Gisco makes a sound and shakes his hands at the spyglass.
Wanuri says, “Sure. Take a look, kid.”
She tosses him the telescope, but it goes a little wide. Gisco jumps to catch it, and promptly disappears over the far side of the peak. All we hear is the sound of falling rocks.
We scramble over the treacherous footing as fast as we can. Near the top of the peak, we start shouting.
“Gisco!”
It’s a couple of minutes before we hear anything.
“Down here,” shouts Wanuri.
The three of us slowly make our way down
the steep hill, sharp rocks streaming around us like a river of razors.
Gisco is only half conscious when he get to him. Me and Wanuri grab his arms while Doris grabs him around the waist. He doesn’t budge.
“It’s his leg,” Doris says. “It’s wedged under a boulder.”
The three of us get around it and push. On another day, in another place, I’m sure I could move the goddamn rock myself, but I’m only on one cylinder. Between the three of us, we manage to rock the boulder up a few inches, but not enough to move it off Gisco.
I say, “Doris, Wanuri and I will push the rock. You try to pull him out.”
She nods and grabs his arms.
Wanuri and I push. The rock shifts.
“It’s not enough,” says Doris. “A few more inches.”
We let the rock down carefully.
“Shit,” says Wanuri.
I kneel and slap Gisco a couple of times. He moans.
“Don’t fade out, kid.”
I look where the rock has crushed his leg.
“We need a car jack.”
“We need a lever,” Doris says.
“Either one of you have one? ’Cause I’m fresh out,” says Wanuri.
Doris points up the hill to where a couple of the gnarled trees stand.
“What about those? Maybe we can make one.”
“Got your panabas?” Wanuri says.
Doris says, “Always.”
Wanuri turns to me.
“Stay here with him. We’re going up.”