I stepped of the suborbital and took a deep breath. The pine scent of the forest, sweet perfume of flowers and salty air filled my nose.
Cynthia and my father walked up behind us. “Okay kids, have fun. The Land Rovers are over there,” my dad said.
“Be careful,” said Cynthia.
“They’ll be fine. Graham, we’ll be in the lodge if you need us.” He gestured up the hill towards a nondescript building made of wooden logs that looked plucked from the 19th century. “Ping me if anything happens.”
Just like that Amberly and I were alone, and the wilderness was our playground.
“Let’s go Graham!” Amberly smiled and broke into a run towards the rovers. I raced after her, losing ground. A quick sprint was enough to make my sedentary self short of breath. Amberly climbed up into the “driver’s” side. “Hurry up slow poke! We only have the rest of today!”
“Sure thing speedy,” I said as I clambered in the car. She had already directed the rover to start moving and I swung myself over the door into the seat next to her. “Already know our destination?”
“I’ve been studying the maps of the Preserve since my mom gave me access a few months ago. I have our entire day planned. If we keep on schedule we can cover 65% of this place by sundown.”
“As long we get to the Jaguars.” I’d been fixated on the beautiful cats lately.
“You know the jags aren’t native to these islands?” Amberly looked at me with a slight frown. I started to dread ever earning her disapproval.
I stuck my tongue out at her, childish fool that I was. “Of course I do. Nothing in the Preserve is truly native. But the jags would be dead if they weren’t here, or at best trapped in a cage somewhere.”
“Well, I guess you’re in luck. They are second on the tour, after the waterfall.” A twinkle in her eye, she stuck her tongue out back at me.
The Land Rover climbed up the nearest mountain. The trees were the tallest plants I’d ever seen. I smelled for the first time the pungent scent of decaying leaves and needles as they slowing became compost. I now recognize all of those smells, but at the time everything was novel and unexplained. Small animals ran at the sounds of branches crunching under our tires. A flash of gray there and brown here. Birds took flight. I recorded everything my eyes could take in and my mind scrambled to mentally mark every animal I saw to review and classify it later. Every few minutes Amberly would let out a squeal of delight and point to something scurrying into the nearest brush. That squeal was adorable, and I would later spend years chasing it, trying to pry it loose from her.
The rover crested a rise in the hell. The air became humid and thick. A steady roar pounded my ears as the rover came to a stop near the top of the rise. Amberly hopped out before we came to a stop. Shaking my head, I figured I would be one step behind all day. I started chasing after her. She stopped short and I ran into her at top speed. We tumbled to the ground, arms and legs intertwined and rolled down the hill, coming to rest in the shallow water.
Amberly disentangled her arms and legs, sat up and smoothed her wet hair back behind her head. Turning to me, she said “Look, Fish!”
Little pieces of silver darted around, flashing between our legs and fleeing to deeper water. I let out a long sigh and started to giggle. Surrounded by beautiful, novel things, I had let my fear of one of those beautiful things get the best of me. My eyes followed the sliver darters as they swam away. When I looked up, there was the source of the roar and the reason Amberly had stopped in her tracks.
A wide rushing torrent of water plunged over the edge of a steep hill in front of us, that fell 25 meters vertically onto a jagged outcropping of rocks. The spray flung mist into the air, which fragmented the sunlight into a small rainbow. A deep clear pool extended past the outcropping of rocks.
“Whew.” I let out a long low whistle.
“Agreed,” Amberly said. “Say, since we are already wet, might as well take advantage.”
“I’m up for a swim!” I said.
“Who said anything about swimming, let’s go for a dive!” Amberly splashed out of the water.
“It uh…um, looks high,” I said and swallowed hard.
“Are you afraid?”
“Of course not!” I was terrified. “I’m worried about you. Are you sure you can jump far enough from the ledge?”
“We’ll find out now, won’t we? Do I have to do this alone?”
“Diving it is. Race to the top?” I ran out of the water and up the side of the hill. My shoes collected mud as I slipped and slid past Amberly. I kept moving, because if I stopped to think about my actions I wouldn’t have kept going. Deep down, I was a coward, but that didn’t mean that I had to look like one.
I reached the rough rock handholds that led up to the top of the falls and Amberly yelled, “Don’t slip, I’d hate to have to carry you back!”
Over the roar of the falls, I could barely hear her. I climbed anyway. She arrived just after I started and I could hear her breathing below me. I put one hand over the other. The spray forced my eyes half shut and made all of my clothes completely wet. I looked down to see Amberly was pressed to the rock, her hair plastered to her face with wet clothes that clung to her body. Her mouth was pulled tight in a line while she concentrated. She looked for the next handhold and caught my eyes.
“Don’t stare too hard, you’ll slip and fall!” Amberly grinned.
My face flushed crimson and I kept climbing. Pulling myself over the top, I was finally on flat ground. The pond spread out in front of me, and I had a clear view down to the lodge and even out further to the towering dikes and barely visible dome rising into the sky.
“Some help?” Amberly was one handhold from the top, her knuckles scraped and bleeding from the climb. I reached down, grabbed her hands and pulled. For the second time that day, we landed in a heap of tangled legs and arms.
“Ready to jump?” Amberly said. The word jump trailed off, as Amberly ran towards the edge mid-sentence. She planted her foot on the wet, apparently slick rock near the edge of the falls and jumped. She sailed through the air, a loud scream mixing with the roaring water. She hit the water a few feet past the rocks and plunged to the depths of the pond.
I counted to five. Amberly remained beneath the surface, all trace of her obscured by the turbulent water above her. I worried until arose with a splash and whipped her wet hair back behind her.
“That was fun! Your turn!”
I ran toward the edge, feet slipping in my soaked shoes, aiming to plant my right foot just short of the edge and jump forward. I made the last step and leapt. Pulling my feet to my chest I yelled, “Cannonball!”
Smack! I hit the water like it was concrete. My back stung with the impact. At least I had splashed Amberly. I came up for air grinning.
“Again?” Amberly said.
“I’ll try anything once. That doesn’t need to be done a second time though. Look at my hands!” I help them out as I tread water. My palms were raw from the rock and my knuckles bled.
“Hmm…” Amberly drew her mouth into a tight line. “I suppose you are off the hook, there is plenty else to do.”
“One thing first.” I swam up and pushed Amberly under the water. What can I say? I was fourteen. The dunk was followed by a swift swim to the shore.
“Come back here, jerk!” Amberly said as she spit water. Amberly’s face was bright red and yet she chuckled as she came to shore. If I wasn’t so insecure, I’d have thought she enjoyed my company.
“And now the Jaguars?” I said as she drew close.
“Yep, just help me out of the water.” She reached up and without thinking, I took her hand. She yanked me over her head.
“Turnabout is fair play.” A mischievous grin flashed across her face. I sat in the water for a minute. “Quit sulking and hurry! We have lots to see. The jaguars are just over the next hill. She pointed past the falls.
“Let’s go.” I took off running, Amberly by my side. She looked beautiful in the sun, dripping wet and running through trees I’d never seen before and over bushes I hadn’t known existed. A fourteen year old would say I had fallen in love. And adult would say that I had become infatuated.
At the top, she raised her hand to my chest, signalling for a stop. “Pull up your map, the Jaguars are all tagged. I see three that are only one hundred meters to the west. Got them?”
I nodded, down the hill and in a valley off to our left was a convergence of yellow dots that I could see over land on my vision. “Yes. Let’s go!”
We sprinted until we were close. At the lip of the valley, we slowed to a quiet creep. We wanted to see the Jaguars, but not scare or enrage them. The two of us stared. There was a mother Jaguar with black fur and bright blue eyes with two small kittens. One black kitten was a copy of its mother and then there was a kitten with white fur and red eyes. Amberly started to crawl closer. I grabbed her ankle. “Amberly, stop.”
“Graham, I’m going in for a closer look. You can’t stop me.”
I released by grip. Apparently her wish was my order. Amberly climbed down towards the little family. The mother tilted her nose up and sniffed the air. Amberly froze. The large black jaguar turned and looked at her. She opened her mouth to reveal sharp teeth and roared with an intensity that rivaled the roar of the waterfall.
Amberly turned to run, but it was too late. The jaguar leaped towards her after half a dozen strides. We screamed … and the jaguar fell to the ground, writhing in convulsions. The governors that let us track the jaguars had knocked the cat out when it sensed proximity to Amberly.
Tears streamed down her cheeks and Amberly ran.
“Amberly, it’s okay! You are okay!” I said as I ran after her. I could hear her sobs as I chased her. She hadn’t gone forty strides when she tripped over a tree root and rolled to a stop in some shrubs. I ran up, sat down next to her and placed my arm around her. “It’s okay, the Jaguar can’t hurt you.”
“I’m not crying for me you imbecile!” Her face turned red and I felt her pull away. “I’m crying for the cat.”
“The jaguar will be okay, that was a non-lethal shock.”
“And you think that makes it okay? The jaguar is tuck here, nearly alone in a strange habitat and learning that it is helpless to defend its kittens in the face of any dumb human. That is not okay.” Her eyes glared at me.
“Sorry. I understand, I think.”
“Do you?”
“Yes, it shouldn’t be necessary for the Jaguar to be trapped and collared. Even if the collar is invisible.”
“We need to help them. We have to free the little bit of wilderness that is left here. This is all that is left in all the world.” Her eyes, shone, tear tracks down her cheeks still fresh and eyes red and puffy. She grabbed me by my shirt and stared into my eyes. “Promise me. Promise you’ll help.”
I took a deep breath. “I promise.” At that, Amberly leaned into me, tilted her head and pressed her soft lips to mine. Startled, I nearly missed my first kiss.
“Remember you promised.” She leaned in again, kissed me one last time and collapsed in my arms, her adrenaline spent. I let her rest there, asleep in my arms, until I had to ping my father to come find us.
roughlywriting 