The One Without Words

❀ chapter forty-five | waterfalls and flower petals ❀

"We're almost there," I said.

Eli, panting as he climbed up the steep rocks. "You said that five minutes ago."

"What if I promise it's worth it?"

"What if it isn't?!"

Seth, now standing next to me, had a much easier time making it up. "Come on, bro, just use some of that upper body strength. If Romy did it, so can you."

"I have to agree with that," I said.

Eli glared at me from the bottom of the incline. "Now you're on his side?"

"Why is everything about sides between you two?" I asked. "Why's it always an ongoing battle?"

"I don't want to fall!"

But he slowly made it up with Seth's encouragement, holding on to the thick vines and roots growing along the rocks. Anika stood beside us. Talia, who had not inherited any of Greta's hiker, nature-loving genes, had stayed behind at the AirBnb. And now only Jack was left to climb up.

He did so as everyone watched, slow and careful and a little clumsy. I hadn't considered that the whole hiking thing might remind him a little too much of our birthday disaster. But this time, there'd be no Penelope popping out of the woods to send us tumbling off a cliff. And besides, the view at the end would be worth it. If he went to live all the way in Germany, I doubted he'd ever visit Hawai'i again. Might as well make the trip memorable.

"That was the hardest part," I said once Jack made it up. The humid air draped around me like a blanket. Today was hot—like middle of summer hot. The first time I'd ever seen Jack wearing shorts and a t-shirt instead of his usual hoodie and jeans.

"Isn't there some kind of bacteria or parasite in fresh water that eats your brain?" Eli asked.

"Just don't drink the water," I said simply. "And don't dive in deep and kick up the sediment at the bottom. That's what my mom used to tell me."

Eli still looked skeptical. Seth wrapped his arm around his shoulder.

"Let's go then," I said, continuing on the dirt trail. "Now I swear, it's only five minutes to the waterfall."

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I'd been here once with some friends in sixth grade—we'd ditched school, hopped on a bus, and went to the other side of the island to embark on the journey to this specific place. 

The small waterfall dropped down a mossy rock face and into a shallow fresh water pool. Anika was the first to jump in. Me second, the cold shock going straight into my soul, saving me from the heat.

As I surfaced, I heard Seth's loud hooting as he prepared to do a cannonball.

"Be careful, you might slip and hit your head!" Eli was warning, but too late.

"Your turn!" I shouted at him.

But it was Jack who approached the edge of the pool instead. He took off his shirt, and I smiled as I remembered the time I saw him in his smiley face underwear. At least he had actual swim shorts this time.

Eli stared at the waterfall, frozen in awe as his head tilted upward to glimpse the series of waterfalls above it. They cascaded downward, one into the other. Was there a way to reach the top? Seth and Anika would definitely be down to face a steeper climb, but Eli and Jack? Not so much.

The sound of rushing water and chirping birds proved a fitting soundtrack to the tropical greenery around us. Nothing like that Seattle wilderness. The trees weren't still and sleeping and waiting for summer here—they were wide awake, almost more aware of us than we were of them.