Excerpt
Diego’s making it easier for me by leading, going slowly so I can take the same steps. The mid-day heat is stifling, obnoxious. A jerk. The forest ended a while ago and opened into a big bowl of a valley dotted with strange, pointy succulents half my height. Dry, dusty earth. Two small snakes nip under rocks like liquid.
We walk on in silence for a few more minutes, until I hear a low rumble coming from the north. We keep following it, Diego looking back at me more often now that the path has turned into a crumbly, steep slope. It’s a short climb down to where the ground is obscured by thick foliage. The rumble turns to rushing the closer we get, whooshing sheets of water I can hear clearly.
Diego opens his hand, meaning for me to grasp his forearm as I come to the last foothold. His skin is pale and silky there, and so clean despite the dust and heat. Even in my exhaustion, my mind shifts primitively…
“Whoop!”
My foot slips and my calf skims along the side of the dusty rock, scraping me and staining my skin with ashy dirt. Goddamn. I steady myself before he’s turned around. He doesn’t miss the long scratch on my leg, but at least I didn’t flail.
“Okay?”
“Yup.”
“Your balance is really something,” he teases.
He’s making fun of me in a way I can’t resist making fun of either. Exasperated, I laugh weakly.
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll go ice skating and then see who’s got balance. Are we almost there?” I have to know. It’s starting to feel like there’s no Emerald City at the end of this road.
“We are there. Let’s go, a few more steps. You’ll like it,” he promises good-naturedly.
“We are?”
He nods his head at the woods. “Just past the trees.”
Diego’s standing there glistening at me, his chest heaving lightly with the heat. It must be hotter than usual, even for Costa Rica. It’s like an alien entity that’s far stronger than either of us. His hair is damp around the nape of his neck and his shirt is pressed against the valley of his back. I’m parched, my skin slick with sweat.
I can just see the poster that used to hang in the Arts admin office at university that showed one circle with an arrow pointing to your comfort zone, juxtaposed against another circle with the words, “Where the magic happens.” I’m there, apparently, because I’m well beyond comfort. I’m not even in any kind of zone – this is no man’s land in Lia World. Here there be dragons. And Diego.
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