My body vibrated from the intensity of the tumbling water. Stretching out, I grabbed hold of a pointy rock and managed to pull both feet across to stand. Believing I could splash right through, I leaped forward. But the pounding water rammed me back and I slipped halfway down the rocks. My chest hurt. I’d cut my hand. Grunting, I wedged my shoulders between two of the boulders and rested my shaking arms and legs while I fought to catch my breath. Blood ran down one arm, but I wasn’t about to give up. With renewed resolve, I managed to pull myself up and climb, scraping hands and knees against the slick rock until, at last, I heaved atop the highest boulder. With a final push, I slithered under the falls, the water clapping my back in congratulations.

I stood carefully, testing my knees. The cavern curved back like the curl of a giant wave and water puddled in the ruts of the floor. I skimmed my fingers along the wall and was surprised at how dry it felt, like touching a snakeskin.

“Hoot! Hoot! Hoot!” I called out to make an echo, but my voice was absorbed and smothered by the fall’s heavy drape.

“Fuck youuuuu!” I yelled as loud as I could, the waterfall a force field protecting me from the world.

Across the pool, Mirabelle, my mother, and Bea arranged towels and unwrapping sandwiches. Through my bleary filter, the scene dripped like a watercolor held upright before it had had time to dry. They were just going about their normal day as if nothing had happened. Okay fine, they were in love or whatever, but couldn’t my mother have prepared me?

“Let’s give her some space,” I imagined her saying. There was also the possibility that she had just forgotten about me altogether. Always that possibility.

And here I was, inside an actual waterfall, and had anyone even thought to take my picture? Isn’t that what families did on vacation?

Looking back, the evidence was there. No wonder Bea’s clothes were all over the living room. My mother was just a jack-in-the-box of surprises.

I wished I could kidnap Mirabelle, take her home with me to California and be the loving sister she wanted. But then what? She seemed happy and adjusted. Maybe growing up in paradise with a couple of middle-aged pot dealers wasn’t a terrible thing. And anyway, I doubted Daddy would jump at the chance to raise Merilee’s love child.

I walked up and down behind the falls, sticking out a hand, an arm, a leg, feeling the water’s power on different parts of me. I still had to get back to shore to deal with this whole fucking thing.