The Climb

Knobby tires resembling the massive gears that resided inside the machines that worked the steel to produce the heavy vehicle they carried crunched the small bits of rocky rubble strewn about down into the frozen earth. The layer of clean snow that had fallen a week earlier was brushed aside, sprinkling across the icy layer that sat over the land like a pie crust.

The tires bit down into the earth as they slipped on the incline, causing the dark square vehicle to shutter for a moment. The man in the driver’s seat tightened his grip on a large leather wheel as he let out a chuckle before reversing his grip on a half smoked cigarette into his thumb and pointer finger. He took a short drag off it and looked to the passenger beside him, a young boy clutching at the seat and center council with wide eyes that he had hidden in the dash.

“You’re alright boy, pick your head up and look outside, its beautiful” The man stated with a smirk before tossing the butt of the cigarette out a cracked window.

The boy looked down at his feet for a moment, as if he was waiting for something before noticing his jacket zipper had dropped a few inches in the rough climb up the side of the mass of rock outside. He made a move to grab onto the tab that hung at his chest, the clinking and clacking sounding like a handful of change being tossed around in a hand as he grasped at it.

A heavy rough hand reached over, decades of hauling around steel and working machines had turned it to a calloused hunk of meat that could crush bones under its grip. With the precision of a surgeon and the warm careful touch of a mother he plucked the flapping zipper out of the boys’ hands and gently pulled it up to the base of his neck. He had given it nothing more than a glance, his hand staying tight on the wheel as he played with the throttle to push them up the bright hill, his eyes shallow and warm in his face as if he had no worries in the world.

“Better?” The man questioned with the same smirk he been carrying since they left camp hours ago.

“Yes… thankyou” the boy answered in a quiet tone.

There were a few moments of silence between the two as the engine hummed along now, cresting the hill with a few hard pushes on the throttle. Rubber bit down into the earth, throwing fresh chunks of earth into the air, slapping against the doors and panels that made up the heavy vehicle. The rear tires grabbed at the same time causing the vehicle to lurch forward hard and slide to the left, placing it a few inches away from the cliff that made up the dark void below them.

“It was her idea ya know” the man stated blankly, “You were too young to remember her… wanted the first time to be special”.

The boy straightened himself to unbuckle the harness that sat around his shoulders before raising his body up to look over the broad dash that had been obscuring his vision. The plane of snow in front of him blew around under the light wind that never left the hills, blinding him for moments. A moment of respite cleared a path across and allowed the young boys bright blue eyes to catch an object across from them, a heavy cross the height of a man.

“Is that her” the boy asked slowly.

“Aye, that’s her” the man said with tears welling up in his eyes and a bright smile on his face. “Would you like to meet her?”

“I would” the boy replied before tears burst out of his own eyes.

The two strode through the deep snow towards the cross as several other men joined behind them, exiting heavy trucks with the same knobby tires that had carried them up the hills. Brothers and uncles that had made the trip for the boy, a dozen men coming together to honor one that had passed far too soon.