Chapter Eight
Charlie’s voice rose above the growling river. “My sweet unleashable darlings,” he read, “we are gathered for the dawn of
a new era at Babette Botanique. We have been Raw. We have been Fierce.”
“Those are the last two lines they launched,” Mandy whispered to Liv.
“Raw?”
“Root-vegetable-derived rejuvenating serums.”
Charlie shot her and Liv a silencing glare. “I have invited you here in honor of our newest, biggest endeavor yet. In three
weeks, we will launch CareFree to the world. CareFree will be on the lips of every wellness influencer and in the hands of
every person who wants to be liberated. But before we sell it, we have to experience it. This rafting trip is an Essence Quest.
A chance to embody the essence of CareFree. Which brings us here, to the heart of the Grand Canyon, where CareFree’s potential
was born.”
Mandy looked at the other guests circled around. PK’s eyes were shining, his lips mouthing along as Charlie stumbled over
Babette’s script. Imogen, too, seemed fixated on Charlie’s every word. But the others had more complicated expressions. Devon
and Stefan both looked worried. Fiona looked annoyed. And Lucinda was staring out at the water, uninterested in Charlie’s
recitation.
“This Essence Quest is the final test of our new product line,” Charlie said. “No more fighting. No more striving. Now we will be carefree.”
If Babette were speaking these words, Mandy might have been inspired. But in Charlie’s halting voice, the rallying cry sounded
more like a dirge, or a threat. The dry air crackled the hair at the nape of her neck.
“That’s it.” Charlie looked up from the phone to PK. “Is there anything else?”
“Just this.” PK stalked over to the luggage tarp, returning with the white cardboard box Imogen had dumped on him early that
morning. He handed it to Charlie.
“A present from my sister,” Charlie said. He placed it on the ground and edged back, as if there might be something dangerous
inside.
“Want me to shoot it?” Imogen asked. “Like an unboxing?”
Charlie hesitated, then nodded. Imogen handed her phone to Mandy.
“Head-on shot,” she said. “Close. Like I’m going to eat the camera.”
Imogen took the box, turned, and smiled hungrily, a lopsided, incisor-flashing grin. “Babette Sauvage is full of surprises,”
she said. “Let’s see if this one is worth her absence.”
She peeled back one of the flaps and tipped the box toward the camera. Mandy squinted at the screen. The box appeared to be
full of ball caps. As far as she could tell, the hats were perfectly white, with no adornment except an index card clipped
to each one’s brim.
Imogen dropped the smile from her face. “Plain white hats? This is giving design-free, not carefree.”
“I wouldn’t rush to judgment,” Charlie said. He stepped forward, no longer afraid of the theoretical monster inside the box.
“There are names on the notecards. They’re personalized.”
“They’re blank.”
He took out the hats, calling the names one by one. Stefan Eriksen. Imogen Duvray. Dr. Fiona Moon. Devon Sauvage.
Despite the uniformity of the caps, each person stepped forward with proprietary eagerness, as if the fact that their name was attached to a hat meant that it belonged to them and them alone.
Some, like Stefan and PK, immediately secured their hats over their sweaty hair.
Imogen started snapping selfies, spinning to find the best light.
Lucinda and Fiona seemed underwhelmed, claiming theirs without interest, as if they’d just as soon let the hats float down the Colorado as put them on.
Mandy felt a thrill when her name was called. She clutched her hat and examined it, searching for evidence that Babette Sauvage
had singled her out for something special. There was a faint medicinal smell to the brim, and something unusual about the
texture of the fabric above it, an aberration in the weave of the crown that she could feel but not see.
“Do you feel that?” she whispered to Liv.
“What?”
Mandy traced a finger over the crown, trying to discern the difference.
“Again, I apologize for my sister’s delay.” Charlie’s eyes flicked down at the last remaining hat in the box, presumably Babette’s,
and he seemed to lose his train of thought.
Devon deftly stepped forward and took the box from his hand. She turned to Marc, who was linking the mules together in a long
rope chain. “When you make contact with our sister, will you give her this?”
The guide nodded and took the box. “I’m heading up to the rim now. I’ll call Big Pete tonight from the office if she checks
in.”
“When she checks in,” Charlie corrected him. The confidence in his voice had returned. Mandy was surprised how efficiently he and
Devon had recast their sister’s absence from disappearance to delay. The former was cause for concern; the latter, a simple
administrative error.
“Most of you only know me as the company’s CFO,” Charlie continued, “the name on corporate tax filings. That’s how Babette
works. My sisters are the geniuses. I just push paper around.”
“Geniuses?” Liv mouthed at Mandy.
Mandy nodded and donned her hat. When she pulled it down over her forehead, she felt a slight cooling sensation against her
skin.
Imogen raised her hand. “It’s, like, tingling me?”
“Tea tree crystals,” Charlie said. “Woven into the inner band in a frozen state. As they melt, they emit a cooling sensation that harmonizes with your alpha waves.”
“Is this part of the CareFree line?” Imogen asked.
Devon stepped forward. “No. You’ll experience that later.”
“This is just a token of our appreciation,” Charlie said. “If you find the effect wearing off, dunk your hat in the river,
and the crystals will freeze again.”
“Don’t dunk it,” PK said to Imogen. “This river’s disgusting. That hat has to stay white for your footage.”
Lucinda scoffed. “Nothing stays white in a place like this.”
When Mandy removed her cap, she could already see where whorls of dust from her fingertips had singed the rim red.
“Please,” Charlie said. “The point of this trip is to celebrate our CareFree line. We want you to enjoy the river. To be your
fullest, brightest self. To—”
“What is that?” PK blurted out. He was staring at Liv.
“Um.” Liv’s face was streaked with white goo. “Sunscreen?”
“Let me see it.” PK plucked the cheap orange bottle from her hand and squinted at the back. “Avobenzone. Cinoxate. Octocrylene.”
He dropped the offensive bottle by Charlie’s feet, as if it were radioactive. Charlie, too, was frowning. “My dear. Shall
we sign you up for chemotherapy right now? PK, can you get the—”
“On it.”
The young man dug into one of his bottomless duffels and emerged with a sleek matte-white tube adorned with a silver B.
“Here. This will protect your skin. Without any of those carcinogenic chemicals.”
“What’s in it?”
“Don’t worry,” Charlie said. “It’s all natural.”
“And this one will resaturate those stress lines on your forehead,” PK said, offering Liv a small vial and eyedropper.
“I’m good, thanks.”
PK pressed the vial into her hand. “You say that now, but you won’t be forty forever.”
“I’m thirty-four,” Liv said.
“You could use a little—” Mandy said.
“This isn’t necessary,” Liv said.
“You’re right,” Charlie said. “None of this is necessary. You’re here to enjoy yourselves, to bask in the bounty of the great
outdoors. And we’re here to ensure you have everything you need to have a wonderful, nourishing, carefree trip. To our Babette
family, thank you.” He awkwardly slung an arm around PK’s shoulders. The younger man flinched but didn’t move away.
“To our new friends”—Charlie nodded in the direction of Mandy, Liv, Imogen, and Lucinda—“welcome. Allow me to introduce our
team. Many of you already know PK Raghuram, my sister’s loyal assistant. I know PK wants to do anything and everything to
help you have a wonderful Essence Quest.”
PK wriggled out of Charlie’s grasp. “Babette has personally selected products from our new CareFree line for each of you to
have you looking and feeling your best on the river.”
“Best is a very high bar,” Imogen said.
“I’m sure we’ll exceed it. Say hello to Imogen Duvray, here with her grandmother, Lucinda.” Charlie tripped over the names
but nodded genially at the teenage girl. “Imogen is our new brand ambassador on the Pitch—”
“Hitch—” PK hissed.
“Hitch social media platform. She’ll be capturing footage along the trip. You won’t notice her, I promise.”
Mandy raised an eyebrow. No flaming redhead who’d dedicated themselves to streaming their life one eight-second clip at a
time was signing up not to be noticed.
“My sister Devon is also here,” Charlie continued. “The brains behind our little family company. She’d prefer if I didn’t introduce her, but we dragged her out of the lab for this expedition, so she might as well give you a wave. Dev?”
The tall, severe woman nodded slightly. While Charlie’s eyes darted around the group, Devon’s gaze was sharp and focused.
Like a judge assessing everyone from on high. Her salt-and-pepper pixie cut was swallowed under the white ball cap, casting
a shadow over her sun-beaten face.
“Devon discovered the secret to CareFree right here, in the Grand Canyon. A secret we are honored to share with you this week.
And soon, with the rest of the world.”
Charlie scanned the rest of the group. “And this is Dr. Fiona Moon.” His voice went leaden, as if he were reluctant to expend
any energy on the blond woman. “She made several contributions to CareFree’s development.”
Fiona stared stonily back at Charlie, offering only the briefest suggestion of a nod. But she made no further mention of wanting
to hike back up to the rim with Marc and the mules.
“Finally, welcome for the first time to Mandy Chisholm, one of the earliest supporters of CareFree, here with her sister,
Olivia”—Mandy smiled and held her breath, praying he wouldn’t say more—“and Stefan Eriksen, our valued partner on this new
line.”
Big Pete cleared his throat. “This is all very interesting, sir—”
“Call me Charlie.”
“Charlie.” The lead guide’s voice was laced with an exasperated authority Mandy knew intimately. Big Pete was not a river
rat, but a teacher like her, facing an unruly classroom of entitled students. His crossed arms were like braided steel ropes,
thick and strong. “We have to launch now. Unless you want to formally withdraw from the trip.”
PK stepped forward. “Are you sure there’s no way we can contact her?”
“She’s just delayed,” Charlie said. “This is her party. There’s no way she’d miss it.”
“You keep saying that. But you don’t know, do you?”
Charlie stared down the younger man.
“Our sister will find a way,” Devon said.
“All right,” Big Pete said. “But once we push off, there’s no turning back. The Colorado River isn’t an interstate. It only
flows in one direction, and there are just a couple places people can hike down from the rim to the Colorado, with trails
a lot steeper and more treacherous than what you just did. Let’s get to the boats.”
PK nodded, but he didn’t move. “You’re sure we shouldn’t wait for her a little longer?”
“Come now,” Charlie said. “What’s that brilliant CareFree tagline you and she have been working on all these weeks?”
“Let your worries wash away,” PK mumbled.
“Exactly,” Charlie said. “That’s what Babette wants for us. It’s what she wants for the world. Let’s go out there and grab
it.”