Free Just Deserts by Eric Walters Page A

would quickly gather themselves up and vanish, leaving me alone again. Technically I guess I could have just turned off my light, become invisible in the dark, and gone right there … but really, I did want a little privacy. Even if they couldn’t see me, I didn’t want to see them while I was relieving myself.
    I skidded down the far side, taking a few steps, the flow of the sand and gravity making it much easier than the climb. I looked back over my shoulder and felt a growing sense of uneasiness. I knew they were just over the ridge, a few seconds, a scream away, butI was once again alone. And this time I was in the dark with spiders and scorpions and vipers … oh my!
    I chuckled to myself. Although I certainly wasn’t in Kansas anymore, this didn’t look like Oz, either. I couldn’t recall Dorothy or Toto ever relieving themselves on the yellow brick road, but I certainly had to go. I undid my pants and quickly released a stream of liquid that drilled a little hole before vanishing into the sand. I just hoped I wasn’t going to disappear the same way.
    It kept flowing and I caught the stream in the light of my headlamp. It was definitely yellow, but was it too yellow? I’d never really contemplated the colour of my urine before. That was probably a good thing, a normal thing. What type of person would be aware of the colour of their pee? What sort of person knew if it was too yellow?
    What I did know was that if quantity was good, I was potentially the Olympic champion of taking a whiz because it just kept on coming. That wasn’t a surprise. I couldn’t even remember when I’d drunk so much water in a day. I’d assumed that most of it had come back out as sweat, but apparently not.
    When I finally finished, it was time to get back to safety. I started back to the top of the dune, carefully retracing my and Kajsa’s tracks.
    Just as I was about to reach the top, I had the urge to turn off my headlamp and become invisible—maybe more than one person could magically appear out of the darkness. I reached up and then stopped myself— spiders and scorpions and vipers .
    I stumbled over and began the descent toward the fire. My feet sank in and I slid as much as walked to the bottom. I took a spot beside the others on the mats.
    â€œWell?” Larson asked.
    â€œMission accomplished,” I said, giving him a big thumbs-up. “It wasn’t that tricky. I wouldn’t compare it to climbing Mount Everest.”
    â€œThat reminds me,” Connor said. “Larson, you promised us you’d tell us about the time you climbed Mount Everest.”
    â€œYou climbed Mount Everest?” I asked him.
    â€œOnly once,” he said. “And it’s not that difficult.”
    â€œNot difficult?” Connor said. “You’re joking, right?”
    Larson shook his head. “At last count, close to three thousand people have done it, including a thirteen-year-old boy and a man who was legally blind. It might be the highest peak, but it isn’t the most difficult.”
    â€œWhat mountain do you think is difficult?” Kajsa asked.
    â€œNothing seems very difficult once it’s done, but if I had to choose, it would definitely be Vinson Massif.”
    â€œI’ve never even heard of that one,” I said.
    â€œNot surprising. It hasn’t been climbed by many people because it’s so remote,” he said.
    â€œWhere is it?” I asked.
    â€œAntarctica. That’s what makes it so difficult. The weather conditions are very severe. It was the hardest of the seven summits.”
    â€œYou climbed it seven times?”
    He laughed. “I don’t think anybody has done that. The seven summits are the highest mountains on each continent.”
    â€œAnd you’ve climbed them all?” I gasped.
    He nodded. “But you have to remember that it’s more a testament to my stamina and stubbornness than