Jen's Legacy.

Claire recognized that he’d thought it out very carefully, and knew what he was talking about, where she didn’t.

He’d been very gentle with her, explaining everything in detail. He wasn’t the type that would rub it in, or tell her how stupid, or ill-informed, or ill-prepared she was, so she could thank him for that.

She’d never been caught out like this before, so she’d needed to be persuaded in a way she could understand and accept, even if some of the ways he’d explained it had been disturbing for her to consider—‘looking for a body, her body’—and then to think it through for herself once she had enough information.

“I’m sorry I questioned your judgment.”

He was surprised to be thanked. There was hope for her yet.

“Please, don’t apologize for asking questions, Claire.” He’d better get used to that name again, even if in a different context. “The only dumb questions are those that are not asked. I’d have been disappointed if you hadn’t questioned everything I was telling you, so keep doing it. I still make mistakes, and two heads are always better than one, out here.”

He was gallant, as well as polite.

She shivered now that the sun had gone, and got closer to the fire.

He scavenged for more wood for the overnight hours, so she took the opportunity to move away into the rocks, appearing some moments later, looking disturbed about something, and waded into the river where it was sandy, kneeling in the water, hiding herself from him as she did something else in front of her.

He knew the problem. She’d wet herself after struggling with that swimsuit. She should have just pulled the leg aside. Except maybe she had done that, and that was why she’d wet herself. He’d watched her antics earlier.

When she walked out, sweeping water off her legs and heading back to the fire, he met her with his knife in his hand.

She wondered what he intended. “What are you doing?” She backed away from him, feeling a moment of fear.

“I am going to save you from further personal difficulty if I can. I intend to cut around the middle of your swimsuit to make it easier for you when you need to...” he waved his hand and smiled, not needing to say any more.

Had he seen the accident she’d had? She blushed, but couldn’t argue, even though it had been a three-hundred-dollar swimsuit and a gift from her grandmother for this trip.”

He explained as he smiled at her. “If you’d rather have to strip everything off to relieve yourself, you can. I wouldn’t mind.”

Of course, he wouldn’t mind!

She blushed at his disturbing honesty.

“But this way, you won’t have to.” She stood by the fire.

“Once we leave here there won’t be much privacy for either of us, and no water to spare for unnecessary ablutions if you have an accident.”

He knew what had happened! Damnation!

“If you can take the bottoms down separately and hunker down behind a rock without having to get completely undressed or wrestle with anything, you can save yourself some exposure and some grief.

“Warn me and I’ll turn my back, but don’t go far into those rocks or out of my sight for long—watch out for scorpions and snakes—and stay well back from the river, that’s where we drink from. The rafters haul out all of their personal mess, or try to, or others do it for them, but we can’t, so we have to be more careful with it.”

She looked flustered.

“I… I was taken by surprise. There’s something dead over there, and I heard something.”

“What?”

“I don’t know, I wasn’t going to go close to that smell.” And she’d got nervous. Hence her accident, wetting herself in her haste.

“Then that’s why that fox is hanging around. Animals sometimes fall from up there or get pushed off while they are playing or fighting, or get pulled off. The eagles and vultures can keep them cleaned up most of the time, but if not—if they’re trapped deeper in the rocks—then the smaller animals get a chance. If they don’t, then the flies and maggots have a field day. I’ll take a look in the morning. I can bait my hook with those and maybe catch another fish or two.”

She shivered at the thought, but he knew more than she did about surviving out here.

She watched as he pinched the middle of her swimsuit above her naval to lift it from her body, having to trust him with that knife in his hands, and stood still as he cut around the middle with his knife as he moved around her, holding near the point of his blade so that he had much more control of it next to her body, and with a finger between the tip of his knife and her body once he’d got started, with the blade facing out.

“The other important thing, is that you need to stay clean. If we’re near water, then use that to wash yourself after…” he left the rest unsaid, but she knew what he meant and was saying.

“If not, use sand. Or not. If you really need to use water for anything but drinking, ask. I know how much water we have and what we’ll need, so there may be spare for other uses, but best not to waste it at any time.

“There are also animals around here that will be attracted to our food and our smells, although with it being dried food in sealed packages, that won’t be much of an attractant.”

She knew what else he was warning her about, but she wasn’t going to go there. That embarrassing time for her, was still two weeks away and she wasn’t going to discuss that with him.

“Humans usually mean food and an easy meal, but if certain animals see a weakness and are exceptionally hungry, and are desperate, they won’t hesitate, so be careful.”

She knew what he was talking about. She remembered the talk before the rafts had set out. They'd mentioned about individuals not going far from the group or getting hurt. There were some animals out here; a cougar, that would take advantage of anything that was injured.

“Just because you don’t see something, does not mean it is not there. You didn’t see that fox, remember, and there are bigger animals than that.”

She still hadn’t seen that fox.

She picked up her shirt and shorts, and retreated to the edge of the sand area on the other side of the fire as she put them on, slowly digesting everything he’d said, then came back to sit by the fire, opposite him.

“Did you have enough to eat?” She nodded, not trusting herself to say anything. Her gran had bought this swimsuit for her, but he’d been right. Now she wouldn’t have to strip it off, and at least it still retained its elasticity and hadn’t disintegrated after being cut.

He filled his pan with water and brought it back to boil over the fire.

“We can stay here tonight and be prepared to move fast onto that flat rock up there if the river level comes up. I’ll fish some more tonight while there’s light to do that, and try and catch tomorrow’s breakfast and maybe lunch.”

She asked a question that concerned her now that they had made a decision she would have to live with.

“Where will you sleep?”

“Here, in the sand by the fire in my sleeping bag. I turn in when the sun goes down; in another hour, and rise when it is light.”

She wouldn’t ask where she was to sleep. She didn’t want to deal with that just yet, but he didn’t have any difficulty opening up that subject.

“I have a large sleeping bag for two, and it will be a cold night. You are welcome to share it.” She wasn’t comfortable with that suggestion. Not yet.

“Or you can sit by the fire all night with your life jacket to sit on, and my denim jacket around you, but it will be cold, and you won’t get much sleep with animals foraging all night up there and foxes screaming, but you can keep the fire going if you decide to do that.” He knew she’d soon change her mind, but it had to be her decision.

She could see that it was going to be a prickly situation

“The cold air will roll off the plateau like a waterfall of cold air, so you’ll be thankful for a warm body beside you.” Another comment she’d rather not have to think about.

No bloody way! She’d spend the night out here, near the fire.

Almost everything he said had a tendency to disturb her small world one way or another, and she didn’t know him at all. He could be on the run from the law, or was staying away from society for any one of a hundred reasons that might make him a not very trustworthy or desirable companion to be thrown that close to.

Someone would have to be at least half mad to do what he was doing, yet it had taken an act of madness to save her life and he done nothing but help her so far.

She went over his good points, not knowing any really bad ones. He spoke intelligently and with consideration for the most part, except for the little jolts that he threw her way, possibly without intending to. Men did that.

She watched him take his line out of a pocket of his backpack, and prepare it for fishing, using some of the parts taken from the other fish he’d caught to bait his line.

The fish were not biting, so he soon came back from the river.

She watched as he poured hot water into his bottles for tomorrow and scooped out the sand to make a kind of contoured hollow to sleep in, re-laid his sleeping bag, packed his backpack and put it by his head.

He explained. “We may have to move fast, so I pack everything that we won’t need tonight, to be ready.

“If you hear a different roaring noise coming downriver, or I wake you up, get up into those boulders up there, and take your things with you. I won’t be long behind you. There can be a sudden wall of water a foot or more high, come down in just a few seconds if there is heavy rainfall in the headwater catchment area. Where the channel narrows, just below here, it can get to three and four feet high, and back up.”

She wasn’t sure she could believe him.

He opened up his sleeping bag, laid it out on the sand and folded it double at the back.

“If you change your mind, you can sleep here, with more of a warm cushion beneath and around you.” He indicated where she would be lying. They would be very close together. Too close.

She felt it wiser not to say anything.

She watched him strip off his shirt as well as his shorts without hesitation; rolling them to use for a pillow and tucking them into a pocket at the top of his sleeping bag. He left his undershorts on. She had the feeling that had she not been here he would have stripped off, entirely.

She’d be warm enough with his jacket around her. She would have to be.

“Good night, Claire.” He used her name easily.

She responded. “Goodnight… Royce.”