The three young men sat in silence on the riverbank, listening to the water rushing past as the wind blew their hair. In another, better, situation, perhaps they could have appreciated the peacefulness of the moment. But this was not such a situation.
The one in the middle, Jason, was the reason why they were on the riverbank instead of the river. The one on the right, Patrick, had warned him not to stand in the canoe, that it would flip, that it was too heavy to begin with, because it was a two man canoe that was carrying three people. But Jason had ignored Patrick, and the canoe had flipped, and then the current had swept it away, along with all of their bags. Now they were not only cold and wet without a change of clothes, but also without any food or drinkable water. In other words, they were fucked.
“We really should get moving,” said Charlie, the one on the left.
“We should,” Jason agreed.
“Shut up,” Patrick said.
Patrick was arguably the most annoyed with Jason, and for good reason. It was he whom Jason had ignored. Had his friend just listened for once, they wouldn’t be cold or wet, and they wouldn’t be stranded miles from the nearest road, with no supplies and little hope of making it back before dark. But Jason hadn’t, and they were.
“I said I was sorry,” Jason pleaded.
Patrick glared at Jason, not trusting himself to speak, afraid that if he did he might say something that he couldn’t take back. Meanwhile Charlie, trying to play mediator, struggled to find the words to do so effectively. Instead, he stood up and reached out to pull Jason up.
“C’mon,” he said. “Let’s start walking while we still have light.”
Jason grabbed Charlie’s hand reluctantly, and was helped up. Then he reached for Patrick, who swatted Jason’s hand away and stood up on his own.
It was going to be a long walk back.
———
Thirty minutes later, they were nearly dry, and thus less cold, but the tension had not eased with exercise as Charlie had hoped it would. Sure, Jason was an idiot. And yeah, it wasn’t the first time he had created a problem for the trio, but that was part of the fun of bringing him along. One way or another, you knew that there would be a story to tell in the end. Every single time.
“Are we heading the right direction?” Jason asked.
“I think so,” Charlie replied. “I can still hear the river. As long as we stick as close as possible to it, we should be able to find our way out.”
“Isn’t there a more straightforward route?”
“Probably,” Charlie said. “But it’s not worth the risk. We know the river will lead us where we need to go, and we have enough time to get where we need to go, so it’s the best plan.”
Jason nodded, “Okay.”
Patrick said nothing. Which was probably for the best. Charlie could tell he was pissed, even more than he usually was when Jason pulled one of his stunts. Charlie couldn’t really blame him, but it also wasn’t helpful at all. Patrick was wasting energy being angry instead of using it productively. Charlie wasn’t dumb enough to bring that up though. He knew it would only make it worse.
So they walked on, putting one foot in front of the other, listening to the sound of the river, afraid of losing their one guaranteed path out of the shit situation they found themselves in.
———
It was difficult to tell for sure, but Jason was almost certain the sun was getting low in the sky. He would ask Patrick the time, but he had a feeling anything he said to his friend would only invite hostility. If Patrick was even still his friend. Jason supposed that was hardly a guarantee at this point. He had fucked up before, sure, and Patrick had forgiven him. But he had never put their lives in quite this much danger before. All he had to do was not stand up in the canoe, but he had done it anyway. Funny how one stupid move could land you in so much trouble.
He really was sorry. He was also thankful that Charlie was being so nice to him. It was the one thing that was keeping him from losing his mind. He wasn’t sure exactly how he was going to make it right, but he would if he could. It would be difficult. He knew that for sure. And there was always the chance that Patrick might just tell him to fuck off indefinitely. He also knew that worrying about it now did no good, but it wasn’t something he could just stop doing.
Jason tried to focus on his steps, hoping that he could distract himself enough to stop thinking about what would only drive him crazy.
Left foot. Right foot. One. Two. Three. Four.
He repeated the pointless cadence over and over as the minutes became hours and yards became miles. It was mind-numbing, all this walking. In better circumstances, it could have been fun. Maybe someday they’d laugh about it, even, like they did about his previous fuck-ups.
He was hopeful, if not particularly confident.
———
Patrick didn’t want to be mad at Jason. After all, it’s not like he had intended on screwing them all royally. It had just happened. But it wasn’t the first time, and that was part of the problem. Maybe his dad was right. Maybe you couldn’t fix stupid. But did that give him the right to be so angry? In this case, the answer was probably yes.
Patrick had forgiven and forgiven Jason over and over because Jason was his friend and Jason had done a lot of things for him over the years of their friendship. Jason had arguably done an equal amount of stupid things, too, but he had never done them on purpose or with malicious intent. He just tended to not think things through before he did them. It made being around him interesting, certainly, but at what cost? Maybe he wouldn’t have as many great stories to tell if he wasn’t friends with Jason, but Patrick had a feeling that sooner or later there would be a time when there wasn’t a story to tell because there wouldn’t be anyone there to tell it.
Maybe it was time for him to move on. Or maybe he didn’t have to stop hanging out with Jason altogether. Maybe he could just be more selective about what they would do when they did hang out. No more adventures would be the first thing to go, even if it made him sad to think about. Not just because Jason had been his best friend for as long as he could remember, but also because deep down Patrick actually got a little rush out of these situations. Which might’ve been why he was angrier than usual. He didn’t like what being around Jason did to him. He didn’t like the things he was willing to put up with when in these situations. It scared him.
When he finally came out of his head enough to realize it, he noticed that the world around him was getting darker. He had a feeling the three of them didn’t have too much longer before they would be in some serious trouble. Visibility was dropping rapidly, the temperature along with it. They couldn’t be too far out now, he figured, but he couldn’t be certain. They needed to pick up the pace.
Patrick took a deep breath and finally spoke.
———
It was a bit of a shock to both Jason and Charlie to hear Patrick’s voice suggest they needed to move faster. It was more of a shock that there was almost no bitterness in his tone. Whatever he had been turning over and over in his mind for the last few hours, he must have decided at the very least that his melancholy mood was unhelpful. Neither Jason nor Charlie was foolish enough to think that Patrick had gotten over or past Jason’s stupid manuever earlier, but it was a positive step, and one they both recognized and appreciated.
Without comment, the trio nodded and picked up the pace. The silence wasn’t the same as it had been earlier. It wasn’t a silence of exasperation or anger, but rather one of effort and focus. One of survival. Like it or not, they were in this together, and they had two primary options: work together, or fall apart. And the former was far more sensible than the latter, that was for damn sure.
As they walked, Jason continued his internal chant. Left foot. Right foot. One. Two. Three. Four.
Charlie kept his ears trained on the sound of the river.
Patrick focused on keeping his breathing steady. And together they marched on towards safety.
Caleb Bedford 