The Long Climb

SJ Shoemaker
Word Count: 940
2/27/2020

Mizar (M):       My goodness, how do people do this? We are not halfway, even.

Boötis (B):       Your goodness? Ha!

M:                    Why laugh at me?

B:                     I laugh at only my own foolishness, my dear. You grow daily. Yet I often forget.

M:                    Don’t laugh at me.

B:                     Never. And to your question, to climb is to not fall. To climb is to live.

M:                    We could fall as we climb.

B:                     A poor handgrip or foothold and we would fall, Yes. That is a risk.

M:                    Then why?

B:                     To climb is to live, my dear. This you know.

M:                    Each step is a risk?

B:                     Yes.

M:                    Each inch is tiring?

B:                     Yes.

M:                    There is no rest.

B:                     We find it where we can.

M:                    But there is little to find.

B:                     Little rest, yes. This is true.

M:                    One day we will become too tired and climb no more.

B:                     This is also true.

M:                    Then why?

B:                     To climb is—

M:                    –to live, yes. You have said.

B:                     Then why do you not hear?

M:                    I wait for you to forget.

B:                     I am not so old as this. Why do you wish such a thing on me?

M:                    You will forget and ask of me. And I will tell you the answer I want you to tell me.

B:                     You would lie to me?

M:                    I would tell you a better truth.

B:                     You would lie to me.

M:                    Do you not wish for more than rocks and stones?

B:                     What would I wish?

M:                    A meadow and a stream of cool water. A tree with shade.

B:                     These are all nice to wish and dream for, yes. But And when you wake from your dreams, here you will be. Your energy is sparse and becoming less always. Save it for the climb.

M:                    …

B:                     …

M:                    You talk so little.

B:                     I focus on the climb.

M:                    What is it you think when you climb?

B:                     How can I think when you are talking always? Haha.

M:                    You do laugh at me.

B:                     I tease only, my dear.

M:                    You said you would not laugh.

B:                     It was jest, only. But no more, this I swear.

M:                    No. Do not swear. I do not mind that you jest sometimes.

B:                     Then let me speak of your hair.

M:                    No, Papa. Speak of your thoughts. What do you think when you climb?

B:                     Hmm. I think of many things. I think of how far I have climbed and how far I must climb still and what your climb will be when I fall one day.

M:                    Beyond that.

B:                     I think of the stars. How beautiful they look from here. They make my heart leap for joy when they arrive. And they too make my heart stop, how their small light fills each step with so much more danger.

M:                    You are happy with the stars?

B:                     I am conflicted. You came from these stars.

M:                    I thought I came from the mountain. I was a boulder that fell from the cliff face, that’s what you told me.

B:                     While the stars shined on, yes. You crossed before the constellations, blotted out the dipper. That is why you are called Mizar. 

M:                    And you jumped from the mountain and fell a full day with me in your arms.

B:                     Yes. Yes. And then climbed a full week with but one arm before I thought to carry you on my back.

M:                    Was I a heavy child?

B:                     The heaviest, and that is no tease.

M:                    I am sorry, papa.

B:                     Sorry?

M:                    You lost so much energy to me.

B:                     Let us not think on it.

M:                    Your energy is sparse.

B:                     Let us forget it and climb, my dear. We have far to go.

M:                    How far?

B:                     I do not know.

M:                    But we are not even halfway.

B:                     You are not. But more than half my climb is behind me.

M:                    Half your climb, but not half the mountain.

B:                     I do not believe so.

M:                    You will not see the top.

B:                     It is too far beyond my strength.

M:                    You would have more strength without me.

B:                     More, but not enough. Let us think on it no more.

M:                    But why do you climb if you will never see the top.

B:                     What choice do I have, I see no streams or trees.

M:                    I do, when I close my eyes.

B:                     Do not close your eyes. Focus on the climb.

M:                    Papa, please.

B:                     Mizar?

M:                    Does this make you happy? The climb?

B:                     …

M:                    Papa?

B:                     I am conflicted. The mountain, the climb, it is all I have known. I have done what I could, this I do not regret.

M:                    And me?

B:                     I have said, I do not regret. If the mountain cried another child of stone, I would fall another day for her. Again and again, I would. Always.

M:                    That was not what I asked.

B:                     Given another climb, I would do much the same. I do not regret. Is this the same as happy? I do not know. There is much I do not know.

M:                    I will see the top.

B:                     You may. You may not.

M:                    Then I will catch my own Mizar and she will she the top.

B:                     She may.

M:                    And if not her—

B:                     Mizar, we have spent enough energy on talk. Let us climb in peace.

M:                    Yes, let us climb. To climb is to live.

B:                     To climb is to not fall.