At her obvious indignation, I nearly burst out laughing. “Tell you what.” I make a small effort to soothe her feathers. “You save me. I’ll save you.”
“You fall in, and I’ll save your sorry ass Forrester.” This from Carter. “I could use some free publicity.”
“How about none of us fall in?” The other girl– Kendra– pipes up.
“That works for me.” Rico’s eyes never leave the river.
Our first set of rapids is class three, according to Rico. I ask him how many times he’s done this run. He says hundreds. Probably thousands.
Us amateurs hear the soft roar before it comes into view. It sounds like a strong breeze blowing through the trees. As we near the white crests, the volume increases, sounding more like a waterfall. As we ease into it, my heartrate increases. The girls scream as our boat dips into the drop.
It’s more technical than I imagined. Rico avoids rocks but steers us into particular rapids to enhance the ride. Water splashes over the boat, over my head. It’s fucking cold, but my blood pumps fast enough it doesn’t bother me. When the river smooths out, leaving the rapids behind us, I’m having fun. Better than a roller coaster. It’s a major rush. We high five each other and Bill tosses us all a beer.
“That was awesome!” Macey’s fears have fled and her friend… Kendra, looks more at ease now too. Macey hasn’t given up on me. Considering I have no real interest, I find her nearly as amusing as she is annoying. She leans into me whenever she gets the chance. She’s slid right up behind me a few times, pretending it’s an accident.
Jesus Christ.
We ride through a few more class threes, and by now the girls have had more than a few beers. I switched to water after my first. I’m just not into that scene right now.
It surprised me. The lack of interest I have for the easy girl, the buzz.
The two docs are pretty cool. And Kendra seems almost apologetic for her friend. She admits to me that she’s studying music at CU Boulder.
Overall, our little crew has become something of a team.
The ice is broken. I imagine Charlie encouraging this sort of “bonding.”
In my mind, I picture a pre-pregnancy Charlie on the raft with me. She’s likely done this run dozens of times. Only I can’t dwell on her, now. We’re coming up on our first section of class fours.
Before I can scope it out myself, I notice Rico’s concerned frown. Gotta respect this dude. I glance downstream. One of the boats up ahead has flipped.
“Hey, guys.” The tone of his voice grabs our attention. “We may need to be part of a rescue effort.” Rescue? Shit. At this point, I’m glad I’m not drinking. These rapids seem a lot bigger than what we just came through. I follow Rico’s gaze and see at least three yellow life vests bouncing around in the foamy crests. One looks like it may be a kid.
“Listen guys. Do exactly as I say.” Rico’s eyes are pinned down stream.
I’m alert. Ready to do what needs done. I can’t imagine swimming in these churning, raging waves.
We drop into a hole and the translucent peak of a wave looms over the boat.
“Dig in! Now! Hard!” Rico shouts above the roaring cauldron of crashing waves. I’m rowing hard. Our craft jerks and Kendra slams into me. I grab her before the water pulls her in. She’s flailing in the middle of the boat as I dig my oar into the river. We’re on top of the giant rapid. I can barely reach my paddle into the water. Feels like it’s six feet below the boat.
“Colt!” Rico’s yelling at me. “Grab him when we go by. We only have one shot.” I barely hear his words before I see the glossy head of a kid bobbing just ahead of the boat. Bigger rapids materialize downstream. And rocks. Lots of rocks.
I shove my paddle under the seat, lock my feet, and lean down. The kid’s eyes are fucking saucers. He’s scared to death. He’s too far away. “Swim to me! Come on kid, swim!” My voice spurs him into action. Almost. Almost.
I grab hold of the top of his life jacket and fling him onto the boat. Now both the kid and Kendra are tumbling around helplessly on the rubber floor. One of the other guys pulls Kendra into her position. Rico’s eyes remain focused up ahead. Grim but determined.
“Another one!” he shouts. We drop about ten feet and dip behind another swell of the raging river. I feel like Rico’s steered us closer to a wall than he normally would. This swimmer is a woman. Her eyes are closed. I lock my feet in again and hang over the side. She doesn’t appear to be conscious.
“Closer, man!” I shout without letting her out of my sight. “Closer!” The wave breaks on us as my fingers wrap around her vest. I heft her into our boat just in time to prevent both of us from being swallowed by the wave.
Somehow, we make it through the rapid set and then everything falls eerily calm. Rico steers the boat into an eddy while one of the surgeons attends to the limp woman. Rico shouts at other guides. Telling them we got two.
Eventually, word spreads that all the swimmers are out. The other boats assist in righting the capsized craft, but we’re heading for the next take-out. When the woman comes to, relieved laughter breaks the tension. The kid’s okay. The woman’s okay. We all breathe sighs of relief.
Rico slaps me on the back, shaking his head. “You’re fucking amazing,” he says to me. “I can’t believe you’ve never done this before.”
I’m so impressed with this guy, I can hardly stand it. He kept his head, kept his boat upright, and maneuvered exactly where we needed to go. I toss him a beer. “Ditto,” I tell him with a grin.
