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    Edge of Flight
    Edge of Flight
    Edge of Flight
    Ebook105 pages1 hour

    Edge of Flight

    By Kate Jaimet

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    About this ebook

    Edge of Flight is the toughest rock-climbing route Vanisha has ever faced. She has one last chance to conquer it before she moves to Vermont to start university. University is a sore point for Vanisha, who yearns for a career in the outdoors but feels pressured by her mother to earn an academic degree. Trying to put school out of her mind, she heads to the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas with her buddies Rusty and Jeb for a final weekend of climbing and camping. Deep in the woods, they stumble on an illegal marijuana plantation, and the gang of bikers who guard it. When Jeb is shot by the bikers, Vanisha alone must get help—and to do so, she must climb Edge of Flight. As she confronts her insecurities on the cliff face and in the woods, Vanisha gains a new resolve and the self-confidence to choose her own path in life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOrca Book Publishers
    Release dateNov 1, 2012
    ISBN9781459801622
    Edge of Flight
    Author

    Kate Jaimet

    Kate Jaimet spent 13 years as a daily news reporter before turning to fiction and freelance writing. Her Canadian bestseller Dunces Anonymous and its sequels Dunces Rock and Hypnotic Dunces have been nominated for many awards, and continue to delight children in Canada and abroad. Kate enjoys yoga, clever repartee, and eating pie for breakfast.

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      Book preview

      Edge of Flight - Kate Jaimet

      ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

      Copyright © 2012 Kate Jaimet

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Jaimet, Kate, 1969-

      Edge of flight [electronic resource] / Kate Jaimet.

      (Orca sports)

      Electronic monograph.

      Issued also in print format.

      ISBN 978-1-4598-0161-5 (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-4598-0162-2 (EPUB)

      I. Title. II. Series: Orca sports (Online)

      PS8619.A368E33 2012      jC813’.6      C2012-902828-2

      First published in the United States, 2012

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2012938312

      Summary: Vanisha challenges her own fears and climbing abilities to help save her friend’s life and discovers the strength to make some important personal choices about her future.

      Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

      Cover photography by Dreamstime.com

      Author photo by John Major

      www.orcabook.com

      15  14  13  12  •  4  3  2  1  

      For my mum.

      Contents

      chapter one

      chapter two

      chapter three

      chapter four

      chapter five

      chapter six

      chapter seven

      chapter eight

      chapter nine

      chapter ten

      chapter eleven

      chapter twelve

      chapter thirteen

      chapter fourteen

      chapter fifteen

      chapter sixteen

      chapter seventeen

      chapter eighteen

      chapter nineteen

      chapter twenty

      Glossary

      Acknowledgments

      chapter one

      Edge of Flight. That’s the climb that always defeats me. Seventy feet of hard sandstone up a perfect arête.

      Tomorrow I’ll be standing at the base of it, my harness weighed down with gear. I’m already running through the moves in my head. I’m already imagining Edge of Flight.

      I raise my right foot to a tiny ledge just two inches off the ground, then reach for the first handhold—a hump of rock that fits in my right palm like a softball.

      Ready to climb, I say over my shoulder to Rusty.

      On belay, Rusty says. He tightens the rope in the belay device clipped to his harness.

      I grip the arête with my left hand, then lean my weight to the right. I raise my left foot and place it on a tiny nub of rock so that I’m standing on my tiptoes on two square inches of stone. My fingers keep me balanced against the cliff face.

      Climbing, I say.

      Climb on, says Rusty.

      It’s all balance for the next forty feet up. Like most female climbers, balance is what I’m good at. The guys can crank the overhangs, but for me, climbing is a highwire act. I’m defying gravity on a vertical plane. I’m moving on an updraft of muscle tone and thin air.

      On the ascent, I find the tiny chinks and cracks in the rock to lay my pro, otherwise known as protective gear. I clip the rope to my pro in case I fall. But I know I can make the first forty feet without falling. I’ve done it before.

      Then I come to the crux.

      That’s where the microholds run out and there’s nothing more to grab or stand on. Nothing to grip, to keep me moving up the flat, smooth rock face.

      I perch on the ball of my right foot. There is no foothold for my left. So I hold it crossed behind my right for balance. My arms stretch wide on either side of the arête, gripping tiny nubs of rock. My cheek presses against the stone. I tilt my head to look up at a big pistol-hold grip far above. I know from watching Rusty climb that once I get to the pistol-hold grip, I’m home free. After that, it’s all chunky handholds and footholds to the top. But how can I make it across the gap?

      It’s all technique, says Rusty.

      Easy for him to say. He’s six-foot-two and has arms like a monkey. I’m five-five and still working on my technique. But I’ve figured out a way to pull this climb.

      I must let go with my right hand so that I’m touching the rock at only two points of contact—right foot, left hand. Then, I have to circle my right hand upward, while rising onto tiptoe with my right foot, like a dancer on pointe. But while I move—and this is the critical thing—I must hold my body perfectly balanced, like a ball poised on a juggler’s fingertip. And when my outstretched hand reaches the very top of its arc, I must grab the pistol-hold grip and pull up. Pull up as hard as I can.

      I know that’s what I have to do. But every time I get to the crux, I lose my nerve. I’m standing forty feet above the ground, and my last piece of pro—a tiny metal nut wedged into a crack, with the rope clipped to it by a carabiner—is stuck in the rock five feet below me. If I lose my balance and come off the rock, I’ll fall ten feet before the rope jerks me to a stop. But if the weight of my body rips the nut out of the crack, I’ll go into an uncontrolled twenty-foot fall. A fall that will bring me dangerously close to hitting the ground.

      So although I know I need to let go with my right hand, I can’t do it. Instead, I always hesitate, chicken out, let myself slither downward in a controlled fall and bunny-hop into the safety of Rusty’s belay. Then I shout for Rusty to lower me down.

      But not this time, I tell myself.

      This time, I will work up the nerve to pull Edge of Flight.

      chapter two

      What can I git y’all?

      I look up to see the waitress standing beside our table. She’s in her forties with dolled-up blond hair and thick black mascara. I haven’t even looked at the menu. So I take a quick glance while Jeb and Rusty order chicken and grits.

      Could I get the soup of the day? I say. And the pecan pie, please.

      I try to pronounce it like they do down here—p’kaahn, not pee-can. But themoment I open my mouth, everyone in the diner knows I’m not from the South. The men at the other tables glance at us. They’re not hostile, just fitting us into place in their minds. Two high school boys from Fayetteville and their Yankee girlfriend.

      Y’all goin’ campin’? the waitress asks.

      Climbin’, says Jeb. Up at Sam’s Throne.

      Better be careful. It’s huntin’ season, says the waitress. Some a them good ol’ boys’ll shoot at anything that moves.

      She turns away from our table and crosses back to the lunch counter, flirting and joking with some of the good ol’ boys. Then she disappears through the swinging door into the kitchen to place our order. This diner is the

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