After the Climb (River Rain 0.50)

The tears never consciously abated.

Because it took hours.

And I cried myself to sleep.

Chapter 4

The Leaf

Corey

* * *

Forty-two years earlier…

* * *

He hated it when they got too far ahead of him.

But Duncan couldn’t wait to get to wherever he was taking them, and whenever Dun was excited about something, Genny was.

And anyways…

What was it with them?

How was he the only one who got eaten up by mosquitos?

He had spray on everywhere, including his clothes. Genny had even sprayed his back.

And it seemed the things were biting him everywhere.

Sometimes Corey would see Dun and Genny swat at their arms or their legs, but it never bugged them. They just slapped their arm and then kept going.

And going.

And going.

Walking forever.

And where were they going? Where was Duncan taking them now?

They were off trail (again).

Deep in the woods (again).

He didn’t get it (though Genny always did).

Dun would show them a path in the grass and say, like he discovered life on Mars, “It’s a game trail.”

And Genny would be all, “How cool, Bowie.”

It was just a path in the grass.

Grass was not cool.

Some path wasn’t cool either.

Gulk.

The worst.

It was more the worst when she called him Bowie.

That was new, and Corey hated it.

Hated it.

Because Duncan’s dad was a huge dick.

And he gave that name to Duncan and Corey knew why.

He knew, when Mr. Holloway made Duncan do what he did, and Corey knew it cut him up inside, cut Duncan deep, he gave that name to Duncan.

And there was Genny, calling him that.

They’d look at each other when she did, like they had a secret.

Corey knew something else.

They did have a secret.

Dun went to her after Mr. Holloway made him go hunting.

He went to Genny.

Not Corey.

They’d been best friends forever.

And he was going to Genny?

Especially after something his dad did?

His dick dad, like Corey’s dad was a huge dick dad.

They both had huge dick dads.

And Genny’s dad was awesome. She didn’t know what it was like to have a huge dick dad.

And Duncan was going to her.

He saw them up ahead.

No, he saw Genny’s hair up ahead, the sun shining off it, making it look all gold and stuff, and they’d stopped.

Obviously, since the sun was shining on her, they were in a clearing.

Genny was looking at something and Corey could only see the side of her face, but whatever it was, her mouth was open like she’d never seen anything like it before in her life.

And Dun was staring at Genny like he’d never seen anything like her before in his entire life, even though they were all together all the time, and even though she was two years younger than them and it made them goobers that they were hanging out with a third grader.

They were in fifth. No one in fifth hung out with someone in third.

Especially a girl.

Corey stopped approaching them, though, when Dun got a weird look on his face and then Cory watched as Dun lifted his hand and pulled a leaf out of her hair.

She looked at Duncan and all Corey could see of her now was that fall of sunshiny hair.

“A leaf,” Duncan said, and Corey saw his face was all red, which made it a good call when he lifted it up between them to show her, so she’d look at the leaf and not at Duncan’s stupid red face.

“Okay,” Genny whispered.

However Genny was looking at him made Duncan go even more red.

But he was smiling.

Big.

Corey was going to puke.

He pushed through the last of the trees to reach the clearing with them.

They both turned to him like they forgot he was even there.

No, yeah…

That was actually the worst.

But then Genny smiled, like, massive, and it lit everything up for miles around. Shinier than the sun on her hair. Shinier than anything.

And she jumped his way, grabbed his hand, and urged, “Look.”

Then she turned her head, still holding his hand, and he thought it was crazy, how her hand was both warm and cool at the same time. He felt clammy. Hot. All that walking in the summer.

But she was cool.

And she didn’t let go of his hand.

He looked.

And…yeah.

There was a stream cutting through the woods. It wasn’t super big. It crooked this way and that. The water was so clear, you could see the rock and mud on the stream bed. And up a ways, there was a hill, which meant the water fell down this tiny waterfall that Corey didn’t want to admit (but he had to) was real pretty. But with the sun shining on it, the water twinkled here and there, like little glimmers of magic, which made it more than pretty. It was like it was enchanted.

And the grass all around it, plus the moss on some rocks, plus what looked like two thick but small fields of clover on either side were a jumble of greens that were just…so green. There were like, no words for how green they all were. It was wild.