Christy heard one of them mutter, "These young people today..."
"Hey, Christy!" Todd yelled. "You coming in? The water feels great!"
"I think I'll take the trail down," she called to him. "I'll meet you down there."
"Sure you don't want to jump?"
Christy shook her head briskly, waved once more, then quickly made her way off the bridge and down the narrow trail. It was much harder going down alone, without Todd holding her hand. At one point she lost her footing and landed on her rear end. No one was around to see her, so her embarrassment quickly disappeared. She proceeded with greater caution.
Arriving at the trail's end, she stepped into the shallow water and gingerly placed her feet on the slippery rocks. She stopped to rest on the rock she and Todd had sat on earlier.
David stood only a few feet away, fishing with something tied to the end of a string.
"Hey, Christy! Where have you been? Some guy jumped off the bridge. Did you see him?" David asked.
"Yep, I saw him, all right. You know who it was?"
"Who?"
"Todd."
"No way!"
"Yes way, David. Ask him yourself."
"Where is he?"
"Hey!" Todd called out from the gravel spot where they had left their small ice chest and towels. "Anybody else want some lunch?"
Paula sat next to Todd on a towel. It seemed to Christy that Paula scooted closer when Christy approached.
"Hey, Todd!" David called out. "Did you really jump?"
Todd took a deep breath and let out a poof of air before saying, "Yeah, dude, I really jumped."
Christy thought he looked and sounded like he still didn't believe it himself.
"There's probably not much left," Paula said, poking her hand in the ice chest. "Your little brother got into it and started taking the meat out of the sandwiches to use for bait."
"I only opened one sandwich," David said defensively.
As usual, Uncle Bob had supplied a generous portion of everything, and they had plenty to eat. They all talked about Todd's jump while they ate.
Christy became so hot sitting in the sun that when she finished her sandwich, she stepped down the natural rock steps into the deep pool to cool off. At first, the water felt freezing cold against her sun-baked legs. It felt miserable to be half cold and half hot, so taking a deep breath, she stretched her arms in front of her and took the plunge.
"Brrrr!" she called to the others when she surfaced. "Verrrrrry refrrrrrrreshing!"
"You convinced me." Todd sprang to his feet and did a shallow dive off the side, coming up right next to Christy.
"You're right!" he said, blinking as he surfaced. "It's refreshing. Come on, Paula! It'll wake you up."
"No thanks."
"Come on," Todd urged. "You can't drive all this way to Kipahulu and not even go in the water!"
"I went in already."
"What? Up to your ankles?" Christy teased.
"If you won't come to the water, we'll have to bring the water to you!" Todd hoisted himself out of the pool and grasped Paula by the wrists.
She began to kick and scream, trying to pull away so Todd wouldn't throw her in. He, of course, overpowered her, and with a typically loud Paula screech, she landed in the pool with Todd right behind her.
They came up laughing and splashing water at each other. Christy fought hard to resist the urge to crawl out of the water and curl up on a rock by herself.
"Hey," Todd called out to them, "you ever been underneath a waterfall before?"
"I want to go!" David yelled from the shore and then jumped in to join them.
Todd motioned with his head toward the waterfall, and Christy swam after him along with the other two, telling herself this was too wonderful a place to sit alone feeling sorry for herself. The roaring noise and the carefree spray on her face made her feel more excited and nervous the closer they came to the waterfall.
"It's easier to go in this way," Todd directed. "Follow me."
They swam around to the side and pressed their backs against the rock until they could slide into a hollowed-out part of the wall. Slowly inching along, they found a ledge to sit on directly behind the waterfall with the rock overhang sheltering them like a thick black umbrella.
"This is incredible!" Christy said, her words echoing in the cavern. "Look how the water comes down like a thick sheet of glass and then shatters into a billion foaming bubbles when it hits the pool below."
"There's a much bigger waterfall about a mile and a half up the trail, and you can go behind that one too," Todd said, his deep voice resounding in the hollow.
"Let's go there," Christy suggested.
"He said it was more than a mile, Christy. You want to walk that far? I think we'd better start to drive back. What time is it?" Paula was shivering and not enjoying the novelty of sitting behind a waterfall at all.
"We probably should get going," Todd agreed. "If we stay too long, we'll have to drive that road in the dark."
"No, thank you!" Paula spouted. "I'm going back to dry off."
"Can't we stay a little longer?" David moaned. "I haven't caught anything yet."
They followed Todd out past the side of the waterfall, and Christy was amazed at how much easier it was to hear the farther they swam from the crashing falls. Swimming back, Todd agreed to help David try to catch his elusive pet prawn.
The girls dried off, and Paula fished for her camera in Christy's bag and began to snap a roll of pictures. Christy watched David and Todd hunt for the prawns, which looked like miniature lobsters about three to seven inches long.
The prawns hid themselves well under the rocks, but the lunch meat tied to the string on David's stick beckoned them to come out of hiding to try to snatch it. Todd and David caught two but lost them before they could lift the string out of the water and grab them.
David decided to stand very still in the water next to the rock and grab the critter before it had time to scamper away. It worked. He caught a big one.
Gleefully splashing his way over to Christy and Paula, David proudly showed off the prize in his fist.
"Get that pinchy thing away from me," Paula wailed. It's gross!
"He's my new pet," David announced. "Sydney the Shrimp."
"David, you can't keep that thing," Paula said.
"Sure I can. I'm going to keep it in the ice chest with some little rocks and water." David set about turning the empty ice chest into a new home for Sydney.
Paula looked thoroughly annoyed. "Todd, don't you think we'd better get going? When we first got here lots of other people were around, but now there's hardly anyone."
"Good. Not as much traffic." Todd reached for his towel and backpack and said, "You guys ready?"
Christy scrambled to get her things together and reluctantly slipped her feet back into her cold, soggy tennis shoes.
The four of them waded through the water and over the slippery rocks. The late afternoon shadows darkened the water, making it difficult to find sure footing. David received the assignment of carrying the small plastic ice chest since he had turned it into a prawn playground.
The hike to the parking lot was uphill, and when Christy reached the Jeep, she felt tired and wasn't at all looking forward to the long ride home. She plopped her beach bag in the front seat, as if to say "Front Seat Reserved for Christy." Todd and Paula weren't behind them.
"What are they doing?" Christy asked David as he opened the ice chest to check on his treasure inside.
"Todd said it was some kind of fruit or something, and Paula wanted him to get it. Here. He told me to put his backpack in the car."
Christy shielded her eyes from the sun and watched as Todd climbed a tree at the far end of the grassy parking lot. It was too far away, and she was too tired to try to join Paula, who stood below the tree, pointing to the clumps of fruit.
When did they take off? And how come I didn't notice?
Christy decided their delay was to her advantage, and she settled herself in the front seat. She watched them in the rearview mirror.
Todd slid down the tree and handed Paula the fruit, but suddenly he hopped on one foot. Then he grabbed his other foot, and from all Christy could see, he either fell down or lay down. Paula tossed the fruit into the air and dropped to her knees by his side.
"David, what's going on down there?"
"Where?" David looked around as Christy undid her seat belt.
"I think Todd fell or something." She got out of her seat, and when she saw Paula frantically running toward her, she broke into a run.
"What happened?"
"Backpack!" Paula shrieked. "Where's his backpack?"
She ran past Christy to the Jeep.
"David had it!" Christy started running toward the Jeep with Paula, and then on impulse turned and ran toward the tree, where Todd was still lying with his eyes closed.
"What happened? Are you all right?" She fell to her knees and grasped his arm.
Todd opened his eyes and hoarsely said, "Backpack."
"Paula's getting it." Christy glanced over her shoulder. "They're coming. Here they are."
She took his hand in hers and squeezed it.
Paula nearly flung the backpack at Christy's face. "Get it, Christy. He said it's in there. I can't do it!"
"What?" Christy yelped frantically. "What happened? What's in here?"
She tore the zipper open and dumped out the contents.
"A bee!" Paula shrieked. "He got stung, and he's allergic, and he said he'll go unconscious unless he gets a shot!"
Christy grabbed a long, yellow plastic container that tumbled out of the backpack.
"It must be this thing," she said, taking control of the situation. "Todd? Can you do this? Are you okay?"
"Look at his foot!" David shouted.
Todd's right foot had already swollen to twice its normal size.
"Oh, you guys! What are we going to do?" Paula broke into loud sobs. "Is he unconscious?"
"Chris," Todd said in a breathy voice, "do you have it?"
Christy popped open the plastic case and removed the hypodermic needle and syringe. "It's right here. What do I do with it, Todd?"
"Take off the cap and hand it to me."
"Oh, I can't look! I can't look! Needles always make me faint!" Paula turned away, still crying.
"Okay, Todd. Here it is. Can you see this okay? I'm putting it in your hand." Christy sounded much braver than she felt.
Todd opened his eyes and pulled himself up. Christy quickly moved behind him to prop him up. It felt as though he weighed a thousand pounds. She pressed her shoulder hard against his back to keep him sitting up and closed her eyes while he gave himself the injection.
I feel like I'm going to pass out Don't do it, Christy. Take a deep breath.
When Todd's back pressed even more heavily against her shoulder, she slowly pulled away so he could lie down.
"Is he going to be okay?" David asked in a small, scared voice.
Todd licked his lips. Beads of perspiration dripped off his forehead. He drew in a deep breath and said in a low voice, "Give me another five minutes." He took a breath. "Then I'll be fine."
Paula stopped crying and turned to face the others, sniffing and drying her eyes. "He took off his shoes to climb the tree, and when he was coming down, this huge bee-it had to be as big as a moth-buzzed past my head. The next thing I knew he must've stepped on it or something, 'cuz he dropped like he'd been shot or something and told me to get his backpack."
"Sorry I scared you." Todd opened his eyes halfway. "I'm allergic to bee stings."
"Oh, no kidding!" David said, releasing the tension with his comical voice and face. "We all thought you were taking a nap!"
Todd's lips pressed together. "If I keep completely still, I stay conscious longer. It takes a little while for the injection to work. I'll be fine."
"Do you think you can walk?" Christy asked.