Chapter 23
The next morning, Bethel was at the counter of a coffee shop buying three coffees. One for herself, one for Ariel and one for Mariah. She yawned. It was 9 am and she needed to wake herself up before she hit the malls. Shopping wasn’t her forte, but it was Ariel’s pastime.
The day before, after Deborah had returned from a walk with Mariah, Ariel had declared that she needed to have Mariah to herself as well. Even Elizabeth’s tight-lipped stares hadn’t been enough to squelch Ariel”s pleas with Mariah to go shopping together. Ruth had stepped out with her mother, Eleanor.
Mariah being ever so polite had conceded. Elizabeth had known that Ariel in her over-excited nature could be a handful. So, since she herself could not go shopping with them, she had asked Bethel to accompany them. This was to help keep Ariel in check so that Mariah wouldn’t have to politely refuse any outlandish requests Ariel came up with.
Some time ago Ariel had taken another relative of theirs shopping. Poor Morgan had ended up almost drowning in a pool as Ariel had volunteered to teach her how to swim and had mixed up the shallow pool with the deep pool. Ariel was a good swimmer but didn’t have the slightest idea of how to rescue a drowning person.
Soon Bethel, had the coffees and headed back to the table where she had left Ariel and Mariah. When she got there Ariel was nowhere to be seen. Mariah was seated on a chair and her back was towards Bethel.
Mariah was holding a phone in her hands and Bethel saw a video playing on it. In the video there were two men and a woman. They were in a forest and were jumping off of an incredibly high ledge and into a blue pond below. One of the men had piercing green eyes and was very handsome.
“That looks like fun,” Bethel declared.
Mariah jumped a little and tuned quickly to see who was behind her. She sighed when she saw it was only Bethel.
Just then, Ariel’s lively voice chirped up as she bounded up right beside Bethel, “What looks like fun?”
“A video of people diving in a lagoon from a very high ledge,” Bethel explained.
“Awesome!! Can I see?” Ariel plumped herself down next to Mariah and leaned over her shoulder so she could get a good view of the phone.
Bethel saw Mariah hesitate for a second. She was about to divert Ariel’s attention when Mariah spoke up.
“Ok,” she said. Then she replayed the video. Bethel sat down on the other side of Mariah and handed out the coffees.
There was no denying that the two men in the videos worked out. The green-eyed one was clearly the larger and the taller of the two men. He had a low masculine voice and exuded a lot of confidence. Bethel could tell that he was accustomed to getting what he wanted.
The shorter man was clearly well-built as well and the woman in the video was very curvy and wore a one piece bathing suit. She was pretty too.
When the video was over Ariel chirped up, “Who are they?” Her voice took on a wishful tone as though she wanted to be in that forest diving as well.
“James and Greg and a woman I don’t know,” Mariah said quietly.
“Which one is Greg?” Ariel pressed.
“The shorter one,” Mariah explained.
Ariel’s voice had envy in it, “That ledge is really high up. Did you see how they leaped off of it as though they had no fear of hitting a bolder under the water? I wonder if I could do that?”
Bethel tried to quell Ariel’s excitement, “They probably had checked out the pool before-hand, to determine whether there would be any danger under the water. They probably determined that there were no rocks under the water.”
Ariel’s amazement was not to be diminished, “There were rocks!! I saw the outline of rocks below the surface. The tall man dove in close to them.”
Bethel countered, “I didn’t see any rocks.”
“Mariah,” Ariel began, trying to get someone on her side, “didn’t you see the rocks?”
“No, I didn’t,” Mariah admitted quietly, clearly surprised at Ariel’s revelation.
“Play the video again,” Ariel insisted.
This time Bethel paid more attention to the recording. She didn’t want her over-confident over-adventurous sister ending up at the bottom of a pond in a forest.
This time Mariah pumped up the volume and zoomed in on the video. Bethel saw the hulking muscles on James’ back and legs as he pushed off from the ledge. The device that had been used to capture the video was clearly not the average cell phone. The person capturing the video was able to zoom in on the two men and the woman as their bodies sped towards the water.
Just before they hit the water, Bethel thought that she heard one of the men shout out a phrase or sentence. She thought that one of the words she had heard him say was ‘Anastasia’. But she could not be sure. The sounds from the water and wind and surrounding forests were too loud for her to be sure.
Ariel’s voice was excited “Did you see the rocks under the water next to James?”
Bethel didn’t want to continue the discussion anymore, “Perhaps they were rocks Ariel. I’m not sure.”
Ariel was not letting this go. She turned to Mariah, “Mariah, is James a daredevil or what? He must be insane to dive that close to those huge boulders!!”
“Well, I think they might have been rocks in the water but I’m not sure that the shadows I saw were rocks,” her voice was strained, as though she didn’t want to think that there were rocks next to the divers.
Bethel turned to Mariah. Concern was clearly etched on Mariah”s face. Bethel could tell that she didn’t approve of those people taking risks like that. She wondered if Mariah liked one of the men.
Mariah”s finger went to the next video and she quickly pressed the ‘play’ button. It made Bethel wonder if Mariah wanted to see if the men were okay in the next video.
In the next video, the three people were emerging from their dive. The camera zoomed in on them. They started to swim towards the edge of the large pool. Then the camera zoomed in on their legs and what looked like slightly discolored water around them. The water was a slightly darker shade than the rest of the large pool.
Ariel gasped, “Is that blood?”
Mariah was clearly shaken, “What? No, it couldn’t be.”
Ariel was insistent, “I have done this before and I know blood in the water when I see it.”
Bethel looked up from the phone and glared at Ariel in shock, “What? You got hurt diving into water in a forest from a ledge? You bled?”
“No, no,” Ariel had clearly not meant to let that adventure slide out. “No , no…. I wasn’t hurt, my friend was.”
Bethel was annoyed, “Ariel, you dove into a pool off a ledge in some forest?”
Ariel looked sheepish, “Well…. I was fine. It wasn’t a high ledge. Not like this one. It was an itsy bitsy ledge. These men are clearly crazy. They are on a level that I haven’t reached yet.”
Bethel continued, “Ariel that is dangerous. When was this?”
Then Bethel saw Ariel cast her eyes towards Mariah who was still bent over her phone.
Bethel said to Ariel, “We will talk about this later. You scare all of us with how daring you are.”
Ariel gave a final sheepish smile and then turned towards Mariah’s phone. Bethel followed suit. She saw that James was knee deep in water and was trudging out of the pool. In his arms he carried the lady. There was blood on him and on her. The shorter man was emerging from the pool close behind.
James was clearly tired but he was careful not to let the woman sway as he tried to exit the pool. It was clear that some of the blood must be hers. Then the video ended.
Mariah moaned quietly, “Oh James, no…” Then she quickly played the next video.
In it, James and Greg were exiting the pool and walking on the grass. The person holding the camera was offering to help. But James shook the offer aside. The next second James rested the woman on the grass and the camera-person handed Greg a first aid kit.
James arms were covered in blood and so was his chest and thighs. The video ended. Bethel guessed that the camera person ended the video to help see after the wounded. She looked at Mariah, who seemed distressed.
She tried to comfort her “It looks like a lot of blood, but it really isn’t. It is because their bodies are wet that the blood looks like a lot more than it really is. It is mixed with the water on their bodies so it only looks like a lot. Also the human body has a lot of blood in it, so losing a bit isn’t a big deal.”
Ariel piped up, “They will be fine. I’ve had plenty of tumbles and scrapes.”
Bethel shot Ariel a frustrated look. Some people had a love for challenges like climbing tall mountains. Ariel was one of those people. It left her sister constantly worried about her. However, like her sisters, Ariel was stubborn and would not listen to their words of caution.
Mariah looked up briefly at Bethel and then Ariel. She gave them a small tight smile that did not hide the deep worry in her eyes. Then she turned back to her phone and slid quickly to the next video.
In it, James was speaking into the camera. The green in his eyes was vibrant. There was no denying the square jawline and authority in his voice as he spoke. He explained that the woman had gotten injured but that it was not a serious injury and they had taken her to a place to get medical care.
He also said that he and Greg had not been injured at all. Bethel saw Mariah sigh when she heard this. Then James explained that they had met the woman right there at the pool and didn’t know her. Mariah smiled.
Bethel wondered if Mariah liked James and had been a little jealous seeing him with the woman. She kept her thought to herself. She wanted to let Mariah talk about whatever she wanted and whenever she wanted. The most important thing was that Mariah was getting more comfortable with them.
Ariel’s never dying love for adventure and life was kindled even brighter, “I love swimming and forests both. What else did they do in this forest? Are there more videos?”
Mariah didn’t hesitate. It was as though she wanted to confirm to herself that the men were okay. She played the following video. In it, the men were cutting branches from trees and hooking what looked like fishing lines to them. Then they were attaching hooks to the end of the lines.
Ariel was interested, “They succeeded in actually making their own fishing poles!! That is impressive.”
Bethel then added, “They seem fine. Quite healthy. I can’t see any cuts on them.”
Mariah nodded, “Yes. They do look okay.”
The video ended and Mariah played the next one. Ariel seemed entranced.
In the next video, the two men sat at the edge of a short cliff. Their feet dangled off the cliff’s edge. About a foot below their feet was a body of water. It was clearly not the same pool that they had dove into.
In this new pool, the water looked more murky. It was impossible to tell how deep the pool was. Behind James and Greg were grass and trees and shrubs. They were still in a forest. Their makeshift fishing rods were in their hands and they cast their lines into the water. The video ended with the men chatting and James winking at the camera.
Ariel sighed, “Fishing is so boring but they make it look so fun. I had never intended to try it but now I think I changed my mind. I think making your own fishing poles can be very satisfying, especially if you can actually catch a fish with it.”
Bethel mused, “I wonder if the rods actually worked or if they broke while the men were fishing.”
Mariah nodded, “Let’s see if we can find out.”
She played the next video. In it, it seemed like Greg’s line caught a fish. He tugged at the branch that was his fishing rod. It seemed to be very taut. The fish seemed to be very strong in order to give Greg a challenge.
As they watched, Bethel saw the muscles on his arms tense as he used more force to hold the rod in place. The next second Greg’s line lurched forward and he was nearly jerked off his perch on the ledge. James quickly let go of his rod and grabbed Greg’s shoulders, steadying him. The two men looked surprised.
Then James abandoned his rod completely and moved from his seat on the cliff. He moved behind Greg and held onto his friend’s shoulders. Clearly he was concerned that Greg might be caught off guard again and get pulled into the water.
Even though getting pulled into the water didn’t seem dangerous as the water was right below Greg’s dangling feet, it seemed James still wanted to protect his friend.
Ariel seemed impressed with the whole experience, “That is some strong fish. I wonder what it tastes like cooked?”
Bethel looked at Mariah, who was smiling at the video. She looked happy to see the two men safe and enjoying themselves. Then Bethel turned back to Mariah’s phone. She saw that the video had ended and another one was playing.
In it, the sun was setting and casting red and orange rays across the earth. The two men were gathering wood from the forest into a small pile. Then they proceeded to use stones to light a fire. The video ended with Greg hitting two stones against each repeatedly. James was rolling a stick very quickly between his palms. The base of the stick was between some bramble and tree bark.
When the video finished, Bethel looked back at her cousin. Mariah looked a bit sad and tuned off her phone.
Bethel pushed her coffee towards her, “See. They are safe and sound. Nothing happened to those two tough guys.”
Ariel’s voice filled the air, “Makes me want to go camping. What say we plan a trip? I have heard of several great camping places. Bears don’t generally attack people. Unless it is a mother bear. But seeing them at a distance is a sight of nature that is marvelous to behold.”
Mariah laughed.
Bethel smiled, “Let’s first drink our coffee and then decide on what to do.” As they drank, she looked at Bethel and wondered who James was to Mariah. It was clear that Mariah cared about him in some way, but it also seemed as though she didn’t want to talk about him.
She decided to leave the topic alone. Deborah had told her sisters about her idea to convince Mariah to move closer to them. They had all agreed that that would be a good plan. They could all try to help her and ensure that she was ok.
The sisters had agreed not to bring up the subject yet, but instead give Mariah some time to get reacquainted with them.
The three women finished their coffee and exited the coffee shop. Ariel and Bethel stood on either side of Mariah and linked arms with her. Arm in arm the three redheads walked towards the mall which held promises of beautiful fashion from companies like Ore.