Threading the Needle

I am so happy that Terry reached out to me and let me know he is doing well! Such great news! And it doesn't change my dedicating this series to him! Thank you Terry, careythomas and snow for all your help in editing and improving this chapter. I couldn't have done it without you.

Like almost all of my series, this one will only be understood if you have read the chapters before it. Thank you to my readers for going along this journey with me.

Threading the Needle

Chapter 3

Winnie looked up at the grey skies. The clouds were low enough that she could not see any of the mountains that surrounded them. The wind was strong and chilled her, even through her coat. It wasn't snowing yet, but it was cold enough for snow. The group of guide trainees stood around, not yet sure what to do. Liz and Bear were over next to the rafts, which were still on the van's trailer.

Looking over at Indigo, Winnie saw her follow a woman taking a kayak down to the river. Indigo had a helmet and paddle with her. After she put them down beside the kayak, Indigo reached out and pulled the woman close before giving her a brief kiss. After they separated, they held hands until Indigo finally walked away. Even still, they kept holding hands until their arms couldn't reach any further. The woman watched Indigo as she walked back to the car. She had a smile on her face.

Winnie felt like she was staring and looked away. While there were lesbians around in college, they tended to keep a low profile. Oklahoma was conservative enough that most felt that was better. Unable to help herself, she glanced to the kayaker again. She was attractive, though not as good looking as Indigo. Her most striking features were her dark eyes and full lips. With her light brown hair in a short crop, she looked more like what Winnie expected in a lesbian.

Winnie blushed as that thought passed through her mind. She was trying to move beyond her Midwest small town upbringing. She looked over at Marika, who was walking over to Liz and Bear. Winnie knew from Marika that Liz was a lesbian, as well as her oldest friend. "I don't want to disappoint Marika, I mean Rikki," she thought to herself. It wasn't that she had any prejudices against lesbians. If she had met them before coming to Seattle, she was usually unaware of it. She thought a moment longer and then blushed again. She didn't count girls kissing at parties. That was mostly teasing boys, even she did it a couple of times herself when she drank a bit too much.

"That doesn't mean anything," Winnie told herself. "It isn't like it excited me." Once again, she felt her cheeks flush. This time it was for lying. As much as she wanted to deny it, something about those few illicit kisses excited her. If she dwelt upon them, they still excited her. For that very reason, Winnie tried to pretend they never happened. She was glad when Bear's booming voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Okay. Get your asses over here. Let's get these rafts unloaded and fitted out," Bear called over to the trainees. All 12 of them hustled over as quickly as they could. "Make it easy on yourselves, six to a side," Bear told them.

Grabbing the rope running around the raft, they pulled it off the trailer with one quick rush and took it over to where Liz had placed some big barrel pumps. When the trainees started back to the trailer, she spoke. "Lena and Linc, you stay here and start to pump up this raft." She looked at the other trainees. They all stopped. "I said Lena and Linc. The rest of you get moving," she barked. The reaction was instantaneous. They sprinted back to grab the next one and bring it alongside the first raft.

"Bohdi and Rikki, start on this one," Liz told them. This time, no additional instructions were necessary. The remaining eight trainees were already on their way to get the last raft. When they had that one on the ground, Liz told a couple of the other male guides to start pumping it up. After that, she looked down at her clipboard.

"Winnie and Sawyer, you are with Bohdi and Rikki. Julie and Don, join Lena and Linc. And that leaves Jasper, Don, Reed and Hart in the other boat," Liz said. She moved over to Lena's boat, while Bear headed over to Rikki's.

Indigo took a step or two towards the final boat before looking over at the river. A few other kayakers were in the water with her girlfriend. "See you at the Drop, Alex," she called and then waved. Alex gave her a big smile and shook her paddle over her head. After that, the four kayakers peeled out to head down the river and find a few places to play. She was only going to be needed at the Drop and was just helping out as a favor to Weston. Indigo watched them for a moment and then headed over to her own raft.

For the next hour, the trainers had each one of their students completely rig the raft and go through the safety lecture. Once one person was done, they took everything out of the raft and the next person started over. The temperature continued to drop and as they finally carried the rafts into the river, the first flakes of snow started to fall. Bear, Indigo and Liz had on drysuits with warm fleece. The trainees all made do with wetsuits and weatherproof tops, in addition to polypropylene long johns. They wouldn't freeze, but it wasn't warm either.

For the first ten minutes, the trainees watched and obeyed their guide. It was mostly a refresher for the basics. Finally, as they hit a slow stretch of water, each trainer looked around and asked who was first.

In Bear's boat, Rikki raised her hand before anyone else. With a big grin, Bear passed the big paddle over to her and then switched places. Winnie watched as Rikki settled into the back of the boat. Without waiting for any further instructions, Rikki put her paddle into the water and started to adjust the raft's direction. They were first in line and she wanted to make sure they stayed out of the way of the other boats.

Winnie felt her confidence rise. Rikki's attitude in looking down stream was impressive, especially when she called out her first set of commands and they slipped through a narrow spot without touching the rocks on either side. Winnie looked back at the other two rafts. Jasper was in charge of Indigo's boat. While he bounced off a rock as he went through the shoot, he corrected it with enough time to come out without a problem. As soon as they came out, Indigo gave him a high five that made the grin on his face get bigger.

The last raft was guided by Lena. It didn't go as well for her. Entering the slot too far to the right, the nose of the raft caught on a rock. Hung up for a moment, the back end of the raft swung around and the raft went down the little rapid backwards. Confused, Lena called out, "Left back."

Knowing that there wasn't enough room to turn the raft around, Liz immediately contradicted Lena. "Ignore that! All back, hard," she yelled. As the raft caught the current, the extra speed shot it down and out of the rapid without further difficulty. Once they were out, Liz turned to Lena. "Forwards or backwards, run the rapid the same way. Front would have been better, but make backward work if that's what happens," Liz told her. There was no anger in her tone, but she was curt.

"I'm sorry," Lena said. She could feel her cheeks burning. With the cold, the red splotches plainly showed on her otherwise pale face.

"Don't be sorry," Liz said, cutting her off. To lessen the embarrassment, she looked around her boat. "I don't want to hear sorries. Tell me you understand or don't understand. You are all learning. Every one of you will mess up at some point. Learn from each other's mistakes as well as your own." She looked downstream and saw that the other rafts were getting away from them. "Move us into the current, so we can catch up," she told Lena.

Rikki glanced back and saw that the last raft was way behind them. Looking ahead and seeing that the next rapid was quite a ways downstream, she gave the raft a command. "Right back," she said loud enough for everyone to hear. "One time," she added as she felt the boat swing around. Using her paddle to control the raft, she floated with the raft sideways. The extra drag slowed the raft. She looked back and saw Jasper copying her.

"Nice job," Bear told her with a more sincere smile than usual. Even after a short time, he could tell that Rikki had the makings of a good guide.

Rikki looked back at the other rafts. Lena's raft had almost caught up with them; and with a single stroke, Rikki straightened hers out again and put it into the current. Looking over at Bear, she smiled. "Thanks. Watching Liz all these years helps," she told him.

"Maybe," Bear said with more of his teasing smile. "Maybe Rikki the Raft Guide was just waiting to come out and play." When Rikki blushed, his smile just got bigger. Turning to face the rest of the boat, he asked, "Okay, time to switch. Who is next?"

After watching Rikki, Winnie felt some trepidation. Rikki did so well that Winnie was afraid she would look bad in comparison. Fortunately, Sawyer stood up and demanded the guide paddle from Rikki. As Rikki handed it over and moved up front to take his place, she looked back at the other boats. Jasper was already switching but Lena's boat drifted too close to the shore and was now bouncing down a very shallow spot. She wasn't stuck but even from a distance, Rikki could see the frown on Lena's face. It was matched by the one on Liz. "Poor Lena," Rikki thought as she settled into her new spot. "Liz can be tough when she wants to." Focusing on her own boat, she looked at Winnie sitting right behind her. "Having fun?" She asked her friend.

Winnie's eyes were shining with excitement as she nodded. "This is a blast! And you did so well, Mari... Rikki!" Winnie replied. "You are making the rest of us look bad!"

"You'll do great. Just remember what Liz told you. You are too small to do it all. Use all of us to guide, not just your paddle," Rikki said with a laugh. The nickname was here to stay.

Sawyer did a nice job as he guided the raft down, though not as well as Rikki. His river reading skills weren't as good, but he was strong enough to get out of trouble. The other boats did okay. No one got hung up on rocks and managed to keep the float together as they made their way down to the Drop. There were a few moments where the other boats bounced around, but nothing like with Lena. Finally, they got down to the Drop. One by one, each boat pulled out onto the right bank above the big rapid. After securing the rafts, they all got up on one of the big boulders that gave the rapid its name.

"Boulder Drop is the only rapid we run that can be Class V at high water. At this level, it is still a challenging Class IV," Liz told the trainees who were looking at each other. The rapid was a bubbling pool with big boils and eddy lines. The water was running down through the rocks in two directions. One direction was Airplane Turn, the easier of the two routes today. The other was Ned's Needle where the water rushed through a narrow gap between jagged rocks. Down below the rapid, they could see the kayaks playing in a hole while they waited for the rafts to make their run. This was the only place that Liz wanted safety kayaks. It could be a long swim if someone went out in the rapid.

While Indigo pointed out the routes to the trainees, Bear and Liz moved away from the group to discuss the routes. "I'm liking the look of Ned's," Bear said. It was the aggressive route but more fun.

Liz gave him a wry look and lowered her voice. "That's because you have the good boat. Even with that little first time rafter Winnie, your boat is working together. My boat isn't half as good and Indigo's just lacks the power. They will be fine in Airplane, but I don't think they can make the move to Ned's," she said. Just then, Indigo joined them.

"Yeah, I don't think they can do Ned's," Indigo said in agreement. "It will have to be Airplane today." She gave Bear a grin. "Dibs on your crew tomorrow!" Bear gave her a gentle punch to the shoulder. She could feel the power he was holding back. That was part of why he was willing to take the more aggressive route. His strength could get him out of a lot of trouble.

"Ask your boat, Bear. If they are up for it, you can run it," Liz said. Bear nodded and went over to his crew. She picked up her paddle and waved it to catch the attention of the kayakers. She assumed that Bear would get his way and signaled to the kayakers what to expect.

At his raft, Bear finished explaining how he planned to run the rapid. Looking at them, he had a more serious look than they could remember seeing before. "It's up to you. We can run Airplane like the other rafts. It's a tough route too. If even one of you doesn't want to do Ned's, we won't," he told them.

The little group looked at each other. Winnie could tell both Bohdi and Sawyer wanted to run Bear's route. She couldn't tell which way Rikki leaned. Still, Winnie didn't want Rikki to think she was a wimp. Before any of the others could say anything, Winnie spoke up. "Let's run Ned's! We can show them how it's done, Bear!" Her outburst brought a round of laughter. Each one of the trainees nodded and agreed with Winnie. From the way Rikki looked at her, Winnie could tell her bravado impressed Rikki. She hid her pleased smile by fussing with her life jacket.

"Okay, let's get ready," Bear told them. "The other rafts will go first so we'll have a bunch of help if we need it." They moved their boat to the edge of the river and then watched as Liz took her raft out first. They watched as she guided the raft out into the current and then towards the huge boulder on the left.

As Liz's raft passed House Rock, they could hear Liz calling out her commands even above the roar of the river. The raft slipped down and around the rock and was lost from sight for a few moments. When it reappeared, everyone had their paddles up in the air for a quick paddle high five before quickly getting back into position for Liz's next command. They made it easily to the other side of the river, and paused in an eddy to wait for Indigo.

Indigo's approach was almost a copy of Liz's. As they approached Airplane Turn, the current caught the boat and accelerated it forward. Even though they couldn't hear Indigo, her boat obviously did. The trainees' paddles moved in unison and the raft turned perfectly to line them up as they dropped down through the Turn. Just like Liz, Indigo's raft appeared a few moments later. It was turned around with the rear end coming out first. Unlike Liz's crew, Indigo's raft was already following her commands as they powered their way across the river to eddy out on the opposite side.

Now there were rafts on both sides of the river, in better positions to help no matter what happened. Still, it wasn't a coincidence that Indigo ended up in the same side of the river as Alex. Indigo's girlfriend paddled her way alongside the raft. With a long leaning bend backwards, Indigo got close enough for a little kiss. She had a big smile as she straightened up. It was a clean run and doing it in front of Alex felt good.

Back at final raft, Bear looked at his crew. "Okay, remember to work as a team. This is going to be fun! Just remember, if anyone goes out of the boat, get into swimmers position immediately! There are rocks past Ned's, so feet up and downstream so you can push off. We have two rafts and four kayaks so no one will swim long, but self-rescue is the first rule." He glanced at each one of them. "So are we ready?" he shouted.

"Yes!" was the loud cry in response. As Bear pushed the raft out into the river and jumped in, each rafter was already poised and waiting for his first commands. Pressing his paddle against his hip, Bear gave a powerful backwards stroke that straightened out the raft.

As they felt the current grab them, Bear gave his first command. "All ahead," he boomed out. Their paddles dipped into the water at the same moment and the boat shot ahead. Skirting the edge of an eddy, Bear lined up the boat. "All stop," he told them. Again, they pulled out their paddles together. Bear grinned. Having a raft like this was a dream. He reached out and made a hard stroke to adjust the angle. "All ahead, hard!" The boat jumped and moved through the swirling water. Now the current was in control. It was too late to take another route.

As they approached the gap, Bear felt a little scrape as they passed over a rock hidden in the boils. The raft started to turn to the right. "Left back!" Bear yelled. "One time!" The guys were on the left and they gave a hard backwards stroke while the two women kept paddling ahead. The boat was almost straight as it entered the drop. It tipped and the nose flew down the tongue of the rapid.

When they hit bottom, it twisted a little bit and Bear felt the back pontoon where he was sitting start to go underwater. With years of practice, he moved to the left side and effortlessly put his paddle in on the other side. Rikki also instinctually shifted her weight away from the river, but Winnie lacked any experience.

As the right side of the raft lurched, Winnie felt herself falling out of the boat. "Oh damn," she thought just before she hit the water. With the boat still spinning, she was now between the raft and the rocks below. Desperately holding onto her paddle, she spun around to get her feet below her as Bear told them.

On the side of the river, Liz watched Bear's approach with her whistle in her mouth. She didn't expect Bear to have any problems, but she wanted to be ready just in case. "Fuck," she said as she saw the slight turn of the boat as the nose started though the Needle. "Be ready," she told her boat. As it hit the bottom of the drop, she saw the backend dip and Winnie start to fall out. She blew a long blast of her whistle and then spit it out so she could scream. "Swimmer!" The back end of the boat popped back up with force. Bohdi rocked to the side and then he too was in the water. Before she could say anything else, she heard Indigo's call.

"Swimmers! Two swimmers!"

Even as Indigo was yelling, Alex and one of the other kayakers spun out of their eddy and were heading to the raft. "Damn," Liz thought. "Two paddlers left is tough. At least it's Bear. He makes up for a lot."

Winnie was about to start trying to move out of the path of the raft when she felt herself being pushed down under the water. She had just enough time to take a gulp of air before going under. It was only for a moment and then she was pulled up and out of the water into the raft. She caught a glimpse of Rikki letting go of her and grabbing her paddle to follow Bear's command. Winnie scrambled up and started to get back to her spot.

"Other side," Bear yelled. With Winnie, the right side was overpowered. He needed to balance it. She lurched over and tried to get up. The boat bounced enough to make it hard so she knelt and gave it everything she could. "All back," she heard Bear yell. Slowly they backed out of the current and into an eddy. As soon as he told them to stop, Winnie looked for Bohdi. He was further down the river and she was just in time to see a throw bag sail over his head and drop in front of him. Liz placed it perfectly and pulled him back to her raft.

All of them were panting hard, both from the effort and from the excitement. Winnie looked over at Rikki. She leaned back against the raft tube with her paddle across her belly. Turning her head, she gave Winnie a smile. "You okay? Sorry about throwing you into the raft, it was the only way!" Rikki said.

"I'm fine. I mean, shit, thanks Rikki. I thought I was going to be squished between the raft and a rock!" Winnie said. "Better in the bottom of the boat than squished!"

"Nice job, Rikki. I was a little worried about Winnie pancakes too," Bear said.