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“It’s because there are tea trees in the area which dye the water,” Beckett explained.
“So if I drink the water, it’ll taste like tea?”
“You can try.”
Miles leaned down and made a cup with his hands, then brought the water to his mouth.
“How’s it taste?”
“Like river water. Not bad, but not as good as tea.”
Beckett’s lips quirked. “Come on. There’s a bridge up ahead we can jump off.”
The bridge was made of wooden planks and wire on the sides. Beckett insisted that Miles wade in the water below the bridge to prove that it’d be deep enough to jump off. “Just make sure you don’t hit the rocks.”
“That’s reassuring,” Miles said, his feet brushing a rock hidden under the water. It had to be the size of a washing machine. “Are you sure this is safe?”
“Yeah, I did it all the time when I came here as a kid.”
“That’s when you were a kid. You’re huge now.”
Beckett frowned. “I’m not huge.”
“You’re 6 foot 2. That’s almost 190 centimeters.”
“This part here…” Beckett sank into the water and came back up. “It’s gotta be more than three meters deep. I’ll jump in first, prove it’s okay.”
They got out of the river and padded onto the bridge, leaving wet footmarks on the wood. Beckett climbed over the railing. “Watch,” he said and jumped off.
His body crashed into the water with a loud splash, bubbles rising and fizzling. A moment later, his head popped up, and he grinned at Miles. “See? Told you it was fine.”
“Okay, okay,” Miles said, climbing over the railing and holding onto a post. After Beckett moved out of the way, he took a deep breath and tossed himself off the edge, curling his body into a cannonball in the process. There was a muffled splashing noise and a lot of darkness, but then his face was in the air again and he sucked in a deep breath. There were droplets in his eyelashes, but he could still see Beckett bobbing in front of him.
“Fun, eh?” Beckett said.
Afterwards, they swam around in the river. Sometimes hiking groups passed over the bridge, and they’d exchange hellos. A family with two primary-school age children appeared, but the parents took them downstream, so Miles and Beckett had this piece of river all to themselves.
Miles drifted to the edge where it was a lot more shallow and sat down, letting the water wash over his legs. A moment later, Beckett sat next to him. Their legs were bent at the knees, making four triangles.
“It’s going to rain tonight,” Beckett said, looking up at the sky, which was now full of clouds.
“But it’s summer,” Miles said.
“It’s a La Niña summer, remember? It’s going to be cold and rain pretty much every night of this trip.”
“The tents are waterproof, though, right?”
“Mm-hm. And our sleeping bags will keep us warm.”
“Right,” Miles said. “But how necessary are the sleeping bags? Like, can’t we just sleep in a hoodie?”
Beckett gave Miles a look. “Did you bring a hoodie?”
No, he didn’t. It was early February, so he didn’t bring any warm clothes at all, figuring he didn’t need them.
“Trust me, it’ll be freezing at night. We’ll need our sleeping bags,” Beckett continued.
Well, shit.
