The Lost Girls Read Free Page A

until we finally reached the park’s main stage. Rather than staring at the thunderous, driving force of the water from below, this time we were perched high above the falls—at the same vantage point as the red-breasted toucans we’d seen darting through the rain forest. From this height, we could take in the full scope of the cascades rushing over the horseshoe cliff, thundering into a foggy abyss below, and enveloping us in a perfectly circular ring of rainbows.
    â€œYou know, I wouldn’t have cared if we’d gotten stranded in Brazil,” said Holly, stretching one of her lean legs along the railing. “I’d take this over opening mail any day of the week.”
    Amanda grimaced and plopped down next to me on the bench where I’d settled near the main lookout point. “Let’s not mention work, please? I can’t even think about the massive pile of papers and e-mails waiting to eat me alive when I get back.”
    â€œOh, c’mon, Amanda. You know you’d rather be sitting at your desk working on that lifesaving article you’re doing on…what is it?” I teased her, pulling a half-eaten granola bar out of my bag for emphasis. “The grooviest snack foods? The most artificially flavored?”
    â€œThe Skinniest New Snack Foods,” she said miserably, grabbing the bar and acting as if she might toss it over the edge. “But I’d happily eat full-fat foods forever as long as I could do it here. I bet they don’t even have a word for ‘deadline’ or ‘anxiety attack’ in Latin America.”
    â€œI’m with you,” Holly said, coming over to sit next to us. “But at least we managed to escape for more than a week. That’s way more than most people get away with. And even if we have to work until midnight every night for a month, it’ll be worth it.”
    â€œYeah, I can’t believe we really pulled this off. Especially you, Hols. I mean, you hadn’t even saved up for the trip like Jen and I did.”
    Holly shrugged and rolled her eyes playfully. “Well, I figured eating Luna bars for lunch every day and hiding flasks in my purse at happy hours was worth the sacrifice.”
    From what I’d learned about Holly already this week, I had a feeling she wasn’t exaggerating about what she’d had to do in order to get on the road and travel. Though I’d done my fair share of scrimping since moving to New York, I’d thankfully never been in debt. I’d even managed to earmark a small portion of my modest television salary for overseas vacations. Holly, on the other hand, had never really had extra money to spare and had been picking up odd jobs—berry picker, cosmetics color analyst, lead paint poisoning tester, college dorm toiletscrubber, pizza delivery girl—since she was a kid in order to stay afloat with her expenses. Yet somehow she’d managed to visit nearly twice the number of the countries I had, because she’d either earned study-abroad scholarships or paid for the trips out of her own pocket. She prioritized adventure and discovery over stability and structure—yet another reason why Amanda and I were so excited she’d been able to join us at the last minute.
    â€œDo we really have to go back? Can’t we just set up camp and stay?” Amanda pleaded.
    â€œOkay, fine, it’s decided,” I said, rising to my feet to face the girls. “We’ll build a tree house right here and live like the Swiss Family Robinson.”
    â€œYeah, and we could sneak into the hotel at night and steal leftovers from room service carts,” Holly added.
    Soon we all got caught up in the fantasy of transferring from the concrete jungle to a real one. Our skin would glow from pristine air quality; we’d have lean and chiseled bodies from 24/7 hiking; hot Brazilian men would magically appear and fall in love with us—all excellent reasons