“It’s easier to go in this way,” Todd directed. “Follow me.”
They swam around to the side and pressed their backs against the rock until they could slide into a hollowed-out part of the wall. Slowly inching along, they found a ledge to sit on directly behind the waterfall with the rock overhang sheltering them like a thick black umbrella.
“This is incredible!” Christy said, her words echoing in the cavern. “Look how the water comes down like a thick sheet of glass and then shatters into a billion foaming bubbles when it hits the pool below.”
“There’s a much bigger waterfall about a mile and a half up the trail, and you can go behind that one too,” Todd said, his deep voice resounding in the hollow.
“Let’s go there,” Christy suggested.
“He said it was more than a mile, Christy. You want to walk that far? I think we’d better start to drive back. What time is it?” Paula was shivering and not enjoying the novelty of sitting behind a waterfall at all.
“We probably should get going,” Todd agreed. “If we stay too long, we’ll have to drive that road in the dark.”
“No, thank you!” Paula spouted. “I’m going back to dry off.”
“Can’t we stay a little longer?” David moaned. “I haven’t caught anything yet.”
They followed Todd out past the side of the waterfall, and Christy was amazed at how much easier it was to hear the farther they swam from the crashing falls. Swimming back, Todd agreed to help David try to catch his elusive pet prawn.
The girls dried off, and Paula fished for her camera in Christy’s bag and began to snap a roll of pictures. Christy watched David and Todd hunt for the prawns, which looked like miniature lobsters about three to seven inches long.
The prawns hid themselves well under the rocks, but the lunch meat tied to the string on David’s stick beckoned them to come out of hiding to try to snatch it. Todd and David caught two but lost them before they could lift the string out of the water and grab them.
David decided to stand very still in the water next to the rock and grab the critter before it had time to scamper away. It worked. He caught a big one.
Gleefully splashing his way over to Christy and Paula, David proudly showed off the prize in his fist.
“Get that pinchy thing away from me,” Paula wailed. “It’s gross!”
“He’s my new pet,” David announced. “Sydney the Shrimp.”
“David, you can’t keep that thing,” Paula said.
“Sure I can. I’m going to keep it in the ice chest with some little rocks and water.” David set about turning the empty ice chest into a new home for Sydney.
Paula looked thoroughly annoyed. “Todd, don’t you think we’d better get going? When we first got here lots of other people were around, but now there’s hardly anyone.”
“Good. Not as much traffic.” Todd reached for his towel and backpack and said, “You guys ready?”
Christy scrambled to get her things together and reluctantly slipped her feet back into her cold, soggy tennis shoes.
The four of them waded through the water and over the slippery rocks. The late afternoon shadows darkened the water, making it difficult to find sure footing. David received the assignment of carrying the small plastic ice chest since he had turned it into a prawn playground.
The hike to the parking lot was uphill, and when Christy reached the Jeep, she felt tired and wasn’t at all looking forward to the long ride home. She plopped her beach bag in the front seat, as if to say “Front Seat Reserved for Christy.” Todd and Paula weren’t behind them.
“What are they doing?” Christy asked David as he opened the ice chest to check on his treasure inside.
“Todd said it was some kind of fruit or something, and Paula wanted him to get it. Here. He told me to put his backpack in the car.”
Christy shielded her eyes from the sun and watched as Todd climbed a tree at the far end of the grassy parking lot. It was too far away, and she was too tired to try to join Paula, who stood below the tree, pointing to the clumps of fruit.
When did they take off? And how come I didn’t notice?
Christy decided their delay was to her advantage, and she settled herself in the front seat. She watched them in the rearview mirror.
Todd slid down the tree and handed Paula the fruit, but suddenly he hopped on one foot. Then he grabbed his other foot, and from all Christy could see, he either fell down or lay down. Paula tossed the fruit into the air and dropped to her knees by his side.
“David, what’s going on down there?”
“Where?” David looked around as Christy undid her seat belt.
“I think Todd fell or something.” She got out of her seat, and when she saw Paula frantically running toward her, she broke into a run.
“What happened?”
“Backpack!” Paula shrieked. “Where’s his backpack?”
She ran past Christy to the Jeep.
“David had it!” Christy started running toward the Jeep with Paula, and then on impulse turned and ran toward the tree, where Todd was still lying with his eyes closed.
“What happened? Are you all right?” She fell to her knees and grasped his arm.
Todd opened his eyes and hoarsely said, “Backpack.”
“Paula’s getting it.” Christy glanced over her shoulder. “They’re coming. Here they are.”
She took his hand in hers and squeezed it.
Paula nearly flung the backpack at Christy’s face. “Get it, Christy. He said it’s in there. I can’t do it!”
“What?” Christy yelped frantically. “What happened? What’s in here?”
She tore the zipper open and dumped out the contents.
“A bee!” Paula shrieked. “He got stung, and he’s allergic, and he said he’ll go unconscious unless he gets a shot!”
Christy grabbed a long, yellow plastic container that tumbled out of the backpack.
“It must be this thing,” she said, taking control of the situation. “Todd? Can you do this? Are you okay?”
“Look at his foot!” David shouted.
Todd’s right foot had already swollen to twice its normal size.
“Oh, you guys! What are we going to do?” Paula broke into loud sobs. “Is he unconscious?”
“Chris,” Todd said in a breathy voice, “do you have it?”
Christy popped open the plastic case and removed the hypodermic needle and syringe. “It’s right here. What do I do with it, Todd?”
“Take off the cap and hand it to me.”
“Oh, I can’t look! I can’t look! Needles always make me faint!” Paula turned away, still crying.
“Okay, Todd. Here it is. Can you see this okay? I’m putting it in your hand.” Christy sounded much braver than she felt.
Todd opened his eyes and pulled himself up. Christy quickly moved behind him to prop him up. It felt as though he weighed a thousand pounds. She pressed her shoulder hard against his back to keep him sitting up and closed her eyes while he gave himself the injection.
I feel like I’m going to pass out. Don’t do it, Christy. Take a deep breath.
When Todd’s back pressed even more heavily against her shoulder, she slowly pulled away so he could lie down.
“Is he going to be okay?” David asked in a small, scared voice.
Todd licked his lips. Beads of perspiration dripped off his forehead. He drew in a deep breath and said in a low voice, “Give me another five minutes.” He took a breath. “Then I’ll be fine.”
Paula stopped crying and turned to face the others, sniffing and drying her eyes. “He took off his shoes to climb the tree, and when he was coming down, this huge bee—it had to be as big as a moth—buzzed past my head. The next thing I knew he must’ve stepped on it or something, ’cuz he dropped like he’d been shot or something and told me to get his backpack.”
“Sorry I scared you.” Todd opened his eyes halfway. “I’m allergic to bee stings.”
“Oh, no kiddi
ng!” David said, releasing the tension with his comical voice and face. “We all thought you were taking a nap!”
Todd’s lips pressed together. “If I keep completely still, I stay conscious longer. It takes a little while for the injection to work. I’ll be fine.”
“Do you think you can walk?” Christy asked.
“Sure. I’ll be fine.”
“Christy!” Paula sounded panicked again. “A better question would be, can he drive?”
“Sure. I’ll be fine.” Todd raised himself up on his elbows, blinked his eyes a few times, and shook his head. “If you guys carry my stuff, I think I can make it to the car.”
They took it slowly. Todd tried to hop on his left foot. A painful grimace distorted his face.
“I’ve got an idea,” Christy said. “Paula, go around on his other side. Here, Todd. Put your arms around us. We’ll be your crutches.”
They made it to the Jeep, and Todd wedged his tender foot into place on the gas pedal. David raced to conquer the front seat, leaving Christy and Paula sentenced to share the back one.
At this point, Christy didn’t care where she sat. She could tell by Todd’s expression that even though he said he would be fine, he really wasn’t. He tried hard to sound normal.
“Everybody in? Let’s hit it!” He aggressively pressed his bare foot on the gas, and the Jeep sailed over the bumps in the parking lot and onto the narrow road. Right before the bridge, Todd swung into a small turnout. He looped his arms over the top of the steering wheel as if holding on to it for support and sucked in a deep breath.
“It hurts too much, huh?” Paula asked anxiously, leaning between the two front seats. “You can’t drive, can you? What are we going to do? You guys, I think he’s going to pass out!”
“I’m not going to pass out. I need to elevate my foot for a few more minutes. Maybe we should hang out here another half hour or so.”
“But it’s getting dark!” Paula said frantically. “We have to get over the really rough road while it’s still light. Isn’t that what you said?”
Todd stretched out his still red and swollen foot, propping it on the slim dashboard. “We’ve still got another few hours before the sun sets.”
“Then why is it getting so dark?” Paula moaned.
“What’s that?” David asked, looking up. “Hey, I think it’s starting to rain!”
“Eeeeee!” Christy and Paula both wailed as a sudden attack of rain pellets hammered them.
“Didn’t this Jeep come with a cover?” Christy asked, rummaging through her bag for her sweatshirt.
“Use your beach towels,” Todd instructed, grabbing one off the floor board and draping it over David. “It’ll probably last only a few minutes.”
“Ahhhhh!” Paula cried. “I’m getting drenched!”
Christy pulled her towel over her head and hunched over so that the torrent of rain hit the middle of her back and flowed into puddles on the seat. She thought the whole situation was kind of adventurous and exciting, like a movie she had seen about a woman from New York who got lost in a Colombian jungle and had to hike through the rain and mud with her hero.
Then as instantly as it began, the warm rain turned off, and the not-so-happy adventurers peered out of their beach-towel tents.
“Look at me! I’m soaked!” Paula fussed. “Everything is soaked!”
Todd was especially wet, since he had given his towel to David and braved the gush with only his T-shirt. He roughed up his short hair, sending out a sprinkle of raindrops. Pixie-like rays of returning sunlight danced through the jungle-growth overhead and teased their way into the Jeep, kissing Christy’s damp bare legs with their warmth.
“It smells like, um, like a …” Christy tried to find the right word as she wrung out her towel over the edge of the Jeep. “It smells like …”
“Like Hana after it rains,” Todd finished for her, taking in a deep breath. “Once you smell a tropical forest after the rain, you never forget it.”
“It smells like mildew, you guys!” Paula was now standing up, toweling down her legs, which turned out to be pointless because the towel was wetter than her legs. “We’d better get out of here before another bucket falls on us! Can you drive yet, Todd?”
One look at his foot gave them all the obvious answer. The swelling was not going down, and the redness seemed to be spreading. Todd didn’t answer. They all remained silent, waiting for his conclusion.
Christy broke the silence. “I’ll drive.”
Todd turned and met her clear eyes and sincere smile.
“She can’t drive!” David protested. “She doesn’t know how. You’ll get us all killed! Can’t you drive, Paula?”
“I don’t know how to drive a stick shift!” Paula spouted. “Besides, I can’t see more than three feet in front of me without my glasses, and I didn’t bring them.”
“Christy,” David warned, “you can’t do it.”
Todd kept looking at her. “You don’t have to, you know.”
Christy leaned forward, as if she were talking only to Todd, and said, “I want to. This is my decision. I’m not doing it for you or my dad or anybody else. I’m doing this for me.”
A knowing smile lit up Todd’s face. “This is your bridge, huh?”
“Yep,” Christy answered bravely. “And I’m ready to jump.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Paula asked.
Without answering, Christy scooted around the side of the Jeep and opened the door for Todd.
“Mind if I sit there, dude?” Todd said to David as he hopped around.
David climbed into the backseat, still protesting that Christy would crash the Jeep if Todd let her drive.
Paula started in too, about how they should try to call for help at a phone somewhere, wherever they might possibly find a phone in this remote spot, and maybe if they called 911, someone would send a helicopter to rescue them.
Todd positioned his foot on the dashboard and began to explain the gears to Christy.
“Hey,” he suddenly said, turning to face the two complainers in the backseat, “could you guys cool it?”
They instantly hushed, and Christy listened carefully to Todd’s instructions on operating a gearshift, remembering fairly clearly what they had practiced in driver’s training.
The engine started on her first try, and Todd pressed down on the gearshift and popped it into reverse for her. “Let up slowly on the clutch, and don’t worry about trying to go fast.”
Flashing back to her day in the church parking lot with her dad, she giggled. “Don’t worry. Slow is what I do best.”
Swallowing her giggles and all her nervousness so they landed in her stomach like a big fizzing antacid tablet, she looked over her shoulder. Cautiously letting up on the clutch, Christy pressed slightly on the gas to back up onto the road. The Jeep slipped through the muddy gravel as it powered backward, and Christy slammed on the brakes.
Paula screamed, and David started to plead that they call 911.
Todd ignored them, and placing his hand on top of Christy’s as she held the gearshift, he calmly said, “Good. Now this is first gear, right here. Go ahead and give it some gas.”
She did, and the Jeep lurched forward, spinning mud and spraying all of them with reddish-black mud freckles.
“You’ve got it, Christy!” Todd praised over the sound of Paula’s squawks. “Now put it into second gear, right here.”
He moved her hand down and her Forever bracelet lightly tapped against the metal gearshift.
They rumbled over the bridge, and Todd squeezed her hand, rubbing the chain on the bracelet with his thumb. He didn’t have to say a word. She knew he must be thinking the same thing she was thinking. This was their bridge.
Today they both had changed on this bridge. Todd, for jumping off it, and Christy, for driving over it. It would always be a forever moment for them.
Todd let go, and she placed both hands on the steering wheel in the ten and two positions.
“Should I keep it in second gear?” Christy asked as they bounced over the muddy road.
“Yeah, and don’t try to go any faster. The curves come up quicker than you think.”
Todd was right. The curves kept curving, and the bumps kept bumping. Christy’s jaw began to send out shooting pains because she had clenched her teeth so long. With every breath, she drew in the fragrance that the tropical rain had scattered all around them, and even though she was nervous, she felt happier than she had ever felt before.
The shadows grew, and Christy squinted to see the road, which never seemed to stay in one place. It rose and fell and turned and in some places narrowed so that there was room for only one car. In other places, the passenger side dropped off hundreds of feet down a slide of angry, paralyzed lava that had been forced to stop there years ago by the strong hand of the cool ocean.
For nearly an hour, Christy used every bit of her courage and skill to conquer the Hana road. It was nearly dark when, without warning, the tires hit smooth, straight pavement. They all perked up, knowing they had reached Hana.
“Turn up that way.” Todd pointed to a long driveway by a sign that said Hana Ranch Market. “If they’re still open, we can get some supplies for the ride home.”
“I’ll take anything chocolate,” Paula said. “I feel like I desperately need some chocolate now!”
Todd directed Christy where to turn and where to park, and as soon as she stopped, David and Paula jumped out of the Jeep and ran into the store like released prisoners.
Christy flopped against the back of her seat and let out a gigantic sigh of relief.
“You did it!” Todd straightened his cramped knee and stretched his greatly improved bee-stung foot. “You never stop surprising me, Christy.” He said it firmly and softly while trying to get his stiff legs out the open door. Once he was up on his good leg, he said, “I’m going to call your uncle. I’ll meet you inside.”
Christy relaxed her tensed legs and repeated Todd’s words: “You never stop surprising me, Christy.” From Todd, that was a compliment. Maybe he would never compare her eyes to the Blue Grotto. Maybe he would never take her to a fancy restaurant. But today they had shared an adventure, and Christy knew she would never be the same because of it.