He knows what to do. All three of my grad students know. Unless it looks like I can’t lift my inhaler at all, they’re to just monitor my breathing and make sure I don’t pass out.
After the world’s longest minutes ever, the weight sitting on my chest lessens, and I lift my head to meet Isaiah’s concerned gaze.
I nod, hoping he’ll understand I’m okay. Or at least heading in that direction. Talking is still kind of risky, and there’s no way I can continue the hike. My entire body feels like it’s shaking, even though I know I’m not.
Isaiah pulls out the two-way radio and flips it on. “Li, can you suit up for measurements?” he asks. There’s no cell signal up in the mountains, but the radios work until we go through the crevasse. “Dr. Mik had an attack. Tell Corey to come too. He can get her back to the hotel while we take today’s readings.” He rattles off our coordinates, then helps me to my feet and over to a flat rock just off the trail. “Do you need a doctor?”
“No.” My voice is hoarse, but audible, and my cheeks catch fire as I realize just how much mud seeped into my pants. “Sorry. Don’t know why today—“
“We got this, Dr. Mik. It’ll all be fine.” Isaiah is always optimistic. There’s something about being twenty-six that makes guys feel like they’re on top of the world. Indestructible. He’s not even wearing a light jacket under his poncho. Just a base layer over hiking pants. “How’s your heart rate?”
Checking my watch, I take a slow, relatively deep breath and wait for the number to flash on screen. “Ninety-three. Passable after an attack. I’ll be fine. I can set up the slides while you and Li download the day’s readings and check on the hybrids we planted last week.”
He shakes his head. “Nope. Corey’s driving you back to the hotel.”
“I don’t need—”
“Yes. You do. Taking one afternoon off won’t put us behind. Once Corey drops you off, he’ll come back here and we’ll stay until we get everything done. You’re the boss, Dr. Mik, but we can handle this. I promise.”
All three students are geniuses. Isaiah and Li have the highest grades in their respective programs, and while Corey’s GPA isn’t quite as impressive, he’s driven in a way I’ve rarely seen.
I’ll take the afternoon. Rest. Maybe try to read a book if I can focus on the words. And once my body calms down, run some of the numbers from the past few days.
“Fine,” I mutter, dropping my head into my hands.
Ten minutes later, Isaiah pushes to his feet and peers down the side of the mountain. “There they are.”
Li and Corey scramble up the last few meters, both breathing heavily, and Li hands me a travel mug of coffee. Instant, but at least it’s caffeine. And hot.
“We’ll handle everything,” she says with a reassuring smile.
I can only nod, and Corey picks his way over a patch of loose rocks in the center of the trail before offering a hand to help me to my feet.
I groan, but they’re so dedicated, it’s hard to be angry with them. Still, I can’t let them take on all of my work. “When we get back to the lab, transfer this morning’s readings to a USB drive so I work after I take a nap.”
“You don’t have to do everything, you know. That’s why you brought us with you.” Jake holds a branch out of the way so I don’t have to duck under it, and I nod my thanks.
He’s right. And I should have known better than to push myself today. My breathing was slightly strained when I woke up this morning. The particular combination of temperature and humidity we’re currently experiencing in Chiapas is risky for me, but I hate not being able to be out in the field myself. And my students know it.
The trip down the mountain takes forever—both because the mist has turned to rain and because I don’t have the energy to keep up any sort of decent pace. Corey takes my arm from time to time to help me over a fallen branch or slippery patch of mud, and I can tell there’s something on his mind.
“You okay?” I ask when we reach the trailer that’s served as our temporary base camp for the past ten days.
Corey shrugs as he grabs the keys for the Land Rover. “Sure.”
“That’s not an answer.” My backpack feels like it weighs fifty pounds, and before I climb into the vehicle, I take my poncho and spread it out over the seat so all the mud caking my pants and plastering them to my skin doesn’t destroy the rental car.
Ick.The feel of sludge seeping deeper into my butt crack makes me shudder, and I can’t wait to get back to the hotel so I can shower. And then try to sleep off these jitters.
We don’t speak again until we turn onto the main road fifteen minutes later. “How are things at home?” I venture when the silence gets to be too much.
He clutches the steering wheel so hard, his knuckles turn white. “Quiet.”
Underneath the pounding headache and nerves, warning bells go off. Things with Corey’s father are never quiet. “You know I understand, right?”
“No, you don’t,” he says sharply. “Not really.” The venom in his voice shocks me, and I turn to stare out the window, the lush green landscape practically untouched save for the two lane paved road and the occasional small house or old barn. So much of Chiapas is undeveloped, though it boasts some of the most interesting ruins and caves in this region of Mexico.
Eventually, he sighs. “That was out of line.”
