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CHAPTER TWELVE ʟᴀ ᴘᴜsʜ
From Forks, it took fifteen minutes to get to La Push, each minute of it spent in far too close contact to the nine other people in the Suburban. Past the snaking road, the Quillayute River ran through the odd time there was breaks in the lining trees, and as we I glanced at what little I could see through the front window, being stuck in the middle of the back seats. The salt air hit as soon as we reached the open road, windows rolled down and hair flapping in the channel of wind.
I hadn't seen the long beaches of La Push, and by the time we pulled up by the side of the road, I wasn't disappointed. We hiked quickly down to the shore, picking through the mossy forest that bordered it, and trailing along the bottom of the sheer cliff sides that jutted out from the edge of the earth, an imposing force.
The beach itself was thin, only metres of sand between the forest and the dark sea, the rest rolling into yards of mottled rocks embedded within the ground.
It had been sunny that morning, and yet the beach still looked so dull- the waves a crashing grey melting into peaks of white, and the sand more like solid cement than trickling gold. And the driftwood logs that lined the edge of the brushing water were coated in salt, stark against the dreariness. Yet even with its austerity, the beach brought a sense of openness and freshness and even freedom, that I couldn't help but love it, with the screeching seagulls and brisk winds, the clouds toppling over the sky.
Along the end of the beach, toward the direction of the rock pools, a ring of driftwood was already placed, a fire pit already in the middle, remnants of a previous party left behind. We all helped to shift a few branches to the centre, piling them up until we had a pyramid of wood, standing tall and ready between us.
Mike shuffled toward Bella and I, holding a small lighter in his fingers.
"Have you ever seen a driftwood fire?" He asked, and Bella shook her head.
"No."
"You'll like this then - watch the colours."
He lit a line twig, tossing it into the middle of our wood pile before reaching for another. This time, he placed the lit branch to the side of the pyramid, letting the whole thing set alight. Mike sat beside Bella, Jessica the other side of him.
"It's blue."
"The salt does it. Pretty, isn't it?" He smiled, turning to Jess as she tugged on his arm.
The fire crackled, the whole pile finally catching light in a brilliant blaze of sea green and dark blue, licking the sky with final orange stripes. The flames were so large that they obscured my sight of the opposite end of the ring. The group had grown as teenagers from the reservation had joined us around the fire.
