by Giselle Fox
Cate sighed and shook her head. “I’m not that delicate, you know.”
“Hey,” Lexi said and reached for her arm. “I appreciate it but I’m okay. I do this all the time.”
“Alright,” Cate said.
“And you know what?,” she said as she nodded ahead, “we’re almost there anyway.”
“Really?”
“Well, we’re closer than we were when we started out, how about that?” Lexi laughed.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Cate asked.
Lexi looked over at her. “I will if you want me too, but the surprise might be worth waiting for.”
Cate studied her face for a few more steps before answering. Lexi’s brown eyes were soft and gentle but she also seemed a little nervous and excited too. Cate decided she would trust her and wait. “I like surprises.”
Lexi smiled at her and then looked ahead. “Another half mile, and then we’ll head into the bush. It won’t be long after that.”
“Okay,” Cate said and followed beside her.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
A while later, Lexi pointed to a set of rocks beside the path. “This is where we turn.”
They pushed through an overhanging section of underbrush onto a thin trail that led through the forest.
“Did you cut this trail?” Cate asked.
“Me and the animals that come through here. There’s a creek to the west over there.” She pointed into the trees.
They stopped for a moment as Lexi tied a strip of reflective ribbon around one of the trees and then another further on. “We’ll be coming back through in the dark. Don’t want to miss the trail.”
“Good idea,” Cate said. She tried to imagine being in that place in the dark, and the long road back. Darkness, she knew, came early near the equator. “Ever get lost in here?” she asked.
“Not for long,” Lexi smiled. “There are so many roads, at least down at this end.”
Cate nodded and decided to trust that the reflectors would be enough to guide them back.
They walked single file through the dense green, over gnarled and tangled roots, rock, mud and fallen trees, through mazes of tangled vines. The canopy above them was dense enough to block most of the sun leaving the interior of the wood pleasantly cool.
“This plateau drops down over a cliff just ahead,” Lexi said.
Cate had noticed that the ground had begun to slope downward and off to the right.
“That’s where we’re headed.”
“To the cliff?” Cate asked.
“Into the trees,” Lexi said.
The path opened as the ground cover gave way to eroded soil. Cate imagined rainwater spilling down the embankment and washing over the edge of the cliffs - wherever the cliffs were, she couldn’t tell. But as they walked a little further, she began to feel a change in the air. The sounds around them seemed to open up as if the density of the wood had been cracked open.
Lexi slung her pack off her back and looked up into the trees.
“The ones closer to the edge are all new growth. These here are the tallest.”
Cate looked up along the thick trunks that towered above them in a majestic display of green foliage and twisting branches. She looked around, confused. Not that the forest wasn’t beautiful, but where they were looked like any number of spots they’d passed much much closer to the Jeep.
Lexi watched her trying to make sense of it all with a grin on her face. She pulled a small tarp from the side of her pack and spread it on the ground. Then, from inside the pack, she pulled a thick coil of rope, a thinner coil, and a series of metal gadgets that looked like climbing gear. She laid everything out carefully on the tarp.
“Um... are we climbing?” Cate asked.
Lexi rolled her eyes above her toward the canopy. “You want to see a beautiful sunset, we have to go up.”
Cate was both excited and terrified at the prospect. Looking up at the tops of the trees didn’t help. “How... are we getting up there?”
“I have a plan,” Lexi said.
“You have a plan,” Cate repeated as she looked over the gear on the tarp. She tried to smile. Adventure, she thought to herself. This is what you get when you ask for adventure. Her face must have given away her terror because Lexi began to laugh.
“You’re going to be fine. I saw you climb yesterday. This will be way easier, just a little higher.”
Cate took a deep breath and tried to push the nerves in her stomach aside. “Okay, I’ll take your word for it.”
Lexi unraveled her climbing rope on the tarp. Then she strapped on a climbing harness and tied the rope through the loops at her pelvis and waist. Cate watched her tie a very fast knot into a figure eight loop and then give it a pull to tighten it. Then Lexi pulled the tarp and the rope and walked to the base of one of the big trees and laid the tarp on the ground.
“I’ll take the rope up and tie it off up there on that branch. Then I’ll come down and get you.”
Cate swallowed. “Okay.”
“Don’t worry. You’re going to love this.” Lexi seemed sure of it.
“I hope you’re right,” Cate said.
Lexi leaped high and gripped a branch then pulled herself up until she could kick her leg over. Then she stood and reached for a second branch and then leaped for a third. Cate watched in utter amazement as Lexi swung herself up, climbed hand over hand, then stretched and leaped again, higher and higher as she pulled the long rope up behind her. Cate didn’t want to think of what would happen if she fell, though she seemed as steady in the trees as she had on the ground only minutes before. After a few minutes that seemed to last a lifetime, Lexi reached her goal. She held onto a branch above her as she walked along the length of a thicker branch below.
“I think here is good,” she called down.
She jumped up and down on the branch to test it but it didn’t even shudder. She sat down, wrapped her legs around for stability and got to work. Next, she pulled two thick slings from the clips on the back of her harness and affixed them around the branch. When they hung down at about the same length she hooked two carabiners through the ends. She untied the rope from the loops in her harness and looped it through a device at her waist and then through the carabiners and then tied another knot to hold it fast. She leaned forward and checked everything over.
“Okay, time to come down,” she said as she slung her leg over the branch and gripped onto the rope with one hand. A few seconds later she’d repelled down and was safely on the ground.
“Fun,” she said.
Cate gulped. “Is it my turn now?”
“Uh huh,” Lexi grinned. “I have something for you,” she said as she unstrapped herself from the rope. She pulled another harness from her bag and laid it on the tarp. “You’ll be putting that on,” she said.
“Okay,” Cate said.
“And you’ll be using this. It’s called an ascender. You slide it up the rope, it locks, you step up onto the loop and work your way up. It’s a little like climbing a ladder only with one foot.”
Cate felt relieved that she wouldn’t have to go hand over hand up the rope itself or climb the tree.
Lexi rigged up the ascender and then grabbed the harness from the ground. She held it open and untangled one of the legs. “Okay step in,” she instructed. Cate placed a hand on Lexi’s shoulder to steady herself and slipped one foot through the leg loop, then she did the other leg.
“Okay, I’ll let you buckle yourself in. Keep it high around your waist and fasten it comfortably snug.”
“Okay,” Cate said. She felt her hands begin to shake.
“Are you nervous?” Lexi smiled gently.
“A little, yes.”
“You’re going to be fine. This is safe.”
“I feel safe, I’m just not sure I’m going to be able to get up there.”
“You will. Once you’re on the rope, you’ll see how simple it is.”
“Okay,” Cate said as she took a
few deep breaths.
“We’re almost there,” Lexi said.
Lexi hooked her into the ascender and showed her how it was done. “So slide this up the rope, step into the loop. Slide and step up,”
“Got it,” Cate said. She tried it a few times and felt like she got nowhere until she realized she already gone up several feet. “Oh,” she said as she looked down. “This totally works.”
“Yes, it does. Okay, up you go, I’ll hold the rope so you don’t swing around.”
“What happens when I get to the top?”
“Just sit in your harness for a few minutes and enjoy the view. I’ll come up right behind you and show you what’s next.”
Cate looked up the length of the rope and began to climb, sliding with the hand, stepping up with her foot, step by step as Lexi called encouragement from below. “You’re doing great! You’ll be a pro in no time,” she said.
Cate looked down between her legs and realized that Lexi could see everything from her angle.
“I guess you see a lot of butts when you’re the one on the ground,” Cate called down. She was sweating but happy with her progress.
“One of the perks of the job,” Lexi laughed.
“I can tell you one thing, I never expected I would be doing this today,” Cate said.
“No? What did you expect?”
“Well, you’d said something yesterday about dinner, you brought wine. I guess I thought...”
“Just wait,” Lexi said.
Cate looked down and saw the smile on her face.
“You’re almost there.”
“Where is there, exactly?” asked Cate. All she could see was green leaves and branches.
“You’ll see.”
When she got as high as she could, Cate sat back in her harness and took a look around. She touched the tree branch above her, made a mental note of the slings and carabiners in the highly unlikely event she would ever climb a tree that way again. She looked around at the canopy and saw something ahead of her that she hadn’t seen from the ground. She pulled herself closer to get a better look.
“Is that...?”
Lexi chuckled below her. “You found it.”
It was a platform built within the forked branches of the tree. Lashed with ropes and vines, was a tidy cluster of long-cut branches and that formed an open tree house patio.
“Did you build this?”
“I did,” said Lexi proudly.
“When?”
“It’s been a work in progress for the last year.”
“You did it all by yourself?”
“Yeah.”
Cate was amazed. She couldn’t imagine both the strength and tenacity that would have been required to do such a thing, but there it was. “Is it safe?”
“Sure, as long as you don’t fall off.”
Cate grinned down at her. “I’ll remember that.”
It only took a few minutes before Lexi had joined her on the branch. She rigged the thinner rope as a safety line to hook their harnesses to as they shimmied toward the platform. When Cate stepped onto it, she realized it went down a whole other level toward the edge of the canopy.
“I always have to do a little clean-up. This foliage grows back every week.” Lexi pulled a small saw from her pack and got to work. And then Cate finally saw what they’d come to see.
“Oh my God!”
“Pretty cool, huh?”
Words could not express the level of cool, nor the fright that Cate experienced the moment she realized where she was. The platform extended out from the largest tree atop a high cliff. They overlooked a pristine valley that rolled into a beautiful green V with a winding river below. She could tell from the sun’s position that it would set directly in front of them.
“I...” she didn’t know what to say. It suddenly felt as if they were hundreds of feet in the air instead of fifty. But the view was sensational. She turned to Lexi. “I’m completely freaking out, but this was totally worth it.”
Lexi looked happy and a little relieved. “I was really hoping you would like it.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it. Honestly. Nobody I know would do something like this.”
Lexi sat back on the platform and smiled. Then she seemed to remember something. “I have a mat in my bag. It’ll be more comfortable to sit on.
She reached for her pack and pulled a thin foam mat from the bottom. “And...” she pulled a vinyl checkered table cloth from inside.
“You thought of everything,” Cate said and shook her head. She helped her spread the corners of the square cloth and then scooted a little to the side as she positioned the mat just right.
“Time for a glass of wine?” Cate pulled the bottle from her pack. “Screw top. Good idea.”
Lexi produced two small plastic cups from inside her pack and held them up as Cate poured. They clinked cups and took a sip.
“I still can’t believe where we are,” Cate said. Now that she was comfortable and had a glass of wine in her hand, the platform and the height began to feel a little less frightening.
“You like it?”
Cate turned to her and laughed. “I wouldn’t have believed it even if you had told me. Yes, I like it. Thank you!”
“Phewf,” Lexi said. She smiled happily as she sipped her wine.
“So ... how do we get down?” Cate asked.
“It’s easy,” Lexi said.
“Easy for me but how about you? Do you have to climb down the tree?”
“Yes, but that’s not hard.”
“Okay. I’ll relax then.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Lexi shifted their packs behind them for a backrest. They sat and looked over the valley, felt the sun on their faces and smelled the air.
Lexi looped her fingers behind her head and lay back, letting the sun shine fully on her face. She had a smudge of dirt on her cheek that Cate felt compelled to rub off. But then she decided it suited her. Sitting high on top of a tropical forest with a few scrapes and bruises on her muscular legs, the grazes of branches and stains from the green leaves she’d trimmed on the tips of her fingers, it all suited her, as if she was an animal that belonged to the forest. Cate felt a little like Jane as she sat there and that the wild woman next to her was like Tarzan’s sister - if she’d ever been written.
Lexi let out a happy sounding moan as the sun soaked into her skin. She settled back against her pack. A smile slowly spread over her lips. Then her eyes opened. She smiled when she saw Cate watching her.
“I was trying to imagine you in a city,” Cate said.
“You were? Why?”
“I assume you weren’t born in the jungle, but I’ve never met anyone like you.”
Lexi chuckled. “That may be a good thing.”
“Why? I think there should be more adventurous women, don’t you?”
“That’s true, I guess.” Lexi regarded her with amusement. “You’ve recently joined the ranks.”
Cate looked out over the valley and then closed her eyes against the bright sun. “I have,” she said happily. “I so needed this.”
Lexi chuckled again. “It feels good to be in nature, doesn’t it? It puts things in perspective.”
“It does,” Cate agreed.
“I’ve lived in cities but never felt like I belonged in any of them.”
“Not enough trees?” Cate grinned.
“Not enough life. Too much stress. Everyone’s distracted. Not my thing, or at least it’s not anymore.”
“So you got out?”
Lexi closed her eyes and nodded. “It’s been a process over the last year. But yes, I feel like I’m almost there.”
“Sometimes I think I would love to just drop out of society. I think it’s the incessant grind at work that’s done it to me. I mean otherwise, I like where I live, I don’t mind the city. But good luck living anywhere like that without working the kind of job I have.” Cate looked over at Lexi. “I think you had the right idea coming here. I mean,
everything I’ve read about this place, it seems like it’s got everything you need.”
“Almost,” Lexi said. She looked over at Cate.
“Almost?” Cate said. She took a sip of her wine and tried to imagine what might be going through Lexi’s mind.
“I’ve made a few friends, I guess,” Lexi said softly.
“Feeling lonely?” Cate asked from behind her cup of wine. It was a personal question and not one she was sure she was ready for the answer to, one way or the other.
“Well, lonely might not be the right word. I like my time, I keep busy, I’ve learned a lot about myself since I came here. I think...” she paused a moment and pondered what she was going to say. “I think I was maybe heading in a direction that wasn’t good for me. I was valuing things wrong, putting all the emphasis on certain things that I ended up really not needing. I had a sort of early mid-life crisis a while back. Something just sort of happened that made me see things differently. I ended up coming here with a few pieces, I got rid of most of my stuff, stripped my life right down. And then... I started building all over again.”
“I guess building is inevitable, isn’t it?”
“It is, I think. I just feel like my foundation is more solid now. It’s something I can trust.”
Cate thought about all that for a few moments while she sipped her wine. She looked out over the valley. Mountains had a way of putting things into perspective, they trivialized the stress, they pulled the tiny moments of clarity into the forefront and allowed them to expand and take over. Her mind felt quiet. Her heart felt open. So many of the things that had seemed important, even just the day before, had somehow tucked themselves into the background.
“I envy you,” she said at last.
Lexi laughed. “You envy me?”
“No, seriously, I do. Of course, I realize that I’m on holiday and that you don’t do this sort of thing every day. But you do it enough to have figured out what’s important to you.” She closed her eyes and leaned back against her backpack. “Most people are just stuck where they are. Through no fault of their own sometimes, they’ve just gotten themselves entrenched in life. I’m one of them. I’ve done what I set out to do. I even expected I would be married by now and I probably would have done it if it had felt even remotely right. But I realize that it doesn’t feel right. None of it does. Not my career, not anything.”