Free The Naked Gardener by L B Gschwandtner Page B

away.
    “It’s a good idea to have a general plan.” I told her. “So we all know what to expect. You can never be sure of what might happen on the water.”
    “It’s gorgeous.” Charlene looked up at the sky and waved her arms around as if to say nothing could possibly happen.
    “Let’s see the map,” said Valerie. Tall, slender, the facial bone structure of a model, fair, wavy reddish hair, large gray eyes, wearing stylish navy blue khakis, a long-sleeved pale blue cotton blouse, new blue and gray sneakers with an intricate stitch pattern of alternating bands of color and fabric. To shade her from the sun, she had on a wide brimmed straw hat with a ribbon tie. I also noted the Rolex, diamond stud earrings and wedding ring with matching diamond solitaire. No one else was wearing jewelry, except for my own battered Tag, a present from my father when I went on my first scuba dive at fifteen. And that ankh around Roz’s neck.
    Valerie wore make up. She looked like she was going to a lawn party. I wondered what would happen to those sneakers the minute they hit the water and if the rings would hurt her hands after paddling for five hours.
    Downriver to the falls was fifty to sixty miles of curves, pools, and, at certain points, I suspected class one rapids, which we could easily negotiate. The chart showed water depths from less than a foot to over twenty feet in some places. If the water became too choppy, I told them, we could hug the shore to avoid anything too difficult to paddle. Portaging, I said, would be hard with so much weight from gear in the canoes, but not impossible, if we had to do it. Although I couldn’t see that being necessary.
    “I think in these areas, we might have to wear the life vests.”
    Had anybody thought to bring helmets? I shrugged. I didn’t think we’d need them.
    They gathered around the chart. I had made little red X marks where I thought we would be staying overnight and blue ones for meal and pit stops. The second red X marked an island in the middle of the river. I suggested we might stay there the second night.
    “Is anyone hungry? Before we start we should all take a pee break and have a snack if anyone needs it.”
    Valerie’s voice was husky, almost as if she was recovering from a cold. “And where do you suggest we pee?”
    “Try over there, behind that clump of willows. And bury your tissue when you’re done. And make sure you don’t sit in poison ivy if there is any or squat over a bee’s nest,” Erica warned.
    Last summer in the garden, I disturbed a wasp nest hidden in a tangle of trumpet vines. They came at me with a fury and I ended up at the local clinic, my arms swollen like inner tubes, angry red welts covering my neck, arms, and abdomen. I even had welts on one breast. It swelled up like a melon. The nurse asked how the wasps had gotten inside my clothes. I said I didn’t know. It all happened so fast. I didn’t tell her I had been naked so of course they attacked everywhere and anywhere. After that I was very careful to watch the flight paths of any bees or wasps to see if there was a pattern that had them coming and going on a regular route.
    While I folded up the chart, Charlene took charge, assigned the canoe teams and made last minute adjustments with the others to balance the canoes just right. She put Valerie in the bow with Roz steering, leaving Hope with herself paddling stern.
    Erica pushed our canoe into the water and climbed in, soaking her sneakers in the process so she took them off and tossed them onto the floor of the canoe. She wriggled her toes over the gunwale and slapped at the water with her bare feet like a little kid, a big grin on her face. The sun had risen to the tree line and dappled light played on the water. A slight breeze stirred the morning air.
    “Oooh, the water’s cold. Let’s get going.”
    “It will get hot as soon as the sun rises a little higher in the sky. You’ll be glad the water’s cool then.”
    After