Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: ANCIENT (06/04/20)
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TITLE: One hundred miles down, 2550 to go… | Previous Challenge Entry
By Corinne Smelker
06/11/20 -
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She tripped over a small grassy hillock, stumbled, almost caught herself before tumbling onto the hot scrubby sand and knolls. Unbidden, a tear trickled down her left cheek, and she dashed it away.
She released her rucksack from her waist and let it drop from her shoulders. Leaning into it, she stretched out on the heated primitive landscape, turned her face from the blistering sun and closed her eyes.
“I must have been a lunatic to think this was a good idea. I’m a teacher, not a naturalist. What do I know about the great outdoors? I used to think eating a meal outside was an adventure! And now, look at me, I’m talking to myself!” Bobbi started to chuckle at the irony of the situation. “’Go on a hike’, he said. ‘It’ll be fun,’ he said. Well I’m not having any fun!”
She lay for a minute or so, gradually becoming aware of the silence around her. As she relaxed and calmed down, a memory flashed a fin before swimming away. Daniel twirling her on their wedding day before she tripped on her dress and took a spill, pulling a laughing Daniel along with her. Grace was never my strong suit.
Slowly Bobbi dragged the rucksack up again, and using it as leverage, pulled herself into a vertical position. She checked her compass to ensure she was headed north. That was another skill she’d learnt – reading a compass, and how to tell time by the sun’s position – and bracing herself, continued her journey north.
Everything hurt. Even the soles of her feet burnt in a way she’d never experienced before. The salesperson at the REI store who fitted her for her boots warned her there would be a ‘breaking in’ period, but she had no idea it would feel like her entire body was on fire.
“Promise me that you’ll do this after I’m gone.” Daniel’s head was pressed tight next to hers and he stroked her hand with his frail one. “As a tribute to me, to us.” Bobbi turned her head so he wouldn’t see the sudden well of tears and nodded.
Bobbi straightened and looked into the horizon, to the mountains that lay before her. She looked around and behind her at the desert scrub. Once more she braced herself and continued the long trek to the foothills of the ancient Sierra Mountain range and the Pacific Crest Trail, as she tackled the age-old questions of life, “Why am I here? What’s it all about?” and, “Why did he have to die so young?”
She was keeping her promise.
One hundred miles down, 2550 to go…
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