Daydream (ONC 2024)

Chapter 8: It's For the Coolness Factor

My muscles screamed at the halfway point of my climb, sweat dripping from places I never knew had sweat glands, and I dug my foot into a deeper foothold to catch my breath. The rocks by themselves were trial enough, but the wind tugged me back and forth like children fighting over their favorite toy. There were worse things children could do with toys though, and I wasn't going to dare the dark clouds to dunk me in a toilet with a downpour.

As I reached for the last rest spot before the top, a vindictive gust swung me at the ledge like a sledgehammer. It would have been lights out if not for a dramatic shift in the air that not only saved me from a concussion but lifted my body from the rock. My grip slipped, I uttered expletives that would get me uninvited to Christmas at Grandma's, and slid downward.

Protruding rocks bumped me around like a ping pong ball, and I turned onto my back when I lost one of my sock-gloves. There wasn't much to do but cradle my hands until I reached the previous rest ledge, and I fell on my behind with a yell of frustration. Who dreamed up such a messed up mountain? It was just steep enough that it was climbing instead of walking, but had convenient save points to rest and reset like the world's most tedious video game. Up, down, up, down, up, down, yet each time I was more tired.

With a grumble, I stood and took a deep breath to continue on my climb. The sun would set soon, and I did not want to sleep on a mountain ledge after I'd rolled halfway into a dragon's mouth the night before. Hand over hand, foot over foot, I made it to the last rest point but didn't so much as pause as I shifted my body over it and continued on. If I stopped again, my body would be as useful as the inflatable tube men that greeted victims at used car places.

I had no intention of being scrap metal today.

Just one more, I told myself time and again until my vision started to crawl in on all sides. The bright sunlight grew dimmer as light speckled my darkening sight, and I found a good spot to lean on the cliff and take a breather.

"Cigarette?" A voice I could mistake for no other said, and I lifted my face from the rock to meet with Kearo's vivid blue eyes. Crouched on the cliff wall, he offered the white stick out to me, as his long chestnut hair fluttered in the wind.

Laughter slipped his lips and had goosebumps riding my trembling arms as those blue eyes shined in the dipping sun. A touch of madness had tainted them since the first day I'd met Kearo, and tears filled my eyes as he brushed a hand through his hair and took another puff of his cigarette. Only his feet remained firm on the rock ledge, defying gravity with the angle, and I shook my head to clear the hallucination from my mind.

What I wouldn't give for him to really be here right now.

"They don't make you look cooler," I whispered into the wind as I recalled the interaction we'd had back in high school. During my freshman year, I'd found him leaning on the wall outside the school building, playing hooky with his fingers holding a cigarette to his lips.

"Sure they do. I'm like 200% cool right now. Take one," the hallucination said, still offering his hand with a cigarette between two fingers. I wanted to reach for it, to touch his hand, and to make it real, but I had to climb.

Hand over hand, I used my memories of Kearo to dull the pain.

That day, Kearo had shoved the thing halfway into my mouth. It had tasted sweet on my tongue instead of tainted with chemicals before I spit it into the grass, and I'd eyed Kearo as he caught the stick and stuck it back in his mouth. With a tap of the package on his hand, he'd slipped out another one and held it up to me.

"Come on, Heidi, be cool like me?" Kearo's voice whispered so close to my ear that I swear I felt his breath through the whipping wind, and when I turned, his face was right next to mine. I dropped my gaze to see he was standing on air, and I thumped my head on the rock with a groan. Was this mountain coated in hallucinogens or something? I had a runaway imagination, but this was going a bit far.