An Island Between Two Shores Read Online Free PDF

the turbulence a half-mile away. She pointed the canoe to the left shore. In short, deliberate strokes she worked the canoe toward the cliff face. When she was about ten feet from the wall, she scoured hopelessly for any break in the constancy of the canyon. Its walls towered high above the river and the water churned between the cliffs was cast in a menacing shadow. Liana looked downstream and could smell the freshness of the rapids. She gritted her teeth in dismay.
    As Liana neared the black cliff, the deep hush of the rapids filled her. A grey groan that would be a roar sounded farther downstream. The sound of the rapids had been muffled behind the cliffs until she reached this point. In horror she heard the unmistakable call of churning waters. In the distance she could see the telltale spit of a hole. She knew that holes could be treacherous. The water drops over a ledge and travels deep along the bottom of the river only to surface and go back upstream toward the ledge and then folds in on itself. Liana knew a hole could recirculate her in its froth and there wouldn’t be an escape. The farther the canoe bobbed into the canyon, the louder the rapids became. Still, the river itself was eerily placid as it approached the exploding rapids. Liana could see that the calm would break in the next half mile, when the river entered its first big bend since the monolith. She knew it was going to explode with ferocity and her mind raced with panic.
    In desperation she once again headed for shore. She aimed the bow of the canoe toward the left-hand bend since she knew that currents always flow more slowly on the inside of a corner. Liana turned the canoe broadside to the current and started to pull herself to shore using short, quick strokes. But the canyon walls continued without a break and there was no escape. Liana had unwittingly committed herself to challenging the sly “Fox.” Liana pulled her hat snuggly over her ears, buttoned her heavy woolen jacket, and said a soft prayer. “Hail Mary, full of grace…”
    Standing waves began to appear randomly on both sides of the river. The canyon walls felt even more imposing. At first Liana could see the large, glassy faces of the waves from a distance and could maneuver to avoid them. But as she paddled farther into the canyon, powerful eddies and waves were more frequent and less avoidable.
    She saw the first hole shortly after she rounded the corner almost directly underneath the canyon wall. It was about twenty feet wide and it seemed a third of the river sank abruptly into it. Liana furiously paddled to miss its exploding mass, and as she passed this danger she gaped into its deep, surging white maw from about fifteen feet away. The hole was about six feet deep with a long glissade dropping into its trough of ferocious turbulence. Liana knew that a hole like this would finish her off in an instant. It was a horrible sight and Liana feared other watery graves lurking ahead.
    The occasional wave at the entrance to the canyon was now replaced by long sets of wave trains. Wave behind wave behind wave came with dizzying, unavoidable regularity. She paddled hard but tried to slow her progress and prevent swamping the canoe by paddling backwards. At the apex of each wave, Liana looked downstream to consider which waves she could avoid and which waves were unavoidable. She desperately scanned the horizon to view any breaks in the canyon wall. There were none. She dropped low into another wave and another and another. The canoe dipped into each trough and slowly climbed the crest, only to drop into another waiting trough on the other side.
    The canyon walls towered above her with dizzying steepness. The top of the canyon was lined with a dense wall of forest. The river ricocheted from wall to wall against an unbroken veil of vertical rock. Liana no longer searched for an escape and instead resigned herself to her uncertain fate. Ahead were unknown miles of explosive rapids.
    After