The Long Way

“Let’s take the back way so I can spend a little more time with you.” Sean said as he whipped the car down the side road. It wasn't a question. He was direct and to the point. Jaimee liked when he took command.

“Oh sappy and sentimental Sean. I like it.” She teased.

“You’re going to be gone two whole months, that deserves a little sentiment, don’t you think?” Sean’s eyes looked distant.

She could tell he was upset that she was going to be gone so long, but he was trying to hide it from her. She had known him long enough to realize he didn't like to put on a face for anyone. Always the optimistic. She loved that about him more than anything. She remembered when they were still on drugs and he was living in his car, even during the dead of winter, he never complained about anything. His spirit was always fighting to see the best of every situation and, for the first time, she understood how his constant optimism would be great on her journeys. She wished he were going too.

“I love taking a ride with you, baby. Let’s go anyway you want. We left early anyways.” She wanted every second she could have with him.

As the rough terrain ahead started making the Tahoe jiggle a bit, she was reminded of another adventure. “Did I ever tell you about the time I went whitewater rafting and tour guide passed out?” She knew she had not ever mentioned it to him. For some reason they hadn't talked about most of these adventures. She knew as long as he accepted the worst part of her he didn't have to know this outgoing part of her, but why had she never thought of sharing these things with him before? Perhaps it was for the same reason he didn't talk about his chess competitions. Because they didn't think the other would relate to the story.

“Say what? The tour guide passed out? What did y’all do?” He said, sounding perplexed.

“We panicked is what we did! But we kept it together. It was a big, round eight man raft. Luckily, though it was the first time for 5 of us, 2 of the rafters were quite experienced and one of us newbies was a nurse.”

“You get into some precarious situations. So then what happened?” Sean sounded totally enthralled with the story already. They were stuck in the car together, but by the sound of it, he didn't want to go anywhere.

“As the rapids got swift and scary the two experienced rafters took control and prepared to guide us to safety while the nurse tried to assess the situation with our guide. He was still breathing, so no mouth to mouth was necessary. We just couldn’t figure out what had happened. As we tossed and turned and tried to stay safely in the vessel, our guide woke up. Though it took him a minute to realize what was happening. He apologized and said he hadn’t eaten that day and the heat must have gotten to him. The sun was beating down on us. It was hotter than the hinges on the gates of Hell that day! As we were calming down about our guides health, our local experts threw a wrench into our happy ending.” Jaimee was getting into telling the story. It had been many years, but she remembered it like it was yesterday. The clean smell of the water. The sun burning down on them in the early hours. It was beautiful, mesmerizing and terrifying.

One of the experts spoke, “A tree has fallen ahead and caused a swirling hydraulic. I don’t know if I can keep us out of it. Or I could hit the tree and that might not be better.”

"A swirling hydraulic? What on earth is tha?" Sean was actually listening and interested. She wished she had shared all these stories with him sooner.

Jaimee explained the situation to Sean to the best of her ability. “Getting trapped in a hydraulic could mean certain death for us all. It could tip the boat and drown us all or keep us swirling indefinitely. Or running into the tree could damage the raft and hurt us from the branches. Then the tour guide looked and said dear Lord, there’s a huge boulder on the other side. We have nowhere to go. So we were all either crying and panicked or like me, in complete shock.”

“What did you do?” He demanded, excitedly.

“I said, get it together people, we don’t have time to cry. Let’s find a way out of this now! Though the momentum of the rapids was carrying us at a terrific speed toward Scylla and Charybdis, you know a rock and a hard place, I knew we had to bail somehow, but how? So I asked the guide what he had in his backpack. He was still a bit out of it, so before he could answer I opened it and started rummaging and found a grappling hook and long rope and formulated a plan.”

“That’s my girl, go on.” He was almost forgetting to keep his eyes on the road, he was so interested in the story. "I can't believe you never told me this before! You are a total badass, babe! No wonder you want to climb Mount Everest. You've done everything else! You are fucking incredible! Sorry, I got carried away. Hurry, go on with the story."

“I didn’t think I had the strength or accuracy to throw the grappling hook to somewhere sturdy on the bank to get it to stay so I asked someone else if they could do it. That’s when this teenage boy stepped forward and said, ‘I’ve got it!’ I stepped back and handed him the gear. I didn’t have time for doubt.”

Jaimee stopped her story long enough to take a drink of water and then continued, “The young man looked along the bank for a second and found another fallen tree. It looked pretty solid, but it was near the water. The youth looked at me and said, ‘I can hit that tree no problem, but if it’s rotten and I don’t get a good, strong hold, I’ll have failed us all.’ I told him we had no time to worry about failure to go for it. He asked us to step on each side and get out of his way and we did as we were told, the guide telling us to hurry! He swung and threw, and it landed! He pulled back hard and it stuck! Now it was time for all of us to grab hold and play a tug of war game for our lives! We pulled and pulled and though at first our vessel fought hard against our efforts, eventually we could feel the raft gliding slowly toward the waters edge. We pulled and tugged and I could feel the rope slicing into my hand as I kept tugging it to reach our destination. After all, our lives depended on it. As my arms felt they would give out and my legs felt like they would buckle we got to the edge. The strongest men held on as the rest of us jumped out then they trailed behind us. When the last man jumped off, the raft sailed away, hit the tree that had fallen in the water and busted to smithereens. Thank God we made it off just in time.”

“Quite a story! I can’t wait til you get back to tell this one. It’s going to be outrageous!” Sean said. “But when you get home, we will be ready to hear all about it! We will be counting down the days til you return.”

After taking the long way, they both felt better for it and it did make all the difference. They finally reached the airport, checked her bags and waited for the boarding to begin.

“I wish you were going with me,” said Jaimee.

“Yeah but I’ve told you about these crazy adventures you take, they aren’t for me. That’s crazy white people shit. I’m black and not that crazy.” Sean laughed to ease her nerves and keep her from being sad before her departure.

The flight started boarding and tears started to form in her eyes. Sean put his arms around her and gave her a tight hug. “Have your epic adventure, but come home to me safe and sound baby. I love you.”

“Love you right back. Hold the fort down while I’m gone, Sean!”

“See you soon!”

And after a kiss she followed the other passengers down the long hallway to the plane. Yearning for her next high, she smiled at the stewardess and got ready to climb her next mountain.