“You mean, guys care what girls say to, or yell at, them?” I suddenly asked.

Marshall looked at me, “Well, yeah,” he said, as if the fact was the most obvious truth in the world. “Marlee, guys practically live to impress girls. When a girl says something mean to us or about us, it hurts. I mean, if another guy says something mean, whether or not it’s true, it might make me mad, but I’ll get over it pretty soon. But when a girl talks bad about a guy,” he shook his head, “that does damage. Serious damage. What a girl says can pretty much make or break a guy.”

I was amazed to learn all of this. Having two sisters, I did not have much understanding about guys. While I knew boys, I had never thought of them as, I don’t know, vulnerable. They always seem so tough and thick-skinned. Even arrogant a lot of the time. “Has Ellie said something that hurt Sawyer before?” I asked, immediately thinking of her rude comments when Sawyer first introduced his midnight hike plan.

Marshall’s look told me that our trains of thought were again on the exact same track.

“Have I ever said something that hurt like that?” I grew worried about what I may have unknowingly said.

Marshall shook his head, “Nah, you’re like the mediator of your bunch. You’re usually nice and encouraging.” I was glad for his answer, and very glad for his disclosure, because now I would sure try to avoid being hurtful.

“How’s your headache?”

“Talking helps,” I said.

Marshall threw his head back and laughed, “Only a girl would get headache relief from talking!”

I playfully punched him on the arm and then quickly said, “Oh, no! Was that hurtful?”

Marshall theatrically clutched his arm and curled down to his knees with a mock groan.

“You know what I meant,” I defended.

Marshall nodded. “I’ve never been physically beaten up by a girl before. Just keep in mind that girls have the ability to verbally beat us up. But, like I said before, you’re pretty good about being decent with what you say. Just, you know, keep it in mind. For future reference. And don’t hesitate to share it with Ellie,” he concluded with a slight smile.

I smiled. “Thank you, Marshall.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s enough talking for me. Your turn,” he said good-naturedly.

5

When Marshall and I eventually slugged back to the base of the avalanche, he let out a long, low whistle. “Wow! That snowmass did more damage in one minute than a bulldozer could have done in a whole day,” he observed.

I simply nodded. I had to agree that the aftermath was nearly as frightening as the actual avalanche. Right now, though, I was so tired and hungry that I did not have enough energy to talk. We quickly spotted our group toward the ridge, probably another thousand feet ahead of us. Marshall largely waved his arms, but if they saw us, they did not wave back. I could see that they had lit a fire, probably in hopes of alerting anyone in search for us of our location. Though the smoke did not stand out like black on white, a search team would surely keep their eyes peeled for the slightest sign of our whereabouts.

Oddly, knowing that we were this close zapped me of energy. I would have thought that seeing the group in the distance would energize me, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. It was almost as if my body said, ‘This is close enough. You can rest now.’

Marshall noticed my fatigue, and politely slowed his pace. “You’re so close now, Marlee. Just another minute or two, and you can sit then. You made it this far. Keep going.” His coaching kept up until we finally reached talking-distance with Sawyer, Ellie and Lydie.

When he saw us, Sawyer jumped up, still favoring his right leg, and awkwardly jogged over to us with a look of confusion and concern. “Did you make it to the ranger station?”

I could not bring myself to look at anyone’s face. It was my fault that we did not make it.

Marshall pulled his brother off to the side as Ellie rushed to me, led me to a comfortable looking pile of snow, and sat me down next to Lydie, who was perched on a snow boulder. With a little imagination it could almost be like a beach chair. Okay, with a lot of imagination. Her left leg was braced from the knee to the ankle with two sticks and athletic tape, wrapped around her pant leg. Ellie explained to me that Sawyer told her that with a broken limb, it is imperative to stabilize the bones so that the broken edges do not rub against each other. Apparently that could lead to a medical emergency. With the stabilizing brace, Ellie explained, Lydie should be safe until we found professional help. I nodded, impressed with the medical lesson, and glad that Sawyer seemed to know at least a little bit about wilderness evacuation.

“Today Sawyer hiked to the ridge to check for cell service, but surprise, there isn’t any,” Ellie said as she stirred food cooking on the backpacking stove that amazingly survived the avalanche. “We haven’t really talked yet about what we should do next.”

“You look pooped!” Lydie announced.

I met her eyes and began to cry. “Lydie,” I sniffed, “I’m so sorry. I just couldn’t go any faster and we could see that we weren’t going to make it before the sun set. I’m so sorry we didn’t find help.” I buried my face in my hands and cried. Now how would we find help? Because of me, an entire day was wasted, and the very food that Ellie was preparing now was our only meal. Our supply of gorp was dwindling. At least we had no shortage of water. We could boil snow as long as our fuel for the camp stove lasted, which should be enough for several days. And I figured Sawyer probably had a water filter along too, for pumping water out of streams.

“Marlee, it’s okay,” Lydie chimed in a cute, sing-songy voice. I smiled then, and Ellie put an arm around my shoulders.

“Actually, Marlee,” Ellie stated, “Sawyer and I think Lydie’s leg is not as bad as we thought at first.” Lydie proudly nodded her head, making me smile again. “Once we moved her out of the snow, she was able to move it just enough to give us hope that the fracture is not as severe as it looked when we first saw her.” Relieved at the news, I took a close look at her leg, and sure enough, she had a tiny bit of mobility, though it hurt her to move it. “We’ve been keeping her on an anti-inflammatory,” Ellie assured me.

Even though Ellie gave a confident impression, I had a hunch that she was far more scared than she was letting show in her face, and I was afraid of what Sawyer would say about our plan now. Thinking of Sawyer reminded me of Marshall’s and my conversation on the hike, and now that I was sitting, I felt strong enough to talk.

“So girls,” I hushed and leaned toward them, sneaking a look behind me. The boys were still talking about ten feet away. “On our hike, Marshall really opened up and said something that I have to share with you.” Ellie’s and Lydie’s eyes widened as if they thought I was going to tell them where buried treasures lie. They were intent on what I was about to share. “I learned that guys are super–”

“Alright girls, time for a conference,” Sawyer interrupted. Not now, I thought, this is important. Not that our plan was not important, but like Marshall confided in me, I needed to warn Ellie to be kind with her words before she said something mean to Sawyer. Based on how peaceful the atmosphere was, I doubted she had lost her temper today. But that was before she knew we were likely not going to be rescued today.

“Later,” I quickly whispered and Ellie and Lydie discreetly nodded.

“We have some options to discuss with you,” Sawyer announced as he sat at the foot of Lydie’s snow boulder. Ellie looked up while still stirring supper and Marshall plopped down next to me, obviously glad to give his feet a break. I smiled and scooted closer to Lydie so we could all talk easier.

“We could attempt to go back to our camp,” Marshall said. Sawyer nodded, and Marshall continued, “We are actually closer to where we left our parents than to the ranger station.”

That plan sounded good to me! Then Sawyer added, “The only possible problem with that is if our parents left the camp, either in search of us or the ranger station.”

We girls silently considered what the boys said. The hike from our parents to here had been fairly strenuous. What if we used all our energy to return to them, only to have them well down the trail in a different direction?

“Another option,” Sawyer continued, “would be for me and someone,” his eyes scanned between Marshall, Ellie and me, “to again attempt to make it to the ranger station. Tomorrow of course.”

We let that option sink in. Yikes. A night in the cold. Another day on the mountain with a small amount of supplies that dwindled every hour. Another day away from medical help for Lydie. That reminded me of Sawyer’s leg, and I wondered if he really felt up to hiking.

“And another option,” Sawyer stated, “would be to wait here until help comes. Assuming anyone has looked up our location on the satellite messenger, rescuers should have no problem seeing five kids in the area of the buried communicator.

Glancing at each person’s face, I suddenly felt Marshall jabbing me in the side. I looked at him, annoyed, but couldn’t ignore his urgency. He was watching Ellie with a look of alarm in his eyes. I snuck a peek and saw the reason for his panic. Ellie’s face was red and her eyes looked angry. At Sawyer. Oh, no, I thought, it’s just like Marshall said. Once Ellie settled on the thought that we were in this position because of Sawyer’s idea, she might launch into him and beat him up, verbally anyway. I had about one second to stop the inevitable verbal attack.

I jumped up, stood between Ellie and Sawyer, leaned up to Ellie’s ear, and whispered assertively, “Girls’ conference, now.”

I shot a pleading look at Marshall and tilted my head, hoping he would understand. I cleared my throat, “The girls would like to have a short conference now.” Marshall did not look at ease. Had I not just saved the day? Why was he still looking so panicked?

“I don’t think there’s anything that we girls have to discuss that the boys should not hear,” Ellie said in a disgusted tone. I froze. I had to stop her. She marched past me and up to Sawyer, reminding me of the night – just last night, although it seemed so long ago – she listed off all the reasons we should not go along with the midnight hike.

Marshall now jumped to his feet and tried to change the subject by saying, “Now, of course, we should consider weather–” but Ellie ignored him and continued to glare at Sawyer.

Lydie pretended to cough, and then sneeze, and I appreciated her effort to draw Ellie’s attention away from Sawyer.

I pulled Ellie’s arm and said in a serious tone, “Ellie, I have to tell you something.” She at least looked at me. “In private,” I stated firmly.

Ellie looked perturbed but, to Marshall’s and my relief, she shrugged. But before fully turning her attention to me, she frowned again at Sawyer and said in an angry voice, “To be continued.”

As I managed to pull her away, my heart raced. Phew, that was close. Marshall caught my eye long enough for him to mouth ‘Thank you!’ at me. I discreetly nodded. Marshall and Sawyer walked about a hundred feet away, and I was thankful for the space, just in case Ellie erupted.

“So,” I turned to face Ellie and Lydie, “remember what I started to say, about how Marshall let me in on a very important–”

“Marlee,” Ellie interrupted, “I think that whatever middle-school gossip you and Marshall talked about can wait. Right now, we need to figure out what we’re going to do, and let’s face the fact: we would not be here if it wasn’t for Sawyer and his horrible idea to take a midnight hike.” Wow, thanks, I thought sarcastically. And I’m not in middle school anymore, but whatever.