Mr Peanut - Adam Ross [68]
They were also supposed to leave in three days. By now it was late morning, and they were scheduled to get outfitted for a hike that Alice was set on. “I’ve always wanted to do something like that,” she’d told him.
David found her on the lanai after she returned from a swim. Her back was to him, and he was standing in the kitchen now, watching her through the veranda’s glass door, noticing the fat handles around her waistline, the thickness at her calves, extra weight he felt whenever he held her hand to help her up the path from the beach to their condo. He slid the door open and stood beside her along the railing. “I want to talk about this trip,” he said.
He made his case, having had further discussions with a local. When he concluded it was too risky, she said, “Since when do you care if it’s dangerous?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t.”
She crossed her arms.
“What is it, Alice?” he said. “Just come out and say it.”
“It’s nothing.”
David buried the heels of his hands into his eyes. “I can’t take this anymore,” he said. “I just—”
“Just what?”
He had no idea. “What do you want to do?” he asked resignedly.
“I want to go,” she said. “This is the Everest of hikes, right? I want to do it. I need to do something.”
“No, please.”
“Take me or I’ll go alone.”
He heard her but wasn’t listening, at least not as Harold had advised. Instead he imagined the narrow trail hundreds of feet up, the two of them weighed down by full packs, the rain coming suddenly—before Alice, her feet slipping out from under her, would suddenly be gone.
He’d take her, of course, if only to see her quit.
“Fine, then,” he said.
Harold expedited the permits and they were fully outfitted by the end of the day. Before they left, however, David told her they should pack for home, and he made the arrangements.
They hired a cab to Ke’e Beach, where park rules stated that you weren’t supposed to leave a car overnight. They rode together in silence as they drove west, around the northernmost point of the island, winding up switchbacks from which they glimpsed the ocean through the trees, the cliff faces dimpled with branches you’d be clutching for dear life headed down. They crossed single-lane bridges over inlets whose currents ran with visible force down the mountains and out to sea, where locals sat outside lean-to shacks with hand-painted signs advertising MAPS or GUIDED TOURS, rows of surfboards and kayaks lined up behind them.
“What do you mean,” David finally said, “that I don’t care if it’s dangerous?”
Alice, sitting shoreside, was peering out the window at every sharp turn and looking down. “Are you really going to bring this up again?” she said.
“Yes,” he said, “I am.”
“Then you’re going to be talking to yourself all day.”
He closed his eyes, shook his head. If he could get her alone somewhere, somewhere completely private, he’d kill her. He would break a rock over her head and split her skull open so that he could see, just for a second, what the fuck was in her mind.
Ke’e Beach was jammed with hikers, beachgoers, and snorkelers. The entrance was shrouded in darkness, embowered by mountain foliage on their left that jailed off a clear view of the ocean to their right. Cars were parked everywhere in the makeshift lot crisscrossed by ancient roots that pythoned across everything, pitching the vehicles at crazy angles and making them appear abandoned, dented from all the wear and tear and splashed as they were with mud. Furious, David got out of the cab and walked on to the trailhead, leaving Alice to pay the driver and talk to herself while she tried to catch up. He read the advisories and, looking at the maps, felt a rush of adrenaline ahead of his fear. The trail was like a skyscraper staircase straight up, composed