Nothing Else Matters (Jungle Cruise)

Chapter Six

"Legend says that in the fourteen hundreds, Terton Pema Lingpa had a vision that there was a great treasure hidden in a spot on the Tang Chhu River, where it widens. It's called the Burning Lake, even though it isn't really a lake," Lily's father said. They drove down a rough dirt road, car bumping along slowly and kicking up dust behind them as they moved.

Lily watched out the window eagerly. "Why is it called the Burning Lake? Is it on fire?" She asked. Her seven year old brother, MacGregor, sat in between her and her father, sweat-plastered hair stuck to his forehead, a miserable look on his face. It wasn't so much warm in Bhutan as it was just torturingly humid. Lily herself had a scarf tied around her hairline to stop sweat from running into her eyes, and her wily hair mostly tied back into a ponytail.

"When the locals questioned Pema Lingpa's vision, it's said he entered the lake with a lit lamp, and emerged with a chest of treasure and a scroll, the lamp still lit," her father continued. As they drove, they started to see colorful flags hung up in the trees, and little lamps on the ground. "It's a pilgrimage site now, but I believe there is truth to the legend."

Lily got up on her knees to get a better view out the window. They were approaching a pool of murky water in a widened part of the river, surrounded by more colorful cloths and lamps. Lily's father stopped the vehicle and they got out to walk the rest of the way. He pulled out a dirty cloth map, as if there was a chance that this lake wasn't the lake of legend.

Lily grabbed MacGregor's hand and helped him limp down the rocky road. His left foot was bandaged tightly. He'd lost his two littlest toes on that foot from what they'd diagnosed as gangrene. They'd had to remove the toes to prevent infection from spreading throughout his bloodstream, since they didn't have access to proper healthcare. MacGregor hadn't said a positive word since the amputation, and they had only barely convinced him to continue the trip with them.

They stopped at the edge of the water, and Lily's father took out another piece of parchment with something scrawled on it, then started to slowly walk around the pool. MacGregor sat on the riverbed to play with a rock, and Lily crouched down to look in the pool of water. She didn't know what she was looking for, but searched diligently for whatever it was.

They sat for a long time while their father mumbled to himself, oriented himself around the water, and mumbled again. Lily watched the ripples on the water from the light breeze, gently rolling past so subtle that they might not even be there. As one of the ripples passed, a little flicker of light caught her eye.

She almost passed it off as a trick of the light, but it stayed as the ripple faded. She frowned and leaned closer. There was something in the water.

A loud splash sounded and the flicker of light disappeared as MacGregor's rock sank into the lake. Lily stood quickly and tried to find the flicker of light again, but it was difficult with the larger waves. The ripples again began to fade, and... There it was again!

She stepped into the water and waded out to her waist, keeping her eyes on the flicker of light. Could it be the treasure that the Terton had found there?

"Lily!" Her father's voice cut sharp and loud across the water to her.

"I think I see something!" She called back, stepping further into the water. It crept up to her ribs.

"Lily, get out of the water!" Her father sounded panicked now, and started running closer to her.

Lily's eyes lingered on the flicker of light, but she turned back to make her way out of the water. A rock slipped under her foot, and she plunged deeper into the water. She heard her father cry out again, and splashing noises.

The current of the river was stronger than it had looked from the riverbank. By the time she had somewhat regained her balance and sputtered out of the water, she was floating downriver. Another current caught her and she was sucked back under the water. It spun her around and around, disorienting her. At some point she was able to get her head above water for a gasping breath, but was sucked back under.

Shapes and light moved around her in the water. The water wasn't clear enough to see through, but one direction had more light than the other, and she fought to get to it, fought to get to the sun, to light, to air. The current pulled her back under, stronger than her small body could ever be, and she lost the light.

Before she could find it again, she hit her head, and everything faded to black.

*

"Lily!"

Something hard hit her chest. A moment later, it happened again. Lily's eyes flew open and she turned to her side, vomiting up water, and coughing it out of her lungs. Adrenaline and terror rushed through her body, but there was solid ground under her. She coughed with her whole body, digging her fingers into the mud underneath her, gasping in the sweet air and blindly turning toward the sky, where there was light.

She wasn't in Bhutan. She wasn't drowning. She was in the Amazon, with MacGregor. And she was alive.

She coughed more, and her thoughts raced back through her head. Her ribs hurt on one side, and her chest hurt, but it didn't seem like anything serious. She spun her head around and saw MacGregor, a trickle of blood on his forehead, but otherwise unhurt. He looked relieved to see her alive.

Next, her hand flew to her neck, and she relaxed a little. The arrowhead was still there, miraculously. She looked across the water at the bottom of the rapid falls they had gone over, and saw pieces of wood floating downriver. The main mass of the boat was caught in a boulder nearby, but there was no sign of the skipper. She felt her heart break a little. She'd blindly led that man to his death, and all because of some stupid false cognate. She should have noticed sooner, should have pointed him exactly down the path they should take, should have-

MacGregor grabbed her and hugged her tightly, and she hugged him back, sobbing from fear and shame and anxiety. They sat there for a long time, and for a moment, she was back on the shore of the Burning Lake, waking up to spots of color above her, her father pumping her chest, and her little brother's cries. And then she was back again, soaking wet, chest pained from fighting for air, arrowhead pressed into her skin.

She noticed MacGregor was crying, too. When she opened her eyes, she saw the little lifeboat, hanging off what remained of the skipper, completely untouched.

*

Frank's heart seemed to stop when he saw the little boat. Or, what was left of it.

He sped up his little white skipper, fighting the current to reach it. Parts of the boat were on the shore, and some floated in eddies nearby. As he approached and anchored, another board broke off and followed the river downstream, sucked into the waves. Besides that, there was no movement in the boat, or on shore.

"No," Frank said under his breath, and then louder he yelled, "Lily!"

No response came, and an icy chill ran through his veins. Odd, how he could feel that. Now that his heart pumped blood though his body again, he had noticed little things like that that he never would have imagined he'd lost, so many years ago. It was an eerie feeling. He didn't like it.

He jumped in the water and swam over to the wreckage. The boat was beached on a large boulder, its back end in the air, the front end crushed and submerged. He pulled himself on the slanted deck and climbed up to the bridge.

Everything was tossed on the ground, and everything piled in one corner. Frank could see one body, but it wasn't Lily or MacGregor. He made a quick sign of respect, and went to search below deck.

He didn't find them there either, so he returned to his boat and continued downriver, jaw set, determined to find her. Knowing Lily, she'd probably made it out of that alive, somehow. If she hadn't, well... he'd rather not think about that.

He continued sailing downriver as the sun set, watching the shores carefully and calling out every few minutes. The familiar sounds of the jungle were all that answered.