When Zach returned to the dorms, his group was already assembling outside the front door. He sprinted to meet them. He wasn’t going to get yelled at again by Mrs. Lomeier. He knew the next time he got in trouble, his mom would hear about it and that would be a death sentence. He still wasn’t convinced she would send him to Two Harbors to live with his dad, but if he was going to get into trouble with his mom, it wasn’t going to be because he was late for his next environmental class. There were more interesting risks to take than that.
Zach joined the group just in time. He was able to blend in with the other students toward the back, so Mrs. Lomeier didn’t notice his tardiness. Mrs. Lomeier took attendance, calling off the names of the students in alphabetical order. When she got to Zach’s name, he yelled, “Here!” from the rear of the group.
Logan was standing near the front with Michael and Tristan. He turned around at the sound of Zach’s voice and gave him an approving smile.
Before they had left for Pine Ridge, Zach had told Logan about his mom’s threat to send him to live with his dad.
When Logan had heard the news, he let Zach have it. “You can’t move! With my luck, I’d end up getting some old farts for neighbors. Plus, who are you going to beat up on in HORSE? You have to stay. So, here’s the plan. You will not screw this up. You’re going to get your grades up and you won’t get into any more trouble.”
Logan had sounded like Zach’s mom, always nagging him. But he was also flattered by his best friend’s concern. Zach understood Logan’s point of view. He didn’t want to leave his best friend either.
Mrs. Lomeier continued taking roll. Logan’s curly hair popped up above the other students. His hair was longer now than the first time Zach had seen the “halfro”. They were only eight years old that day when Logan moved next door to Zach.
“Hey! Curly hair!” Zach called. “Want to come over and shoot some hoops? Me and my brother are playing HORSE.”
Logan sat on his back steps, his head resting on his hands. “Me?”
“Yeah, come on over. You don’t want to help your mom and dad move stuff, do you?”
“No, I guess not,” Logan said, slowly walking down the steps.
Zach tossed him the ball. “Let’s see your jump shot,” he said.
Logan tossed the ball at the hoop and it clanged off the rim.
“Try it again,” Zach said.
This time Logan stepped closer and tossed the layup through the net.
“Not bad,” said Zach. “Come on, let’s play a game.”
They played five games of HORSE and as they shot, Zach bombarded Logan with questions. “Where are you from?”
“Rochester. My mom and dad are artists.”
“What kind of art? Like painting?”
“Yeah, I guess. They draw stuff too.”
“How come you moved? What’s wrong with Rockaster?”
“Rochester. They moved for their jobs, I guess.”
“You have any brothers or sisters? This is Chris. He’s my younger brother.”
“You already told me that. I don’t have any brothers or sisters.”
“What about sports? You play any sports? Looks like you’re okay at basketball.”
“I play baseball, too.”
Zach smiled. “Me too,” he said as he drained the winning shot. “You should sign up for my team. We won our league last year.”
Logan nodded.
Zach won all five games of HORSE. “This is the worst I’ve ever been beaten,” Logan claimed.
Zach tried to help Logan out by lowering the hoop to nine feet, but still, Logan couldn’t keep up with him on the court. “You wanna do something else?” Zach asked.
“I should probably go back and help my mom and dad, but can I come over and play again? We don’t have a hoop in our backyard.”
“Yeah. Come over whenever. You could use the practice,” Zach said with a smirk.
Logan looked back at Zach as he made his way to his house and smiled.
“It looks like everyone is here.” Mrs. Lomeier’s voice startled Zach.
The students were buzzing. They had just been told about their next class. They were going to be working on “team building” and “facing fears” while trying to conquer Pine Ridge’s ropes course.
Zach and his classmates walked down the gravel path, but this time they veered off to the right, past the triangular classroom building, and headed down an even steeper hill.
In the distance was the ropes course, its towering structure looming through the green pine trees. When the students and chaperones reached the course, a new instructor awaited them. “Hey everyone! I’m Manny. Welcome to the ropes course.” Manny was roughly six feet tall, with jet-black hair and sandy brown skin. He wore the same green employee vest with his nametag on it, just as Melanie had. “This is the moment you’ve all been waiting for, right?” he asked.
A chorus of, “Yeah” resonated throughout the group. Mr. Foster, Mrs. Lomeier, Mr. Preston, and Mrs. Pliska shared smiles with each other.
Pine Ridge’s ropes course was legendary. It was one of the reasons the trip was so popular. In Science, Mrs. Lomeier showed a video of students on the course. Zach had looked forward to the challenge ever since.
Manny continued. “You see that big, daunting apparatus over there?” He pointed up to the ropes course.
The students nodded.
Zach smiled as Jenny and Tanya looked on with horror.
Manny moved closer to the students, looking them all in their eyes one at a time. “In a couple of hours, I’m confident that all of you will have conquered it in your own way. For some of you it might mean that you simply get up there and give it a try. Even if you don’t finish the course, trying something scary is an accomplishment. For others, you might run through this thing three or four times, but remember, it can be different for everyone. And that’s okay.”
“We can go on this thing more than once?” Zach blurted.
“Some of you might. If you’re up for it, there should be time,” Manny said. “But before anyone conquers this thing, we need to have a little training session. Follow me,” he said with a wave of his hand.
The students followed Manny up five stairs to an open-air shack. There were cabinets filled with harnesses and karabiners. Manny took one of the harnesses out and began demonstrating the proper usage of the device. Then he began handing out the other harnesses to the students, checking the sizes of each.
“Okay,” he continued. “All of you need to grab a partner.”
“What do we need partners for?” Zach asked.
“Your partners will double check that the harness is on correctly and he or she will be each other’s motivators on the course. You need to offer encouragement to each other. For a lot of you, this is going to be a bit scary, so your partner will help you through it.”
The students partnered up by standing next to each other, the teachers intervening when necessary. Zach stood with Logan. Tanya with Jenny. Adam with Mitch. And Michael with Tristan.
Tristan looked nervous. He stared at the intimidating course with his mouth slightly open.
“Are we all set?” asked Manny. “Then let’s go!” Manny led the students down to the entrance of the course. “When you enter the course, you must first clip your karabiner to the attachment.” Manny demonstrated and then climbed up to the first obstacle, a single walking rope with two parallel ropes to be used as railings. It was suspended fifteen feet above the ground. Manny began balancing his way across the rope, holding on with both hands. Suddenly, his feet slipped out from under him and he slid off.
The students gasped.
Zach laughed along with Manny as he hung from the structure by his harness. “See, even if you fall, as long as you have your harness attached, you can just hang here. It’s actually kind of fun.” Manny swung back and forth, kicking his legs out like a child. Then he regained his balance and continued through the course, demonstrating each obstacle along the way.
The second obstacle was a sloped wooden bridge that inclined toward the middle tower on the course. Manny clipped his karabiners to the wires directly above him, reached his arms up, grabbed the straps and sprinted up the bridge, landing on the tower’s platform. “That one’s a piece of cake!” he called down to the students below.
The third obstacle took a sharp, ninety-degree turn. Manny unclipped his karabiners, one at a time, and reattached them, one at a time, to the post on the new obstacle. “Did everyone see what I just did? This is one of the most important rules. Your partners and the chaperones who will be up here on these platforms will help to remind you, but you must always be sure that one karabiner is attached to the course at all times. Never take both off at the same time. Everyone understand?”
The students nodded.
Zach could see Tristan out of the corner of his eye. He stared, wide-eyed, at the structure.
Manny climbed on to the third obstacle: two thick, wooden logs. Again, he held the two straps above his shoulders for balance, the karabiners firmly attached. Then he smoothly walked over the two logs.
Reaching the third tower, Manny unhooked one karabiner at a time and then demonstrated obstacle number four. This challenge was similar to the first. It required a balancing act on a thin tightrope-like cable. Only this time, there were no hand cables to hold on to. The two harness straps were clipped to a cable above. Manny held the two straps for balance.
Zach ran to the front of the crowd to watch Manny scale the difficult task, passing Tristan who had since left the group to sit on a nearby bench. “When you reach the final tower, the best is yet to come!” Manny called as he wobbled his way across the tightrope. Climbing up on the final tower, Manny, once again, unclipped each karabiner separately, and then reattached each to the final, culminating event. “This is what you’ve all been waiting for … the zip line!”
“Yeah!” screamed Zach. The other students quickly followed Zach’s lead by cheering and hollering. Manny clipped his harness to the thick, sturdy cable, sat back, lifted his feet up, and took off down the line, spinning and laughing as he went.
Zach sprinted after Manny, hoping to see the conclusion of the ride. Adam and Mitch followed closely behind. “That was awesome!” Zach said as Manny climbed out of his harness. “Me and Logan want to go first.”
Manny chuckled. “Okay, okay. Let’s go get everyone situated and we’ll see. Everyone will get at least a couple of turns on this thing.”
The chaperones went up first, so that they could “man” the towers. Mr. Foster would be on the final zip line tower, Mrs. Pliska on the third tower, Mr. Preston on the second, and Manny would handle the first tower. Mrs. Lomeier would stay on the ground to keep order.
Zach and Logan had managed to budge to the front of the line, so they would be the first students up on the course. One student would make their way through the course, while his or her partner would be the “motivator” as Manny put it. In Logan’s case, he would stay on the ground, tracking Zach and cheering him on. “Your job is going to be pretty easy!” Zach called. He knew he wouldn’t need a lot of help.
Zach eased his way through the obstacles with little trouble. At times, he would purposely fall off the course as Manny did, causing Mrs. Lomeier and Mrs. Pliska to gasp. When Zach reached the final tower, Mr. Foster congratulated him, unhooked his karabiner as Manny instructed, and locked him on to the zip line.
“See you later, Zach!” yelled Mr. Foster as he pushed him off the tower. Zach went cruising down the line, relishing the brisk wind whipping against his face. Logan smiled and ran to meet Zach at the end of the zip line, giving him a high five.
Zach was the ultimate “motivator” for Logan, who was a bit more timid on the course, but still made it through with very few glitches. He encouraged him at every stop and at any time Logan felt nervous. Zach knew when Logan needed help. That was part of being his best friend.
There had been an unspoken vow between Zach and Logan. When Zach’s brother went missing, Logan was there for him. The sleepovers. The days after school at Logan’s house when Zach just didn’t want to go home. The science fair Logan skipped earlier that year because Zach’s dad had just moved and Zach didn’t want to be alone with his mom. Logan had always been there for him and Zach pledged to do the same for Logan.
It took nearly an hour for the students to go through the course once. Zach scanned the grounds for anyone who hadn’t gone yet. Tristan was still sitting on the bench. “Hey, Tristan!” he called. “Are you going to go up on the course?”
Tristan shook his head, his eyes staring at the ground. Zach paused momentarily, immediately sorry that he called Tristan out so publicly. Then he turned around and called to Manny. “Can we go for a second turn now?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Nice.” Zach turned to Logan. “Watch what I can do on this run.”
“Zach, what are you gonna do? Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Trust me.”
Zach climbed up to the first obstacle. “Okay, clip your karabiners to the cable,” yelled Manny.
“Don’t worry. I got this.” Like a circus performer, Zach proceeded to climb out on the shaky, single cable without attaching his harness to the structure. He was walking with no support. Zach proceeded to climb out on the shaky, single cable without attaching his harness to the structure.
“You have to attach your harness. Don’t come any farther!” Manny screamed.
“Zach, what are you doing?” questioned Logan.
“Don’t worry. I’m fine!” Zach replied, holding his balance and looking down at his feet as they pushed across the cable.
Mrs. Lomeier came scurrying over, positioning herself directly below Zach. Manny continued to yell to Zach to attach his harness.
“Zach, go back the way you came. Right now!” Mrs. Lomeier yelled.
Zach ignored the pleas and continued to make his way across the tightrope. With little difficulty, he made his way to Manny’s tower. Manny grabbed him and pulled him on to the platform. “What’s your name?” Manny asked sternly.
“Zach Sutton,” he said proudly.
“Zach, what you did just now was very stupid and you could have been seriously hurt or even worse. We don’t tolerate that kind of behavior out here. I’m going to attach your karabiners and you need to go back over that cable, take off your harness, and then you are done with this ropes course. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, I understand.”
When Zach got down from the structure, Mrs. Lomeier was waiting for him. Zach saw Logan watching out of the corner of his eye. He looked worried.
“Zach,” Mrs. Lomeier began. “In my twenty-five years of chaperoning this trip, I have seen some really stupid things. This is by far the dumbest. It’s one thing to be goofing around in class and to blow off your homework, but you just put your life in danger. I don’t understand what you were thinking. We’ll need to deal with this later, but for right now, you need to go sit on that bench and I don’t want you to move the rest of the evening.”
Zach walked over to the bench, passing Logan. “You know what this means, right?” Logan whispered to him as he moved toward the bench.
“Maybe. We’ll see,” said Zach.
Zach sat down at the end of the bench. His mind raced. I am so sick of Lomeier being all over my back, he thought. Because of her, my life is over now. Two Harbors, here I come. I could have finished that whole course on my own. No harness. Even if it was dangerous, what did it matter anyway? I could die tomorrow, or just disappear. I might as well enjoy life while I have the chance.
Zach took off his Twins hat and rubbed his cold hand across the top of his buzzed head. He wished he had brought his warm winter hat. Then reaching into his pocket, he gripped the grainy, rough rock and remembered Chris. He wished the rock would transport him back in time, to a place where Chris still laughed and played. His mom would be there. Chris and Zach would be there. And his dad would be there. Not in Two Harbors.
Tristan was still sitting at the edge of the bench. Zach slid down to Tristan’s side, leaned back and folded his arms behind his head.
Tristan turned his head away.
“Tristan,” Zach called. “How come you aren’t trying the ropes course? It’s pretty sweet.”
“I just don’t feel like it.”
“Are you scared of heights or something? It’s not a big deal. That harness catches you even if you do fall off.”
“Not if you don’t attach the harness,” replied Tristan.
“Good point. Good point,” said Zach with a smile, appreciating the subtle shot Tristan had just taken at him. “You know, my brother was afraid of heights. My mom took us downtown this one time. We went to the top of the IDS building. Chris wanted nothing to do with it. He stood by the elevator the entire time. He wouldn’t come close to the window. Of course, he was only eight years old at the time, but still, I get it.”
“I just don’t want to go up there. That’s all,” Tristan explained.
“All right, all right. I get it. But … what if I was your trusty ‘motivator?’ I could help you get through it. Michael’s over there about to get on the zip line again. Whadda you say?”
Tristan was silent.
“Come on. Let’s go.” Zach looked around for Mrs. Lomeier. She had moved toward the middle of the course, her back turned to him and Tristan. Zach grabbed Tristan’s arm and pulled him off the bench.
“Zach, I don’t want to do this!” Tristan called.
Zach pulled him over to the start of the course, grabbed an unused harness, and helped him strap it on. Tristan’s eyes were wide and full of fear.
Manny was watching the two, but Zach continued anyway.
Once the harness was securely on, Zach nudged Tristan up to the first obstacle. He gingerly climbed the ladder to the entrance platform, looking back to Zach for assurance. “You got this, man,” said Zach.
“Okay, buddy,” Manny called from the second platform. “You can do this!” Manny then walked through the instructions for connecting Tristan’s karabiners.
“Take a big, deep breath before you start,” Zach said from the ground below. After a long pause, Tristan finally took his first step on to the shaky cable. “There you go. Just like that. Good. Now take another step.” Zach talked Tristan through the first obstacle. Manny stayed quiet, not interfering with Tristan’s progress.
When Tristan reached the platform, he sighed with relief.
“Nice work, Tristan!” called Zach.
“Thanks, Zach,” he yelled down.
“Okay, let’s move on to the next one,” Zach said.
“Zach Sutton! Sit back down on that bench. You are not supposed to be up,” yelled Mrs. Lomeier, striding toward him.
“I was just helping Tristan through the course.” Zach thought the excuse was legitimate.
Mrs. Lomeier looked up to Manny.
Manny nodded.
“It doesn’t matter. You are not supposed to be participating anymore. Sit back down on that bench until we are finished.”
Tristan looked lost as Zach slid over to the bench. As he sat down, Tristan was about to take his first step on to the wooden bridge. Zach gave him a “thumbs up” and Tristan took a step.
A half hour passed before everyone was finished with the ropes course. The students filed out of the area, thanking Manny.
“Hey, Zach,” Manny called as he organized the harnesses in the storage cabinet. Zach pulled out of the group and walked over to Manny in the storage shack. “I wanted to let you know that the stunt you pulled out there was not very smart. You really took a huge gamble. Next time, think before you act, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” Zach said.
“But I also wanted to say thank you. Tristan never would have conquered his fear if it wasn’t for you.”
Zach nodded and turned around to catch up with the group. Where was I when my brother needed help? he thought.
The pack was far up the trail. Zach was tired and didn’t feel like running to catch up with them. He was alone.
A strange knocking came from the woods, like a hammer on a tree. Zach stopped. Turning toward the sound, he stepped off the trail, into the trees.
Knock … Knock. The sound was louder now. Zach’s shoes were buried in the dirt and snow. He was scared to move. Then the knocking stopped momentarily, so he pulled his feet from the ground and took another step deeper into the woods.
In the distance, behind a thick pine tree, a faint glow illuminated the surrounding forest. Then the familiar odor oozed through the trees to Zach’s nose. He took two more tentative steps toward the light and then … darkness.
No knocking. No glow. No stench of burning rubber or gasoline.
A shiver traveled up Zach’s spine. What was out there? Was something following him? He didn’t want to find out.
He turned and sprinted back to the trail, hoping to catch up with the rest of the group. After all, there was safety in numbers.