Page 32 of Next in Line
“We’re not,” I state firmly.
“Sam,” Maggie interrupts. “Just do it. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“This fucking idiot belays you poorly, and you get injured.”
“Ezekiel has been here all morning,” Sherry states, stepping closer to me. “I can assure you he is an excellent belayer.”
I exhale heavily and wonder how the fuck this went from me helping Maggie not die to me racing up a damn silo against some asshole with beaded dreadlocks.
“Unless you’re scared,” Ezekiel states with his hands held back. “I get it. Your bones are brittle, and you wouldn’t want to injure yourself.”
Maggie giggles softly from beside me, and my inner caveman voice shouts,Don’t let this blond, dreadlock-wearing, granola-eating pothead show you up in front of a girl! You know you can crush him!
I shake my head at Maggie. “You should be on my side.”
“I am!” Maggie exclaims excitedly. “It’ll be fun to watch. And it’ll help shake off the major anxiety I have over climbing up this thing right now.” She gives me a look that is so sweet and innocent, yet somehow sexy and alive…I realize with great embarrassment that I’d probably eat yellow fucking snow for this chick standing before me.
So like an idiot, I turn to Ezekiel, and state, “Fuck it…on belay, man.”
Ezekiel and his buddies whoop with joy, and minutes later, we’re standing ten feet apart at the bottom of the silo, geared up, helmets on, and cell phone cameras all pointing at us. A video camera and a photographer are catching all this action as well.I better not get my ass beat.
“Belayers, are you ready?” Sherry shouts from her position between us.
“On belay!” we both shout back, and I look at the staff member who is belaying for me. Maggie is standing right beside him with a big, bright smile on her face.
“Belay on!” the belayers shout back.
And we’re off.
The climb is intense. It’s a straight up vertical with no breaks and no ice screws anywhere. Just me, my two ice axes, and the crampons on my boots to hold me up. Because it’s a top rope climb, there’s a rope that goes from me through an anchor at the top of the silo and then back down to the belayer. The belayer keeps the rope nice and tight as I ascend the wall, giving me slack only when I need it.
The climb is a blur of ice chunks as my ax pierces the firm curtains of sparkling frost and I make my way up the silo. I actually don’t even look at the other guy because I know that’ll just slow me down. I continue jabbing my toes in foot by foot and make my way toward to top. Maggie’s cheering from below grows fainter the higher I ascend. This is definitely a more intense workout than the waterfalls, and my quads and biceps are screaming at me as I push them to their breaking point. Normally, I’m slow and steady, but right now, I’m doing larger grabs and using my muscles to heave my body up this silo as fast as I possibly can.
I finally lay eyes on the guy above me with his cell phone camera pointed right at me. “Come on, man, you’re almost here! This is insane!”
I frown, wondering how badly I must be losing for that sort of comment. I didn’t think I’d heard a bell ring yet, but maybe Ezekiel rang it a long time ago, and I was too low to hear it?
With one final crunch of my ax into the ice, I yank myself up the last three feet and swing my other ax straight at the brass bell hanging from the top. The ding is loud and echoes along with the cheers from the bystanders below. The guy takes my tools from me so I can hoist myself over the edge of the silo. I lean down, bracing my hands on the railing while sucking in big gulps of air.
“Fucking hell, that was hard,” I state halfheartedly to the guy beside me as my heart thunders in my chest.
I look out and steal a few seconds to absorb the scenery from my new vantage point. Hills and hills of snow-covered trees with the Flatirons as the backdrop. It’s incredible. “Now I get why you guys climb here.”
Maggie’s cheers drag my gaze down below, and I give her a wave before looking over to find my racing challenger. I assumed he was up at the top already, but he’s nowhere to be seen. The guide at the top has moved to the edge and is pointing his cell phone camera down below again. I walk over and lean forward to find Ezekiel stuck at the halfway point on the silo.
“Holy shit, what happened? Did he drop his ax?” I ask, assuming a gear malfunction would be the only reason he’d be that far behind me.
“No, man,” the guy replies with a laugh. “You fucking flew up this silo like Spiderman. I got hard watching you!” he exclaims and then shakes his head in amazement.
My jaw drops in shock. “He hasn’t made it to the top yet?”
“No way…you climbed fast as lightning. None of us could have caught you. This video is going to break the internet.”
I stare down at the iced silo with my brow furrowed as I try to determine whether I was really that much faster than normal. It’s been too long for me to truly remember my normal pacing, but hell, I don’t know…maybe I was just extra motivated not to let this fucker be Maggie’s belayer.
I shake that thought off because it feels too sentimental. And my reason behind helping Maggie has nothing to do with feelings. I’m just trying to protect my buddy’s little sister. Nothing more.
Ezekiel drops his axes to the ground below and begins repelling back down to the bottom, clearly too butthurt to finish the fucking climb. What a dick. You always finish a climb.
