Hours

15- Wednesday, May 16th

4:23 PM

Micheal seemed confused when I lead him away from what looks like the most popular trail. I pick my pace up to a jog to go up the steep ditch by the parking lot. I part aside the branches to reveal a hidden, though well-worn trail, with the underbrush, just dying to reclaim it.

"I got tired of the normal trail," I say, slowing down. "I was walking around the parking lot after one of my hikes, trying to slow my breathing since I decided to run the rest of it, when... Uh..." I trail off, embarrassed.

"Let me guess? You tripped and fell through that hole in the branches." Micheal says, now walking beside me.

"Well-" I begin, ready to defend myself when a root grabs at my foot, causing me to stumble. I feel Micheal's hand on my arm and I right myself, face red. Micheal looks at me as if I just proved his point, which I kind of did. "Yeah..." I admit, brushing any stray hairs out of my face. "But I guess I also remembered it was here, I think."

"How?" He asks, clearly confused.

"I used to come here with my Dad on the weekends a lot when I was younger. I hated hiking back then, but he made me get up early every Saturday to come here." I think of that time, back when he didn't take any shift he could get his hands on and Mom... well, Mom didn't spend her work hours the same way she does now. I smile, thinking of how grumpy I always was when we arrived, but then how much I'd beg Dad to lift me up so I could see past the lookout, how I always wanted to feed the birds with the seemingly endless supply of birdseed he kept in his pocket, and how afterwards he would always take me out to the café, where we'd get ice cream in the summer and hot chocolate in the winter, usually for breakfast considering how early he'd make me get up. "Once, he got me up before the sun even rose and we walked up to the lookout to see it. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. We spent the rest of the day together. It was my twelfth birthday."

"You don't do it anymore?" I had almost forgotten Micheal was here, I was so caught up in my own memories.

"He doesn't have time. He's so caught up at the hospital... He and Mom are hardly ever home. He takes every shift he can, and Mom doesn't even bother waiting up anymore. If she's around, that is." I shake my head, trying to focus on the trail in front of me. "What about you? What do your parents do?"

Micheal grows quiet for a minute, and I look at him climbing silently beside me. "My mother died when I was nine." He rasps.

My stomach drops, and I actually stop walking. "I'm so sorry." I fumble for what to say, but what can you say to that? "I... I didn't-"

"I wouldn't expect you to," Micheal says graciously, stopping in front of me. "Barely anyone does." He mumbles something under his breath, but I catch it, "Sometimes even my Dad doesn't."

"I'm sorry. Would you like to talk about something else?" I begin walking again, and he falls into line beside me.

"No, don't worry about it. Tell me more about this place." He says, and I think about what to tell him.

"Well... I've been coming here every Wednesday since I got my car..." I start, wringing my hands. "I started with the main trail, and when that got I started running it until I... uh... fell upon this trail..." Micheal shouldn't laugh at my poor joke, but he does, causing me to giggle. I stop for a minute, taken aback. I don't giggle. Micheal looks at me like he knows this, which only makes him laugh more. We turn a bend and there it is in the distance; the hardest hill on the trial. Steep and seemingly always muddy, it's never fun.

"Wow..." Micheal says under his breath, unenthusiastically.

"Race you to the top?" I tease, not expecting him to make a break for it, leaving me lagging behind from our leisurely pace. I break into a run after him, but he's already halfway up the steep ascent. My feet slip in the mud and I pull myself up, grabbing at low hanging tree branches as I pull my way up to be running alongside Micheal. We're so close to the top and I'm speeding ahead-

Micheal grabs my jacket from behind, slowing me down and giving him the extra momentum he needs to make it all the way up the hill. He stops at the top, laughing at my betrayed expression and leaning with his hands on his knees.

"You..." I wheeze, my lungs struggling for air while my body shakes with laughter. "You little..."

"You never specified the rules of the game." He points out, gasping between words. "You gave the objective of getting to the top first, so I did." He shrugs, smiling.

"You could've sent me all the way back down this thing!" I accuse jokingly, gesturing wildly at the beastly hill we conquered.

"I would've helped you back up." He says breezily.

"Not after laughing at me from your throne of victory." I glare pointedly at him, and he shrugs again.

"How do you think Macbeth became king?" He asks.

I gape at him mockingly, whispering in an obnoxious voice, "You dare bring high-school literature into this?"

"Double, double, toil and trouble-" He says in a witchy voice that cracks me up as I say,

"Fire burn and cauldron bubble." I smile at him, trying to figure out how the topic of witches in a Shakespearean play arose from a simple hillside chase.

Once we both catch our breath, we keep walking, mostly in silence, until I see it up ahead. The trees open up and the goldish-green light from the parking lot fades, replaced by the brilliant glow of the afternoon sunlight. The forest opens up below that point, making you feel like you're on the top of the world.

The Lookout.