Free PRECIPICE by Leland Davis

roll for righting an upturned kayak both with and without a paddle, and he was soon joining the adults from the club on their weekend adventures to the rivers of northern Georgia, Alabama, and even North Carolina. Chip’s obsession had only grown deeper when he’d gotten his driver’s license and was able to drive himself to the rivers.
    As soon as he was old enough to work, he’d gotten summer jobs guiding rafts. After graduating from high school, he’d spent an entire year working on the rivers of North Carolina, ostensibly to establish residency so he could get in-state college tuition. He’d spent four years at Appalachian State University in Boone where he got a degree in environmental geology between summers of raft guiding. He’d kayaked after class almost every day. When he’d graduated from college, his parents and professors had all wanted him to get a job. But he’d told them that he already had one—he was a river guide. He’d been a full-time guide ever since. He’d had opportunities over the years to make the jump to become a sponsored pro kayaker and hit the road to compete or film for extreme-sports videos. He certainly had the skills for it, and he paddled with some of those guys from time to time. It was just that making a lot of noise wasn’t Chip’s style. Rather than earning a living by touting his skills, he preferred to fly under the radar and always kayak on his own terms.
    A tiny figure barreled around the fire and ran into him, nestling under his arm. Kaitlin was a spunky little thing, maybe five-foot-one on a good day, and her head barely reached to Chip’s broad shoulder. She was cute and had a decent figure, although she was a little bit stocky like many girls who made their living pushing thousand-pound rafts down rivers. She wore her long brown hair in pigtails which made her look younger than her twenty-six years. Chip and Kaitlin had been a thing for a couple of years in their early twenties, but the divergent migrations of their lifestyles had eventually forced them apart. She went to Florida every winter to teach sea kayaking and escape the cold, while Chip couldn’t leave his beloved whitewater rivers behind. He and Kaitlin were still friends, and he occasionally regretted that it hadn’t worked out between them. He’d tried to at least get her back in the sack several times over the years, but she wasn’t into the casual thing.
    “Whatcha doin’ this winter?” she asked a little too loudly, whether due to the clamor of the crowd or the alcohol in her veins Chip couldn’t tell.
    They both took a quick step back as one of their drunken fellow guides built up a running start and leapt over the raging fire, his momentum carrying him headlong into some bushes just beyond the fire’s glow.
    “Ecuador, I think,” he answered.
    “Don’t you ever get tired of that?”
    “Not really,” Chip replied. What else would he do? It wasn’t that he lacked ambition; it was just that he’d been chasing rivers for so long that he couldn’t imagine doing anything else. If there was some deeper purpose to his life, he hadn’t found it yet.
    “How about you?” he asked. “Florida again?”
    “Yeah, I’m the manager this year. They barely let me stay up here this long.”
    Chip knew that her Florida job would soon be year-round, and he might never see her again. Her job was turning into a management career instead of a guiding gig, which was part of what had pulled them apart in the first place. She wasn’t his first friend or romantic interest who had moved away from this lifestyle, and he knew with a pang of sadness that she probably wouldn’t be the last. It was the price he paid for the freedom he enjoyed. At times like this, that price could seem high.
    “Don’t you ever get tired of that?” he asked teasingly.
    She laughed and playfully pushed him away then grabbed him in a fierce but friendly hug.
    “Come down and see me some time,” she said earnestly. “I can