Love, Lust 'n Geology (1ST DRAFT)

Chapter 7: Lakeside encounter

Chapter 7: Lakeside encounter

The next morning, she was awoken by her alarm and an almost simultaneous wake-up holler from Chris. Concerned lest her alarm malfunction, she'd asked him to wake her. She dressed quickly and was surprised by the glorious summer weather that greeted her as she stepped out. In the face of bright sunshine, clear blue sky, and scant evidence that it had even rained last night – the soil appeared to have absorbed all the water – her adventure of last night felt like a dream. But her mud-caked hiking boots, and her rain gear knotted on the clothesline belied that view.

When she reached the kitchen area, the boys were milling about, picking up items that had been blown off the tables by the storm.

"That was quite a storm!" she proclaimed.

"Yeah," Chris muttered. "A tree came down near our tents, just a couple of meters away. Oh, your porridge is on the stove. I put a bowl and spoon out for you."

Her jaw dropped open. "What?" she cried, hurrying to his side.

"Your porridge. It's on the stove. You can use the bowl and spoon right next to it."

"No," she frowned. "What did you say about a tree falling?"

"Yeah. The storm must have blown it down. It's lying near my tent."

"How big was the tree?"

"Big. Like that one," he said, pointing to a large tree, one that could easily have taken out all four of them.

"Oh, my God, Chris! You could have been killed!"

"Yeah," he replied, smiling and shrugging.

She stared at him, dumbfounded. There had to be a difference, a big one, between the male and female psyche. Here, her heart was pounding at the thought of him, or Phil, having been crushed while asleep in their tents, and he was behaving as if nothing extraordinary had happened.

"I'm surprised you didn't see it on the way here," he said.

"You know I'm not very observant."

"Yeah, that's true," he grinned.

It was! While she didn't miss seeing dikes in outcrops, many other geological features routinely escaped her, while they seemed to announce themselves to Chris. He was definitely a more talented field geologist than she was.

"What time did it come down?"

"I dunno. We just found it in front of our tents this morning."

She raised a brow. "A tree ... that size ..." she muttered, disbelievingly, nodding towards the tree he'd pointed out to her, "fell down near your tents and ... neither of you woke up?"

He chuckled at her obvious incredulity. "I know it sounds crazy, but no. We slept right through it."

She continued to gaze at him, flabbergasted. Okay. Not only was the male and female psyche different, but so was the level of unconsciousness each sex attained while sleeping. By her estimate, a tree that size would not only have produced a loud sound, not unlike the thunder that had woken her up last night, but also a ground tremor. She was fairly certain that if she'd been in their shoes, she would have woken up, unless, of course, the tree determined that it didn't want her to, ever again.

She mulled over the near death experience while she ate her porridge, the recognition dawning on her that their current proximity to nature exposed them to some very real dangers. After breakfast, they all packed their lunches, all except Grant – Phil packed his – and set off to do geology around the lake, or, more specifically, along the shoreline. Grant had suggested that they all start off at the same outcrop, where he would point out some things to watch out for while working on the lake. Then she and Chris would proceed to tackle outcrops in one direction, Grant and Phil in the other. When they met up again, she and Chris would move on to working in logging areas near the lake. Grant and Phil would finish up by doing the islands on the lake and then join them.