Rising Abruptly Read Online Free PDF Page B

whiteness. Stunned, she collapses, calls out to Jeanne, but the wind eats her words before they reach her cousin’s ears. Jeanne disappears from view. That’s it. Rachel will die here, as her father died in those faraway mountains. She whimpers and crawls on the toboggan as on her deathbed: Father! I’m coming up! And so, already deep into playing the game of her death, it takes her a moment before she feels Jeanne’s red face against her own. Lightheaded, she loses her balance.
    Jeanne helps her cousin to her feet: I’ll pull the sled now.
    No! It’s my toboggan. I’m okay. Rachel touches the hurt on her forehead. Blood, like red gelatin, sticks to her mitt: I’m dizzy. We’ll die.
    We’re not gonna die.
    We will too.
    Okay, Rach, die if you want. But first, tie one end of my scarf around your waist and I’ll tie the other end around my waist.
    Instead of reassuring her, this precaution intensifies Rachel’s fear. This is how people die in mountain stories. Tied to each other. And so will they, under tons of snow, a bit of red scarf sticking out to mark their glacial grave. But walk they must.
    And so, nearly blinded by the storm, Rachel keeps moving, step by step, her face offered to gusts of wind, her neck touched by the thousand frozen fingers of snow. Only the tension of the scarf around her waist, which pulls her forward when Jeanne walks a little faster, proves that the cousins are linked together. Despite that tether, Rachel imagines herself lost and alone in wild mountains on the other side of the world.
    Trees have become cliffs between which she is climbing a hair’s breadth from dizzying exposure. She must progress with great caution. Over snow bridges that could collapse into deep valleys. Through avalanche terrain where wind has deposited deadly snow. Under seracs hanging above her head. Her limbs have turned to wood and her body is bruised with cold and exhaustion. Famished and tormented by thirst, she trips in her numb feet. Her hard candy toes that, surely, will have to be amputated. She hates Jeanne for turning the sacred game into a disaster. But, even if the toboggan was a true magic carpet capable of flying her home in an instant, she cannot call off the game. She and her cousin must conquer the virgin mountain. Must succeed in this rescue mission in the frozen hell. Together, they search the Himalayas, away from all humans and all beasts. At this high altitude against the deserted flank of the goddess mountain, mistress of vast blue spaces, and of death, even the eagle never glides. Somewhere among the folds and the crevasses, the crags and the ledges, her father and her aunt are dying. Courage! Hang on! Rachel and Jeanne will plead with the goddess mountain. Together, the cousins will rescue their parents. Having learned about the madness triggered by thin air, Rachel allows herself a brief rest. She tries to locate ancient cities in the storm, convinced that some Nepalese demon is causing the mirage of emptiness. A cruel game to force Jeanne and her to abort their life-giving rescue mission.
    Standing still, Rachel feels the tension of the scarf. The scarf that yanks her out of the game. Then, she feels the slack. And her cousin emerges from the white.
    Jeanne waves her arms in defeat: I lost it.
    The game? Me too.
    The trail. I don’t know where to go.
    They look around. In this white desert where earth, sky, trees merge into nothingness, they have lost their bearings. Below, the city has vanished. The overcast sky hangs so low, it obliterates the street lights from view and robs them of any means of orientation. Try as they may, they can’t make out anything. Streets, lights, the squat blocks of red brick houses. All gone. They can’t even hear traffic.
    Rachel guesses that they have been walking in circles for an hour. An hour! Far from home! And lost! She glares at Jeanne. If she had brought her play shovel, she would use it this minute