by Joan Rylen
Lucy opened the door to Wendy and Kate’s room and start clapping.
“Hup, hup, hup, hup! Mooooooooove it. We roll out in t-minus-20.”
Wendy groaned and rolled over, then yelled, “Shut the hup up!”
The girls got ready and grabbed bananas, snack bars and trail mix. Before heading out the door, they found Nelson’s note and map on the kitchen counter. He had highlighted the best route and written a note saying not to stop on the way there or back and to be careful. The door to his room was open and his belongings were gone.
Kate called the valet and the girls headed out the door. Lucy’s SUV waited in the drive and they all got in.
She turned to Vivian. “You ready?”
Vivian slapped her palm on the dash. “Let’s roll.”
Lucy headed down the mountain and merged onto I-70 as the sun broke above the mountains in front of them. Light traffic left nowhere for Craig to hide, and Vivian felt good about their rafting adventure and the day ahead. She didn’t think they’d be in any real danger, other than the rapids, but was betting Craig would surface at some point. Vermin were like that.
“Anyone need to stop?” Lucy asked as she exited to U.S. 9 in Frisco.
No one did, so they kept rolling.
Vivian and Lucy chatted quietly as they took the bypass around Breckenridge. Wendy and Kate were in the back, studying their eyelids. As they ascended Hoosier Pass, Lucy took the sharp curves like a pro, but it stirred the sleeping beauties and caused a firestorm of foul-mouth frenzy from Wendy. Vivian gripped the “oh shit” handle and added a few choice words of her own as they hit one of the curves hard.
“Ye of little faith,” Lucy said, steering with one arm. “I managed to save us when the brakes went out. These turns are no problemo.”
Kate opened her eyes and looked a little pale. She tugged her seatbelt tighter.
Vivian’s ears popped as they crested the pass. She loosened her grip as Lucy cruised down the mostly straight descent. Soon the highway flattened out and the mountains were in the distance. As they approached the town of Hartsel, Vivian’s bottle of water had caught up with her. “My bladder is speaking to me, and it’s not saying very nice things.”
Kate seconded the motion.
“I don’t know,” Lucy said. “Nelson said not to stop, and therefore this town isn’t ‘authorized.’ ”
Vivian looked at Lucy. “Unless you want my bladder to speak to your seat, you need to pull over.”
She pointed out the Kum-N-Go sign just ahead. Lucy parked and Vivian ran for the door.
Post potty break, the girls loaded up on more water, powdered donuts, milk and coffee. They hit the road and it wasn’t long before Lucy pulled to a stop in front of the Clear Creek Rafting Company. Lucy shut off the engine. The girls sat in silence for a moment.
Vivian broke it. “Look, I appreciate y’all offering to go with me to do this. You’re the greatest friends ever, but maybe I should go alone.”
“Hell, no!” Lucy said.
“We told you yesterday, we’re all in this together,” Wendy said, reaching for the door handle.
“Yeah!” Kate said. “Let’s go bait that hook and reel ’em in!”
The girls woo-hooed and went inside where two tall guys were at the counter, signing forms and chatting it up with a blue-eyed, sandy-blonde girl. She had a big grin on her face. As Vivian walked up the guys slid over to make room. The blonde, Kirsten, blushed and then went over the highlights on the forms. Vivian snickered on some of the verbiage, holding the rafting company responsible for mishaps was the least of her worries, but she signed anyway.
Paperwork done, Kirsten went about getting the girls outfitted. Vivian stepped into a dressing room and got down to her swimsuit. She took off her necklace and wrapped it in her shirt. She went to work, tugging a wetsuit up her legs one at a time, then wiggled and twisted to get her arms through the holes. Zipping it over her boobs proved to be a problem so she wiggled and twisted some more. “This thing is tight!” she yelled out. Then she sat on the floor to pull on the dank boots and then wondered how she was going to get back up. She managed, then slipped on the bright blue splashguard jacket. Craig oughtta be able to spot us in these!
Once they were suited up, Kate gathered the girls into a huddle. “Keep your peepers peeled today for anything suspicious and let’s stick together. No falling out of the raft, the water’s going to be frigid.
“Do you think we’ll need a code word if we see something?” Lucy asked.
The side of Vivian’s mouth twitched. “I doubt Craig will be close enough to hear what we’re saying. I don’t think it’s necessary.”
“I want a code word!” Lucy said.
Vivian smiled. “Fine, have a code word. Ice cream?”
“Nahhh,” said Lucy. “Let’s spice it up. How about ‘hot tamales.’ ”
They all agreed.
The girls walked out to an old, beat-up school bus where the rest of the group waited, ready for the drive to the river. Vivian did a scan of everyone before taking a seat. None of the five guys and two guides even remotely resembled Craig. The one other woman sure didn’t resemble him.
As they drove along, the guide, a man with long, stringy, light-brown hair named Fast Eddie, explained they would be rafting through Bighorn Sheep Canyon this morning, stop for lunch and then continue on the Arkansas River through the Royal Gorge. They pulled to a stop in a gravel parking lot and piled out. Two bright blue, eight-man rafts sat along the riverbank.
Vivian giggled and turned away from the group.
“What’s so funny?” Kate asked.
Vivian cut her eyes to a tall, lanky rafter. “His wetsuit is pretttttty tight and a little revealing.” She covered her mouth to keep from laughing.
“Maybe his package is packin’,” Kate giggled.
Lucy gasped. Loudly.
Wendy smacked her on the arm. “Shhhhhhhhh! No one’s packing!”
Fast Eddie broke them into groups, taking the girls, Package and another guy, of whom all 6-foot-2 looked military down to his buzz cut, square jaw and muscular build. Vivian felt like she was in good hands between these two and the professional guide. Crazy Kendall, the other guide, took the two other guys and the older couple from Alabama. Eddie went over safety precautions, how to not die in the event they fell out of the raft, how to get a swimmer back in the raft, etc. “Does anyone have medication or anything else important that needs to go in the dry bag?” he asked.
Vivian held up her phone. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring this.” That was a lie. She had brought it for tracking purposes.
Eddie tossed it into the bag, then handed out helmets. “These do not come off unless you’re at lunch. Or dead.”
As they walked to their raft Vivian smacked Lucy on the ass with her paddle and started a paddle/sword fight among the girls. Kate lunged forward, her paddle clanking against Vivian’s and knocking it to the ground.
Fast Eddie got between them. “Unless you’d like to be paddled by me, I recommend you stop.”
The girls froze and looked at each other, knowing they’d gotten in trouble. He then put them in the raft on the side of the sandy bank.
Vivian reached to grab her paddle and saw Wendy turn toward the back of the raft.
“Whatcha lookin’ for?”
“Dammit! Instinct! I was looking for the beer cooler.”
Lucy shook her head. “This ain’t the Guadalupe, honey. You won’t find any beer on this trip. It’s ill advised.”
“I know, it’s just ingrained in my river sense!”
“As if you have any sense by the time you get off the Guadalupe. Come on!” Vivian said.
Eddie hopped into the back of the raft and showed them how to secure themselves by sticking one foot under the side. Then he provided a paddling lesson. “Forward right two means that you three over here paddle forward two times. Together! Watch the person in front of you and get into a rhythm. Forward left three,” he pointed, “means this s
ide of the raft paddles three times.” Then he went over back right, back left and together paddling.
“One last thing, people,” Eddie said, then snarled, showing gaps in his teeth. He pointed to his mouth. “This here is what we call ‘summer teeth,’ as in some are here, some are in the boat, some are in the water and some are long gone. At all times your hand must stay on the t-grip of your paddle. All it takes is one slip, then WHACK! You’ve got summer teeth. Or, your neighbor does, and they won’t be real happy with you.”
They put on their life preservers and waded into the water and one by one jumped into the raft, getting to their designated spots.
“Holy crap, that water’s freezing!” Kate yelled.
“It’s melted snow,” Lucy responded. “What’d ya expect?”
“And where is the sun?” Vivian said. “That’d help warm things up.”
The gray skies showed no promise of sunshine or increase in temperature. The cool morning in the 50s would continue into a cool afternoon in the 50s. Brrrrr.
Vivian and Lucy sat in the front, Kate and Wendy in the middle, and Buzz Cut, who introduced himself to Vivian as Galvin Shick, and Package as Freddie Smith. Fast Eddie took his spot on the back of the raft, in the middle and started shouting out paddling commands.
The other boat launched soon after and pulled alongside. A burly guy in his fifties sat across from his wife, who snapped pictures as he posed with his paddle. Crazy Kendall shouted instructions, which the couple ignored. “Quit posing and get paddling.” Kendall’s chin-length, strawberry-blond hair curled up around his helmet and a few strands hung in his face.
Fast Eddie told them about their first set of rapids which were coming up. “This is a Class IV called Spike Buck,” he said. “And if you don’t listen to me, it’ll buck ya right outta this raft.”
The water moved faster, and the sound of rushing water grew louder.
“This is so fun!” Vivian said. “I need to pee again, though!”
“There’s no potty breaks on this river ’til lunch,” Eddie said, then he called, “Everybody forward three!”
They worked together propelling the raft through the rapids. As they hit the first big drop, a wave of water crashed the front of the raft. It washed over Vivian, taking her breath away, but the worst of it was the water that made its way inside the neck of her splashguard and trickled down her back.
Motherfudrucker! That’s worse than the giant splash I just took.
Eddie yelled, “Back left, back left.” But it didn’t stop them from crashing into a car-sized boulder, spinning them around.
They all screamed, and were now going backward, but Eddie kept his cool. “Left back three,” he yelled, “right forward three!” He steered them out of the rapids and into slower moving water.
He had them coast while the second raft went through Spike Buck. Crazy Kendall was yelling and screaming at the burly man, who had hunkered down in the bottom of the raft. “Get your ass outta there, you’re going to pop us!”
The man steadied himself on the side. “I slipped.”
Everyone safely through the first rapid, Fast Eddie started up again with the commands. The landscape transitioned from forest and flat to steep cliff walls and red rock.
The river narrowed and Vivian scanned both sides of the cliffs for Craig. She shrugged off an ominous feeling, then glanced at Kate.
“We got ya covered.”
Vivian tried to relax.
“Listen up, people,” Eddie called out. “We’ve got three big ones in a row, and one of ’em’s a monster called Shark’s Tooth. If you don’t follow my instructions, I guarantee we’ll be eaten alive.”
35
VIVIAN steeled herself. She was ready for this, she could do this. Yeah!
Fast Eddie called out command after command and they sailed through the first set of rapids, no problem. The second set posed more difficulty, but with everyone working together, they made it without incident. Then came Shark’s Tooth. The current grabbed them and slammed them head on into the pointed boulder. Out of the corner of her eye, Vivian saw someone become a projectile. They were long gone. The raft taco’ed against the boulder and everyone in it was the meat. The water continuously slammed against one side of their “taco shell” and had them stuck.
“Everyone get up on the rock side, up on the rock side!” Fast Eddie shouted and shoved Kate and Lucy that direction.
Shick helped Wendy move over and Vivian threw herself on top of the dog pile, which created enough leverage to dislodge the raft. Everyone rolled around, getting footing and back into place.
“Hot tamales!” Lucy said, adjusting her helmet.
“Little late for that,” Wendy said.
“Who’d we lose?” Eddie asked. “I saw someone fly out.”
“Smith went for a swim,” Shick said.
“There he is!” Vivian pointed to a waterlogged Smith, who clung to a rock downstream.
As they approached, Lucy put down her paddle, braced herself against the side and reached down to grab him. She dunked him, then pulled with all her might, propelling herself backward, and he landed on top of her. He scrambled up, thanking her.
Shick handed Smith his paddle, which had been plucked from the river. “Way to go.”
Smith’s teeth chattered too much for him to make a remark.
Eddie called to Lucy. “That was textbook. He outweighs you by at least a hundred pounds, and you pulled him in like he was nothing.”
Lucy nodded coolly, acting quite satisfied with herself. “I work out.”
“Hey, man, you okay?” Eddie asked Smith, who just nodded. “Your ass flew. You’re lucky you didn’t do a header into the shark’s tooth.”
“I barely missed it,” Smith said. “I’m good.”
“Paddle’s up!” Eddie said, raising his, and they did a group paddle high-five.
Vivian heard a whistle and looked over to the right bank. The group in the other raft had stopped for lunch. Crazy Kendall waded into the water and helped pull their raft ashore.
“I’ve heard of the raft taco but never seen it with my own eyes,” he said. “That was freakin’ awesome, man!”
“Yeah, that was great,” Wendy said, following Lucy up the bank.
Kendall slapped Smith on the back. “And you, the human cannonball!”
Still shivering, Smith said, “That was my favorite part.”
Eddie and Kendall started making super long submarine sandwiches for lunch and set out some fruit. The girls huddled together by a picnic table, freezing in the cool air, the sun still covered by clouds.
“Holy shit, I’m a Popsicle,” Vivian said.
“Your lips are blue,” Kate said.
“I’m not getting back in the front. I don’t know who’s getting up there, but it ain’t gonna be me.”
“I have hypothermia,” Lucy said softly, hunched over, fists balled up to her chest. “I’m not getting back up there, either.”
“We took the brunt of the splashage,” Vivian said, “and it’s just too damn cold.”
“Let’s make the guys get up there,” Kate said. “That’s sure to shrink things up!”
“Dammit, just when I’d quit thinking about it,” Wendy said through chattering teeth. “Great idea on stickin’ them up front, though.”
“They can shield us from the splashes,” Kate said.
Wendy glanced at the portable toilets. “I’m so cold right now. The thought of taking off this wetsuit in the cold air, nuh-uh.”
Vivian looked down at the mud around her feet. “Just pee in your wetsuit like I did.”
“What?” Lucy said. “When did you do that?”
Vivian laughed. “Sorry, I had to go and didn’t want to take all of this off. It warmed me up for a minute, but now I’m cold again.”
Lucy moved between Wendy and Kate. “How am I friends with you?”
“And you have to wear that all day,” Wendy said. “Gross!”
“I was cold. I dare ya t
o get your ass in that Port-o-Potty and take it all off.”
Wendy groaned. Kate, too.
Lucy handed Kate her life preserver. “I’m going in.”
The other girls sat down at the bench and Kendall passed them plates. “Lunch is ready. Dig in.”
For two guys with summer teeth, they prepared a nice spread. A watermelon bowl held an assortment of fresh fruit, baked chips, three kinds of sandwiches and brownies for dessert. Only water and lemonade to drink, though, nothing hot.
They served themselves and picked a picnic table. “I would die for a cup of hot chocolate right now,” Vivian said, swinging her leg over the bench.
“Don’t say that kind of stuff,” Kate said, alarmed.
“What? I’m probably going to die of hypothermia anyway!”
“No, you’re not.” Kate put her arm around Vivian.
“Aww, you love me even though I peed.”
Kate whispered in Vivian’s ear. “I did, too!”
The two guys from the other raft sat down at their table. They introduced themselves as Brian Finck, a red-head, and Mike Hayes, a cute, brown-haired, blue-eyed guy. Brian needed to reapply sunscreen to his freckled face and Mike did his best to disguise the shivering in his 5-foot-8 frame.
“Having a good time?” Vivian asked.
“Freezing my ass off,” Brian responded and Mike asked how they were enjoying the trip.
Vivian laughed. “A little less cold would be nice. It’s been an adventure so far, that’s for sure.”
Smith sat down. “Yeah, yeah, I did that on purpose. Needed to cool off.”
Everyone laughed.
“We’re going to let you really cool off,” Wendy said. “In the front of the raft. That’ll put things in proportion.”
Vivian nudged her with her elbow, but not before Kate spewed water across the table.
“Oh, I mean perspective,” Wendy snickered.
Lucy rejoined them. “What’d I miss?”
“Shick and Smith have agreed to take our spots on the raft. We’re in the back of the bus now.” Vivian took a big bite of her sandwich.
Lucy slapped Smith on the back. “Good job, guys. Way to be chivalrous.”