Anika's Mountain Read online

  Anika's Mountain

  Karen Rispin

  An [ e - reads ] Book

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, scanning or any information storage retrieval system, without explicit permission in writing from the Author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locals or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright 1986 by Karen Rispin

  First e-reads publication 1999

  www.e-reads.com

  ISBN 0-7592-0313-X

  Author Biography

  Karen Rispin is the author of six fiction books. She loved experiencing a mix of culture and adventure while growing up in Kenya. Returning to North America after high school, she earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Penn State University. After a struggle to adjust to being a North American housewife and mom, she began to find things to do. Now Karen lives in Three Hills, Alberta, with her husband, Phil and children Jennifer and Jessica. She teaches riding lessons, trains horses, helps run a rock climbing club, and enjoys hiking and canoeing with her family.

  To Phil

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Anika's Mountain

  Chapter One

  It seemed like a happy, lazy, sunny day. My sister and I had been home from boarding school for a week.

  I woke up late. The corrugated metal roof was already making popping noises from the hot sun. Sandy's bed was empty. I could hear Mom and Barnabas, the African man who works for us, talking on the porch. I stretched and smiled. It was very good to be home.

  A few minutes later I was hanging up sheets with Mom. The damp sheets blew cool against my cheeks as I reached up to peg them to the line.

  "Ut uu ona uu uday," Mom said around the clothespins in her mouth.

  "I don't know," I said, laughing. "I'll do whatever happens."

  When the wash was done, I wandered across the station toward Lisa's house with the warm sun on my back. Lisa Barnes is my best friend.

  Traci and Sandy followed me a few minutes later. Traci Stewart is ten, the same as Sandy. Her parents work at the Bible school too. She and her little brother, David, have been in Kenya ever since they were born. We ended up playing Monopoly with them.

  "Did you hear that?" Traci hissed suddenly. She dropped her Monopoly money, jerked her chair forward, and said, "Listen!"

  Without paying attention, I'd been hearing Lisa's dad talking to someone on their porch. He was bellowing, really, but that's normal for him.

  "It's just my dad," Lisa said.

  "It's Uncle Joey. So what?" Sandy said at the same time.

  "Listen to what he's saying!" Traci insisted.

  "… we hustle, we could be heading up the mountain tomorrow." Uncle Joey's voice came in loud and clear even though he was out on the porch.

  "Mountain?" Lisa muttered. "What mountain?"

  I caught my breath. Could he be talking about climbing Mount Kenya, or maybe even Mount Kilimanjaro? Those were the two biggest mountains in my world.

  "… two-day hike," Uncle Joey was saying. "Mark said he'd lend us gear. If we can't have winter, we can at least find the kids some snow on the top of Mount Kenya. Wouldn't want them to forget what it is." His laugh boomed through the wall.

  Mount Kenya, I thought, and he's taking kids! A wave of prickly electricity washed through me. Maybe… maybe he'd let me come. I knew people who had climbed. Some of the older kids at school had. It's hard to make it to the top. People notice the ones who make it. No kids in my grade had even tried.

  "Lisa," I said, reaching for her arm. "If you guys go, I want to come too. You've got to get your dad to let me come with you. Please?"

  "Me too," said Sandy, shoving her chair back.

  Traci jumped up, bumping the table. Houses and hotels flew in all directions. "It's not fair if you guys get to go and I don't! I'm coming too. Can I, Lisa? Can I?"

  Lisa stared at us with her mouth open. She hadn't been in Kenya very long. Still, I thought, she should know by now how important the mountain is.

  I sighed and said, "Mount Kenya, you know, Mount Kenya! Right? The one you can see from a hundred miles away. The biggest mountain in Kenya, the one they named the country—"

  "Stop it!" she said. "I know about the mountain, but why do you guys want—"

  "Shhhh! Listen!" Traci said.

  "You think I'll bite off more than I can chew, do you?" Uncle Joey said, and he laughed again. "I don't know about that. I've heard that kids as young as nine years old have made it up to Lenana Peak. I'm a pretty tough old hombre, and my kids aren't wimps either."

  Lisa rolled her eyes and whispered, "Da-ad!" She hates it when her dad does the hearty-American act.

  "Who's he talking to?" Sandy asked.

  I shrugged. Whoever it was didn't talk as loud as Uncle Joey, but that didn't narrow it down much.

  Traci suddenly headed for the door. "I'm going to ask my mom and dad. If they say OK, Lisa's dad can't say no."

  "Me too. Come on, Anika!" Sandy said and bolted out the door.

  I jittered nervously on one foot. I didn't think Traci was right, but it wouldn't hurt to ask Mom and Daddy. I could hardly believe that Uncle Joey wanted his kids to climb. Maybe some nine-year-old did make it up once. He must have either been practically Superboy or his father carried him. I'm twelve, and if there was any chance at all, I didn't intend to miss it. If I could just get Lisa to ask her dad to bring me …

  "Look, Lisa," I said. "We're friends, right?"

  "No way, a geek like you?" she said, but she grinned.

  "Come on, you've got to listen," I begged. "I've wanted to climb Mount Kenya forever, and now you'll get to go. Please, you've got to get your parents to let me come with you. Ask for me, please?"

  "OK, OK! I'll ask already. You guys are nuts," she said and then grinned. "Besides, I want you to come anyway if I have to climb up that mountain."

  "Don't you want to?" I asked in a voice that squeaked with surprise.

  She shook her head.

  "Why not?" I asked. Then without giving her time to answer, I blurted, "I've got to go before Sandy wrecks it with Mom and Daddy. You're the greatest, Lisa!"

  My stomach was in a tight knot. "Please, God, let it work. Let me get to climb with Lisa," I prayed under my breath as I trotted up the hill. The peaceful mood of the day was completely shattered.

  All I could think about was Mount Kenya. I wanted to climb so much it ached. Mountains had always seemed magic to me. Among all the mountains I knew, Mount Kenya was best. It wasn't flat on top like Kilimanjaro, or just part of a long string of peaks like the Rocky Mountains I'd seen in Canada. It was a perfect mountain, all alone with three high, jagged peaks.

  I whispered their names, "Nelion, Mbatian, and Lenana." The names of three Masai chiefs. Nelion and Mbatian were the highest. One could only climb there with ropes and special gear. Lenana was the one normal people climbed.

  "Lenana," I whispered again. I would get there if I could, if I possibly could. Not watching where I was going, I ran smack into Traci's father.

  "Take it easy," Uncle Paul said, catching me.

  "Daddy, tell her! Tell her!" Traci said, jumping up and down holding on to her dad's arm. "We're going! I get to go up Mount Kenya!"

  He just sm
iled in his big red beard.

  "Well, we are!" Traci said, tossing her head to flip her hair off her face. Then she looked at her dad and added, "Maybe."

  "What? When? I mean…" I stuttered, trying to decide what to ask first. Uncle Paul's blue eyes twinkled like he was laughing at me. I blurted, "Never mind!" and ran for home.

  It wasn't any use waiting for Uncle Paul to explain. He only talks when he absolutely has to. My thongs slapped hard on the concrete floor of our porch as I skidded to a halt. I yanked the screen open and let it slam behind me. I didn't know it yet, but the chance to climb a mountain was a small thing compared to what was about to touch my life that day.

  "Mom!" I yelled. All I could hear was my own breath, panting from running. Sandy must have gone down to Daddy's office instead. Still, Mom should be here.

  "Mom!" I yelled again, hurrying down the hall to her office. She was there, sitting at her desk with a letter in her hand. She quickly slid the letter under a book and turned her head away from me.

  "Mom," I blurted, "you've got to let me go. Barneses are—" I stopped, feeling very odd. Mom still hadn't looked at me and her shoulders were heaving. I could hear her crying. Mom never cries. Something was horribly wrong.

  "Mom?" My voice came out small and high.

  She took a deep breath and, without turning, said, "Anika, just leave me be for now. Go out and shut the door."

  "But… but…," I stammered. My thoughts felt the way a line of pinching ants looks when you blow on them. First they're all running along in a line. You blow, and they scatter, running in wild circles.

  "Please," Mom said, crying again, "just go."

  I backed out, shut the door, and stood staring at it with my heart hammering in my ears. It had to be that letter she'd hidden.

  The house didn't feel safe anymore. I walked slowly out and sat on the porch rail. Sunshine lay across my shoulders like a warm, comforting hand.

  My thoughts still ran around like excited ants. What was wrong? Maybe somebody had died, but she'd tell me that, wouldn't she? What if Daddy was sick again, I wondered, and my stomach tightened into a hard knot. What if the letter was a doctor's report about Daddy saying he was going to die? He'd been so sick before. But he had been getting better and better.…

  I looked at his office and let out my breath in relief. Daddy was OK. I could see him walking across to the Barneses' with Sandy.

  I looked away, then my head snapped back to stare. Walking across to the Barneses' with Sandy! He was going to talk about climbing the mountain. He was. He had to be.

  I was on my feet with a lunge and off to Barneses' house.

  Five other kids were on the low cinder block wall around Barneses' porch. Besides Lisa, Traci Stewart, and Sandy, there was Lisa's little brother, Alex, and David Stewart. The two boys were play fighting, both trying to sit in the same spot.

  "They won't let us in," Traci said, flipping her red hair out of her eyes.

  "Who?" I demanded, skidding to a halt.

  "Daddy, Uncle Joey, and Uncle Paul. They're deciding if we can go," Sandy said, jumping to her feet. "I got Daddy to come. I got Daddy to come," she added in a singsong voice, hopping on one foot. She stopped and suddenly demanded, "Where did you go, anyway?"

  What Sandy said made me suddenly remember Mom crying. It gave me a sick feeling. To shut it out I snapped at Sandy, "You're too little to climb anyway!" I felt bad the second the words were out of my mouth.

  "I am not!" she yelled. "I heard Uncle Joey say kids as young as nine have gone!"

  "Nine?" David Stewart asked, popping up suddenly from where Alex had shoved him off the porch rail into the flower garden. "Hey, all right Alex!" He shoved Alex, and Alex slithered onto the porch floor and sat up staring at us with his mouse brown hair sticking out in all directions.

  "That means we can go," David said, hopping back onto the wall. "Dad said he was going, right, Traci?"

  Shoving the misery out of my mind, I focused on Traci. If they got to go, there was a good chance we would. Traci squirmed and looked at her feet without answering.

  "You said!" David said, jumping to his feet and sticking his hands on his hips.

  Traci glared at him and said, "Dad said he might go if it was OK or whatever."

  "What about us?" David demanded again.

  "He didn't say," she said. She looked at Lisa out of the corner of her eye and added, "He only laughed when I said I was tougher than Lisa anyway. He said none of us had a foggy notion what we were getting into, and that people die up there."

  "They die?" said Lisa in a squeak. "You guys are nuts. I'll stay at the bottom and sing at your funeral, OK?"

  I clenched my teeth. Why did Traci have to go talk about dying?

  "They don't die," I said, sitting down by Lisa and glaring at Traci. "What about the big kids at school that have climbed?"

  "Dad said!" Traci insisted.

  My stomach felt hollow thinking about people dying. Uncle Paul doesn't lie. I swallowed hard. If other people could climb it, so could I. I could! I stuck my chin up and said, "Well, those people probably just did something stupid. We'll be careful, right, Lisa?"

  Lisa didn't have time to answer, because David burst in. "If a girl can climb, we can too," he said, poking Alex.

  Just then Daddy walked out of the house.

  "Are we going?" I asked, jumping to my feet. At the same time Sandy said, "People don't die, do they?"

  Daddy gave her a funny look and said, "Everyone dies eventually, Sandy, and we are going—home for supper, that is."

  Both of us said, "Daddeeee!"

  He wouldn't say anything else on the walk up to the house.

  At the house door I stopped, so that Sandy and Daddy went in ahead of me. Hovering behind the door, I heard Mom talking to Sandy and Daddy in a normal voice. I edged around the door. The house seemed warm and safe, and I could smell meat loaf cooking for supper. Sandy and Daddy started telling Mom about climbing Mount Kenya.

  While we ate supper, the others talked and I watched Mom. She seemed to be acting normal. I had seen her crying, hadn't I? I glanced at her again. Maybe her eyes were a little red. I couldn't be sure.

  "… and we heard Uncle Joey say he's taking Lisa and Alex," Sandy was saying.

  "Where did Uncle Joey come up with this?" Mom asked, cutting into her baked potato. Then she stopped and looked hard at Daddy. "Kevin, are you sure you ought to do this, anyway? You've hardly finished recuperating."

  "Oh, I'm not thinking about climbing," Daddy said.

  My heart dropped right to my feet, but then he went on. "What I want to do is fish."

  "Fish?!" I blurted without thinking. "Fish on a mountain?"

  Daddy grinned at me. "They're special rock fish that live only on snow-covered volcanic peaks."

  "Daddeeee!" I said. "This is serious."

  "OK, OK. The stream that runs by Forest Lodge has been stocked with rainbow trout. I haven't had a trout on a fly line for years. So you guys go climb the mountain. While you're struggling up icy glaciers in thin summer clothes, I'll be having fun."

  "You still haven't told me where Joey came up with this wild scheme," Mom reminded him.

  "Mark Jeremias," Daddy said. "Joey met him in Nairobi. Apparently Mark had planned to take a group up that was coming in from England, but they had to cancel. I didn't hear why. Anyway, he offered Joey the bookings at the lodge and the overnight hut on the mountain. The people in the group couldn't get their money back at this late date in any case. They asked him to find someone who could use their bookings."

  "How much would it cost?" Mom asked.

  I held my breath for Daddy's answer. Money can wreck so many things.

  "Apparently the men in the group told Mark to give them away if he could find someone to take them."

  "All right!" I interrupted. "God is giving us a present, so we have to go."

  "Anika," Mom said, "don't leap to conclusions."

  "What's with you, Hazel?" Daddy asked. "I thought you
'd be excited about this. You've talked about wanting to climb Mount Kenya. Joey wants us and the Stewarts to come over to his place after supper to talk about it."

  "Kids too?" I asked.

  "Absolutely not," he said. Sandy and I groaned.

  "Kevin, there is something you and I have to talk about before we can make any plans," Mom said in a tight voice.

  "Well?" Daddy asked.

  "Later," Mom said, glancing at Sandy and me.

  I looked hard at Mom, wanting to ask if it was that letter that made her cry.

  "Does that mean that you're not going to the meeting?" Sandy demanded suddenly. "You have to! If you don't it will wreck everything!"

  I kicked her under the table to make her back off. She kicked me back hard and glared at me.

  Daddy looked thoughtfully at Mom and said, "We'll go to find out what's happening. You and I can talk later."

  Mom frowned, but said, "If that's what you want."

  "OK!" Sandy yelled.

  "You two will have to put yourselves to bed," Mom said.

  Sandy nodded eagerly. "We will! We'll go to bed early too, right, Anika? In case we get to go tomorrow."

  "It won't be tomorrow in any case," Daddy said. "The reservations are for the day after tomorrow."

  I wasn't sure things were OK at all. It wasn't fair. Why did whatever it was have to happen now, just when I might have a chance at Mount Kenya with Lisa?

  | Go to Table of Contents |

  Chapter Two

  "I just know we're going to go!" Sandy said as soon as they were out the door. She spun around the room singing, "Going on a mountain climb! I'm not afraid!"

  Sandy stopped spinning just long enough to grab a couple of plates and dance toward the kitchen with them. I watched her with my stomach tight with worry.

  She didn't stay quiet for long. "Hey, do you think we'll have porters, or carry our own stuff?"

  I shrugged and shoved the plug into the sink.

  "What's wrong with you?" Sandy asked, stopping and staring at me.