“Are you interested in riding the boat?”
Nick’s grin deepened as his stride lengthened. After a few moments on the trail, the fall’s roar drowned out all other noise. Nick stayed directly beside her, and sometimes his shoulder brushed against hers, but he didn’t try to speak to her. They followed the path to the water’s edge.
The boat service was nothing like Niagara Falls’ Maid of the Mist, where people wore ponchos and stood on the deck of an enormous and sturdy ferry. The Iguazu Falls tour included an inflatable boat and lifejackets. A man with a bullhorn encouraged them to quickly find their seats.
“Welcome, everyone. My name is Jorge, and our captain here is Leo.”
Leo, who manned the engine, smiled and waved.
“We are your escorts today,” Jorge continued.
Adrienne’s attention wandered to Nick’s muscles that seemed to be bursting out of his lifejacket during Jorge’ lecture on safety precautions, but she tuned back in time to hear about the legend.
“Folklore claims a big snake called Boi lived in the river,” Jorge said. “To calm its vicious hunger and lust, the natives sacrificed a virgin every year as an offering. But once a brave guarani aborigine kidnapped the woman and saved her from the traditional rite. They escaped through the river. Boi burst in anger, literally exploding the river into the cascading waterfalls that forever separated the man from the woman.”
Interesting that both the Iguazu Falls and Niagara Falls legends had snakes, virgins, and human sacrifice, Adrienne thought. She wanted to ask Nick if he was familiar with the Niagara legend, but since she didn’t have a bullhorn, she knew he wouldn’t hear her. She tucked it away to share with him later.
When everyone was settled in, the boat sped across the water. The closer they came to the falls, the choppier the waves grew. Jorge ditched his bullhorn and began recording the boat’s passengers with a large video camera.
The water sloshed over the sides and the fall’s spray soaked the passengers. Repeatedly, the tossing tide threw Adrienne against Nick’s side. Every time, he responded with a smile. Water droplets glistened in his dark hair, clung to his eyebrows, and ran down his face.
The power of the falls shook through Adrienne, making her feel small and insignificant. In a good way. Yes, her marriage wasn’t what she’d thought it would be. Seb wasn’t who she’d thought he’d be, but then she wasn’t who she’d thought she’d be either.
In the courtroom, she was strong. In law school, they had called her Audacious Adrienne. So why was she such a sniveling coward with Seb? Why did he make her feel like she was something stuck on the bottom of his shoe?
A wave of shocking cold water washed over her. She was too surprised to even scream. After she blinked, her sight returned. Jorge had his camera pointed at her and a grin on his face, waiting to see what she’d do.
She plastered on a smile and leaned against Nick, trying to absorb some of his warmth. Nick draped his arm across her shoulders and pulled her closer.
A few minutes later, the boat returned to quieter waters. Adrienne eased away from Nick and tried to tame her hair.
Once they were on solid ground and away from the roaring falls, Adrienne asked Nick if he’d ever heard of the Niagara legend. He hadn’t, so she tried to recall it as best she could as they followed the path up the steep bank.
“A young bride was so distressed over the death of her husband that she paddled into the middle of the roaring Niagara River. Singing a time-honored death hymn, the girl allowed the canoe to be caught by the rushing current, and soon she and her boat were thrown over the edge of the enormous falls.”
“And she died?” Nick asked.
“No. She wanted to, but the god of thunder caught her mid-descent. He brought the girl to his home behind the falls, where she and the god’s son nursed her back to health. The girl fell in love with and married the god of thunder’s son, and together the family lived behind the falls.”
“Aww, a happy ending,” Nick said.
Adrienne pulled at her wet clothes. The sun had warmed them, but, given the humidity, she worried that they’d never dry and she’d be soggy for the remainder of the trip. “You would think, but no. The girl, although happy in her magical life behind the thundering water, missed her people. The god of thunder, knowing how much she still loved her family, warned her that a giant snake planned to poison the river, hoping the people from the girl’s village would drink from the water and die so he could feast on their bodies.”
“Oh, grisly.”
A woman shrieked somewhere ahead on the path.
Adrienne paused her story while Nick sprinted up the path and disappeared around a corner. Following at a slower pace, Adrienne came across Nick and the woman in the silver stilettos a few minutes later. The woman sat on the road with her legs splayed out, cradling her bleeding hand in her lap.
Adrienne bit back the I told you so on her lips and instead asked, “Is there anything I can do?”
The woman ignored Adrienne, gazed into Nick’s face, and stuttered in Spanish, “The c- critters, they looked so cute and h-harmless.”
Adrienne answered in Spanish, “Even cute things can be dangerous.” She tried to dismiss the mental image of Seb flickering in her mind.
“Come on,” Nick said, taking the woman’s elbow and helping her to her feet. “I bet they have bandages at the ranger’s station.”
“Do they even have a ranger’s station here?” Adrienne hoped her voice didn’t sound as testy as she felt, but she didn’t like the way the woman was leaning against Nick.
