The Hike

“This is my life now. I’ve climbed this hill and now I will die upon it.”

“Shut up. We’ve only been hiking for twenty minutes.”

I plop down in the grass.

My brother crosses his arms. “We haven’t even done the hard part yet.”

“All the more reason to stop.”

He grabs the back of my pack and yanks me to my feet. “Come on.”

I eye the path in front of us. Steep, craggy, far too long. I turn on my heel and head back the way we came. My brother reaches out, grabs the handle on my pack. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Back to the car to wait for you.”

“You said you’d come up to the top with me. You can’t back out now. It’s only a couple miles.”

I sighed. “’And miles to go before I sleep.’”

“Exactly. Now come on.” He marches down the path, carefully placing his feet so he doesn’t fall. Reluctantly, I follow him.

Another thirty minutes passes, and we’ve crept closer to the top of the glorified hill. As I take my next step, the ground beneath me starts to shake. I latch onto the nearest tree.

“What’s going on?” I shriek.

My brother grabs onto a different tree, looking in every direction. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?!”

My brother continues to look around. His nose starts twitching, like he’s smelling something. “Is that . . . smoke?”

I inhale deeply through my nose. I smell it too. Something’s burning. A few seconds later, I see what. The mountain.

“Run!” my brother yells.

I abandon my tree and take off down the uneven path. My brother’s feet step on the heels of my shoes. I run a little faster, trying to outpace him.

We crash back down the path, running as fast as we possibly can. The long hike up takes fifteen minutes on the way down.

I stumble into the parking lot, stopping to catch my breath. My brother charges toward the car and fires up the engine.

“Get in!”


I suck in a deep breath and hop in on the passenger side. As we drive away, black smoke billows behind us. The entire hill is in flames. I swallow, staring. Then I look back at my brother. “I’m never hiking with you again.”

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