10. TIRED

It was a hot night. Literally. When I woke up, I realized my arms and legs were tangled around Edythe's cool body, like she was my very own personal air conditioner. She was holding me, stroking my bruised arms and I swear every touch made me feel better by the second, like she was healing me up slowly with her magic. Only, she wouldn't believe that even if I said it. And she wasn't going to touch me the way I really wanted her to, so there goes the honeymoon phase of my actual honeymoon – you know, the whole "consummation" thing, at least. I stirred a little.

"You're up." She started in a soft, velvety voice. She ran her fingers through my hair, straightening out my bedhead with her gentle touches. I really liked when she did this, but of course I was too embarrassed to actually tell her how it made me feel.

"Morning." I flashed her a smile. "So, what are we gonna do today?"

"I was hoping we could take a trip up to the mainland again, maybe look at one of those national parks." She smiled, pulling some clothes from the closet.

"I like it." I nodded my approval. "And what about tonight?" I added hopefully, crossing my legs on the mattress and leaning forward. She stopped and turned around to look at me again.

"Dinner and then bedtime. You know, sleep. At least for you." She answered matter-of-factly, putting one hand on her hip and leaning up against the frame of the closet door.

"Right." I bounced a finger in her direction, pulling my own lips up into a tight, disappointed smile.

"Oh, come on, don't be like that." she waved me off. "Just think of it as the strengthening of our soul connection." She gave me a sort-of smile that made it look like she was making fun of me. Oh wait, that's right - she was.

"I think our soul connection is totally fine. It's pretty amazing, actually." I said very seriously. "But it was that physical connection thing I was really hoping to work at in this trip..." I came up behind her, pressing my lips to her neck and running my hands down either side of her beautiful body.

She wasn't taking it.

She took my hands from around her waist and turned to face me, touching my chest with both hands and looking down. "I'm sorry Beau, it's still going to be a no. That's final." She said, and it really did sound like she felt bad about it.

"Okay, okay. You win." I let out a defeated sigh. Judging by the look she gave me though, it didn't seem like she thought she was winning, either. And then I was mad at myself for making her feel bad. Knowing she was probably looking forward to our trip to that national park for my sake out of guilt - to distract me; to keep me entertained - I hurried to the closet, shimmying into a clean pair of khaki shorts and a light blue poplin shirt I pulled out. I still wasn't used to the way I looked in these things; like I was some total prep king – I insisted on bringing my old t-shirts and jeans with me on the honeymoon, but Archie wouldn't hear it. "Only the best for his sister", you know. As I eyed the bag of dirty clothes, I was reminded instinctively how I'd need to get started on doing the laundry soon – it was Sunday after all - but filed the thought away for later. I finished buttoning up the shirt and turned to look at Edythe. She was already - well, ready. And of course, she looked like a model for some designer brand's Summer Collection in this cute little yellow floral sundress that had these cutout things in the back. The hem went a little above her knees so most of her legs – those beautiful, perfect legs of hers– were exposed. I looked away, hiding my blushing face. She came up to my side, a small white floral umbrella in one hand.

"It's going to rain." She answered, seeing me eye her accessory. I chuckled. "I guess that's pretty perfect then. For you, at least. But it's your fault if I slip in the mud and bang up my face on a nearby rock." I said only half-jokingly. There was so much potential for bodily harm - not to mention total humiliation - in wet weather as I had come to know living in Forks. Especially for me. No, wait. Pretty sure it's only for me. Danger seems to think he and I have a good relationship going on, or something. We don't. Trust me.

"You know I wouldn't let that happen to you." she assured with total confidence and pulled my arm through hers.

"Hmm…yeah, I guess you're right." I shrugged, smiling.

"I usually am."

"Can't argue with that."

"Very good answer." she said with a laugh, tossing her dimples at me as a reward. My heart did its weird double-beat thing again and I coughed trying to cover myself.

"Ready now?" her musical voice fluttered in my ear. I nodded.

Ready." I answered her in kind and we walked out the door together.

…

Edythe took us to this place called Tijuca National Park. It was freaking gorgeous here. Just as she said, it was raining, which gave her an excuse to use her umbrella so you couldn't see her diamond skin shining in the still-bright weather. We were with this little tour group and everyone had their cameras all out and ready, their eyes growing larger whenever they heard the far cry of a toucan from the trees, maybe a neon-colored tanager here or a hyacinth macaw there. We were going up this forest pathway which wound around a giant mountain and led straight to the lookout point at the top of a waterfall. The tour guide went at a slow enough pace for even myself, the athletically-challenged pale skinny kid, to keep up without losing my breath. But I guess the same couldn't be said for everyone else. There was a pregnant lady with her husband a few feet from where we stood who perched herself quietly on a rock, a map folded accordion-style as she fanned herself with it and her husband, who was holding an umbrella over her, gave her some ice water to drink. This tiny kid scrambled into her lap, at least what was left of it, and she held him close to her chest and just started fanning the both of them. Distracted, I suddenly realized I'd lost sight of my own wife and was frantic for a second, but then I saw her, leaning up against another boulder a few feet away from the pregnant woman and her family. The next minute she went over to the lady and began conversing with her in perfect Spanish – not Portuguese – and I moved closer to but not directly up to them, afraid of ruining their conversation with my highly-contagious social ineptitude and so, like some creepy stalker, I eavesdropped in on them from here. Here's what I pieced together – the woman and her family were visiting from Argentina. The little kid – their son - whom Edythe subsequently tickled was two, and she and her husband were celebrating their 7th wedding anniversary with this trip. That's when Edythe's face lit up and she began telling the woman all about how me and her were on our honeymoon and she looked to where I was standing, motioning for me to come over. She introduced me to the lady with "Este es mi marido" and said my name almost proudly. "Hola." I said in my very best Spanish and shook the lady's hand. And then the tour guide began moving again, which by the way I was totally okay with. You see, I wasn't too bad at Spanish – only thing is, while I could read and understand it pretty well, speaking it for me was a totally different ballgame. My conversational English skills were already this poor, imagine how I'd sound trying to converse in Spanish. Yeesh. I was relieved to see them leave and we waved them off.

Edythe still didn't get up.

"We better hurry if we don't want to get left behind." I said, jerking my thumb in the direction of the fading group.

"Oh yes, of course." She said in a quiet voice, sort of distracted. She slowly got to her feet and weirdly, she almost seemed... tired. Maybe she just didn't have enough to eat.

"You okay?" I asked, giving her a hand.

"Yeah." She nodded, gripping my fingers. "Just trying to fit in better with the humans." She motioned her other hand to where the pregnant woman and her family lingered in the back of the group.

"I see. You really liked them, huh?"

She smiled almost sadly at that. "I was just going through their thoughts. The husband and wife, they're still so in love with each other it's crazy. And that little boy – his name is Marco. He's been practicing how to spell it, you know, and he's only two. I saw it going round and round in his head." She chuckled. "And they're expecting a baby girl in just a couple of months. I mean, how happy can they be? Everything about them – their faces, their memories, their thoughts – were so beautiful. I couldn't help it." Her golden eyes shone in the breaking light of the sun dotting through the wet trees. It almost felt like I could see all those things, too.

"Let's stay together, please." The tour guide - Alonso, I think was his name– poked his head out from behind a low-hanging tree up ahead.

"Sorry! We'll be right over." I called back and he continued on. I turned to look at Edythe again. "We better hurry." I chuckled and quickened my pace just a little bit. Big mistake.

My foot got caught in a slot of wet, sticky mud and the floor went out from under me.

I was falling backwards. "Beau!" Edythe frantically cried out, grabbing my arm. The blur of gray rock and the whiteness of Edythe's porcelain calf filled my vision and I felt the whoosh of a boulder whizzing by the split ends of the hairs on my head and sailing straight over the edge of a cliff I had suddenly realized we were standing very dangerously near to, flying into the forest below. A shoot of pain was gathering in the middle of my arm and I realized that although Edythe was holding me up with one hand so my head was hanging off the ground, I scraped up my other elbow on another rock embedded in the moss on the dirt path and I shuddered when I saw the red of my own blood smeared on it. My stomach lurched and I couldn't bring myself to look at the blood just spurting from my wound. I thought I could smell it; that horrible iron-and-salted rust scent and my knees went weak, my stomach tying itself into queasy knots - I thought I'd pass out. Edythe on the other hand? Well, it seemed punting that giant boulder off the cliff made the fatigue I saw on her face earlier all but disappear. "Are you alright, Beau?" she looked at me with bright, pulsing eyes.

"I'm fine thanks to you." was all I could say. She steadied me, grabbing my shoulders.

"You don't need to thank me for saving you. I do that for entirely selfish reasons, you know." she answered very quietly. "But I'm just sorry you still got hurt." she touched at the red of my skinned elbow and I had to look away. I knew she couldn't look long at it, either. "It's just a scratch. I would have had much worse if I split my skull open on that giant rock you sent clear into the jungle." I chuckled, trying to ease her and covering up the scrape with my fingers. Edythe rummaged through her purse and took out a roll of gauze. "I did have a feeling you might be needing this." She handed me the roll but still tried averting her eyes – or her nose, more like – and poured some water and then some hand sanitizer on the scrape before we dressed the wound together. I guess it didn't look too bad once all the red was gone and after the whole "almost dying" fiasco was over, we somehow managed to catch up with the rest of our group without necessitating a visit to the emergency room. Alonso the tour guide gawked at us as I huffed along and the color – what little I had of it at least – still had yet to return to my cheeks and he made a face which seemed to ask without the words what the hell was wrong with me.

"I have a weak vasovagal system. It's just a neurally mediated syncope." I explained, having memorized the description of my condition my whole life in case I ever looked like I was totally dying in public but really wasn't. I mean, I was dying a little on the inside, but I don't think that counts. Alonso, narrowing his eyes in confusion, did a once-over of me, realized I wasn't gonna die on his watch today and turned away, pretending I didn't say anything at all. I sighed. Edythe smacked my chest twice pretty hard and hid her face in my shoulder so I could feel the vibration of her muffled laughter through my shirt. Hysterical.

In about another half hour or so, we finally made it to the top of the waterfall, but it felt more like the top of the world. The crystal blue water shimmered and sprayed us, the roaring of the cascading waves filling our ears and weaving itself masterfully down the side of a cliff. Edythe put the umbrella way, seeing how everyone in our group was much more concerned about getting the best shot of the crystal blue spray than looking at her – impossible for me as it was to believe – and we pulled each other in by the waist, looking out over the edge where it felt you could see the whole world in high definition.

"Looks like we made it." She laughed.

"Yeah." I agreed and gave her shoulders a hug.

…

It was almost sundown by the time we hiked down the trail again. The bus we took to get here drove us back to town and Edythe helped me down the tall steps so we wouldn't have another near-death situation on our hands again. We made our way back to our boat parked on the far side of that stretch of beach and Edythe helped me into the passenger seat before claiming the driver's seat for herself. The second we got out onto the water, she floored it without warning and became a freaking speed demon. It was the fastest she'd ever gone on this trip and I spent the entire ride trying not to get thrown overboard while Edythe 's eyes grew bright and shiny with untapped enthusiasm as she navigated the wheel with one hand because apparently my wife was totally nuts. I couldn't even stand by the time we docked on shore and, waving away her hand and vehemently refusing her aid, I crawled out of the boat, dragging my body on the sand before flopping over onto my back to catch my breath while my wife threw her head back and howled with laughter above me, not even bothering trying to hide it.

"You're ridiculous." She swooped down, throwing me over her shoulder and laughing all the way as she sprinted into the house and put me down on our bed.

"Just lie down for a few minutes, you big baby. I'll help you with the bandages later." She showed me a smile. "I'll start on some dinner for you."

"Hey it's alright, I'm perfectly capable-" I began but she was already gone. Sighing, I rested the back of my hand on my forehead and closed my eyes.