“It’s pretty up here, but in a different sort of way from what I’m used to. There aren’t any trees,” she said.
Drake shook his head, unable to speak. His head pounded with each step he took and his shallow breaths couldn’t quench his thirst for oxygen. Maybe I should have waited a few more days to get over my jetlag before embarking on this hike.
“Do you think it will rain?” Roxie asked, pointing to the grey clouds
“No, that’s smoke. The crater of the volcano lies just below those jagged peaks,” he pressed out.
“Will we be able to see down into it?” Roxie was all but hopping up and down with excitement and despite his own fatigue, he had to smile.
Where did that woman get her energy? Sure, he carried the heavy load, but he was in very good shape and should be able to keep up with her without even blinking. Not today.
“If we reach the top, we can. But it all depends on the weather. We’ll decide in the morning,” he said.
“Feel the freedom up here?” he asked after a while, wanting something to focus on besides his increasing dizziness.
“It’s awesome.” Her gaze wandered across the landscape. “Back at home, I felt trapped. Encaged. Right after college I found a full-time teaching position. It’s not that I don’t like my job, I do, but it seemed…boring. There must be more to life than doing the same things year in, year out. Charlene, my girlfriend back home, calls it wanderlust. I don’t care what it’s called; I needed to shake things up a bit.”
“So, is it living up to your expectations?” Drake asked.
He had the wanderlust in his bones, too. Not as much as his brother River who never spent more than a few weeks in a location. Drake was content to do one or two excursions per year and spend the rest of the time in his University office. But without the excursions? He’d be bored to death.
“If you had asked me that last week, I probably would have said it wasn’t.” Roxie looked at him and looked away. “But now, it most definitely is. In fact, it’s meeting expectations I didn’t even know I had. I never in my wildest dreams considered hiking up the side of a volcano.”
“Be careful. The hiking bug will get you and you’ll find yourself doing all sorts of strange things. My cousin, Patrick Armstrong…” Drake chuckled.
“Wait! Patrick Armstrong…the famous photographer and film guy?”
“Yes. That one. Have you seen some of his stuff?”
Roxie rolled her eyes. “Everyone’s seen his stuff. It’s been on the cover of National Geographic more times than I can remember and he had a special on television not too long ago. I can’t believe he’s your cousin.”
“Well, he is and he tells some crazy stories.” Drake stopped to gather his breath. According to his GPS, they’d made it halfway to the second shelter.
“I bet he does. That man is so awesome.” Roxie swooned.
“His girlfriend Angela wouldn’t like to hear you gushing,” he said, teasing her.
“I mean his pictures are.” She blushed and for a moment he forgot his pounding headache. He loved the bloom on her cheeks and knowing he’d put it there.
The climb was becoming steeper and conversation was exchanged for breathing. They reached the second shelter in the early afternoon. Storm clouds had rolled in over the last hour and the temperature had dropped significantly.
“We’ll stay here for the night and attempt the ascent to the summit first thing in the morning.” He frowned and stared up to the sky. “I don’t like the look of those clouds. With the way the temperature is dropping, we could be in for snow instead of rain.”
Drake removed his backpack and plopped down on a wind-sheltered bench. Roxie sat beside him and he handed her a bottle of water. “Drink. Even though it’s not hot today, hiking can dehydrate you along with the altitude.”
She nodded and finished half of the bottle before handing it back to him. Drake emptied the bottle, but as he stood to put it away, a wave of dizziness swamped him and he staggered for a moment.
“Hey, are you okay?” Roxie asked.
Drake shrugged. “Jetlag. Nothing to worry about.”
It was a lie. He felt god-awful, but he would rest, once they’d inspected the shelter and were set up for the night.
Chapter 11
Roxie was tired but happy. Apparently she wasn’t in such bad shape as she’d feared. In fact, she’d been able to keep up with Drake without a problem. Her three months in the country had helped to acclimatize her to the altitude. Of course she felt the thin air 12000ft above sea level, but it didn’t bother her much.
Drake though, was another story. The last half hour of their hike he’d stopped talking altogether and his pace had slowed to a crawl. Was he angry with her? Maybe her numerous questions had in some way offended him.
She stood and walked around him to see his face, before she asked her question again. “Drake are you sure you’re okay?”
He tried a grin, but Roxie couldn’t contain her gasp. His face was ashen, and judging by the way he squinted his eyes, the sunlight was painful. But what worried her most, was his shallow and rapid breathing.
“You don’t look okay. Come sit for a minute.”
“I’m fine. We need to get ourselves set up in the shelter for the night and before that storm hits.”
Roxie wasn’t having any of that. He might want to play hero, but not with her.
“Drake, does your head hurt?”
“A bit,” he admitted. But when she merely raised a brow, he amended his statement. “Yes, it’s killing me. All I need is some sleep and I’ll be good as new in the morning.”
“I don’t think so.” Roxie gave him the stern look she had practiced on her students. “Are you dizzy? Do you feel generally ill? Have difficulties breathing?”
Drake looked at her and then slowly nodded. “Maybe I’m coming down with a bug?”
“No. You’re suffering from altitude sickness. The locals call it Soroche and they talk about it all the time. According to my colleagues, it’s best treated with coca tea and large amounts of sugar.”
Drake stared at her without saying a word. Roxie was scared. But during her time as teacher she’d learned to stay calm no matter what. Whether he liked it or not, she would put herself in charge now.
“You stay here and I’ll make you some agua de panela. The natives swear it cures altitude sickness better than medication.”
No word of approval or disapproval from him. He leaned against the back of the bench, his eyes closed. Only the twitching of his eyelids showed her he wasn’t sleeping but fighting the symptoms of mountain sickness.
She dug through her pack until she came upon the block of Panela. It was nothing more than unrefined whole sugar cane, easy to carry around. She pulled out their gas camping stove and heated up water together with a piece of sugar cane to make what the locals called agua de panela. When the sugar cane had dissolved, she poured to mugs with the hot liquid and handed one to Drake.
“Here, drink this. It should help,” Roxie said.
Drake took the cup from her hands took a sip. She watched him, praying it would help, before she sipped the sugary sweet liquid herself. Heat flowed down her throat and warmed her entire body from the inside as she savored the sugary caramel flavor of the agua de panela.
“I’m afraid you were right with your diagnosis,” Drake said.
“What?” For a moment she had forgotten about his state.
“The altitude sickness. I noticed all the symptoms, but I didn’t see it. I’m feeling stupid now.”
“Don’t. It’s not easy to diagnose yourself,” she answered.
“Thanks for the tea,” Drake whispered, his face still ashen.
“It’s agua de panela, sugar water. Do you feel well enough to go inside?”
Drake nodded and stood up, but in the same moment he grabbed his head and fell back down. “Sorry. I’m dizzy.”
Roxie was now seriously worried. Acute mountain sickness wasn’t to be taken li
ghtly, as it could be fatal.
“If you aren’t feeling better in five minutes, we have to descend.” She gave him her stern look, knowing he’d try to talk her out of it. Sure enough, Drake opened his mouth, but no word came out. Roxie squatted down in front of him.
He lifted a hand towards her, and she grabbed it, pointing out the edema in his hands. “Look at how badly your hands are starting to swell. You need to get down to a lower elevation before this becomes more serious.”
“This hike was supposed to help prevent this. We’re not even that high,” he protested.
“Well, you might have pushed it a little too fast. You just came from sea level, give yourself a break.” Roxie couldn’t hold back a smile, despite her worry about him.
“But…I don’t want to ruin your first mountain hike,” he muttered.
“Don’t you think you would ruin it more if you died up here? You know that descending is the only cure, don’t you?”
“I can see why you’re a good teacher.” Drake tried something similar to a grin. “But we won’t make it back to the first shelter before nightfall and it’s too dangerous to walk in the dark.”
A ring of ice settled around her heart and she wiped a sole tear from her eye. The bleakness of their situation gripped a chokehold around her pounding heart.
Drake squeezed her hand and only now she realized she’d didn’t want to let go. Maybe she never would. Being together, it just felt right.
“I’m already feeling better,” he said, but she knew it was a lie.
“No you aren’t. We have to get you down. Please.” Roxie racked her brain how they could manage to make the walk in the dark. Drake had packed a million things, surely a flashlight was amongst them.
“A flashlight isn’t good enough,” he said.
“Can you read my mind?”
“No, but I can read your face, and it clearly shows me that you’d rather drag me down by my hair than stay up here one more second.”
Roxie giggled, but it wasn’t a happy giggle. More like an anxious one born of terror and hopelessness.
“Look, there’s an abandoned hut about one hour down from here. If we can reach that, we can stay there for the night. It’s not as safe as the shelter, but at least one-thousand feet lower than here and you’ll be tranquil.”
She cocked her head and squinted her eyes at him. She’d seen the hut too. It was in miserable condition. Do bears or wolves live up here? It probably was best not to ask… so she nodded.
“Let’s go then,” Roxie said.
Drake opened his mouth to say something and started coughing instead. Horrible spasms racked his strong body and at the end, he threw up. Roxie grabbed another bottle of water and handed it to him.
“You’re right. I’m getting worse. We need to descend while I still can.”
Relief trickled down her spine like a warm shower, but at the same time anxiety constricted her heart. Despite being the newbie on the mountain, she would now be the one in charge.
Roxie held out her hands to help him up to his feet. Drake stumbled as he put his backpack on, but finally he was upright and ready to hike down the trail they’d just walked up. She constantly checked on him, but Drake seemed to hold up okay.
He staggered a few times, but always managed to continue walking after a few minutes rest. The trip didn’t take them one hour but two and a half, and they reached the hut just as the sun disappeared and darkness settled in.
With every foot of elevation loss Drake looked better until he eventually resembled his former self again.
“God, it feels good to breathe oxygen.” He grinned and Roxie’s heart leapt.
“You look much better,” she answered.
“I feel much better. I’m exhausted, but the headache and the dizziness are gone. Thanks for insisting I come back down the mountain.”
The hut though, was in even more piss-poor condition than it had appeared from afar. Roxie almost regretted having come here. The roof had been makeshift repaired with corrugated iron and the inside was dry but completely empty. Apart from a stone bench on one wall and a fireplace with no wood to put in it, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.
“Inviting, isn’t it?” Drake came inside with their backpacks.
“Yes, such a lovely place to spend the night,” she said as she eyed the hard-packed earth floor.
“It’s too dark already to collect wood. We’ll have to make do with the camping stove,” Drake said and started unpacking their stuff.
“So what’s for dinner?” Roxie asked with a nod to the pile of packages on the floor.
“I can’t offer a three-course menu, but instant noodles with…” He grabbed one of the packages, “…tomato sauce and more agua de panela.”
“Sounds like an excellent idea,” Roxie said with a relieved giggle, before she grew serious again. “Do we have enough water?”
“Plenty for tonight, and tomorrow morning we’ll hike down first thing. It’s less than two hours from here to the car,” he assured her.
The food tasted surprisingly good and the company was even better.
Chapter 12
Drake enjoyed sitting on the stone bench with Roxie as they ate dinner. She hadn’t complained about anything, and yet, he felt guilty.
“I’m sorry I ruined your trip,” he said and turned to study her face.
“Don’t be, you didn’t mean to get sick. And we can attempt the summit tomorrow again.” Her face lit up with hope and he hated himself for having to break the bad news.
“We won’t be able to do that. We can’t hike the entire distance up and down in one day, and still drive back to Quito. You wouldn’t make it back for work on Monday.”
The light left her face and he couldn’t resist touching her cheek. In spite of the chill, heat rifled through him. It was even softer than he had imagined.
“Don’t be disappointed. We can hike to a gorgeous waterfall, that’s about halfway between here and the lower shelter. It’s a detour of about two hours, which gives us plenty of time,” he offered.
“I’d like to.” Roxie nodded.
“So, no boyfriend back home?” he asked and grabbed his mug with both hands. It was getting chilly in the hut. He tensed, waiting for her answer.
“No. I’m too young to jump into that kind of commitment.”
Her statement sent a chill through his body and he squeezed the hot mug between his hands. With every minute they’d spent together, he’d grown to like her more. But if she didn’t want to commit, she wasn’t the woman for him.
“I don’t think a casual relationship is worth the trouble. I’d rather stay single than have a fling,” he said with a sigh. Even though his old-fashioned values rang unique in the mansphere, Roxie just wasn’t a good match for him. He longed for a committed relationship and she wanted to shy away from anything serious. And she was seven years younger so who could blame her?
Oh, he’d tried to follow in his brothers’ footsteps and engaged in a few casual affairs with women, but they’d always left him wondering why having sex with a virtual stranger was considered enjoyable. River and Tyler might live for the quick thrill, but not him. All casual encounters did for him was to leave him…empty.
The sex part was okay, but he wanted more than an exchange of bodily fluids, he wanted a connection. Drake firmly believed that sex and emotions went together and if either of the two was missing, then it wasn’t the real thing.
He wanted the emotions that went along with a meaningful relationship, one like his parents had. Or his brother Chuck seemed to have found with Linda.
“Don’t get me wrong, I do want to settle down one day. Maybe in a few years. But now I want freedom to do whatever I wish, whenever I wish. There’s nothing worse than being trapped in a boring routine,” Roxie added almost apologetic.
“In a good relationship, you’ll never feel trapped. You can have your own life and share the one of your partner.”
Roxie nodded, but didn’t seem c
onvinced. He changed the topic to discuss lighter things.
“I can’t believe how tired I am.” Roxie yawned as she finished her meal.
Despite his earlier realization that they weren’t a good match, his body betrayed him and heated at the sight of her stretching like a cat. Sleeping besides her in the little hut and not able to touch her would be torture, but going there might be even worse…
“Let’s clean up then; we have to get up early in the morning,” Drake said and stood.
Roxie put their dishes away while he spread their jackets and spare sweaters on the ground in lieu of a mattress and covered them with their sleeping bags. It wasn’t luxurious but would do for one night.
She eyed her sleeping bag on the ground next to his, but wouldn’t move. The tension between them sizzled and he almost walked over to press her flush against his body and ravage her mouth.
But no…it was better not to go there. It would save him a lot of heartbreak. His head knew what his body ignored. She wasn’t meant for him.
“Why don’t you get ready for bed and I’ll set up my instruments outside?” he asked.
She nodded and busied herself with her backpack.
Drake slipped outside and glanced up at the storm clouds. Hopefully they would hold off until tomorrow before unleashing their fury across the landscape. Then he unpacked a few of his instruments and set them up to record overnight.
They wouldn’t reach the summit this trip, but he could at least take a few measurements from down here. It might be interesting to see if and how the volcano reacted to the crossing cold weather front.
By the time he was finished, Roxie was sound asleep. He undressed and slipped into his sleeping bag wearing only his boxers and a t-shirt. Within moments of closing his eyes, he drifted away into the land of dreams.
***
A noise dragged Drake from the depths of sleep and he listened in the darkness for several seconds trying to figure out what had woken him up. Steps. Someone walking around.
Burning for Love: Los Angeles Armstrongs 2 (The Armstrongs Book 8) Page 6
