Previously: Walking away from their stalled car, Liz and Linda are rescued by a Native American young man who is a chef. They've been sitting in his car and it appears the cars are going to begin the procession west toward Billings. "Just in time for their snack, they were about to move forward. Hopefully, closer to a garage to have their dead-batteried car attended to."

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Ch. 31 Back of the Falls

Tommy slipped out the passenger side of the Honda and popped in under the steering wheel. He fastened his seatbelt, took a deep breath and situated himself in his seat. "Well, here we go, although, I'm not so sure with this line of cars in the lead we will be going at any break-neck speed."

Linda and Liz decided they'd wait 'til they picked up speed before fastening their seatbelts. Liz rummaged through the zippered compartment of her burgundy-colored fanny pack for her emergency tube-shaped container of Dramamine.

Unlike Linda, she had suffered from motion-sickness for as long as she could remember. Sitting in the backseat was a catalyst exacerbated by the moving forward, stopping, starting again with a continuous jerking motion. She wanted to enjoy this moment.

A chug of water and some pecan pie worked fine to wash down the tiny yellow tablet. Sinking her fork into the tiny apple pie, Linda had done it right. The order should be the tart then the sweet.

Liz knew she should prepare herself for sourness, the sweet affecting the flavor of the apple. She decided she'd wait a bit for the sugary flavor to pass.

Because the tires hadn't yet begun turning, Liz thought it would be okay to ask Tommy more about his time in the cave. Surely, he remembered some good experiences.

"What did you think of the waterfall?"

"It was better when we were returning through the front of the falls. We could hear their deafening roar even before we got near it. Shoots the Arrow led us in a dance to the spirit of the waters. We were so thankful for the sight and sounds of water after our grueling Maelstrom ordeal."

He explained that on their initial way through when he first encountered the waterfall, it was a complete surprise. They'd been outside, walked into the tunnel to realize they had no choice but to discern how to continue.

"We'd basically just begun our trip through the cave and were already presented with a situation that made us question the whole project. It was challenging enough to repel from outside down the steep rock pile to get to the bottom to begin our journey. Now, that's a whole other story."

As Tommy described some of their challenges, it occurred to Linda and Liz that Tommy and his companions had entered the cave where the girls made their exit up those precarious rocks to the little hole in the ceiling.

Liz reviewed aloud the order in which the girls had met their challenges. "There was the ragged hole with the narrow enclosed decline, then the lovely room with the stalagmites and other magnificent rock formations."

She hoped Tommy and his group didn't see the bats after the extremely narrow passageway. She knew of Tommy's adventure when they got to the hole Spring Blossom had steered the girls away from. No wonder she was so alert when they got to that wide room.

Liz continued her recitation. "After a little step-through, there was an intimidating climb toward the ceiling where we could see some of the rooms far below.

"But we'd finally found water. What a heart-wrenching ceremony with the girls' litany of loved ones gone missing. Just before that, we witnessed the cleansing ceremony in the sacred stream.

"We went under the waterfall, through the little tunnel, and found ourselves outside. We would actually be passing you, Tommy, at this point, because the next step for us was the opening where you entered the cave."

This was going to mess with their imagining things. Where the girls ascended, Tommy and his companions were descending. They viewed the openings and tunnels from different perspectives.

Tommy continued telling about the encounter with the back of the falls. "The problem is we didn't know what was on the other side of the falls. Tons of water were sheeting from somewhere above us. We couldn't see beyond and shining the lanterns on it created a glistening wall."

Linda said, " What did you ever do?"

"It actually wasn't me or any of us guys. Our sweet little Spring Blossom, for the second time that day, saved us. She was near the edge at the end of the tunnel."

Tommy told of how she came up with the idea from looking at the area close to the falls. "There's a place to walk down there. Let me go check it out."

"Absolutely not," her father said.

Tommy, the great story-teller, described their shuffling toward the edge to see what she was referring to. There indeed was a path that went directly under the falls. It didn't seem that they would get very wet either.

"We could never have anticipated what words would come out of her mouth."

"Lash me to one of the climbing ropes and slowly let out my lead so I can investigate. I want to see if the path goes all the way over to a safe spot for us."

"We were so mixed with emotion. This little six-year-old pipsqueak was outshining all three of us."

"Absolutely not," her father, Shoots the Arrow repeatedly said.

"Both Flying Squirrel and I looked at each other and in unison, told his dad that it could work out."

Once again, as he shook his fist, and said, "Absolutely, absolutely not. I'll do it."

Flying Squirrel said, "I don't want to even imagine how many things could go wrong with that hair-brained plan. You're too heavy for us to hold onto if something went wrong. Let her do this. It was her idea. She's light enough for three of us to hold onto. Please Dad, otherwise we might as well turn around now and call the whole thing off."

"Please, please. You heard Flying Squirrel, I can do it. Besides, there are three of you to help me."

Her father sighed as he stopped resisting. "Okay. Let's do it."