***
"Hanging from the frame like this, waiting to be air-dried."
If no one came, she figured she might as well be cured duck, drying in the wind.
No, she'd be a cured person!
While engaging in self-mockery, she suddenly felt the tree trunk creaking and groaning.
Looking up, she saw the branch that was holding her seemed about to break.
This reignited a glimmer of hope within her, and she started to pray fervently, "Break, please break..."
But although the branch showed signs of breaking, it didn't continue to do so and appeared quite sturdy.
Never before had she so bitterly resented her own slimness.
If she had weighed over 130 pounds, she reckoned the branch would have quickly given way beneath her weight.
Falling to the ground, even if she broke a leg, would have been better than drying into jerky up here.
She pushed hard against the air with her body...
The branch cracked a little more but still wasn't enough to fully break.
She kicked desperately a few more times.
