When they finished, Rodney kissed the side of Don’s head and said, “Come on. We’re almost there.”
The trail should have been more difficult than it was. They were old men attempting to quickly climb a mountain, after all. But as they climbed higher and higher, no stitches formed in their sides. They were short of breath, but it was manageable. Beads of sweat dotted their brows (sometimes floating away like their tears), but they did not slow, they did not falter. Every now and then, they needed to push floating rocks out of the way. Partway up, a boulder the size of a dog spun in front of them, blocking the path. Don and Rodney pushed it out of the way. It went over the edge with ease, but it didn’t fall. It hung suspended, spinning slowly.
They caught glimpses of the lookout tower from a distance, the top of the structure sticking out from among the waving branches of tall fir trees. It still stood. Don didn’t know what he would’ve done if it had been gone. They hadn’t been here in over thirty years. So many things could have changed.
They were still a quarter of a mile away when the light suddenly shifted. Not quite day-bright, but close; and then it was as if the world had been plunged into darkness. They both froze. A small waterfall ran down the rock face, gurgling.
“What happened?” Don asked, heart in his throat. “Is it—”
“The moon,” Rodney said, staring up at the sky.
Don looked up and gasped, hands shaking. The moon had split, breaking into huge chunks surrounded by a gigantic cloud of dust. It didn’t seem real.
“We’re running out of time,” Don whispered.
And then the ground began to shake under their feet. Don looked back the way they’d come. A bright flash of light, and then two glowing spheres appeared over the trees, electricity snarling as they lit up.
“Run,” Rodney said.
They ran.
They ran as fast as they could. Men in their seventies were not typically meant to run long distances up winding trails, but the higher they climbed, the quicker they moved, the easier it became. Don didn’t really believe that time was running backward, the years peeling away like sunburnt skin. But itfeltlike that. It was as if they had discovered the secret to eternal youth: the collapse of gravity at the end of the world.
As they rounded a corner, something shifted underneath their feet, and the earth split. A long, jagged crack formed between theirfeet, the side of the trail lurching deliriously. Don yelped as he fell to one knee, skinning the hell out of it. The pain was bright but dimmed almost immediately. Rodney helped him up, pulling him along, the crack continuing on and on and on.
“It’s coming,” Don panted. “We’re not going to make it.”
“We are,” Rodney growled. “Keep moving.”
They did, Rodney’s grip on Don’s wrist tight to the point of bruising. Up the trail, up and up and up until they crested a hill. Below them, a large expanse of forest as far as the eye could see. The trees looked like they were reaching for the heavens, all their limbs pointed skyward.
And there, sitting on wooden stilts near the edge of a cliff, the fire lookout.
“It looks the same,” Don said in wonder. “It all looks the same.” He turned. “I remember. I remember him. Shouting. He was—”
He was shouting his joy into the summer sky. He’d never seen anything like it before, the lookout tower. Set atop wooden stilts, it rose high above them.
It’d been Rodney’s idea. He’d heard of towers that people could rent out for a night or two. Kind of like camping, but with four walls and a roof. It’d be small, he’d told them. Won’t be a whole lot of room for all three of them, but they’d make it work.
It’d been a good couple of months. No fights. No outbursts. No violence. Don thought maybe it was working. That they could be enough. That they couldfixhim. And didn’t he hate himself for thinking such things? Of course he did.Fixingimplied something was broken, and he couldn’t bring himself to think that. Their son wasn’t broken. He just needed time. Patience. Love. With that, anything was possible.
“Do you see that?” Jeremy cried, jabbing a finger toward the tower. “Can yousee that?”
Rodney grinned at him. “I can. And guess what? It’s all ours for the next three days.”
“Three days,” Jeremy repeated. “Which means we get to stay the night tonightandtomorrow night?”
“We do,” Don said. “And look, see that little building next to it?”
Jeremy nodded, bouncing on his heels. “What is it?”
Don ran a hand through Jeremy’s hair. “That’s the bathroom. It’s called an outhouse. It would be difficult to get plumbing up here, so we’ll use that. Back in olden times, before people had bathrooms in their houses, they’d have one of these outside.”
Jeremy looked up at him with big brown eyes. “I get to poopoutside?”
Don sighed. “Of course that’s what you took from that.”
“Yes,” Rodney said. “You get to poop outside.”