Page 139 of Free Heart
*
Sejin
The wind inthe meadow beneath El Cap is shiver-inducing. I hold onto the warm thermos that Lowell has pressed into my hands.
“He’s looking good,” Lowell says, binoculars held to his eyes. “He’s at the first crux. The dyno.”
“Is he going to jump?” I ask, my stomach curdling at the thought.
“He’s examining it. He’s talking with Rye. He’s pointing at something.”
I sip the coffee, even though I don’t need anything making me more jittery. It’s hard to tilt my head back and look up at the monolith that rises into the sky. It’s far too reminiscent of the day Dan fell. But I make myself look, taking Lowell’s binoculars when he offers them to me.
“What are they talking about?” I ask. Dan’s gesticulating. Rye’s pointing to the right and then up. Dan moves away from the place where he’d need to make the dyno. I pass the binoculars back to Lowell. “Why’s he doing that?”
Lowell takes them, and after studying the activity on the route, he smiles. “He’s trying an alternate route.”
“What?” I snatch the binoculars from him. “This whole time there’s been another way?”
Lowell shakes his head. “Who knows? Maybe, but the surface can change over time. It’s possible something’s opened up.”
I watch as Dan moves along a flake, and then pauses, seems to test the strength of a hold above, and lifts himself up, starting a new way forward.
“Is it even Heart Route if he doesn’t do the same exact route that the guys who first freed it went?”
“Does it matter?”
I chew on my bottom lip, wondering if it matters to Dan. I have a feeling it will, but when I lift the binoculars again, and I watch the way he flows up and past the danger of the dyno, and then back over to reconnect with the route, I feel lightheaded with relief.
“There’s still the roof to contend with,” Lowell reminds me.
“Maybe he can find a way around that too.”
Lowell says nothing. We both know that Dan’s not going to alter the route twice. He might not even alter it once. This might have only been an adjustment he was willing to make for todaysince he’s not where he was before physically. Maybe he wasn’t ready to test his leg on that dyno yet.
But I pray he considers it.
I pray that he’s keeping his promise and thinking of me.
*
Dan
“Resting here willno longer be optional,” I say to Rye as I stand on the jut of rock that saved my life. I think I can even see some of my blood still staining the granite.
“Fine by me.”
I frown. “I think…I think that’s where it went wrong.”
“You didn’t follow the plan to rest here?”
“I don’t think I did.” The trees look like tiny dollhouse pieces. The falls are roaring in their thawing, spring beauty.
“You asshole.”
“Yeah.”
We sip water and take in the view. I know Sejin’s in the meadow, and I see a glint of light that is probably binoculars. “I promised Sejin that if he married me, I’d never climb without considering him every step of the way.”
