about you, but I’m still a little jet- lagged.”
“Yeah, it’ll probably take a couple of days to even out.” Mary Kate dragged her Summit bag underneath the rain guard of their small tent. “How cold do you think it is?”
“Probably in the upper thirties, but to someone from Miami, it might as well be three.” Addison unzipped her sleeping bag and got it ready for easy access once she got undressed. “We probably should keep our backpacks in here. One of the blogs I read said people had things stolen from under their rain guard.”
“Who could blame them? It’s obvious the people here don’t have very much.”
Mary Kate was right. It would be bad to be ripped off, but whoever took it probably needed it worse. “Tom said we should consider leaving behind some of our things for the porters. I’ll probably leave this sleeping bag and daypack.”
“Wow, I hadn’t thought about giving them something big like that. I was going to leave a couple of shirts…maybe a jacket.”
Addison tugged off her pullover fleece and short-sleeved shirt and squeezed into a thermal top that hugged her skin. “I got most of my stuff second-hand. This is only about the third time in my life I’ve been in a tent.” It took a concerted effort not to peek as Mary Kate changed into her long johns.
“Could have fooled me. You look like you know what you’re doing. Nobody else thought to bring the water tablets.”
“Yeah, my friend I told you about, the one who got pregnant, she knew somebody who did this trip with Summit last year. She got the lowdown on everything.” Addison lowered her voice. “In fact, I’ll let you in on a little secret. I brought toilet paper too.”
“I’m so glad we’re best friends forever, Addison.”
“And how convenient that you’ve forgiven me for giving you a heart attack.”
“Totally forgotten.”
“I brought camp soap too, so we won’t make a mess of the water. I have a vested interest in having my tent mate practice good hygiene.”
Mary Kate laughed as she wriggled into her sleeping bag. “I knew we’d be cold up here, but I never dreamed I’d be sleeping in my long johns on our first night. I don’t even want to think how cold we’re going to be once we get to Barafu.” Barafu was the base camp for their ascent on Saturday night.
“Did you know Barafu is Swahili for ice?”
“I don’t think I wanted to know that.” Mary Kate was inside her bag zipping it up from the inside. “I have some things I can share, too.”
“Such as?”
“I brought three dozen energy bars, a box of baby wipes and a bottle of hand sanitizer.”
“I brought hand sanitizer too, but baby wipes, what a great idea. And anyone with extra food can definitely be my best friend.” Addison’s shivering slowed as her body heat warmed the air in her sleeping bag. She could hear Mary Kate’s deep, steady breathing, a sign that she had fallen asleep. They would have a lot more opportunities over the next few days to get to know each other, but for now, she was feeling lucky to have hooked up with a tent mate that was fun and easy to talk to. Not to mention cute.
Chapter Eleven
“Who’s the moose?” Mary Kate demanded as she entered the dining tent for breakfast. She had been awakened by loud snoring at three a.m.
“Drew!” answered the Penn State crew in unison.
He ducked his head in embarrassment. “I can’t help it. I’m supposed to have surgery this fall to fix it.”
“What were they going to do?” Kirby asked, picking up two of the dull knives Gilbert had laid out. “Because we might just do it here and save you some money.”
Mary Kate was glad she had saved the earplugs she used on the overnight flight from Atlanta. She would never have gotten back to sleep without them.
Addison entered the dining tent and went straight for the thermos containing hot tea. She hadn’t spoken a word all morning, which had Mary Kate worrying that she too had snored all night. No one had ever complained of that, but these circumstances were different from anything she had experienced.
“Good morning,” Addison finally said with surprising cheer. “Did anyone else hear that elephant singing last night?”
“It was Drew,” Nikki said, jerking her thumb in his direction.
“Couldn’t have been. It was like”—she waved a hand in the air—“nature’s symphony.”
“Very funny,” Drew said. “You think just because I’m wearing women’s underwear that gives you the right to torment me about a medical condition that’s clearly beyond my control.”
Addison made a sad face and pretended to play a violin. “You want us to feel sorry for you just because you’re wearing satin panties?”
Drew’s scowl dissolved immediately into a grin. “If you give me your satin panties, you can say anything you want.”
When Gilbert appeared with scrambled eggs, mangos and bread, Mary Kate joined the others in disregard of Courtney’s warning about not eating fruit. The dripping mango was too enticing to resist. Only Courtney abstained, gleefully warning them they would pay the ultimate price.
As the hikers ate, the porters efficiently dismantled the camp, folding up the tents and cooking equipment.
“Don’t look now, but I think breakfast is over,” Mary Kate said. She made a quick trip to the latrine and then waited while the others did the same. She had expected to be sore or tired from the hike yesterday, but she was neither. That was encouraging.
“We go to Shira Plateau,” Luke said as they lined up behind him. The air was crisp and damp, and the trail less steep than their climb to Big Tree.
Mary Kate lagged behind to walk next to Addison, who was chatting with Luke.
“…five years I work for Tom Muncie.”
“And how many trips have you made up this mountain?”
“This is one hundred three.”
“Wow,” Mary Kate said. “Have you always made it to the top?”
He shook his head. “Seven times no. I stayed behind with climbers who were sick.”
“That’s all? Only seven times? Everyone else made it to the top?”
“Oh, no. We have four guides who go to the summit. When climbers become sick, a guide returns with them to camp.”
“I get it,” Addison said. “So there were seven times when all the other guides had already turned back.”
&
nbsp; “That is right.”
“So who led the other climbers when you turned back?”
“They went ahead from Stella Point. The trail to Uhuru is clear from there.”
Mary Kate had studied the map of the mountain and recognized Stella Point as being on the crater rim near the summit. When they stopped for their first break, she noticed Luke scribbling in a notebook. “Do you keep notes on every trip?”
He smiled wryly and nodded. “I watch you.”
“What do you mean you watch us?”
“I watch who drinks the water, who eats, who is very tired. It is my job.”
“What does that tell you, Luke?” Addison asked. “Can you guess who will get to the summit?”
“Usually. But the most important thing I cannot yet see. Who is confident? Who is determined?”
“Is that what it really takes?”
“The one who believes he can do it—or she can do it—is the one who has prepared. And the one who has prepared does not want to be disappointed.”
That made sense to Mary Kate. Most of the people in their group seemed fit, except Courtney, who was winded at every break and groaned each time they resumed. But Mary Kate had been surprised to learn the Penn State trio had booked this summit trek only a month ago, so even though Kirby and Rachel ran a few times a week, they had not trained for the climb the way the others had.
After an hour and a half of winding through the lush rainforest, they suddenly emerged. There was no gradual thinning of the thick green vegetation. They had simply walked through a door armed ranger bid them farewell with a wave, and Luke took the point.
The brush was still relatively thick on this new terrain, but unlike the lush foliage of the rainforest, it was dry. Only a few of the trees reached higher than ten feet. The canopy that had protected them from the morning sun was gone, and as soon as Luke called for a break, they peeled off their jackets and unzipped the pant legs on their convertibles. Mary Kate laughed inwardly at how she had thought herself so clever for finding all the best gear. Practically everyone else had managed to find the same things.
Late in the morning, the group stepped over a low ridge to discover their dining tent erected in a clearing, with the table and camp stools already set up inside. Gilbert and the porters had hurried ahead to prepare lunch. Courtney made do with peanut butter and bread, but the others—hungry and now confident their systems would withstand the change—devoured the fruits and vegetables too.
Worth Every Step Page 8