Maine. The moon was out, and Julian’s little white rump bobbed in the surf. They were both afraid of getting caught, but it was early in their relationship, when they felt emboldened by love to commit risqué acts. The dark water pounded and tossed her around, but when she came up sputtering, Julian was right there.
Eventually, Evelyn reached a small cluster of rounded rocks, full of little pools and inlets. She was about to squat when she heard a woman sigh. Evelyn glanced up. Just beyond the rocks, away from the water’s edge, a form shifted on the sand. Two forms, actually, and Evelyn quickly looked away, but not before she saw the woman stretch her arms out to the sides, like a snow angel, as the man moved on top.
Evelyn felt her stomach flutter. She didn’t think they had heard her, but all the same, she had witnessed them. Which was all that mattered here, because it seeded in her a yearning she thought she had disposed of when she dropped the necklace off Navajo Bridge. She flashed back to that night in Maine. She and Julian had been too scared to make love on the beach that night. But down here …
For the rest of the trip, Evelyn kept imagining what it would be like, lying naked on the warm sand, with the sound of the river and a slight breeze and Julian between her legs, whispering terrible, lovely things in her ear.
DAY SEVEN
River Miles 93–108
Granite to Lower Bass
28
Day Seven, Morning
Mile 93
During breakfast the next morning, JT told everyone to look for Ruth’s pillbox, impressing on them the gravity of the situation. Ruth was no practicing Catholic, but she found herself saying a prayer to St. Anthony, patron saint of lost things. She ate quickly and went back and ransacked their tent. She turned their sleeping bags inside out. She pawed through the plastic bag of dirty clothes. She searched through the pockets of all their pants and shorts. Tears stung her eyes, but she blinked them away. She was not, she was not going to let JT evacuate them.
But her search was to no avail, and soon she heard JT calling her. Reluctantly she climbed out of the tent and followed him to a clear space in the sand.
“Sure looks like flesh-eating strep to me,” she declared when he unwrapped the gauze. “In which case it won’t matter if you evacuate us because I’ll be dead by tonight. Might as well die down here where it’s beautiful.” She cringed at her sarcasm. She was acting like a sulky teenager. But she couldn’t help it.
“Lloyd will jump out of the helicopter if you try to evacuate us,” she informed him.
JT sat back. “Look, Ruth. I know it’s your job to think about Lloyd. But it’s my job to think about you and Lloyd and everyone else. I’ve got a trip to run. I’m liable for your health and safety.”
“I’ll sign a release.”
“Ruth. I could lose my license over this. And do you really want to risk having your leg amputated? Who will take care of Lloyd if you’re stuck in a wheelchair?”
It seemed to Ruth that she had reached the very depths of despair, hearing this. She was damned if she stayed and damned if she went. But JT was right. As a responsible adult, she should be thinking of the long-term consequences of her actions.
“I don’t know how I’ll tell Lloyd,” she said.
“If you want, I’ll tell him,” JT said. “I’ll tell him I called my boss, and it’s out of our control.”
“We’ll miss Crystal and Lava,” Ruth said.
JT squeezed warm water over her leg. “You get your leg healed up, and we’ll find you space on another trip this summer.”
He’d gone too far, here; he’d lost his credibility, for they both knew another trip would never happen. But before she could call him on this—and make him feel twice as bad—they looked up to see Susan hurrying toward them.
“It was under a towel in JT’s boat,” she said breathlessly, showing them the pillbox. “I got as many pills as I could find, but the rest were half dissolved. I don’t know what’s what.” She handed it to Ruth. It had been gnawed ragged, and the pills that remained were all mixed up in the various compartments. Ruth dumped everything into the palm of her hand. Greedily she poked through them, separating out four of the oval tablets.
“How many were there supposed to be?” JT asked her.
“Ten.”
“Go