Terror seized Rex completely as he felt his body slipping over the edge of the cliff in the darkness. In desperation he reached out for his brother. Theodore was only a few paces away, but he was falling so fast there was nothing his twin could do. The look of terror on Theodore’s face was an echo of his own as he reached a hand out to Rex. They were both too late. Theodore’s terrified face faded from sight as Rex slipped over the edge and fell into the darkness below. Time seemed to slow as he fell. In the darkness, Rex could see nothing. He wasn’t sure how long the drop was, and he dreaded hitting the ground. The sudden stop was violent, and he felt his head hit solid rock. Then everything went black.
When Rex woke up some time later, he was confused. His head was pounding from where he had been hit with the rock earlier, and he felt blood dripping down his face again. But that couldn’t be right. His mom had already cleaned that wound. He tried to turn his head, but the pain was too great, and he winced. When he did so, he felt his entire body sway back and forth slightly. That was a weird feeling.
Then he remembered. He had fallen off the cliff when they were running from the bad men trying to shoot them. He should be dead, but he wasn’t. Or was he? His head pounded with a pain unlike anything he had felt before. Slowly, his senses started to return, at least a little. His jacket felt tight around his shoulders, almost as if it was pulling him upwards. Then he remembered his brother had been reaching for him. Rex had thought Theodore was too far away to save him, but maybe he’d been wrong. It had to be Theodore tugging on his jacket. It took considerable effort to turn his head, but Rex managed to look up toward his savior.
Sadly, it was not his brother. His jacket had caught on an agave plant that was growing from a small ledge along the cliff face. Rex couldn’t believe his luck. He would have thought himself more likely to have been impaled on the plant’s stiff spikes than being caught out of freefall by one. Still, he was in considerable trouble, dangling precariously as he was. He couldn’t see the ground below him. The starlight wasn’t bright enough to illuminate into that darkness. Falling the rest of the way would surely be the end of him. He needed another plan.
Taking great care to move his head as slowly as he could, Rex looked to either side of him. From his vantage point, he estimated that he had fallen maybe fifteen feet from the top of the rock before being snagged by the cowboy killer. To his right he could just make out the twisted shape of a dried-out tree trunk jutting from the side of the rock face, from another ledge like the one he was dangling from. The tree was too far for him to reach, but if he swung himself, he might be able to jump to it.
With extreme caution, Rex worked his right arm out of his jacket. Once free, he used his hand to grip the empty sleeve of his coat. He heard fabric tearing slightly from above his head, but he did not slip any further. The sturdy material still held on the agave plant. Being careful not to lose his grip on the empty sleeve, Rex slowly freed his other arm from his snagged jacket. He dug his feet into the rock wall for leverage. When his left arm slipped free, he grabbed onto the empty sleeve with both hands before is weight took him the rest of the way down. Again, he heard the fabric tearing from above, a little louder this time, but it still held him.
The sandstone wall of the rock allowed his boots to grab just enough resistance to steady his body. He leaned outward from the wall, keeping his boots against the rock and took a few unsteady steps to his left. The jacket fabric tore again, but still it held. Rex was sure he would only have one chance to make this work. His head still pounding, blood dripping into his eye, Rex took a deep breath and willed himself to focus. Keeping his pull on the jacket tight, he ran with his feet against the cliff face, swinging under the agave plant and jumping off the rocks when he heard the jacket rip the rest of the way off the plant. Desperately, Rex reached for the tree as he flew through the cold desert air. He was just able to wrap his arms around the twisting trunk. His jacket tore free and drifted to the bottom below, out of sight in the darkness.
The effort of getting into the tree had zapped the rest of his strength. Rex wrapped his arms and legs around the trunk and tried his best to stay awake, but his consciousness was waning. The wound on his head was pounding even greater now, and his surroundings were completely out of focus. He looked up, thinking he could climb the tree to get back to the top of the rock and onto solid ground. Rex inched his way up, but his vision continued to blur, and he felt his stomach start to sick up with the effort.
Then, the starlight above seemed to take on a brighter glow, and suddenly there she was. His mother was at the top of the rock, reaching out to him, encouraging him to keep climbing. Inch by inch, Rex climbed higher, never taking his eyes off his mother. Exhaustion threatened to overwhelm him, but he kept his focus on those bright blue eyes that sparkled even greater against the starry sky. Rex saw her reaching out for him, so he climbed and climbed until she was just outside of his grasp. In desperation he reached for her as he felt himself losing his grip on the twisting tree. His mother’s arm extended, and she grabbed onto him with a strength he did not know she possessed. She lifted him from the tree just as he lost consciousness.