Chapter 5: On His Own Two Feet

The guide sent the three fleece jackets home before breakfast was over.

A white van waited at the trailhead, and a woman from the dean's office stood beside it with a clipboard.

Jude watched the tall one climb in without looking back.

"They'll face a hearing," Ken said, beside him. "That's all I know."

"It's more than I expected."

"What did you expect?"

"That nobody would believe me." Jude shifted the new pack on his shoulders. "It's lighter today."

"I checked it twice."

"You really did."

The guide gave Ken a long look, then turned to Jude with a softer face.

"Your ankle's wrapped. If you want to leave, I can drive you out."

Jude thought about the white van, his father's phone calls, and the soft bed at home.

"I'll stay," he said.

"Then Ken's your partner," the guide said. "He asked."

Jude turned to Ken, who was suddenly very interested in his bootlaces.

"You asked?"

"Somebody had to," Ken said.

The trail that day was long and uphill, and for the first hour Jude wheezed.

Ken walked beside him at his own pace and did not slow down.

He also did not speed up.

"You can take the pack," Jude panted once.

"I could."

"But you won't."

"You said you wanted to do one thing yourself." Ken's eyes stayed on the trail. "I heard you in your sleep."

Jude almost tripped.

"I talk in my sleep?"

"You tell people to put down the keys."

By noon, his legs shook, and his breath came in rough loud pulls, and Jude kept going anyway.

At the top of the second ridge he stopped, bent over his knees, and laughed at the sky.

"I'm doing it," he told the clouds.

"You are," Ken said.

It was the first time Jude had seen him smile with his whole face.

That evening they camped by a lake.

Jude was assigned the stove.

"I know how a stove works," Jude said, kneeling over it. "You turn the dial."

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