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‘I’ll start from the moment I jumped off the raft into the river. The undertow was much stronger than I had expected, and I was completely helpless. Luckily for me, the current swept me over to the right bank. I climbed out of the water and immediately noticed that the raft was about to slip back into the river. All I could think was, Good Lord, here I am barefoot, so I called to you to throw me my shoes and then the machete. You yelled something like, “Don’t leave me,” and I thought, What the hell? Who’s leaving who? And then you went over the falls. I thanked God when I saw you bob up a long way downriver, still clinging to the raft. I quickly put my shoes on, picked up the machete, and started walking along the rocky shore. I was sure that I’d catch up with you that day or the day after.

‘You know how hard it is to walk along the riverbank, and I had no choice but to see if the going would be any better on the other side, where the bank didn’t look as steep. That river is a real bitch, but I finally managed to swim across.

‘I was very worried about you and didn’t know what to think. The river was so treacherous – white water, jagged rocks, sharp bends – and you had no experience and were on your own. You might have fallen into the water and drowned or broken a bone.

‘The next day I walked along the river, and when I ran out of bank, I slipped into the water, after stuffing my shirt full of dry wood to help make