Author:
Jadestar Iceblade
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Date Posted: 16:04:51 08/31/03 Sun
In reply to:
Jadestar Iceblade
's message, "Trying some stories...." on 12:42:31 08/31/03 Sun
Chapter 1
Kamba looked down at me questioningly. I nodded to show him I could make it.
How exactly had I gotten here? Why on earth was I climbing a bare rock face in the baking midsummer sun, sleeping on rock ledges, with a partner who thought I was a weakling? I could have been relaxing in the shade of the mango tree with my wife, watching the children run and play by the river.
I basked in this happy thought until cold truth intruded. They were gone. I could see my wife, with little Janli clinging to her, being swept away in that flood. Then the raging green waters carried her away.
I had come to get away. She was everywhere in the village. The now calm brown of the river spoke of her eyes. The black earth was her lovely skin. The cowrie shell necklaces of the other women reminded me of hers.
I was so lost in my reverie I didn't even feel Kamba tugging the rope, telling me to climb. Finally he lost his patience and shouted. The sharp sound cracked the still, hot air like a mule driver's whip. I started. So did the rocks. The dull rumbling filled the air. The rocks were falling!
Gripped by a serenity unlike anything I'd ever felt, I sat on my rough rock ledge and watched Kamba, far above me, frantically trying to move out of the way of the onrushing rocks.
A heavy rock struck his head and he fell without a sound, plummeting with the rocks through the blue air.
He fell to the end of the rope tied around us, jerking me off the ledge. I didn't want to live, but my fingertips caught the ledge. I hung there with Kamba's body tied around my waist and stared at the onrushing tide of rocks. "So." I said aloud. "You come to claim me now."
It would be painless. A heavy stone would hit my head and I would sail through the blue air.
But it didn't happen like that.
A large rock snapped the base of my tiny ledge and I fell.
Still alive.
To be continued...
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