Adrenaline Crush (2 page)

But the most unique part is the set of rusted railroad tracks that arch down from the top of one of the cliffs into the water. The rails have a crazy drowned-roller-coaster appearance that gives the surrounding beauty a perfect touch of amusement park quirkiness.

It's one of my favorite places, and points go to Jay for the reverent look on his face right now. At least he gets it.

He asks, “Was this some sort of rock quarry?” At my shrug he squints up to where the tracks jump off the top of the cliff. “There were a bunch of cement factories around here at one time. I'll bet the tracks carried mined rock up there to the kilns.”

“Wow, that's nearly fascinating,” I mock.

“The water must be supercold. Who knows how deep down it goes.”

“It is really cold, but it only gets deep over to the right.” I let my bike drop to the ground, kick off my shoes, and smoothly pull my shorts down, revealing my bikini bottoms. “You coming in?”

Jay's eyebrows jump in appreciation. We grin at each other as he takes off his helmet, hangs it on his bike handle, and lifts his shirt. He is pale as milky quartz, but he must own a Bowflex or something because,
Damn!

I give a wink, turn, and break into a running start toward the swim hole. Aiming for the deep end, I skim the surface in a perfect dive. The icy water seeps into me. I stay submerged, running my hands along the slimy rocks as my lungs plead for air.

I resurface, anticipating Jay's dive, but he's still back by our bikes, emptying the pockets of his shorts into his helmet. I dip underwater again and swim to where the tracks are swallowed by deep blackness. Diving down, I explore until the pressure boxes my ears. Jay must be right about this being an old rock quarry. When I'm forced up for air he's taking pictures of the swim hole with his phone and starts typing something into it.

“You taking notes or jumping in?” I call.

He tosses his phone into his helmet and charges toward me, arms and legs pumping the air as he leaps into the water. I squeal appreciatively when he resurfaces beside me and splashes my face.

“Easy! I'm a delicate flower!” I grab on to his shoulders in a way that is not at all flora-like and pull him under.

He rises back up. “More like
wild
flower.” Laughing, he grabs me by the waist and easily tosses me off to the side. Which is kind of cool since I was half trying to hang on to him and I'm pretty strong.

I sputter and cough when I resurface, and Jay is beside me asking, “You okay?”

“Always.” I smile.

He leans back in the water. “This place is incredible.”

“I know. You should write a poem about it.”

“I'm a journalist, not a poet.”

“That's a shame.” I put my hand on his shoulder and lean in. “I'm really into poets.”

He wraps an arm around me and his gaze deepens. “Well then, I may need to work on my iambic pentameter.”

Arching my back, I look directly at his lips. His arm tenses up when I close my eyes. I move closer and …

“Psych!” I splash his face, break from the embrace, and swim gleefully toward shore.

“Dy-na!” He laughs.

Pulling myself out of the water, I pound my feet around the dirt trail toward the rock platform and scramble up the easy climbingholds to the outcropping connected to the cliff. Jay is still treading water when I step forward onto the ledge about thirty feet above his head. The soft moss against my calloused soles makes me feel buoyant. I raise my hands above my head, mimicking a dive.

“Please tell me you're not serious,” Jay calls up.

“Yeah, right.” I'm still over the deep end of the swim hole, but I'm much too high up to dive without risking a broken neck on the surrounding rocks if my aim is off. And it just so happens I was telling the truth when I said I'm not some psycho chick with a death wish. I swing my arms back to build momentum and spring out, propelling myself over the water as far as I can get. I aim my feet for Jay, but he moves smoothly out of the way before I slice through the surface.

The water suspends me in its green coolness. I raise my arms over my head, open my eyes, and let my body go limp. Everything slows in this underwater world.

I want to stay here. Grow gills and extend this perfect summer moment forever. My hair floats gently as my mind etches every detail onto itself. The stillness. Jay's headless underwater body so white it glows. Light piercing the water from above, stroking the rocks with its bright fingers. My weightlessness as I'm drawn slowly upward.

I unfreeze my arms, but only to thrust them several times, pushing myself back down to the depths. Holding on a minute longer.

Finally, I float upward and smooth my hands over my wet hair as I emerge. If I was alone, I'd head back below. Instead, I look at Jay's grin.

“You really are wild,” he says, and I want to reward him for seeing me. With a flourish so smooth it would make a mermaid gasp, I dart to him and wrap my hands around his shoulders. He keeps an amused look, waiting for the splash and tease as I draw closer. Water drips down his face. When I'm so close we're breathing each other's breath, his expression turns serious.

I resist the temptation to psych him out again and brush my lips lightly against his. Barely touching. He presses back with growing pressure. When our kiss deepens, his mouth is a few degrees cooler than mine and he tastes like spearmint. Nice. I pull back quickly and see naked desire in his eyes. Giddiness bubbles up over winning this game. I push off him and head back for dry ground.

This time he follows me to the edge. “Dyna—”

But when he stretches his Bowflex arms to pull himself out after me, I say, “No, wait here.” He obeys, bobbing back in the water to his neck, and I rush up the trail along the side again.

“Are you almost done playing around?” he calls.

“Never!” I announce when I reach the mossy stage above. I disappear from his view, making my way through the pitch pine to the spot where the platform meets the wall of rock face.

“I am not rescuing you if you drown!”

“Fine!” I call back. “Bet I'm a better swimmer than you anyway!”

His laugh rises up on the weak breeze and I imagine I can smell his spearmint breath. I quickly analyze the rock face leading to the top where the tracks careen down from their crazy sloping angle. There are a few obvious holds, but it's a rough climb. I've never considered scaling it before.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jay sounds concerned and I want to keep him in suspense. Spotting a clear foothold, I place my bare toes into it. Luckily, my brother, Harley, got me started climbing barefoot, so mounting the side of this cliff feels almost as natural as riding my bike.

I dig my fingers into a small vertical crease and find a waist-high foothold that boosts me up quickly. I don't have a plan, but the rush keeps me moving upward. The moment I clear the bushes and Jay sees just how high I am he calls out, “Dyna!”

I turn my face toward the rough wall of rock so he can't see my smile and continue climbing. I'm good at spotting hand- and foothold combinations, and the climb energizes me now that I'm in it. It's easier than it probably looks from below, but the higher I get the more my progress slows. Securing my foot into a deep crevice, I stop and rest my arms for a moment while I even out my breathing. Looking down, I realize I'm more than halfway between the platform and the top. I scan the cliff face above and spot a handhold that sits a challenging distance from my reach.

Jay tries a lighter tone. “Come on down, the water's fine.”

With a grunt, I swing my arm, extend my spine, and inch my fingers into the hold. I continue pressing upward hold by hold. Some are easier than others. It's the demanding ones that have me captivated.

I realize I've turned on my “porn star sound track.” My climbing buddies love to tease me about the groans I make as a climb gets difficult, and right now I'm building toward a moaning climax. I feel strong, and within five well-placed moves I can see the top. High on my accomplishment, I look down at Jay, and my eye catches a thin fracture line leading to my left foothold.

My stomach plummets and I quickly examine the surrounding rock face for other signs of choss.

“You are seriously freaking me out!” Jay yells up.

“I'm great.” I stay focused, tapping the rock with my palms and listening for hollow places to avoid as I climb on.

My heart pumps endorphins through my system, and by the time I haul myself over the top I'm levitating. Every inch of me is free. I lie on my back and close my eyes, running my throbbing palms against stiff blades of grass.

I feel incredible.

If I could somehow capture this feeling right now,

bottle it up,

I'd share it with the world and there would be

no more war,

no famine,

no people hating other people.

Just life and love.

I open my eyes.

And this beautiful wide blue sky

connecting us all.

“You okay?” Jay's voice floats up.

I roll onto my stomach and peer down over the edge. “Never better.”

Jay has climbed out of the water and is dripping a wet trail back and forth along the shore. “How the hell are you getting down, Dyna?”

I'm not exactly sure of my answer to that. Sitting up, I mull over my options. I didn't like the look of that fissure, so rather than go back the same way, I decide to walk along the edge looking for an easier route down. But then I have the best idea ever.

Scooting around to the other side where the rusty iron rails plummet off the cliff, I grab the first wooden tie and try to shake the track. As I expected, it doesn't budge. Satisfied, I place my hands on the uneven plank and shout, “Heads up!”

Jay puts his palms to his eyes. “Please don't do that.” Sliding his hands to the sides of his head, he groans and repeats, “I am not going to rescue you!”

“You won't need to.” I shine my brightest smile down on him. He raises his hands up in the air as if he can keep me safe from where he's standing.

I peer over the edge and my mind resists my plan as it takes in the way the tracks arc out and down, with every fourth or fifth tie missing. This side of the swim hole is much more shallow and the rocks gnash their teeth at me just below the water's surface. My lungs spasm at the steepness of the drop as I crawl out onto the level tracks on my hands and knees.
Come on, Dyna, this will be easy
. I move forward slowly, and the distance to the ground makes every second clear and sharp and real.

“You're crazy!”

“Trying to focus here.”

Using the rough wooden ties to support my hands and knees, I travel farther out over the water. Now that I've started, it's easy to keep moving.

When I reach the section where the rails dip steeply, I realize I need to turn my body completely around. If I can get my feet in front of me and flip over, I can climb down as if the tracks were nothing more than an oversized ladder.

This is a simple enough move; it's the mental part that makes me pause. The rocks continue taunting me from an impossible distance below, and I wish I'd thought this through a little better.

“Please, dear God, be careful.” Jay is starting to get on my nerves.

“God has got nothing to do with this,” I call down in a warning tone. He's back to treading water at the bottom of the tracks, and I feel bad for getting annoyed at him.

Placing my left hand on the rusty rail beside me, I immediately recoil from the skillet-hot iron and shake the sting off my palm.

“Are you okay?”

I hold up my reddened hand. “I'll live.” Careful not to touch the fiery rails again, I rise from crawling to a kneeling position, put my arms in the air, and call “Wheeee!” as if I'm about to ride all the way down to Jay's waiting arms. He shakes his head.

I grasp the wooden tie behind my hips and slide one leg forward so it's pointed out in front of me. Leaning to my left, I swing my other leg to join it and drop my butt squarely on the soft wood. I take a breath and prepare to turn over so I can climb down feetfirst.

Looking at Jay's intense expression, I can't resist giving him a sexy one-shoulder smile. He cracks a grin of defeat and starts climbing up the rails toward me, presumably to rescue me now that I'm fine.
I can let him play hero,
I decide with a chuckle.

The wooden tie I'm sitting on dips to the right and my chuckle

chokes into a gasp.

It's as if the sleepy roller coaster has sprung to life.

Jay's eyes bulge as he starts lunging up the tracks toward me.

The rotten board lets out a groan

and I'm helpless as I'm

pitched forward.

No! No! No!

And the stupid

useless

rotted chunk

of wood breaks free in three jarring stages.

I'm vaguely aware of Jay yelling instructions

but there is nothing to be done.

Gravity is greedy and the momentum is too much.

I claw for the rails. Clutch the sear of iron. But my grasp doesn't even slow my drop and everything I'm trying to hang on to rises up out of my reach. I am

falling.

Fast and hard and toward

rocks and water that's too shallow

to catch me.

To save me.

I usually love falling. Bungee jumping. Parasailing. Even riding the rickety parachute ride at the Ulster County Fair. I've never been falling like this.

I'm flailing and

lost and

glimpse a blur of

Jay diving back into the water that

rushes at me too fast too fast too fast and then everywhere—

black.

 

3

Sirens batter me awake. I'm lying on my back getting jostled by a rockslide that won't settle.