Page 34 of Valley Girls
Rilla pulled level with the one metal bit Petra had shoved into a crack and stopped. Her stomach turned. This was what she’d put her trust in. A little piece shoved into the wall and attached to the rope with some carabiner and webbing.This.Somehow, knowing that was scarier than if she’d simply climbed up here without anything keeping her secure.
She kept moving to the overhanging lip, where instead of a piece, the rope was dropped into a carabiner and webbing hanging off a bolt.
“Look at you, dude. No sweat,” Petra said when Rilla had almost reached the ledge Petra belayed from. Two separate stretches of webbing with carabiners attached Petra’s harness to a pair of silver bolts drilled into the clean rock. It looked tidy, but complicated. How did anyone know how to do this enough not to mess it up? Rilla stepped carefully on the narrow ledge, and the rope between them shortened to only a horizontal foot.
A lot of sweat. And terror. But she’d done it. She’dfucking done this shit.
Rilla laughed and shakily leaned against the wall.
The world spread out in front of her. Far in the blue-gray distance to her left, the falls outside her attic window formed a streak of faintly moving white. The wind gusted in her face, cold and dry, and the kind of breeze you only get high above the ground in wild, empty space. All around, the peaks of the high Sierras were thick with snow.
She felt free. Alive. Focused. Like she was capable of anything.
“First pitch down,” Petra said. “Seven more to go.”
What?Rilla jerked to Petra. “Sevenmore? We have to do that seven more times?”
“You’re in training now,” Petra said in a chipper tone. “Let’s get you anchored so you can belay Adeena up here.”
Rilla tipped her chin up—surprised and somehow not surprised to see that the dome looked very much the same as it had at the bottom. The eighty feet she’d just climbed seemed to make no difference in the distance left to go.
Eleven
Rilla crawled on the raised spine of granite lifting out of the dome like some prehistoric snake frozen in the act of diving for the depths of the earth. Nearly forty feet of rope blew in the wind ahead of her, shortening as she climbed to Adeena.
They were only halfway up the curve of the dome—but the angle was leveling off and when Rilla finally reached Adeena and Petra at the anchors of the eighth pitch, she could stand and walk.
“You did it,” Adeena shouted.
Petra pumped her arms in victory. “See?”
“I did it!” Rilla yelled to the wind, dropping onto her back on the granite. She smiled so wide it hurt, cheeks aching, and raw from the wind and sun. She couldn’t even imagine herself doing this, and yet, it was done. She had done it. Whatever happened, no one could take this moment. With the granite against her backside and the sunshine on her face. She grinned to the sky.
“You’ve officially completed your first multi-pitch,” Petra said. “Peanut butter crackers?”
“Ooh. Yes, please.” Rilla sat up so quickly her head spun.
“Here, take some of these.” Adeena scooped a handful of almonds out of her bag. They were coated with flakey salt that smelled faintly of wood smoke. “They’re better fuel than crackers.”
“You did not just come at my crackers,” Petra said.
“Oh, I definitely did. What are you, ten? Peanut butter crackers?”
“Peanut butter, Dee,” Petra said. “It has protein.”
“That’s not even real peanut butter.”
“It’s ...” Petra frowned and looked at the package. “Canola oil, soybean oil, sugar, wheat ...” It was quiet a second. “Peanuts!” Petra shouted triumphantly. “In your face!”
Adeena rolled her eyes. “Oh, the pinnacle of western nutrition.”
“Whatever, you lost, I win. All that counts.”
Petra’s competiveness didn’t seem to bother Adeena, who just flopped back on her pack and threw an almond at her, laughing.
Rilla still didn’t know how to act—whether this was all a joke, or whether there was something real at the root of their arguing. Inside, it made her want to stay very still, like a rabbit in the grass, waiting to see if the way was clear.
Rilla hooked her arms over her knees and stared down the climb they’d just come up, crackers in one hand and almonds in the other. Below them, another group of climbers was nearly halfway up the last dike. She’d been so focused on getting up here, she hadn’t paid attention to anything behind.
