Free The Brittle Limit, a Novel by Kae Bell Page B

of water on the far end. Following
Ben into the clearing, Severine looked up, relieved to see the
cloudless blue sky above. The sunlit pool sparkled. A stream
feeding the pool burbled over a short waterfall, its stones covered
with green moss.
    Ben said “OK, let’s take a break.”
    “Thank God. I’m boiling.”
    Ben smiled back at her, his dark eyes
dancing. “I’d rather be hot than covered in bug bites. I don’t
think you want malaria.”
    She shrugged. “I’m not so sure. Anything to
cool down.”
    Severine sat down on a long flat rock by the
pool and pulled a blue plastic water bottle from the side of her
pack. She drank deeply. Ben dropped his heavy pack on the grass and
crouched down on his haunches, spreading a map on the empty rock
next to Severine. “Alright. Let’s see where we are.”
    “Yes, that’d be good to know,” Severine
said.
    Ben studied the map in the mid-afternoon sun,
light from the pool reflecting and bouncing on his tan face. He
looked at a compass and his handheld GPS, then tapped a spot on the
middle left of the paper, a large area of uninterrupted green.
    Severine tilted her head back in exhaustion
and asked, “Please, can we call it a day?” Her voice was heavy with
concern and fatigue. She’d had enough jungle for one day. It was
getting late and she could see Ben was tired too, his left eye
drooped when he started to fade. They were dehydrated and it was a
long slog back to the road.
    “Almost,” Ben said, still looking at the
map.
    “Well, while you decide, can I take a swim in
the pool?”
    Ben glanced at the water behind them and back
at his wife. He wiped sweat from his brow.
    “I’d prefer you didn’t. Who knows what’s in
there?” He stood from his crouch.
    Severine dipped her fingertips into the
water. It was cool and inviting.
    “How about just my feet?”
    He grinned at her. “Ok, just your feet.”
    She tugged at her brown bootlaces, which Ben
had tied in thick double knots.
    “Just my feet.” She pulled off a sock and
dipped her toe and then her foot in the clear water, while Ben
watched. A bird-call in the distance got his attention and he
peered into the thick jungle beyond the shimmering pool.
    “Hey, while you soak your toes, I’m gonna
take a look down there.” He gestured beyond the water’s far edge,
where a stream trickled in and the moss was greenest. The barest
hint of a path suggested something beyond.
    “Oh, darling. Don’t.” She lowered her head
and looked up again, pleading. “Really. You can come back out here
another time without me. You’re tired. We’re both tired. Let’s just
rest for a moment and go back.”
    Ben listened, thinking. He heard the bird
call again.
    “Nah, it’ll be quick, I promise. I’ll be back
in a flash, you won’t even notice I’m gone.” His face was filled
with light, his eyes bright with the unknown. As he dug through his
stuffed pack, Severine tried a different tack.
    “You’re going to leave me alone, in this wild
place, while you go traipsing through the jungle?”
    Ben looked back at her. “You know you’re
perfectly safe. You’ve got protection.” He pulled a pistol from his
pack, checked it was loaded, and placed it on the flat rock by the
water. “And you know how to use it. I’ll be ten minutes, out and
back.” He winked at her, then bent down to chuck her under her chin
and give her a quick kiss on the lips.
    “That’s what you always say.” She grinned at
him, hiding her concern behind a brave smile. She didn’t want to be
a nagging wife. She consoled herself, this is what it’s like to be
married to an adventurer.
    Ben leaned over and kissed her again. This
time he lingered, looking her in the eyes, tracing a finger from
her temple to her chin. Then he stood and stepped away. He picked
up his metal detector and walked around the pool onto the slight
path, leading each step with a sweep from the detector, the machete
slicing at the disgruntled underbrush.
    “Call out if