The Wall by Jeff Long Read Free Book Online Page A

mystified by their unease.
    Augustine nodded to them. “When you’re up there, if you see something…” He didn’t finish. By then it would surely be too late.
    “We’ll report,” Hugh told him.
    “Great.” Augustine turned and stepped through the obstacle course of bar stools. Hugh watched until the door closed behind him.
    “What was that all about?” Rachel asked.
    Lewis gave Hugh a warning look. “He’s with the park service. He wanted some information.”
    She wasn’t stupid. “He looked like the Grim Reaper.”
    “There was an accident this afternoon,” Lewis said.
    “On El Cap.” Rachel nodded. “You thought I wasn’t going to find out?”
    Lewis’s twinkle dimmed.
    “It happened near the top,” Hugh said. “Three women. One fell. The rescuers are getting it figured out.”
    “Three women?”
    Rachel seemed more surprised by their gender than by the accident. In the old days, girlfriends tended the campsites and worked on their bikini lines down along the Merced River. They were trophies the men returned to from the heights. If a woman tied into a rope, it was only for something very short and very easy that involved a picnic at the top.
    “And what did the ranger want?”
    “He’s not a ranger, babe,” Lewis said.
    She stared at him.
    “I found one of the girls,” Hugh said. Then he recalled Lewis and Rachel’s two daughters, each grown up and moved away now, but an echo nonetheless.
    “And you’re still going up there?”
    “It’s different,” Hugh said. “They were off on something new. We’re doing a victory lap on Anasazi. Only the weekend warriors bother with it anymore.”
    She wasn’t buying it. “A girl died today. On El Cap.”
    “They were pushing a first ascent. A radical first. Off the scale.”
    “And when you two did Anasazi Wall thirty years ago, what do you think everyone was saying? The same thing. Radical. Crazy.”
    Hugh shut up.
    “We’re way under the speed limit here,” Lewis said.
    “Act your age,” she snapped at him.
    “We are. It’s this or really loud golf slacks. Come on. El Cap, our old stomping grounds. A little Viagra for the soul.”
    “God, Lewis.” She sounded sad.
    The bartender came over. He was respectful this time, almost fraternal. Their powwow with Augustine had elevated them. Rachel ordered a glass of Australian wine.
    It was too late to turn over the photo. El Cap occupied the table. Their silence lasted until the wine arrived.
    “The girls,” Hugh finally said. “Your girls. You must have pictures.”
    Rachel sighed. She had a small purse, more like a leather wallet on strings, very chic. It held a credit card, a lipstick, and snapshots.
    “Look at them,” Hugh said. The daughters were truly beautiful. “Tell me about them.”
    “As of this college semester, we’re official empty nesters,” Lewis said. “Trish made Bucknell, and Liz is in her third year at UT Austin.”
    “A Yankee and a rebel,” Hugh said.
    “Business, and engineering,” Rachel pointed at one, then the other. “No philosophy. No poetry. I think Ezra Pound is finally dead.”
    She couldn’t have been clearer. The daughters were moving on past Lewis. And Rachel was, too. Hugh suddenly realized that she was going to leave Lewis. She hadn’t told him yet. But El Cap figured into her strategy somehow, or else she wouldn’t have bothered to come.
    Lewis stood up. Rachel didn’t. “We’re still good for four in the morning?” he said.
    “I’ll be ready,” Hugh said.
    Rachel saluted her husband: “0400.”
    Hugh started to get up, but she grabbed his wrist. “No you don’t. I have a glass of wine to drink, and Lewis gets you for the next week. I think I’m worth a half hour, don’t you?”
    Hugh lifted his fingers in surrender and sat again.
    “Make her understand,” Lewis told Hugh. To Rachel he added, “And don’t kill my messenger.”
    Once Lewis was gone, Rachel stretched her long swan neck. She breathed out. “This is our