Moving Mountains (Patrick Kane)

Just Like I Need You .19

Valerie

After what felt like the longest two days of my entire life we make it to the cabin. Which also had two beds and two bathrooms in it unlike our last lodging place.

We take a day to get settled and gather food and rest. After a chill day watching tv in the cabin we were off to the mountains. It was quite the hike to the top and I wasn't exactly physically built for this. I mean I've walked places all my life considering I just recently got my drivers license so it's not like I haven't practiced. But never being higher than the 30th floor of Patrick apartment and taking the elevator up there doesn't really make me qualified for this.

So we start our trek at about 8 am and get near the peak by noon. We take a quick break to drink and rest for a second which I appreciated. It wouldn't be long before we got to the top but I wasn't going to make it without resting for a moment.

"My legs are like jello" I groan as I poke at them. I can work 12 hour days but this is something different entirely.

"You know we will still have to come down, right" he teases making me roll my eyes. I put the cap back on my drink before attaching it to my belt again.

"Don't remind me" I mumble.

"Let me carry you for a while, like a piggy back ride" he tries as he stands right in front of me.

"Absolutely not" I shake my head.

"I'm not gonna drop you" he promises.

"I'm not sure I believe you" I laugh.

Before I know it I am being lifted off the ground and tossed over his shoulder. I put up a fight but not a big enough one to cause him to drop me. He was strong, I could feel his shoulder muscles dig into my stomach as gravity calls back to me.

"I'm not a hockey stick Patrick put me down" I demand as I tap his head.

"Who carry's a hockey stick over their shoulder like a sledge hammer" he laughs.

"How would I possibly know" I ask.

"This is actually kind of comfortable. You're easy to carry" he says.

"I thought you said this was going to be a piggy back ride" I remind him.

He stops his hiking before looking back at me. "If it was would you have gotten on" he questions.

I furrow my eyebrows because he knows the answer. "My point exactly" he smirks.

So I let him carry me for about ten minutes before I threaten to throw myself off if he didn't let me go. I hate to admit it but my legs did feel better and I should be able to finish this hike with no problems.

Right after noon we reach the top. I look out over the whole park and smile like a idiot. I never tried to imagine this moment, it would alter the way I perceived it once it was finally here. I wanted this moment to be exactly what it should be, and it was.

"Woah" I whisper as I get to the edge where the land ends and the sky begins. A little too close for Patrick's comfort but I didn't get all the way up here just to jump down.

"Reign it back there" he says as he grabs my wrist. But I just stand there, don't move a inch. I take in the incredible blue sky and impossibly green mountains. I see colors I had never seen before. Nature was always something I admired, and you don't get much of that in Chicago. I mean we have corn fields and bean fields around the city but again for someone who didn't leave much those were things I always knew was there and that was enough.

But not the mountains. These I needed to see them for myself.

He lets me go once he realized I wasn't in danger. Instead he joins me as we stand side by side looking out over the world. This is the most of the earth I've ever seen at once, it's stunning. I didn't want to leave.

"I was always told to be like water. Flexible and free, guided yet able to take any form, but I would rather be like a mountain, strong, able to stand for something. Not letting anyone or anything change me. I wouldn't have to take shape of whatever they tell me to" I say.

"Didn't the water shape the mountains" he questions.

"No Patrick that would be a river" I tell him. It's a miracle this man knows how to dress himself.

"Well still, I think you are perfect as water. The world can live without mountains. Sure they're pretty but we need water. Just like I need you" he claims.

I keep looking out from the mountain as I smile to myself. My face catches fire as I keep staring straight ahead, too afraid to miss a single moment of this.

"When I get old, and I've helped as many people as I could, any way that I could, I want to come here. I want to find a place in the mountains far away from Chicago, from everything the kept me on the ground. I want to be able to reach out my arms and touch clouds" I sigh.

"Wouldn't it be lonely" he wonders.

"I've felt alone my entire life. Having someone around doesn't mean you're no longer lonely, just that you're no longer alone.

The loneliest place in the world is surrounded by the wrong people. But even the mountains have each other. And the birds and the animals and the trees. There is no lonely feeling surrounded by things you love" I insist.

"I think that's a beautiful dream Val, and I hope you get it" he says.

I finally look away from the mountains to see Patrick smiling. It gives me a warm feeling, like the sun meeting my skin but on the inside. He didn't have to do this. We took his car and he paid for a good portion of this trip. He could have let me keep dreaming or watched from a distance. But he didn't want me to be lonely and for that I am appreciative. Even if he irritates me when he does too much and carry's me around like a kid.

I wouldn't be here without him, and I wouldn't want to be. Because he's a part of this dream too.

"So what now? What do you do when you reach your goal" I wonder.

"In my experience you either do it again or get a new dream" he says.

"So what's your dream right now" I ask.

I am met with silence for a few moments. I could tell in his face he wasn't sure what to say. He's done it all so what is there left for him to do? Where is the satisfaction in doing what you've done so many times before?

"I want to do what I always do, but with someone by my side so I'm no longer lonely. It's fun to be on top of the world, but there's no point when you don't have someone you care about next to you" he claims as he nudged me with his shoulder like a over bearing grandma watching you open up her present on Christmas.

"Are you talking about me" I ask.

"Hey if I help with your dreams you help with mine. That's how it goes" he says.

"That's what you truly want" I ask.

"You" he says. "Yeah, it is."