Waiting for Everest ✓

Part IV

Even once the sun began to disappear behind the horizon that evening, the stifling heat lingered. We packed ourselves back into Matt's Volkswagen, all grunting and groaning about how we were sweating in places people shouldn't be allowed to sweat and that our feet felt like they were about to fall off our legs, and drove to one of the nearby campgrounds that dotted the rim of the canyon.

I still had Tucker's water bottle.

I'd shoved it into the front pocket of my backpack, along with the note my best friend Mariam had written for me and my copy of the Grand Canyon map from the Visitor Center.

Tucker and I'd ended up passing his water bottle between the two of us all throughout the day—much to Lindsey's amusement. I still couldn't figure out why she kept smirking at us, but it was starting to worry me. That, and the fact that I'd caught Matt staring at her at least nine times over the course of the day.

We parked beside a large plot of grass, in the center of which a fire pit had been dug into the ground and lined with large stones.

Matt and Tucker tugged two large collapsible tents out of the trunk and got to work assembling them on the lawn. Meanwhile, Lindsey knelt in the dirt beside the fire pit and tried to figure out how Phineas Jones had managed to get a flame going using only his teeth and a handful of twigs. I plopped down on a mangled log and watched her for a couple minutes before I lost patience.

"Hey!" Lindsey exclaimed as I tossed a lit match into pit, igniting a burst of flames in the tinder she'd gathered. "I almost had it!"

"No you didn't," I scoffed.

Lindsey pouted, but didn't argue.

"I'll figure it out eventually," she mumbled, joining me on the log beside the fire pit. We stared out across the grass to where Matt and Tucker had resorted to fencing each other with two tent poles.

I kicked off my sneakers and peeled my socks from my feet, then shoved my toes into the cool grass.

"I'm gonna sleep like a rock tonight," I murmured.

Lindsey hummed in agreement.

"Cheater!" Matt bellowed, his deep voice carrying across the expanse of lawn and echoing through the campground, "This is a swordfight! You can't use nun-chucks!"

Tucker, it appeared, had found a tent pole with an elastic string attaching two of the segments. He laughed and trotted sideways, his long limbs as awkward and graceless as a baby deer's. Matt lunged after him with all the muscular sleekness of a panther. Lindsey and I winced in unison at the sound of aluminum smacking against skin, followed by a shouted word that I hoped none of the families staying in the RV camp across the road heard.

"Should we stop them?" Lindsey asked me.

"Well, since you volunteered..." I trailed off.

Lindsey huffed and pushed herself up from the log. I could tell her feet ached, too, because she seemed to alternate between waddling and skipping across the lawn.

I let my heavy eyelids flutter shut for a moment.

My skin was still warm from a day baking beneath the brutal Arizona sun, and even though I'd chugged most of Tucker's water along with my own, my tongue still felt dry and rough in my mouth. My arms ached from bouldering and my feet throbbed in tempo with my heartbeat, silently begging me to stop walking so damn much.

A warm breeze came billowing across the campsite, rustling the leaves of the nearby trees and tangling my hair across my face.

I smiled, content.