He replaced his superficially damaged helmet on his head because it would keep both his scalp and face warmer, and it would protect him from any small rocks that fell off the side of the mountain.
With the most precious of their medical supplies safely stowed in his backpack, Maxence hitched it up around his shoulders and began his forty-mile hike. He didn’t think he had six hours of sunlight left. Most likely, he would need to make camp at least one night, alone, out in the hinterlands of Nepal.
He had shoved his gloved hands into his pockets for warmth, so he couldn’t pull out his phone to read one of the daytime prayers of the Holy Office. Since he thought that he was probably in mortal danger from hypothermia, the Jewish law ofPikuach Nefesh,which is the principle that saving a specific human life overrides every other tenant of the Torah, applied to his situation. God would probably forgive that he had replaced saying specific Psalms ascribed to the day with ardent prayer because he suspected that even moving his hands from his pocket to hold his phone might cause a drop in his body temperature that might lead to his death.
He kept to the side of the road with the rock wall. If a supply truck came, there was a good chance he could leap on some rocks to signal them to stop and rescue him, or he could at least keep a large rock between himself and the truck so it wouldn’t run him over.
If he’d walked on the cliff-side of the road, his choice would have been allowing the truck to run him over or leaping to his probable death down the sheer, rocky face of the mountain.
He had walked for about five minutes, hiking steadily, when in the far distance, he heard the distinct rumble of an engine.
Excellent.He’d heard it coming from far enough away that he could find a safe place from which to signal them or to avoid being run over.
Within a minute, he reached a small pile of fallen rubble, and he climbed upon it to use as a vantage perch.
The truck’s roar amplified as it neared. The grumbly wail of the engine suggested that it was probably large and diesel, so there was a chance he would be riding in the cab of a delivery truck rather than the bed of a pickup. The wind in a pickup bed might have chilled him too much.
The truck’s sound intensified. The vehicle must be directly around the corner.
Maxence readied himself to raise his arms and yell.
Instead of a truck, five Royal Enfield motorcycles raced around the corner, spraying gravel over the edge of the road into the canyon on the other side.
A red-and-white-clad figure drove the motorcycle in the lead, her body clinging tightly to the bike for speed.
As Maxence raised his arms, the lead motorcycle braked hard, nearly laying the bike down. The tiny rider flailed one foot at the kickstand, managing to hook it with her ankle, and then leaped off the motorcycle and barreled into him.
Her helmet slammed into Maxence’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him.
He stumbled backward, gasping, and slipped down the back of his rubble pile.
Dree’s voice sounded tinny from inside her helmet. “Maxence, Maxence! What happened to you? I looked back, and you weren’t there. When I looked in my rearview mirror, I saw three bikes instead of four, and I freaked out and I turned around to come find you.”
Maxence managed to suck a tiny bit of air into his lungs, and he coughed.
“I rode as fast as I could, but the stupid dirt roads are so slippery. I almost went over the side one time, but I didn’t slow down. I came to find you as soon as I could. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry we lost you. Oh my God, what happened to you?”
At that point, Maxence had managed to suck in half a lungful of air, and he told Dree, “I’m all right.”
Dree yanked off her helmet and dropped it at their feet. She grabbed him around the midsection, hugging him so hard that drawing another breath seemed impossible. “I’m so sorry! What happened?”
Maxence patted her arm. “I’m okay. Let me breathe.”
“I looked back and you were gone!” She burst into tears.
He untangled her arms from around his waist and bent down to eye-level with her. “Dree,chérie. I’m all right.”
“Tell me what happened to you!”
“A rock rolled down the side of the mountain and onto the road. It hit my front tire and knocked me over.”
“Where’s your motorcycle? I kept imagining you at the bottom of that stupid ravine, dead.”
“The motorcycle is a few minutes down the road, in several pieces. The front tire is in the ravine.”
She grabbed him with both arms around his chest and buried her face in his shoulder.
Maxence wrapped his arms around her, cradling her against his chest. Her body was shaking, and he murmured anything he could think of near the pink shell of her ear, assuring her that he was fine, telling her that nothing could ever happen to him or her, and just trying to make it all right.
