Page 60 of Big & Lily

“I think we should do it.”

“Ha, since when have you woken up early to do anything? Let alone at the ungodly hour of three thirty.”

“Actually, it would have to be two thirty. We’d need time to hike back up.”

“Hike? On our own? Brick would never allow it.”

“We don’t have to tell him.”

“So, completely disregard the rules and go out there in the middle of the night? Alone?”

“You were perfectly happy to disregard the rules and lie to Brick about the moose.”

“That was entirely different. But us going all this way on our own? Without an experienced guide—and no gun? Not to mention, what do we know about hiking? We’ve had guides. For a reason. Us blindly tramping through the woods? You and me? Lewis and Clark, we ain’t.”

“First of all. It’s the exact same hike we just did. All we need to do is follow the trail again.”

“You’re serious.”

“As a heart attack.”

“I think that’s what you are trying to give me. Jesus, Lily. This is so dumb.”

I stand up and walk away to avoid going another round with her. But that isn’t the end of it. On the way back down to camp she positions herself at my back, buzzing around my ear. Jace is behind us again, but this time he’s escorting Luna and Mimi. I could tell from the way Mimi sat on the ground at the overlook, her eyes heavy and her head resting on Luna, that she wasn’t having her best day.

“You don’t have to always be such a stickler,” Lily whispers loudly. “Aren’t you tired of always being Miss Goody Two-Shoes?”

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” I say, swatting the air as if I could shoo her away.

“Try stepping out of your comfort zone for one minute, Big.”

“What do you call this trip, Lily?”

“We’ve been babysat the whole time.”

I stop and turn around. She can’t leave well enough alone. Can’t just let us ride out the next few days. She has to come up with some new Lily spectacle just when I was starting to take a deep breath. “Can you even imagine us? Two out-of-shape, middle-agedsuburbanites who think fighting the crowds at the Nordstrom Half-Yearly Sale is a perilous quest, grabbing our compasses and our trail maps and disappearing into the wilderness.” I turn back down the trail and stomp off. I hear her behind me, but her breathing isn’t right down my neck.

“Don’t you think this would be an awesome way to end our trip?” And she’s back. “We’d see something almost no one has ever seen, something magical. End the adventure with a bang? A story to tell your grandchildren.”

“Lily, this is the part I want to tell my grandchildren. That Grandma and Great-aunt Lily took an amazing adventure—with a guide—and they lived to come home and talk about it.”

“My God, Big. You’re acting like what I’m proposing is a suicide—”

“Ba, ba, ba!” I blurt before she can go any further. “Please, let’s just be in this moment. Wouldn’t Wizard Ven agree? Mindfulness and all that?”

She sighs, but stops and we continue down the mountain until she falls back to talk to Luna and Mimi. She’d better not be asking them to wake up at two thirty and sneak out of camp with her.

Going down is as expected easier than going up, and soon we’re back in the dark, damp woods. Two late-in-the-day hikers, young men with nothing on but shorts and T-shirts despite the chill in the sunless forest, approach us with large backpacks and bedding rolls. This is probably the way to see the Denali sunrise—wake up at the summit—but it would violate my cardinal rule, no sleeping on the ground.

“Hey,” says one of them. “Watch yourself down there. Some guy just wiped out in the mud.”

The “some guy” turns out to be Dane. When we reach him, he’s back on his feet, but his hands and pants are covered with thick mud and leaves. The good news is he’s laughing.

“And the klutz of the year award goes to...” he says in a gameshow host voice. Xavier is doubled over giggling. Ian is trying to act concerned but not pulling it off.

“Spills happen,” says Brick. “As long as you’re okay.”

“It’s only a sore tailbone and a bruised ego.”