LANDSLIDE
By Hemel Lass
Aka Lady Lochinvar aka Jag's Hornetlady(sbm) aka Hemel Lass(ie)
There's a storm up on the mountains, clouds are rolling in…the afternoon lays heavy on my shoulders! on. One of you have to know where those words are from? Right? Song….author…singer? E-mail me your answer and I will have a little prize for you! SMB, finally free!
Chapter Two: The Adventure Begins – Revelations Abounding
When Don had arrived at Charlie's house at six, he had been a little stunned by the level of preparedness his younger brother had achieved in the interim period.
Charlie had quietly taken his older brother's bag, opened a compartment in the backpack he'd pre-packed for Don. The back pack looked pretty new, as did the attached lightweight sleeping bag.
Charles had not been kidding when he said he could be a professional outfitter. Outside of taking Don's clothes out of his bag and quickly and efficiently packing them away into the appropriate compartments of the backpack he had ready, he moved fast, as if he had done this often before. He handed Don a pair of hiking boots. "Try these on, Don, let me know how they feel."
Don sat on the couch and took off his sneakers. He slipped his feet into the shoes and was stunned, yet again. "Whoa….like heaven...these fit great! You are good at this."
"These new boots don't need a 'break in' period the way hiking boots used to. They fit right away and from that point on they conform to your fit. They just get better over time. I think you will really like them."
"I already do. I have never had a pair of shoes feel this good from the moment I put them on. Wow."
"Okay, Don, stand up…I want to get this back pack adjusted to sit right on your shoulders." Once more the expertise his brother showed adjusting the positions of the straps and where the back pack hit Don's back, so that it helped maintain his balance and would not throw him off as they hiked, blew the FBI agent's mind.
"Damn, this thing is light. You aren't carrying more of the load to go easy on me, are you?"
Charlie giggled. "Yeah, right. No, Don…these new frames are made out of a composite material, super strong, super light. They are great…makes backpacking a pleasure, not a pain. I distributed the load evenly between both of us."
"Guess I don't give you enough credit for the stuff you can do outside of the classroom, huh?"
Charlie shrugged. "It's okay. How can you give someone credit for an ability they have never demonstrated in front of you? Be realistic about your expectations of yourself, bro. You have never really been into the whole camp and climb thing, right?"
"Usually I'd rather hang out with a pretty girl than a pretty view, but maybe I need to re-evaluate my priorities."
"Do you know why I love to walk in the mountains? It gets me out of my usual spaces, Don. You look at things from a whole different perspective when you look down at it from a mountain peak. You see how small everything looks from up there."
"Our little life courses seem so important to us, but, when we have been dead for hundreds of years? Those mountains, they'll still be standing. The earth is so much smarter than people, Don. We get mad at each other because we don't look like each other, or we don't think the same. So what? Move on."
"In one stream I pass on the way up to what I call, Glory Point? I have seen the same bear going after the same smart old trout every single year. Next year I go up, I check. Trout's still there. The bear keeps missing. Why? That trout didn't have to go to some fancy college to figure it out. Instinct taught the trout how to survive…and he just keeps surviving. He gets bigger and sassier every single spring. Now some day, that bear may catch that trout. If he does, he'll have a great dinner. But, in the mean time, I am willing to bet you that big old trout has had a whole lot of offspring. They'll keep the bear and his brothers, sisters and their cubs fed for a long, long time. And they didn't need the help of man kind to do it, either. The trout just did what trout do."
"Look at the things you see in your job, Don. What idiot ever began talking about 'man kind'? Man tends to not be so kind, not to the earth and not to each other. We piss and moan about this and that, but the sun comes up and the sun goes down. This old world keeps on spinning around. Given enough time, I think the earth can heal itself of every bad thing we have done to it over the life span of 'man kind'. It is people who pollute, people who shoot other people, people who hate other people just because their face looks different or they talk funny or they walk funny. Nature? She doesn't care. Treat her with respect; she will generally be pretty kind to most any one. Mess with her, mess her up. She has a way of taking care of her own."
"Man causes most forest fires you know. Not lightning. Not some natural phenomena. Nope. Some idiot parks his car with the catalytic converter white hot, right over a patch of dried out grass. Drinks down a couple of beers and just drives away. He never even notices the smoldering grass he left behind. Heck, he probably wouldn't care if he did notice it. Putting out fires isn't his job, after all. Right?"
"Or a careless camper fails to properly extinguish his campfire? Or a bunch of kids think it's funny to light matches by the Hollywood sign? Except the next thing you know have the National Forest is ablaze, or the Hollywood Hills are an inferno, and it takes all the fire departments in the entire Los Angeles basin to control the darn thing. All, because some idiot couldn't go to a bar to have his drink." Charlie shook his head. "Sorry, I didn't mean to go off on you like that. It just bugs me that people think they are so darn important in the grand scheme of things. Like I said, at the beginning, you go up to the mountains, look back down on civilization; you just get a new perspective on things. Let's head out, okay?"
Don followed his younger brother out the door. "Just show the way, Charlie. You have already readjusted my thinking a bit. I am curious to see what comes next."
Charlie glanced slyly over his shoulder. "Next comes about an hour and a half of driving. We taking my energy efficient little car or your gas guzzler?"
"Uh, I think we'll let you be the tour guide on this trip, my brother. You seem to have a handle on things pretty darn good. Besides, I wouldn't want to be accused of messing with Mother Nature right at the outset of the Eppes brother's nature days! With what you just told me? The last thing I want to do is piss the lady off!" Don grinned. "Not to mention which I can snooze if I let you drive."
"You don't mind if I play my tunes?"
"Just promise me you didn't bring Amita's mix."
"No way. I'll warn you though, I'm in the mood for some country."
"I didn't know you liked country."
"Sometimes I just get in the mood. So, do you mind?"
"Nope. You're the driver. Sounds are up to you."
Charlie led the way to the Prius, tossed the backpacks into the back end and got in the driver's seat. "One, two, three, like a bird I sing…coz you've given me the most beautiful set of wings…and I'm so glad you're here today…coz tomorrow I might have to go and fly away…hey!"
Charlie hit the gas as the music began to wash over the two men. Don glanced over at his brother's big grin and he was suddenly very, very glad he had such a smart therapist. "Gee, Charlie…all we need is our six gallon hats."
Charlie shot him that side ways glance, reached behind the seat, tossed his brother a white cowboy hat and plunked a straw one on his own head. "I know how to outfit a trip to the country, my brother."
"I'm beginning to understand that. This is already one hell of a revelation, Chuck. Drive on! Next thing you know, you'll be teaching me the two step."
"Remember how to do the Horah?"
"Like Aunt Irene has ever given us a chance to forget?"
"Well, that will pass in most country bars I have ever been at. Folk dance is folk dance, Don. The music changes more than the moves."