I started to stand up, feeling the uneven river rocking beneath the raft. “At the beginning. Before that first drop.”
Emma’s jaw dropped. “What?Why didn’t you stop? That was miles back.”
I stepped into the frigid water, my foot slipping atop a rock. I leaned forward, catching myself on the raft, thinking of how cold it must’ve been when Courtney went in.
“We tried,” Beth said, getting out of our raft behind me. “We were shouting at you, but you were too far ahead to hear us over the river.”
“Shit.” Emma stepped ashore and pulled her raft onto the riverbed. “At least she’s a strong swimmer.”
Emma turned to Gigi, who was still in her raft. “So, you haven’t seen her since she fell?”
I looked to Gigi, who shook her head as she climbed out of her raft. “No.”
Emma helped Gigi pull her raft onto the bank. “Let’s leave the rafts here. We’ll move faster without them.”
The four of us walked along the uneven riverbed, slowing to step over the logs and boulders that blocked our path.
I turned to the others. “We need to move faster.”How long would Courtney last in that freezing river before getting hypothermia?I tried not to dwell on how long it had been since she’d fallen from the raft. Too long.
I blamed myself for not being more adamant—like Beth—about us needing to wear life jackets.What if Courtney got stuck under a logjam or fallen tree? What if she drowned?I pushed those thoughts from my mind. Like Emma said, Courtney was a strong swimmer, and we were carried downstream fast in our rafts. Courtney probably swam to shore before that first drop-off.
I imagined Courtney, soaking wet, making her way along the river’s edge. Pissed that it took us so long to come back for her.
“What if we can’t find her?” Gigi asked.
“We will,” Beth said. “We need to stay positive.”
Gigi was quiet for a few steps. When I glanced at her, her face was starkly pale. Her expression seemed to turn grimmer with each step.
“Do you think she could’ve ...” Gigi’s voice wobbled. “You know. Drowned?” Gigi looked between the rest of us, appearing desperate for an answer.
While we were all worried about Courtney, the terror in Gigi’s brown eyes made me wonder.
Beth turned. “Courtney? No. It would take more than a river to take her down. She’s one of the strongest swimmers I know.”
“Me too,” I agreed. I thought of all the times we’d swum in the indoor pool at the Sequim rec center. Courtney had been beating us at swim races and laps ever since we were kids. Until last year, she had been on the swim team. She’d quit, but not because she wasn’t good. She’d held a state record in the fifty-yard freestyle. But some of the meets had conflicted with volleyball. And volleyball was what Courtney was passionate about.
“This is all my fault,” Gigi said as we came around a bend.
There was still no sign of Courtney.
“Hang on.” Emma started to climb a mossy boulder along the side of the river before I could ask Gigi what she’d meant.
“I’ll be able to see a ways upriver from the top of this thing.”
The rest of us waited for Emma to climb it. She was nearly to the top when her hiking boot slid on a wet patch of moss. She landed on the rock with her kneecap and cried out in pain.
“Emma!” Gigi yelled as Emma skidded down the side of the boulder, landing on a bed of river rocks.
Blood dripped from Emma’s knee as Gigi rushed toward her. Emma got up and grimaced, grabbing her knee as she fell to the rocky ground. She tilted her head toward the patchy sky, where a bald eagle soared overhead, and squinted her eyes shut as she wrapped both hands around her injured leg. “Ahh!”
Gigi crouched beside her as Beth and I exchanged a wary look.
“Can you stand if I help you?” Gigi grabbed Emma’s arm.
Emma nodded, wincing as Gigi helped pull her to her feet. Emma planted her injured leg on the ground before withdrawing it into the air. “It hurts to put weight on it.”
“I’ll help you back to our rafts,” Gigi said, then glanced over her shoulder at Beth and me. “You guys go. I’ll stay here with Emma. But be careful.” Her eyes seemed to send an additional warning:We can’t lose anyone else.
