5-2
339 Words
MELISSA TURNER LOOKED down the bank at the rapidly moving river, and then over at her superior. It made her shudder just to think about what he wanted her to do.
“Wouldn’t we be better off going back and crossing at the bridge?” she asked. “That water looks bloody freezing. I don’t fancy going in there, and I’m sure it’s not a good idea for Doc Kelly.”
“Don’t you worry about me,” Kelly said as he settled to the ground and began rolling up his trouser legs. “I’ve never been bothered by a bit of cold water. It’s that far bank I’m concerned about, it looks a little steep for my liking.”
Mitchell looked across the river at the far bank and then at the doctor, before finally down at himself. He wasn’t as large at the waist as the doctor, but he was still far from slim; climbing the far bank was likely to be as much of a challenge for him as for the doctor, but there was nowhere better.
“It’ll be a struggle,” he admitted. “But we’ll manage. If we go back, it’ll cost us three quarters of an hour, maybe more, and there’s a dead-fall on that side, near the bridge, that’s been threatening to drop for a year. I’d rather not be under it, if it finally decides to go.”
Melissa thought that a bit of a weak argument – if the tree hadn’t fallen in a year, it was unlikely to fall while they passed it. She suspected Mitchell had not even thought about crossing the river after parking at the pub and was reluctant to correct his mistake.
“I’ll go first,” Mitchell said. “Doc, you come second, Mel, you bring up the rear. Once I’ve got to the top I can pull you up, Doc, while Mel gives you a shove from behind.”
The river at the chosen spot was only about fifteen feet wide, but it still took the three of them almost five minutes to make it to the top of the far bank. Most of that time was spent climbing the bank on the other side, which Melissa had no difficulty with, but which proved a struggle for her companions.
**
- Writer
