Page 36 of Fight Or Flight

Once they were on the boat in the churning water, he realized he was actually having a great time. He’d been on the cruise before, with his parents and Amy as a child, but as an adult, it was different. More impressive, somehow. Natalie tried to say something, but the roar of twenty-eight million litres of water rushing over the falls every second drowned out her voice.

“What?” he yelled.

She leaned up close, her soft breath grazing his ear and warming him through the cold, wet air.

“Will you take another picture?”

He nodded, speechless, and she handed him her phone just as the boat became shrouded in mist. Leaning against the railing, she tilted her face up to the sky and held her hands out. He clicked a photo. The water had soaked through the ugly poncho she was wearing, and droplets had collected on her eyelashes.

She should have looked bad; everyone else on the boat did. But her playful expression drew him in. He had to force his gaze from hers again, and although he managed, it was getting harder and harder to do it each time.

Ethan checked the time as they arrived at the last stop on the tour. It was late afternoon, and he still had work to finish up and a baseball game that evening. Normally, he loved his work, would have felt odd not completing it, but he had to admit he wasn’t looking forward to it now. Getting away from town for a day of waterfalling had been a fun distraction, even with Michael Bublé.

You’re not supposed to be having fun.

He gave his head a little shake as he stopped in the parking lot of the vast conservation area that sat high on the escarpment. He grabbed a backpack with water bottles and put it on. It was a three-kilometre hike uphill.

They left the truck and started their climb. About halfway up, Ethan led them down a heavily wooded, almost nonexistent path.

“You sure you know where you’re going?” Natalie asked, crunching along behind him through the knee-high brush.

“Trust me.”

They climbed and climbed until they finally reached the top, both out of breath. He expected her to collapse on the ground, struggling for air. Luckily, she seemed to catch a second wind when the lookout came into view. She walked to the edge of the cliff, then plopped down way closer to the drop-off than he thought was safe.

“Oh my god,” she breathed out.

Ethan carefully made his way to her and sat down next to her. He opened the backpack and handed her a bottle of water. She drank deeply between laboured breaths, then pushed her sweaty hair from where it had affixed itself to her sticky skin. Her cheeks were flushed pink, and her face was full of awe.

She stared out into the sunny distance, gaze sweeping across the huge landscape surrounding Mapleton. It was a peaceful green mix of forest, farmland, and vineyards.

“Hey, I can see my waterfall!”

Ethan leaned toward her to see through the branches of a sugar maple that blocked his view. “Yup. And there’s my pond. You should come see it sometime.”

She gave her head an emphatic shake. “Not a chance. I’ll look from here, where I’m safe from snakes. I am safe from snakes here, right?”

Ethan rolled his eyes. “Yes.” He wanted to defend the snakes, but he knew from experience that would go nowhere, so he changed tactics.

“I came up here two years ago with a land surveyor to assess this entire area and figure out what was going wrong. See how your property lies low, almost in a basin?”

“Yeah.”

“The entire property used to be a huge wetland. That’s why your relatives built the house up on that hill. But fifty years ago, one of the Monroes drained it to make a field to plant cash crops, and it destroyed the entire ecosystem.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“To be fair, they probably didn’t know the effects it would have, either. But the wetlands work as a sponge. They soak up all the rainwater and runoff, slow down the flow, filter the water. Without them, the polluted water rushes into the lake and raises the bacteria levels, which affects everything from fish habitats to the water we drink. The beaches have even shut down because of the poor water quality.”

She didn’t speak, just sat in introspection for a long time. Maybe he was finally getting somewhere?

“I made a plan for the pond just over three years ago when I moved back to Mapleton. Elizabeth was on board from day one. We’ve already seen positive effects from it.”

“Like the snakes?” she asked, an annoyed look crossing her features.

“You’re just biased by your hatred. They are an important part of the ecosystem. Did you know the rodent population exploded after the snake’s habitat was destroyed?”

Natalie’s face became a mask of horror. Ethan’s hope returned.

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