At Theo’s instructions, Zeke was rowing hard. Soon the river narrowed, and they entered the shadows as the rain forest canopy closed over them. The sunlight filtered through the trees only in rare, narrow shafts that appeared like the beams from tiny spotlights. But this wasn’t any man-made Disney jungle boat ride, Riley thought. Flowering vines and prehistoric ferns made the scene even more fantastic than anything Hollywood could dream up. From both sides, they heard the calls and cries of far more birds than they were able to see. And the only real wildlife in evidence was the moving mass of land crabs that crawled in the crevices between the giant buttressed roots of the trees at the river’s edge.
“These trees are amazing,” Cole said, looking at the swirling designs formed by the sharp-edged roots. “What kind are they?”
“We call them bloodwood trees.” Theo had removed his backpack. From inside, he withdrew a handheld GPS and the folded chart. He handed the chart to Riley, then pointed at the trees. “If you cut them, the sap flows red. The Caribe Indians used to have a camp here on the river before they moved to the other side of the island. They still say it’s bad luck to make the trees bleed. That’s why these trees are so old. No one dares to cut them.”
“There are still living Caribe Indians here?” Cole asked. “I thought they were all dead.”
Zeke laughed. “Dat’s Dominica, mon. De land of de living dead.”
No other boats were tied to the dock when they arrived at the river terminus, but in the clearing, perched on a stool in the shade of a palm frond lean-to, Riley saw an older man weaving a green palm frond hat similar to the one resting on his head. His back was bent and his clothes hung loose on his thin frame. When he looked up, all Riley could see under the brim of his hat was a yellow-toothed smile.
“Is that who I think it is?” Theo asked.
Zeke’s dreads danced when he nodded. “Yeah, mon. Talk about living dead.”
“I can’t believe Galen’s still alive,” Theo said as he stepped out of the boat.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Indian River, Dominica
March 27, 2008
10:30 a.m.
Cole heard Riley suck in a deep breath. “I was here twenty years ago,” she said. “There was a boat boy named Galen who rowed us up the river.” She pointed to the lean-to. “Is that his dad?”
Theo and Zeke exchanged looks. “That’s him,” Theo said. “Same fellow. About ten years ago, he left the island for the States. Found work in a boatyard in Miami. Once he got his residency, a US Marine recruiter talked to him and the next thing he was in Iraq. Something happened over there. He came home like that,” he said, tilting his head in the direction of the clearing, “with a belly full of shrapnel, and looking more like he’d aged thirty years than ten.”
Cole regarded Riley’s face. She squinted her eyes and stared at the distant man.
Zeke said, “I keep Galen company. Be here when you get back.”
Cole swung round to watch Zeke as he crossed the sunlit clearing. All around them, the jungle now looked dark and impenetrable. “Do you know where we’re headed, Theo?”
He answered by holding up the GPS. “Follow me.”
At first, their track was a narrow trail that wound through the trees at the top of the riverbank. Theo explained as they walked that the trail was for tourists who wanted to hike up to the beginning of the rapids. Cole could see why they had decided to construct the dock back downstream. Along this stretch, the river narrowed to a fast moving stream and was often obstructed by large granite boulders. Boats would never make it up this far.
Cole was pleased to see that Riley, in spite of her much shorter legs, had no trouble keeping up with them. She was taking two strides for every one of Theo’s, but she wasn’t even breathing hard. It was tough going, and he was glad he’d decided to wear the hiking boots. To make it even worse, the air around them was so heavy with heat and humidity, he already felt the drops of perspiration trickling down his skin. He knew what he was going to smell like in an hour or so.
They heard the rapids before they saw them. It started as the soft chuckling sound as the water dodged around the stones in the shallows, but from ahead came a muffled shushing like the static of white noise. As they hiked closer, the jungle sounds of birdsong and underbrush skitterings were drowned out by the roar of the rushing water. Then the trail came to an abrupt end on a dirt patch high above the rapids. Below them, white water gushed over boulders in the middle of the stream while dark pools and eddies swirled nearer to shore.
Cole had to shout to Theo. “Where to now?”
Theo consulted the map. “The location is a little southeast of us,” he said, pointing off to the right of the river. “I used to play up here when I was a kid. It’s easier to follow the river than to go overland. The brush is too thick.” He reached down, removed his flip flops, and wiggled his big brown toes in the dirt. “Be careful on the rocks. Algae makes ‘em slippery.”
Riley nodded once and started down the hill, her sneakers at an angle to the incline, sliding a little as she inched her way down. He watched Theo walk to the far side of the incline where a smattering of small trees offered the occasional handhold as he descended. Riley was already at the bottom and picking her way across the rocks at the edge of a deep green pool when Cole decided to go for it.
“Geronimo!” he yelled as he leapt headlong down the steep dirt incline. The first couple of steps were a rush, and he felt the grin break out on his face when Riley looked up at him in complete surprise. He was headed straight for her, his heavy hiking boots flying, arms windmilling and shouting “Hoo-wee” when the fleeting picture of him mowing her down popped into his brain. In that fraction of a second, he realized that stopping this downhill hurtle might be more challenging than he thought.
He would never have believed she could move so fast. He saw those gray-green eyes of hers open wide and, in addition to surprise, he saw in them a twinkle of amusement. Then she was gone. But the toe of one of his hiking boots slammed into a boulder, and the next thing he knew his body was flying through the air like one of those winged squirrels — just before he executed a perfect belly flop into the emerald pool.
The water was icy cold and the current fierce. When he surfaced, Cole had to stroke hard to reach the boulder where Theo now stood, one lanky arm draped over Riley’s shoulder. The two of them were laughing so hard, Cole was certain he heard Riley snort.
Breathing fast, he pulled himself out of the water still shivering and looked up at the red faces of his companions as they struggled to stifle their laughter. Then, he got to his feet and smoothed his wet hair out of his face in an attempt to retrieve some sense of dignity. But when he took his first step, the combination of water and air that squeezed out of his hiking boot sounded regrettably like a bad case of flatulence. His two companions collapsed onto the ground, but he just kept on walking, each step producing a rude loud noise. He kept going, hoping that sooner or later, his boots would run out of air.
About twenty minutes had passed and his steamy clothes were starting to dry out when Riley and Theo caught up with him. He had stopped at the edge of a small pool into which rushed a magnificent waterfall that dropped from a cliff fifty feet above them. The late morning sunlight cast rainbows in the mist at the base of the falls.
“What now?” he shouted so they could hear him over the noise of the water.
Theo pointed into the jungle. “There used to be a trail — over there. Come on.”
The trail was a series of switchbacks up the side of a jungle-covered cliff. In places, someone had buried round tubes of bamboo in the slick mud to be used as steps. The person who had placed the steps had legs as long Theo’s, and while his Dominican friend climbed on ahead, Cole’s pace slowed as he followed behind Riley. Given the view from that angle, though, he wasn’t about to complain.
