Page 85 of Fighting With Light

I grab one and inspect it, rubbing my thumb gently over the blister. “These are the worst, the little blisters that don’t look that bad but if you climb again, they will probably burst and it hurts like the dickens every time you use that hand. One climb I did back in the States at Joshua Tree, I busted a couple of blisters, and by the time I was done, blood was dripping off my fingers. It was as if I fought the rock in hand-to-hand combat.”

“Why didn’t you just stop climbing?” she asks.

I smile and grab her other hand to look at it. It’s not that bad, it might be sore in the morning.

“Because you don’t stop when it gets hard, you keep going, you ignore the pain, and finish the puzzle.”

“That seems a little masochistic,” she mumbles.

I throw my head back, laughing. “Pain and pleasure go hand in hand, right, princess?”

She purses her lips and lifts a shoulder.

“Don’t get all proper on me now,” I say, grabbing the front loop of her harness. “I’m joking…mostly. But really it’s because I couldn’t stop. I had already come so far, and I wasn’t about to let broken blisters stop me from finishing. It was one of those climbs that got me to the same level of climbing as the professionals. Climbing magazines and other professional climbers were watching and I couldn’t fail, but most of all, I didn’t want to fail myself. I’d been training for it, and I wasn’t about to go down easily.”

She flips her hand so we’re holding each other’s. “I respect that.”

“You did great, you scared the shit out of me once, but for a beginner, you’re a natural,” I tell her and sit down on the ground.

She plops down next to me and leans back with her elbows propping her up. “I swear I almost pooped my pants, but it was fun,” she says, smiling with a wild look in her eyes.

“Uh-oh, you caught the bug.”

“The bug?”

I chuckle, taking a bite of the protein bar I found in my bag. “Yeah, the rock climbing bug. I got it when I was a kid and here I am.”

She bumps her shoulder to mine and grabs the protein bar from my hand, takes a big bite, then sets it back between my fingers. “Yeah, I’d do it again.”

I stare at her, mesmerized, which is ridiculous because very few things hold my attention like she does. She’s so adventurous and maybe even a bit of an adrenaline junkie like myself.

“Hey, we passed a waterfall coming up here…do you think we could cliff jump off of it?” she asks.

See? Adrenaline junkie.“Umm, I’m not sure, I don’t know how deep it is.”

She grabs a water bottle and takes a large drink. “Let’s go find out if you’re done here,” she says, looking back at the wall she just climbed.

“Yeah, sure, let me get packed up.”

32

Liam

We hike down themountain to the waterfall we passed on the way up. The sound is deafening and peaceful as it rushes against the rocks. I drop our bag against a tree and go check it out. Cliff diving is fun as long as you know the water below you is a good depth.

There are good places to jump at, but I need to check the water first. I make my way down to the large pool and glance at Aelia over my shoulder.

When I’m about halfway down, I hear a shriek, and my head whips up to find Aelia running and then jumping off the highest point of the waterfall.

“Aelia, no!” I yell, but it all happens so fast that there’s no time to stop her because she’s already jumped.

“Wahoo!” she screams as she falls. I watch in utter terror as she lands in the water and I scramble to get down there faster. A second goes by, then another, and my heart is pounding so hard I’m going to pass out from fear alone.

I can’t lose her.I tell myself as I hurry down what feels like one hundred feet to the water, but it’s probably only forty.

Then she pops her head up and cheers. My feet halt, and I collapse back onto my butt, trying to regain some sense of a steady heartbeat.

“That was awesome! Hey, Liam! Your turn!” she yells.