Page 106 of Valley Girls
In the quiet, the day and her fight with Thea come roaring back to her. She couldn’t give up climbing. Climbing had given her everything else. It had brought her here, helping, useful. It had left her beside Walker, as something like an equal. It had even pushed her to do the homework she’d gotten done—not enough, but something.
She’d have to disobey Thea and continue to climb. She’d have to keep it a secret. But she didn’t see any other way. Losing climbing felt like losing the only thing about herself she liked, the only thing that had value.
Rilla pulled her knees to her chest and stared into the dark, waiting and hoping that the lost hiker would emerge out of the night.
Thirty Two
They sat there all night. Rilla fell asleep, curled up with her backpack on the cold rock, dreaming strange, lucid dreams. She woke to the rich smell of coffee on the dry wind. Opening her eyes, she looked into the clear shade and the sun touching the cliffs high above her.
“Youth,” Lauren said bitterly. “You can sleep anywhere.”
Rilla frowned. “You mean me?”
Lauren laughed.
“Coffee?” Walker asked.
Rilla pushed up, pawing at her hair to try and tame it into something passably cute. She nodded and took the blue speckled mug of coffee he pulled off the burner and handed her.
“Did they make it out?” Rilla asked.
“The rangers are in the inner canyon. The SAR team had to wait for light. We should be here until the afternoon,” Lauren answered. “On our way back, if they haven’t been found, we’ll do another sweep. But, I imagine we’ll find something today.”
Rilla sipped the hot, bitter liquid, closing her eyes as the steam hit her face. The air was dry and her face felt puffy. “Did they say who was on El Cap yesterday?” she asked.
“Some climbers,” Lauren said. “They’re all right.”
Walker glanced at her. “It was Tam and Avery.”
Rilla froze. “But they’re okay?”
“We don’t know how it happened, but somehow their haul bag came unclipped and it hit Tam on the way down. Broke her arm pretty bad.”
“There’s such a thing as a not-bad arm break?”
Walker screwed up his face. “The bone came through the skin, I heard.”
“Oh.” Rilla looked at the coffee. She’d sat at Tam’s campsite yesterday, all while Tam had sat up on El Cap with her bone coming through the skin. “She’s going to be okay?”
Walker patted her ankle. “She’s going to be fine. It happens. You try and do everything you can to minimize the chance of it happening, but it still can happen.”
But Rilla sipped her coffee, certain it would not happen to her because from this point on she’d besocareful. More careful than she’d ever been. And it wouldn’t happen to Walker because he was so experienced. And it wouldn’t happen to Caroline because she was just as experienced as Walker, but better. And it wouldn’t happen to Petra, because Petra didn’t do anything she couldn’t handle. And it wouldn’t happen to Adeena because Adeena had climbed Everest. And ...
Lauren’s radio bleeped, a loud squawking sound that shattered the stillness. She picked it up.
Located in the inner canyon.The only thing that followed was a number that began with ten.
Lauren lowered the radio and exhaled.
“They found him. He’s dead,” Walker explained.
Rilla’s stomach dropped and they all looked away in silence.
It wouldn’t happen to her. She clenched her fists tight. She would be so careful. She wouldn’t go into places she didn’t know. She would be safe. She would think twice and do once.
It wouldn’t happen to her.
Thirty Three
