“Well, what if you get lost?” he asked.
She growled to herself, her irritation bubbling up. Why wouldn’t he leave her alone? Couldn’t he see that she needed some space?
“I’m sure I’ll be able to find the right direction,” she said.
“The right direction? In the Amazon?” he asked with a laugh that was the equivalent ofyou’ve got to be kidding me. “Come on, Pringles. We literally walked in circles for days before we happened upon the stone table.”
“Happened upon?”Pfft.Now she was aggravated.
“Oh, I’m sorry. How about stumbled upon? Is that better?”
A giant ball of fury soared through Miri’s body.
“Isaid,” she exaggerated, her voice angry and loud as she continued walking straight, “Iknowwhere I’m go—”
Miri was cut off as she walked face-first into a wall of rock blocking their way, practically hidden by moss and leaves. She quickly brought her hand to her forehead.
Ouch.
And a second later, Rafa came through the brush and ran right into her. She would have been pissed if she hadn’t liked it so much, the feel of his hands bracing himself on her waist, as they stood face-to-face with a wall of rock blocking their way.
“You were saying?” he said into her ear.
She shook free from his annoying hands, ignoring the tingling sensation of his breath on her ear.
“I’m fine. I need to get around this wall is all,” she said as she inspected the barrier firmly planted in their way. In one direction, there was a steep drop-off. In the other, the wall extended as far as the eye could see. Perhaps she could walk around it, but she couldn’t tell if that meant walking a hundred feet or a thousand. The remaining options were climbing up and over, skirting around the drop-off by clinging to the side, or turning around. But turning around meant admitting defeat.
“This is silly. Let’s go back,” Rafa said, clearly hoping she’d agree.
But nothing could stop her.
Without any more hesitation, Miri took option B, grabbing hold of whatever knots or protrusions she could as she climbed around the side of the rock wall.
“Pringles, what are you doing?” Rafa asked with a sigh, his exhaustion palpable.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” she said between grunts.
“Okay, Miri, that’s enough. You’re not proving anything to anyone except that you’re willing to get yourself killed to prove your point—whatever point that might be.”
“I’m not trying to prove anything. This is the way I wanted to go.”
Miri didn’t need to see his face to know that Rafa was rolling his eyes, exactly as she’d be doing if the situation were reversed. But WWCMD? Put a boulder in Corrie Mejía’s way and what is she gonna do? She’s going to tackle it, not let it tackle her.
Miri could do the same.
She moved an inch at a time, ignoring Rafa’s protests. Miriwas no expert, but she’d partaken in a few climbing adventures in her day—at the climbing gym. But whatever. It still counted. So what if those involved harnesses, pulleys, and other equipment, all of which were absent in the present situation?
Her heart pounded and her limbs shook.You can do this, she repeated over and over. The only thing Miri had to grab on to now were vines hanging on the rock face. Vines that could snap at any minute.
“Come on, this is dangerous,” Rafa said. “Look. Fine. You know where you’re going. But let’s take another way. How about it?”
“This is nothing,” she grunted. “It’s just like the climbing wall at the gym.”
“You mean one of those walls with the perfectly placed, brightly colored hand- and footholds and thick, giant mats below to cushion the ten-foot fall?”
Miri glanced at the ground below her. Big mistake. The drop was a good fifteen to twenty feet and, as Rafa pointed out,notprotected by plush padding. She quickly snapped her head back to the rock face, no longer able to ignore the sweatiness of her palms.
Except she was in it now. She’d have to keep climbing, whether to make it around the boulder or make it back to Rafa.
