by Sara Leach
CHAPTER SIX
Tabitha lay in her sleeping bag listening to the rain beat on the roof. During the day, the sound of the rain disappeared in the mix of voices, pots and pans rattling, and boots stomping. At night the raindrops beating on the roof consumed all the other noises. It felt like a drum banging on her head. The only good thing was that it drowned out Cedar’s snoring.
She rolled over and tried to get back to sleep. After storming off at dinnertime, she’d had no choice but to go to bed early. Now, in the middle of the night, she wasn’t tired.
Ashley moaned in her sleep. Tabitha hoped she was having a nightmare.
“Stop!” Ashley called out.
Tabitha raised her head. Her cousin rolled over and mumbled. She was still asleep.
“Dad, come back!” Her voice sounded frantic. Tabitha could just make out Ashley’s flailing arms. She had a pretty good idea what the nightmare was about, and she wouldn’t wish that on anybody, not even Ashley.
Ashley had glowered throughout Bruce’s funeral. Whenever anyone tried to hug her, she’d stiffened, refusing to hug them back. Tabitha wondered if Ashley’s anger would ever end. Tabitha’s mom said time healed everything. After listening to Ashley’s nightmare, she wondered how much time it would take. Forever?
Eventually Ashley settled down, and the sound of the rain took over the room again. Tomorrow they were going home. Tabitha smiled in the dark. Off the mountain, back to civilization.
When Tess woke them the next morning, the rain was coming down harder than ever. Outside the window, all was gray. They were living inside a cloud.
Tabitha pulled on her damp clothes and stuffed her sleeping bag into its sack. Tess handed her a plastic garbage bag. “Line your pack with this. It’ll help keep everything dry.”
Tabitha did as Tess suggested, but she didn’t know why she bothered. Even the sleeping bag felt wet, as though the mist had permeated the walls of the hut.
She gulped down a big breakfast of oatmeal and granola, hoping the sooner she finished, the sooner they’d be on their way home. Ashley ate nothing, once again. Tess held a mug of hot chocolate up to her mouth, and she managed a few sips. Cedar ate his cereal and reached for the trail mix, but Tess put a hand on his wrist to stop him.
“C’mon,” he said. “We’ve got tons of food left. No way I’m going to carry it all home.”
Tess shoved the trail mix into a bag and pulled the cord tight. “We still have to hike all the way down and cross the river. It’s smart to carry extra food.”
“Don’t you remember Dad’s rule?” Ashley said it like an accusation.
Cedar sighed. “Of course I remember. A camper who plans well comes home with food to spare.” He tipped his mug of hot chocolate into his mouth and licked around the edge. “But we’re on the way home. We won’t need it.”
Tess turned her back to Cedar and packed the rest of the food. They washed their dishes and cleaned up the hut, letting Max do a last scour for crumbs.
Cedar lifted the box with Bruce’s ashes off the shelf. “We haven’t scattered Dad’s ashes yet.”
Tess took a deep breath. “Right. Let’s go to the lake before we start down the mountain.”
Ashley shook her head. “We’re spreading them on the ridge. On his favorite lookout.”
“But we can’t make it up there today. You know that,” Tess said.
“Then bring them home. I’m not throwing them any old place. And they’ll clump together in the rain.”
Tabitha shuddered at the image of clumps of Bruce’s ashes melting in the rain on the lakeshore.
Tess sighed. “Fine. We’ll bring him home again.”
“And then what?” Cedar asked.
“We’ll come back in the spring.”
Cedar’s shoulders slumped as Ashley’s lips lifted in a small smile. Tabitha couldn’t believe she’d want to come back. But then, if it were her dad, she’d probably want to hold on to him in any way she could, not toss him off some mountain ridge.
Tess took the ashes from Cedar and put them in her pack. With a last look around to make sure the hut was tidy, she led them out the door.
Tabitha still had bruises on her shoulders from carrying her pack two days before. She thought it would be much lighter after eating all the food, but it still felt full of rocks. At least they would be hiking downhill.
The trail down turned out to be treacherous, almost worse than the way up. After three days of rain, it was like walking through a muddy river. On the way up they’d used the roots to help pull themselves along. Now the roots were slick with mud, useless for gripping and a hazard if stepped on. Tabitha fell so many times, she looked like she’d been wading through a sewer. She was drenched from her ballcap to the laces of her boots before they made it to the first creek. Even Max slipped and slid. His hair hung in brown mats from his belly.
They didn’t have to worry about finding water to drink. The dried-up creek beds they’d crossed on the way up had turned into frothing streams. The wooden boards they’d used as small bridges were all under water. With no easy way around, they had to splash right through. Tabitha didn’t think it possible, but her feet got even wetter than before, and colder too.
“Why don’t they build bridges over these creeks?” she asked.
“They aren’t usually this full,” Tess said. “Remember how dry they were two days ago?”
Tabitha had imagined the way home would be faster than the way up, but it still felt like forever. Finally, after sloshing through a stream up to her knees, she turned a corner and heard rushing water. It was way louder than the sound of any of the creeks.
“We’re almost there,” she yelled.
“Uh-huh,” Tess said. “The river sounds pretty loud.”
Tabitha heard a note of worry in her aunt’s voice. “What if it’s too rough?” she asked.
Ashley snorted. “Scared of water? You can’t get any wetter than you already are.”
“I see you’re feeling better,” Tabitha retorted.
Before Ashley could answer, Tess, who’d walked ahead, called out, “Oh, dear god.”
They ran over a rise to see what she was talking about. Before them was the Squamish River. Only it didn’t look like a river. It was a churning, roiling lake, twice as big as when they’d last seen it. Huge trees spun in the chocolate brown water. The forest looked like a primeval swamp, with trees growing out of the water and everything shrouded in a heavy mist.
“Still think that’ll be easy to cross?” Tabitha asked.
Ashley’s face turned whiter than it already was. “Where’s our canoe?”
Tabitha scanned the water. Surely this wasn’t the same place they’d started their hike.
“Did we come down a different part of the trail?” she asked.
“No, stupid,” Ashley said. “There’s only one trail.”
Tess didn’t even notice the exchange. She was too busy frowning at the water. “The river’s come up several meters since we left. Our canoe’s out there somewhere.” She pointed across the swirling current.
Tabitha edged closer to the water.
“Don’t get too close,” Tess warned. “The current’s strong.”
The river swirled trees around like a hose washing twigs off the sidewalk. Tabitha stepped back. They weren’t going to rescue the canoe, even if they could see it through the mucky water.
“What are we going to do?” Cedar asked.
“Can we call someone? I have my cell phone,” Tabitha said.
Tess shook her head. “There’s no service anywhere on this side of the river. Even if we could call, no one would be able to cross that.” She motioned toward the trail with her chin. “Looks like the only thing we can do is go back to the hut.”
Ashley, Tabitha and Cedar groaned.
“But we just hiked all the way down!” Ashley said.
“Can’t we camp here?” Cedar asked.
“No,” Tess said. “We don’t have tents. And we don’t know ho
w long we’ll have to wait for a rescue. Wouldn’t you rather be in a dry hut with a stove while we’re waiting?”
The situation was serious. Tabitha could see that. They couldn’t strap together rafts of tree trunks and float their way to safety, even though she imagined her cousins doing something like that. They were stuck until the river dropped.
Rain still poured from the sky. Who knew how long it would be until they could get back?
“My parents are going to be so worried,” she said.
“Not till tomorrow,” Tess said. “We weren’t planning on coming home until then.”
“Right,” Tabitha said.
Ashley cradled her cheek with her hand. “No one will think to look for us for two days.”
“Mm-hmm.” Tess stepped off the trail into the woods. “Let’s stop and rest before we walk back up. It will be drier under these trees.”
Tabitha followed Tess, then dropped her pack and sat on it. The one good thing about the rain was that it kept the mosquitoes away. She didn’t have to swat anything except the water droplets falling in her eyes.
Tess pulled out the stove.
“We’re cooking?” Tabitha asked.
“I thought some soup might cheer us up.” Tess opened her food sack.
Tabitha pulled the hood of her rain jacket over her head and crouched into as small a ball as possible. Tess seemed so calm. Why wasn’t she more worried? They might be stuck over here forever.
Cedar grabbed the pot and filled it with water from a nearby stream that flowed into the main river. Tabitha was glad they didn’t have to take it from the muddy torrent below them.
She stared at the water as the soup cooked. It mesmerized her, like looking into a fire. She imagined her mom and dad at home. They were probably curled up on the living room couch, cozy and warm. She’d give anything to be back there. Before she left, she’d yelled at them. “I hate you guys. You’re making me go on this trip to get me out of the house. Because you can’t wait to get rid of me.”
Her mom sighed. “You know that isn’t true. You’re having such a tough time right now—”
“And you can’t stand having me around!”
“And you’ll have fun on the hike. You need to spend time with kids your age.”
Tabitha turned her back to her mother. “That’s what I do at school. And nobody likes me.”
Her mom tried to comfort her by putting her arm around her shoulder. “Ashley and Cedar aren’t like the kids at school.”
Tabitha brushed her arm away. “That’s what you think.”
Her mom had been right. Her cousins were nothing like the kids at school. But that didn’t mean they were nice to be around. And what made her mom think camping was fun?
How would her parents feel when she didn’t come home? Guilty for sending her? Relieved that they had another day to themselves? No. Deep down she knew the truth. They really had been trying to help, even if it hadn’t worked. They’d be worried sick.
Tess poured hot tomato soup into mugs, snapping Tabitha out of her reverie. Ashley leaned in and grabbed hers. The whole side of her face was beginning to swell. She looked half human, half chipmunk. She held her soup to her lips, but Tabitha didn’t see her swallow. How would her cousin find the energy to climb back up the mountain? For that matter, how would she?
CHAPTER SEVEN
The soup warmed her, but even so, she didn’t feel ready to run up the trail, which looked like a dark mouth waiting to gobble them up.
Tess stood and wiped her cup with a finger. “Time to get moving, guys. No sense sitting around in the rain.”
Silently they wiped their cups, packed them away, and shouldered their bags. How many steps until they reached the hut? Three thousand? Three million? Tabitha tried counting, but lost her place every time she came to a slippery section. Was that four hundred or five hundred? Even Max was tired. He padded dolefully beside her. Sometimes he crossed in front of her and stopped.
She bumped into his rear end. “Max, keep moving.”
His face sagged, as if he were saying, Can’t we rest for a second?
“It’s not up to me,” Tabitha said. “Besides, hanging around here won’t help.” She pushed him in the rump. He dropped his head and moved forward again, letting out a loud sigh.
Tabitha and Ashley reached the next creek ahead of Cedar and Tess. When they’d crossed it on the way down, the water had reached their knees. Tabitha couldn’t decide if it was her imagination, but it seemed like the water had risen even farther. Compared to most of the other creeks, this one looked calm. Only a few rocks broke its surface. But the water moved swiftly.
Before stepping in, Ashley unbuckled her pack.
“Why are you doing that?” Tabitha asked.
Ashley turned and rolled her eyes. “So I can get out of it if I fall in, of course.” Tabitha nodded and undid her strap. She was too tired to care about Ashley’s attitude.
Her cousin stepped in and sank to mid-thigh. Tabitha followed, gasping as the icy water shocked her system. She shuddered, frozen to the core from one step. Ashley pushed her leg through the water again. Now the water reached her waist.
“Maybe we should turn around,” Tabitha called.
Ashley shook her head. “Nowhere else to go but up.” As she lifted her foot, her body shifted. The water lifted her off her feet. She plunged into the current, her backpack dragging her under.
“Ashley!” Tabitha threw off her pack and lunged for her. She managed to grab a strap of Ashley’s pack, but lost her footing. Her boots slipped and she landed on her butt on a rock. Waves slapped her face and threatened to pull her under. She grabbed the nearest boulder and pushed herself to standing.
But it wasn’t it a boulder. It was Ashley’s pack. Only Ashley was no longer attached to it. “Where are you?” Tabitha tried to keep her panic down and her feet steady as she searched for Ashley.
“Here!” Ashley’s faint voice floated from downstream. Tabitha saw her clinging to a log in the middle of the creek. She must have slipped out of her pack while Tabitha was holding it.
Tabitha stepped farther into the stream.
“Stop!” Ashley called. “You’ll get swept away too!”
Tabitha didn’t listen. Ashley must be freezing. Where were Tess and Cedar? If they didn’t get her out soon, she might die of hypo-whatever it was. She heaved Ashley’s pack onto the bank and stepped back into the stream, trying to see her footing through the deep water. Another step. She wobbled in the current, but managed to hold herself up. Don’t fall. Don’t fall.
“Tabitha, stop!” a voice called from behind her.
She slowly turned and saw Tess, white-faced, on the bank.
“We have a rope! Don’t go any farther.” She grabbed a large stick and held it out to Tabitha.
Tabitha took hold of the stick and pulled herself out of the water as Tess continued to give instructions. “Ashley, we’ll be there in a sec! Cedar, open my pack and get the rope.”
Cedar dropped his own pack on the ground and opened Tess’s. He rummaged through it and came out holding a yellow coil. He tied one end around a tree and grabbed the other end.
As Tabitha’s feet found dry ground, Tess turned and saw Cedar. “What are you doing? I’m going to get her.”
Cedar shook his head. “No you aren’t. I can do this.”
“You’re too young. Let me go.”
“I’m ready. Hold the rope and I’ll go get her.”
“Cedar, don’t. I’m the one who should do this.”
Cedar’s back stiffened. He turned and glared at his mom. “I’m old enough and strong enough. I’m doing it.”
Tess took a deep breath, then nodded and picked up the slack rope close to where Cedar stood. “I’ll pay out the rope from here. Tying the rope to the tree is good backup, but you’d still be swept down the river if you fell.”
Tabitha’s teeth chattered. “Why do you need slack? Why not just tie the rope closer to the tree?”
�
�He needs enough slack to move around and get Ashley, but not so much that he’ll float a long way if he falls. Also, once he gets Ashley, we’ll have to set a line across the whole creek.”
Cedar walked to the edge of the creek closest to Ashley. “Hold on, I’m coming to get you.”
“Wait!” Tabitha called.
Cedar stopped. He and Tess swiveled to look at her.
“You need to choose another tree. The angle’s wrong with that one. If Cedar falls, the water will sweep him too far downstream, and then we’ll have to get both of them!”
Tess frowned. Tabitha held her breath, waiting for her aunt to tell her off for slowing down the rescue. For once her math skills would be useful for something other than a board game, if only her aunt would listen to her.
“You’re right,” Tess said. She untied the rope, moved it to a tree farther upstream and looked to Tabitha for approval. “That better?”
Tabitha nodded.
“Let’s get going,” Tess called to Cedar.
“Hurry!” Ashley yelled.
Cedar splashed through the water, fighting to stay upright. Tess braced herself on the bank, dug her feet into the ground, leaned back slightly and let the rope ease through her hands as he moved forward.
Tabitha shivered on the riverbank, clutching Max. Just a few seconds in the river had frozen her. How was Ashley surviving so long?
Finally Cedar reached her. He grabbed her arm and pulled her through the water. Together they slipped and slid over the rocks. Twice, Ashley’s feet went out from under her. Only Cedar’s grip kept her from being swept downstream. They reached the other side of the bank, and Ashley collapsed onto the ground. Cedar tied the rope around a tree.
“I’ll take your pack,” Tess said to Tabitha. “Cross to the other side quickly.”
Tabitha nodded and did as she was told. The last thing she wanted to do was to get back into the icy river, but she was so cold now, it didn’t really make a difference. The water slammed into her legs as she picked her way across. She held onto the rope and managed to make it without slipping.