Page 41 of Valley Girls
“Either they’re leaving in a few days, on their best behavior,” Dick Face continued. “Or they’re leaving in cuffs and banned from the park.”
Rilla’s neck and face burned.
“The question I want you to ponder is, which way wouldyoulike to leave? I don’t like people here who take unnecessary risks with the park, like your stupid move with the cigarette. I also don’t like people who break the law. It’s my job to protect the park from those kinds of people.”
“Obviously.” She bit her lips tight and clenched her fists, trying to keep everything locked inside.
“It’s a good thing you and Thea will be leaving after the summer season anyway.”
He said it with such confidence, Rilla almost lit on fire. How dare he assume he would beat Thea. “You have no idea,” she seethed.
He shrugged. “Well, we’ll see, won’t we? And uh ...” He grabbed her burger from Titus’s surprised hands, and handed it to her. “Here you go. I recommend the veggie burger next time. Meat isn’t great for your arteries, or for our environment.” Turning, he walked away.
“What a dick,” Titus said from behind the screen.
“Yeah.” Rilla clutched the paper-wrapped burger and glowered. He really was a dick. It hadn’t just been his face. Rilla needed to be extra careful not to get into trouble, or else he’d make herandThea pay for it.
The wind died and a shiver ran up her body in the sudden quiet. She should just go home now and save Thea the trouble. Except no one wanted her there either. Unwrapping the burger and taking a bite, she shuffled inside the outdoor store to get out of the chill.
Rilla scanned the racks of brightly colored jackets and technical shirts, slowly chewing. All she could taste was Ranger Dick Face’s words. The bit of pride warming her chest—from sore feet, sore back, and the hazy memory of helping someone—turned cold.
On her way out the door, she caught sight of a blown-up and framed photo hanging on the wall above the racks—it pictured a woman rock climbing.
The woman’s blond hair blew in the wind, and her limbs were tanned and toned, but she wasn’t pictured in the way Rilla was used to seeing women do things in pictures. She crouched and stretched low, angled toward something beyond the camera. Her body was coiled not in a pose, but with purpose. Toward something above her that made her forehead crinkle and her eyes narrow against the California sun. Behind her swept dramatic peach-and-gray granite reaching dotted trees, thick and lush like moss at granite’s base.
With a sudden thrill, Rilla forgot about Ranger Dick Face and Curtis. She didn’t know who this woman was, but she knew that yesterday, this woman had beenher.
Rilla’s raw fingertips tightened on the half-eaten burger, remembering the feel of unyielding granite. Remembering the feel of the wind and the sun. If someone had taken a photo, it would have shown her body coiled and intense, her eyes squinting against the sun, into the future, and her long brown hair snapping in the wind. A hunger hit her mouth that had nothing to do with food. It was like lust, but instead of for another, it was for herself. For her future. She wanted be that woman in the photo. In every way. Never mind she’d really only tasted it. Never mind the agony she still felt in her body. Never mind it was ridiculous to think Rilla Skidmore, seventeen, high school dropout, from Rainelle, West Virginia, could be anything like that. Or even if she could, Thea might at any minute send her home. That woman, immortalized in that moment, was someone Rilla wanted to be, in every line of her forehead and every stretch of a limb.
With a thrill of purpose that made her feet hurt less, she went to the counter.
The man, to his credit, didn’t blink at her socks, lobster boxers, and too-small hoodie. “Can I help you?”
“Yes, sir. I’m just curious. What climb is that picture?” She pointed to the wall.
He didn’t answer right away. A smile twitched on his mouth and he studied the photo. “That’s Lynn Hill on the Nose of El Capitan.” He pointed to the map under the plastic counter. “It’s the first big thing you see when you come down into the Valley. You can’t miss it.”
She remembered staring out the window of Petra’s car, mouth open in awe. At the way Petra had reverently said its name.El Capitan.She hadn’t even realized people could climb something that huge. Half Dome was already in the mountains—it’s base already high. It felt different—somehow more attainable. But El Capitan started in the Valley and rose clean and unhidden. It felt untouchable.
Petra’s wide arms and excited shouting, “This is your backyard”rang in her ears.
Staring at the place the man pointed on the map, a surge of longing ran through her. She could do this. Or at least, she could try. And if she could stay busy climbing and doing schoolwork all summer, she’d be less likely to cross paths with Ranger Dick Face. She’d become a person Thea would be proud of, and make everyone at home regret the way they’d treated her. She’d become a person she wanted to be. She’d find a home ... in California.
Rilla smiled. “Thank you kindly.” Her mind whirred dizzily around a plan.
First, she’d need her own gear. She made a beeline for the back corner where the climbing gear hung on the wall, ticking off a mental list of what she’d seen in Petra’s and Adeena’s packs.Harnesses. Ropes. The pieces of pro that had anchored them to the wall. Carabiners. Quickdraws. Webbing. Shoes.She should start with a harness. Picking one at random, she looked at the price.
$156.99
Her fingers froze, and her throat tightened.
Slowly she let it drop, scanning the rest of the gear on the wall. A harness was incredibly important and probably cost more. One of the little doo-dads couldn’t cost more than that.
She picked a piece of pro like she’d cleaned out of the wall the day before and looked at the tag, praying it wasn’t as bad.
$64.95
Instantly, her brain tried to add up Petra’s sling full of pieces, clinking together like the ring of a cash register. Plus the pile still in her pack.
