Week 11 Story: Other World River Adventures

Other World River Adventures

Jessica, Ellie, and Kate had been best friends since playing field hockey together freshman year of high school. At Pine Valley North high school, field hockey was known as the sport for people who can’t make the team for any other sport. The team performed so badly their freshman year that the coach gave up and quit. But, the three girls had been looking for a way to make new friends, and field hockey did not disappoint. 

Almost four years later, the girls were two weeks away from the end of summer, when they would each move on to a different college to study nursing, engineering, and business, respectively. They decided to travel on a Colorado road trip to commemorate their last few days together.

On the way from Denver to Colorado Springs, a sign for “Other World River Adventures” caught Kate’s eye. “Have you guys ever been whitewater rafting?” she asked. When Jessica and Ellie said they hadn’t, Kate switched into the exit lane. “That changes now.”

The whitewater rafting place looked a little sketchy to Jessica. The small white building had a partially caved-in roof and was completely deserted except for the three workers—nothing like the tourist center she expected. Their guide seemed very knowledgeable about all the safety procedures, so she quickly brushed the feeling off and regained her excitement for the new experience.

The three girls got fitted for life jackets in helmets before loading the bus with the raft and paddles. They hopped in and drove to the spot on the river where they would start their journey. All the while, the guide was telling them about the journey ahead, explaining how to row and what to do if they came to a big rock.

“Just do the rows that I call out and we’ll be fine. Since it’s summer here, once it gets cold we’ll know we made it. I thought you guys would have worn warmer clothes—we’ll probably see some snow. I’m glad you guys signed up to do this—we don’t get very many customers these days. Oh now that I’m thinking of it, when was the last time you all ate?”

“Uh… really early this morning,” said Ellie. “I guess we didn’t really have lunch.”

“Good, good,” said the guide.

Some of what he said didn’t make sense to Jessica, but she figured she would get it once they got on the river. 

They arrived at the spot, and after double checking that helmets and life jackets were fastened, took their spots on the raft. The guide demonstrated how to row one last time, and then they were off.

The first few minutes on the raft, everyone sat enjoying the peaceful surroundings. The wide river, fresh mountain air, and sunny canyons were a lot to take in.

“We’re coming up on our first rapid here,” the guide said, and Jessica jerked back to reality. “Forward two!” he shouted, and everyone rowed twice. The boat hit a wave of water and Jessica got sprayed in the face with ice cold water. She turned around and Ellie and Kate were dying of laughter. “That will happen to you two too soon enough,” the guide said.

They went through a few more cycles like that—calm and then rapids. Finally, the guide announced that they were approaching the final rapid.

“Alright, here comes the big one we’ve been waiting for. Just do exactly what I say and we should make it to the other side!”

He called out a complex, continuous series of strokes that everyone carefully followed as they entered the biggest rapid of the trip so far—whitewater sprayed everywhere. Jessica had to shut her eyes from all the water, but she kept her ears peeled for the sound of the guide’s instructions. Finally, everything was calm again, and Jessica realized she was freezing cold. She opened her eyes, and the dry, summer canyon had transformed into a snowy winter wonderland.

“What just happened?” Ellie said.

“You just made it to the other earth,” said the guide.

“The what?”

“The second earth under the first one—that’s why you guys signed up for this right?”

Author's Note

My inspiration for this story came from "How the World Was Made" from the Cherokee myths unit. This is a creation story that describes the physical world. It included an arched sky vault with animals living above it, a suspended island earth above a vast ocean, and a second, identical world under the first one with opposite seasons. According to the legend, one can enter the second world through a river or hot spring, but they have to be with a guide from the second world and they have to fast beforehand. In my story, I changed the setting to modern day Colorado. Three girls unknowingly signed up for a journey to this world when they thought they were going on an ordinary whitewater rafting trip.

Image information: Whitewater rafting photo by Julie Thornton on Unsplash.

Story Source: Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900).