The World As We Know It by Joseph Monninger

Author:Joseph Monninger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books

THE SOUND OF A TIN CUP hitting in rhythm to my brother’s stride. His backpack large and blue, a rectangle on the trail in front of me. His voice, his legs, his Vasque hiking boots. Late-afternoon light. Water splashing in his Nalgene, the liquid wash of springwater down my throat and into my intestines. Gorp. Cashews and M&M’s and raisins. The salt of the nuts and the sweetness of the raisins mixing. Straps digging into my shoulders, my feet tired and hot and steady. A cloud lit by mountain sunlight, its shape a boulder rolling down the sky. Magpies in the dusk flying and landing on a branch, six of them, staring at us. Switchbacks. Sweat and the chill of the sun going behind the mountains. Then the relief of the pack slipping off, a ring of stones, a campsite. The weight of the pack still on my back long after the pack had been shucked. The memory of the weight also on me when we turned to gaze at miles of mountains, vistas, the great Rockies stretching up and away. A valley thousands of feet below. My brother moving effortlessly around the fire ring, camping, bringing water to boil, both of us now in fleeces pulled on over our heads. The day cut in half and turning colder. Now and then the thought of Sarah waiting, swarmed by catering requests, hosting details, showers. Sarah, who would have preferred to be with us, to be in the outdoors, the third leg of our milking stool. And then nightfall, darkness, the pine fire the only light besides our headlamps. A nip of brandy from Ed’s old flask. Cheers to us, to Sarah. Ed in the prime of his life, smiling, joyous, alive to the world, my brother under the stars.

“I’ve talked to Morgan,” Ed said from his sleeping bag. “He says we’re in this fall. He talked to Ken Burns and Burns loves you. It sounds as though you did a great job down there. So now it’s all definite. He is giving us three shoots, all songbirds for kids. We’ll get the raw footage, then supervise the editing. Meanwhile, he’s doing bees next. How they pollinate the grass crops out west. Next spring, probably.”

We reclined without a tent, looking up at the stars. It was cold outside our sleeping bags. We used our backpacks as pillows. The fire had dwindled down to red coals.

“I’m proud of you, Ed.”

“Well, I’m proud of you. You worked with Ken Burns. I mean, you couldn’t get better training.”

“I want to do animals, though.”

A shooting star traced its way across the sky. Two more followed in rapid succession, then nothing else happened for a while.

“The Baker River Film Company. How long have we been talking about that?”

“A long time,” I said. “Forever.”

“What about Sarah?”

“She thinks she has a book contract.”

“Seriously?” Ed asked, rising up on his elbow to look at me.

“It looks like it. She sent her manuscript to an agent in New York and the agent thinks she can sell it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.