Their brief stay at the upscale Amazonia Lodge now seemed a distant memory, and their time in Cusco and Aguas Calientes had the blurred quality of a half-forgotten dream. But while Auggie and Cooper seemed to thrive in this simple life, Ben’s heart ached with the pull of wanderlust, and he was already longing for a new adventure. Part of this had to do with his restless nature, the urge for constant motion, and the desire to fill every moment with new experiences with which to stimulate his senses. Besides, the thought of shedding all traces of civilization and truly experiencing the Amazon in its most primitive form… it was too great an opportunity to pass up.
Surprisingly, convincing the others to go along with his plan did not take as much arm-twisting on his part as he’d originally anticipated. In fact, once the girls were on board, everything else fell neatly into place. They would pack only the necessities, stowing the bulk of their gear in a storage area inside the research center. Ernesto would make arrangements for tents, sleeping bags, and other provisions. Felix would pick them up the next morning, and they would head upriver to a seasonal Brazil nut camp that was located along one of the many tributaries of the main river. There, Ernesto would teach them about the medicinal plants of the jungle, take them on remote hikes along the terra firme trails, and, if they were lucky, there would also be an opportunity to go fishing for piranha (also Ben’s idea, but Cooper was instantly stoked about it), and enjoy the isolation for a few more days before the boys were scheduled to leave and the girls would return to their research.
We’re going far off the beaten path, Ben had explained. They were in the dining hall and had just finished their dinner when he began to outline his plan. There won’t be any other tourists out there. Hell, there won’t be any other people out there. This is our chance to see what the jungle was like before people came here. I doubt even those guys from the BBC have been out that far. It would be, Ben assured them, the adventure of a lifetime.
What about Big Kitties? Cooper inquired immediately.
Ben favored him with a roguish smile. You never know…
Cooper slapped his hand down on the table so hard that the silverware jumped. I’m in!
Now they looked across at Auggie, who was staring into the night as he chewed intently on the corner of his thumbnail. Once again Ben was promising them the trip of a lifetime. And once again, Auggie realized, they were placing the burden on him to make the vote unanimous. All he had to do was say “no,” and all of this would be over, this silly idea, this wild, ill-conceived notion that they needed to prove their manhood by doing the most reckless thing possible.
At last he nodded.
Cooper let out a whoop while Ben grinned knowingly.
“What the hell?” Auggie groaned to no one in particular, but even he could not help but feel the sweeping pull, the adrenaline rush of another adventure. “Like I have a choice, right?”
Nineteen
She knows the names of all the stars.
“Oooh, see that one?” she whispered excitedly, and the melodic quality of her voice made him savor her every word. “That’s part of Orion’s belt…”
As they sat on the front steps of the research center, the stars winked down at them from a moonless sky. Layer upon layer of them, all scattered about like glitter in the river dark.
Following Brooke’s finger across the sky, Ben nodded attentively, though in truth the heavens were merely an afterthought for him. After spending the better part of a week together, they were alone, finally alone.
With a sidelong glance he saw that Brooke was looking at the sky, but something in her demeanor gave him a sneaking suspicion that she was secretly watching him from the corner of her eye.
“Orion,” she explained, “is the Hunter. Those three stars right there are part of his belt. Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta…”
Ben would have been content to sit and listen to her talk forever, but after being quiet for so long he felt the need to say something, to be a part of the conversation. But he was so focused on her words, her lips, her face, that he forgot everything he wanted to say.
“I think it’s amazing… that you know so much… about this stuff,” he stammered. Really? It’s amazing that you know so much about this stuff? he chided himself. Stuff? Man, you sound like an idiot.
Brooke didn’t seem to notice his clumsiness. “I love astronomy. Orion is my favorite because it can be seen all around the world. Most ancient cultures worshipped Orion, along with the moon.” She was still gazing at the sky as she said this, her eyes sparkling in the starlight. “Sorry, I’m rambling again.”
“I told you before, I love listening to you ramble.” Ben wanted to kiss her, and he was pretty sure she was waiting to be kissed, but what if he was wrong? Never before had he felt such uncertainty, such hesitation, and this frustration only made him want her more.
Brooke smiled at him as though she knew what was coming and realized it was inevitable. Their eyes lingered on one another long after most people would have looked away. Something passed between them, some unspoken understanding that this, whatever this was, could no longer be denied.
Resting her hand on his forearm, the tips of her fingers danced lightly over his skin. Eventually they discovered a slight indentation in the flesh, a pinkish scar, perhaps four inches in length, which ran vertically up Ben’s elbow.
“What’s this?” she asked, fingers drifting slowly back and forth across the scar.
Hesitating, Ben considered how he should answer the question. The bitter memories came rushing back to him, but they did not seem real—little more than the remnants of some half-remembered dream. Anything connected to his past did not seem to matter anymore. The only thing that mattered was right here, right now.
“Oh, that,” he answered at last. “Remember I told you I had to take some time off from school?”
Brooke recalled as much from their first encounter at the bar, but the details were hazy. She nodded.
“Well, the truth is, I didn’t have much choice. I was forced to take time off because I couldn’t finish the program. Long story short, I was in a little accident…”
Though he suddenly found it difficult to look at her, the tenderness in her eyes compelled him to continue.
“Actually, it was more than just a little accident…” He stared off into the distance, recalling that fateful day. “I was out riding my street bike—racing it, actually. Me and this guy I went to school with. We were going pretty fast, screaming down the street like a couple of assholes, when a dog ran out in front of us. I remember swerving. I remember that part clearly. Then my bike clipped a rock or a branch or something and I ended up in the woods. I never did find all the pieces of the bike. Anyway, I shattered my elbow and ended up with a pretty bad concussion.” He smiled ironically. “I was in the Physical Therapy program. I was hoping to get a job in sports rehab. Can’t do much in the way of training when you’ve got a broken arm. That’s the reason I had to drop out. Of course, Springfield doesn’t just give you your money back, so I had to work full time to pick up the slack.”
She had been watching him closely—the grinding jaw; the sudden, hard look in his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Ben.”
“Eh,” he said, shrugging. “It’s my own dumb fault.”
“Does it still hurt?”
“Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes it does. But I’m working my way back.” He paused for a moment and then turned to her with a devilish grin. “The good news is, the dog made it out okay.”
Brooke smiled back at him, fingers playing softly over the scar.
Glancing down at her hand he noticed, not for the first time tonight, that her fingernails had been newly trimmed and painted to perfection. Bright red in color, they shone in the moonlight like little pieces of candy. There was something about the color of the nail polish—or any shade of red on a woman—that he found incredibly sexy. He lifted her hand. Kissed her fingers. They tasted sweet and salty, and her skin smelled like flowers. This first taste of her body ex
cited him in ways he never thought possible. Mind wandering, he imagined what the other parts of her tasted like, imagined the details of her naked body and what it would be like to kiss every inch of her, to lay her down and make love to her in this strange, exotic place.
“Funny,” he said. “I haven’t talked about that for a long time. It’s just one of those things, you know? But there’s… something different about you. Something I can’t explain. It’s—”
Something in her eyes, some inexplicable quality that invited trust. It was in the way she looked at him, as if they had already known each other for years. And, in a strange way, he felt as though he had known her for years. He had never believed in the paranormal, things such as psychics and mind readers, reincarnation and past lives, but now he wasn’t so sure. It was that connection, that inexplicable and undeniable connection. As if we already know each other better than we know ourselves, the thought sprang at him from nowhere. Like two souls cut from the same cloth...
“Are you…?” Inside, she cringed. She couldn’t believe she was going to ask the question, nor could she believe the hold he had on her, this relative stranger—and a tourist of all people. She glanced away for a few seconds, looked at the well-worn steps, looked but saw nothing, for her mind was still focused on the intensity of his eyes, his masculine jaw, the curve of his lips. Gathering her courage, she raised her eyes to meet his cool gaze.
Watching her steadily, mouth slightly open, Ben licked his lips. As though he knew what she was going to say but wanted to tease the words out of her anyway. “Am I what?” Having made this challenge, his mouth settled into a daring grin.
She bit the corner of her lip. Pushing her heart-shaped face toward him, she decided to risk it all. “Seriously, are you going to kiss me or n—?”
His lips stopped the words at their source.
This sudden boldness took her by surprise, and her body quivered with excitement. The rest of the world faded into obscurity, leaving only the two of them. His lips were strong like his body, but his kiss revealed a tender side. Closing her eyes, she lost all sense of time and place. It was as though her mind had temporarily shut down and only her body, in its quest for pleasure, remained.
Her lips were plush, moist, and even softer than he had imagined. Ben had never felt like this before, not from a simple kiss, and a crazy thought entered his head: The kiss to end all kisses. Not so crazy, maybe. He had a sinking feeling that this was the kiss against which all others would be measured for the rest of his life, and he wondered what would happen a few days later when they would be finally forced to say good-bye. She’d go back to Georgia, and he’d go back to Massachusetts, and what then? With such a distance between them, what were the odds that they would remain in touch? In the end, he realized that they might have only this one moment, this one chance, and he decided to embrace it for all it was worth.
They kissed.
As they discovered the desired rhythm, he opened his eyes to admire her. He saw that her eyes were still closed. Caressing her face, the dark lashes fluttered open, and it occurred to him that he could lose himself in those bottomless shades of hazel and green and never come back. As if reading this thought, she smiled. Her fingertips played across his rough stubble, and it reminded him of how long he had been away from civilization. He hadn’t shaved for—how long had it been? Several days? A week? He couldn’t remember. These thoughts flashed through his mind, and he realized that he could stay here forever, could abandon everything he had ever known to stay here with this girl, to live this way forever and—
A familiar chirping interposed, dashing apart his fantasy.
Foreheads touching, they stopped kissing and looked at one another bashfully.
On the heels of a deep sigh, she giggled. “What’s that sound?”
“Um,” said Ben, “I think I know.”
Behind them, the interior of the research center was steeped in shadow. They turned their heads toward the lounge area just as Auggie materialized from the shifting gloom of the hallway. Head bowed, he was examining the wristwatch. He looked up, startled, noticing two people were watching him from the stairs. “Oh, hey.” Fumbling with the tiny buttons, he finally brought the cursed note to end. “Sorry. I was just going to get some water.”
“I guess it’s time to take our meds, huh?” Ben said playfully.
Face flushing, Auggie knew he had interrupted them in a private moment. He felt the weight of their gaze upon him as they waited for him to take his leave. Avoiding eye contact, he filled his bottle at the water cooler, mumbled an awkward “goodnight”, and floated off in the direction from whence he came.
For a moment the couple watched him as he scurried down the corridor, a skinny young man dressed in tan hiking pants and a white explorer shirt, head still bowed as he feigned great interest in the now silent watch strapped to his wrist.
When he was gone, Brooke and Ben turned to each other, both laughing quietly.
“Aw, he’s so cute.”
Ben gave Brooke a sideways glance. “You think so?”
The question was innocuous enough, but Brooke detected a subtle note of jealousy in his tone. She smiled. “Not that way. What I mean is, he’s got this sort of… endearing quality.”
Ben chuckled. “Reminds me of that rabbit—you know the one I mean? The one from Alice in Wonderland?” In a crude imitation, his voice rose tremulously: “‘I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date!’”
“Awww.”
“The funny part,” Ben told her as they leaned against each other companionably, “is that it’s my watch. He was so worried about taking our Malarone on time that I let him borrow it for safekeeping.”
“You guys are on the daily pill?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Why, aren’t you?”
“No, our doctor put us on a stronger dose, so we only have to take ours once a week. It’s just easier to remember, but Janie keeps forgetting hers.” She spread her hands as if to say, What can you do?
Ben shook his head in recognition. “It’s the exact same thing with Cooper.”
Brooke tapped her hand against his knee and laughed. “Wow, they really are perfect for each other, huh?”
They looked at one another, smiling.
“I think it’s cool that you guys have all been friends for so long. I hardly ever talk to my friends from high school.”
“Yeah, we’re pretty close. I mean, we’ve practically known each other all our lives.”
“You don’t think he feels—you know—a little left out?”
Ben tilted his head quizzically. “How do you mean?”
“Well, you know… Cooper and Janie are always sneaking off together, and now us?”
“Who? Auggie?” He shook his head slowly. “Auggie’s never really cared too much about that stuff. He’d rather… he’d rather study a textbook than go out and mingle with actual people. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s had a couple of girlfriends, but I don’t think they were intellectual enough for him. No, I don’t think he’ll be really interested in anyone until he finds someone as smart as he is…”
Brooke was watching him steadily. “Smaht?” she repeated, mockingly.
Ben wrinkled his nose. “Did the Boston accent come out?”
“Oh, yeah. Big time.”
“Anyway,” Ben continued, grinning, “I will say he took quite an interest in Janie at first. You should have seen his face when he first saw her, but it was already pretty obvious that she and Coop are a better match.”
“Oh, trust me, I know that look. We’ve been roomies for going on three years now, and I’ve seen plenty of guys with that same look. But don’t let the party girl act fool you. She’s got a lot more going on in that head of hers than she lets on.”
They lingered on the steps for a while longer, but the romantic mood had slipped away from them. It was okay, though, because they knew they still had the camping trip to look forward to… a few more days to recapture the magic. Ben escor
ted Brooke back to her room, where she gave him a quick kiss on the lips, and that is how they bade each other goodnight.
Even after she disappeared inside the room, he remained outside for a few seconds, smiling at the fluttering curtain, amazed at this unexpected romance in this unlikely setting.
Ben had a noticeable spring in his step as he turned and headed back to his own room, invigorated by the stars, the trees, the tranquility of the late hour. Entering the narrow hallway, he found his room by memory. There were no human sounds on this night. All was quiet save for the chorus of insects, the spontaneous twill of a bird or frog.
Lifting the curtain, he slipped inside. A single kerosene lamp lit the room, its flame shimmying seductively behind the glass. In the trembling light, Ben saw that Auggie and Cooper were both in their beds, apparently fast asleep beneath their mosquito nets. But as he tiptoed around Auggie’s bed, Ben had a sneaking suspicion that his friend was only pretending to be asleep.
Ben pulled off his hiking shoes and slid under his bug net, tucking it in behind him. He was tired, and all too aware of the long day ahead of him tomorrow. Yet he couldn’t get Brooke, or her plush red lips, out of his head.
Since Ben couldn’t find sleep, sleep eventually found him. Thoughts drifting, he was smiling when it came, and still smiling when it drew him down into the darkness.
Swirling through his mind, he conjured up the memory in fine detail: her kaleidoscopic eyes, the taste her mouth, the feel of her hair, the sexy red shine of her fingernails. Any one of these things was enough to arouse him, but the most arousing thought, and his final thought of the evening before he fell asleep, was this:
She knows the names of all the stars.
Twenty
The sun was a colorless smudge behind the clouds, like a flashlight seen through tinted glass. At this early hour, even the water seemed darker and more forbidding than ever. As far as anyone could tell, the world ended roughly ten yards from the riverbank, consumed by the ghostly, rolling fog.
“After we load the gear,” Ernesto said, “then we pick up the other guides, uh-huh.”
Pray for Darkness: Terror in the Green Inferno Page 11