Sounds of wind rustling through the trees and of boots stomping filled my ears. I had just finished kayaking with the rain in the Li River with my eighth grade friends. “Ow, my arms hurt!” I thought as I reached up to adjust my overloaded backpack. Everyone marched to the busses while the rain poured down with no end in sight, our third day of rain. Everybody was drenched, tired, and hungry. When we reached the busses, Elaine, our trip leader, asked for at least two people to travel in the small van as the bus wasn’t big enough for all eighteen of us.

“Kaitlin and I will go, ” I said. As Kaitlin and I were climbing into the van, Emma popped over.

“Can I come too?” Emma asked.

“Sure, ” I said. Emma was new this year and I really enjoyed being around her. The three of us piled into the small, cramped van and began driving to the camp sight where we would be setting up our tents. Emma, Kaitlin and I talked about the trip and other things. The van ride was taking longer than expected as the rain was causing flooding and the roads were all blocked.

“Um…” I said, “I really need to use the bathroom.”

“So do I, ” Emma said.

“I think I’m going to throw up, ” Kaitlin moaned.

“Uhh, ” Elaine began, obviously overwhelmed. She quickly said something to the driver in rapid fire Mandarin. “Can you girls wait ten minutes?” Elaine asked us.

I nodded even though my bladder was screaming “No!”

Finally, Elaine found us a bathroom and I eagerly hopped out of the car. At that point, Kaitlin was feeling horrible. She had finally accepted the fact she was sick. It all started during kayaking when I noticed she had a black tongue during our kayaking adventure. Kaitlin suddenly made a gurgling noise as she vomited in her mouth, then swallowed it back down. When she did this, my gag reflexes were instantly triggered.

“Can I go first?” I asked, except it wasn’t really a question. It was more of a plea.

“Sure, ” Emma said, obvious to my need of the bathroom. Before I left for the bathroom, I told Kaitlin to leave the door open and maybe the fresh air would help her.

I ran for the bathroom, looking for a bush. “Over there, ” Elaine said pointing to the small outhouse. It was built of wood and was rotting like it had been built a two decades ago, then forgotten. Rain was splattering from the roof to the ground. I peeked inside and there was a giant spider waiting inside for me.

“AAAHHHH!” I shrieked. I ran from the outhouse and started doing a spastic dance even though the spider was still in the outhouse.

“What happened?” Elaine asked me.

“Spider…in the…bathroom.” I said through shuddered
breaths. “I hate spiders, ” I thought.

“It’s just a spider.” Elaine said, looking at me strangely.

“Okay.” I said, my pride diminished. Carefully, I crept back into the bathroom. When I finished going to the restroom, I ran like it was a monster going to gobble me up. “Your turn, ” I managed to gasp out to Emma.

I watched as Emma walked up to the outhouse and looked inside. “You know what, ” she said. “I don’t have to go anymore.” I nodded in understanding of what she actually meant.

“Are you coming back to the van?” I asked when I turned around to realize Emma wasn’t following me.

“I’m going to take a minute away from the van. It’s a little claustrophobic for me.” She said.

When I arrived back at the van, Kaitlin was looking greener by the minute. “How are you feeling?” I asked her.

“This is the worse I’ve felt in years, ” she said her voice came out weak and trembling.

I knew this was a bad sign. “Okay, Kaitlin, I want you to lay down and rest, okay? Do you think calling your mom about your situation might help at all?”

“I’m going to call my mom, ” Kaitlin said to me. I was scared for her. She was so pale and thin.

While Kaitlin called her Mom about her black tongue, fe- ver, nausea, and all her other symptoms, I waited for Emma to return.

I peered out through waterfall streaming down the windows of the van. I saw two blurry shapes. I opened the door and saw Emma and Elaine standing under the covering of a small hut.

I walked through the needles of rain crashing down. Emma was crying and she looked like she was hyperventilating. “Emma, ” I said in my calmest voice, “Are you all right?” She definitely didn’t look all right.

Emma shook her head and told me, “I…can’t…breathe, ” through gasps of breath.

Elaine wasn’t helping much. She was clearly over- whelmed. “I, um, I’m going to go get Mr. Muir.” I stood in the pouring rain alone with Emma silent and afraid of what would come next.

“Okay, Emma, ” I said very seriously, “I’m going to need you to breathe with me.” Emma nodded. “In, ” I said while breathing in. “Out, ” I said while exhaling. Tonight, my scuba diving training came in handy. This was just the beginning of my long night.

“Kaitlin? Are you okay?” I asked. I was really afraid and so was Emma. When Emma saw Kaitlin, she started her self induced asthma-anxiety attack. Yeah, this was going to be a problem.

Kaitlin’s dark circles that had surrounded her eyes for the past day were even darker and deeper. Her eyes were blood shot and her tongue was the color of tar. She was sickly thin and was looking worse. I was scared, nervous, and freaking out. Bile and fear flooded me, but I knew I had to stay calm if Emma and Kaitlin were going to make it back to the ho- tel.

“Emersyn, ” Elaine said with little to none certainty, “I’m going to need you to coach Emma through breathing. We need to be ready if we need to take them to the hospital.” At this, Emma’s gasps for air quickened and her eyes became wild and panicked. Elaine told the driver to drive back to the hotel fast, but the rain had caused serious traffic. We were going to be stuck in traffic for a while.

In the car, I assessed Emma’s breathing problem as the most serious. I turned to Emma and said, “Emma, I want you to breathe with me.” “In, ” I said while breathing in. “Out, ” I said while exhaling. Emma and I repeated our cycle of “in and out, ” while the driver honked his way through traffic. We breathed in and out while Emma tried to calm herself down and to stop crying. Finally, Emma was able to control her breathing for ten good breaths. “Emma, keep breathing, ” I told her very seriously. Again, she nodded.

“Guys? What’s wrong?” Mr. Muir said upon arrival.

“Emma can’t breathe, ” I said through inhaling and exhaling with Emma.

“At this point, I think the best thing would be to return back to the hotel. We can’t really sleep out here anyway, the rain is too much for us, ” said Elaine, our trip coordinator.

“Come on, ” I said to Emma, clutching her. Emma and I walked back to the dry safety of the van to see Kaitlin crying on the phone to her Mom and looking even worse than before.

Next, I turned to. “Kaitlin, I want you to squeeze my hand as much as it hurts.” Immediately Kaitlin squeezed my hand with bone crushing force. “Good, ” I said. “Just keep squeezing.”

Next, I started talking to both of them, anything that would keep them from thinking about their conditions. “You are both doing great. Emma, keep breathing. Kaitlin, just keep squeezing my hand. You are both doing amazing. I’m so proud of you. You are both amazing.” I said this over and over, partly for them, partly for myself.

Kaitlin vomited a couple of times, but refused to allow the already processed food to leave her mouth and she continued to swallow it back down. “You are both doing amazing. We’re almost there. Everything is going to be fine.” We were quite a ways away from the hotel, but Emma and Kaitlin needed to hear it.

Suddenly, Emma starting having another major attack right when Kaitlin was feeling worse. That was when I realized that the two set each other off. If Kaitlin started feeling worse, Emma began to panic and couldn’t breathe and vice versa. This was a problem and I had to keep both of my friends calm in the drive back to the hotel. That wasn’t an easy task as I was on the verge of panic myself. I knew once we made it back to the hotel, I was going to break down and cry. Cry for Emma and Kaitlin and all the stress of that night.

“Emma, in. Out. In. Out. In. Out.” I said over and over as I watched Emma try to regain control of herself. I felt horrible, all I could do was say in and out. I couldn’t actually make her breathe better. Guilt flooded my mind.

On the 45 minutes back to the hotel, Emma had about six panic attacks and Kaitlin went on a roller coaster of feeling a 4-7 on sick scale. Finally, we arrived in town and we were just five minutes away from the hotel.

“Emma, Kaitlin, we are almost there. I swear.” I said confident that I could give my friend accurate information. When we finally reached the hotel, relief filled me up. When we climbed out of the van, everybody from our bus was already on the sidewalk. Immediately, we were asked questions from every direction.

“Can’t… breathe…” Emma gasped again from all the screaming. Kaitlin almost fainted and clung to my arms.

“Guys, stop! We don’t have time for this!” I yelled at every- body. “I need everybody to be quiet!” At this everybody stopped, finally realizing the seriousness of the situation.

As quickly as possible, I herded Emma and Kaitlin into the hotel, safe from the chilling tendrils of rain. I sat them down in the giant chairs. Mrs. Hawkins rushed up to us and began asking Emma and Kaitlin questions. At this, I breathed a sigh of relief.