Mountain Climbing With Dinosaurs by Doug Goodman

Author:Doug Goodman [Goodman, Doug]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2020-03-03T22:00:00+00:00

Post-Climb B-Roll, Lachlan Old Chief

Interview Transcript: Jada Lockhart

Note: Mrs. Lockhart e-mailed me a couple of weeks after the climb. She wanted to meet to talk. I’ve deleted most of our conversations out of respect for the dead and for her. This footage I kept. Mrs. Lockhart is sitting in her chair in the dining room. She wears a different men’s suit jacket. This one is brown. A box of Kleenex rests beside her. One tissue is balled up in her hands. Her eyes are red because she’s been crying. In the other hand she holds a spiral notebook open.

JADA (reading):

I’m sorry, Travis and Mom. Please don’t be mad, and don’t blame yourselves. This is my choice and my wish. I want you to be happy. I haven’t been happy in a long time, not since the shooting.

When I go to bed, there is a spider who crawls up my leg every night and lays eggs in my ears. The eggs hatch in my brain and leave reminders of every evil thing I can do. Whenever I’m around people, I see targets on their backs and their eyes blackened. I know it sounds unreal. I’m not crazy. I’m just a copy of Kyler. The world is better off without me in it.

Travis, I want you to know that climbing with you was the greatest thing in my life and the closest I came to true happiness. Don’t stop climbing, and never stop looking for your horse. I copied to an external hard drive all the documentation about everything we ever climbed. There are photos, videos, e-mails, and probably a hundred files of notes. I sorted everything in folders by date and climb. Don’t laugh, but there’s also a PowerPoint presentation summarizing our climbs. (I didn’t make it mushy ‘cause I know you don’t like that.) I transferred half of all my account moneys into your account. Take a vacation or get the Land Rover you keep talking about. My sacrifice excuses you for the rest of your life, so enjoy it, dude!

Mom, thank you for always being there for us. Throughout everything we’ve faced, your love was the one constant. I transferred the other half of my money to your accounts so that you will always be taken care of. You can cremate my body if that is cheapest, or you can leave it in Dinosaur Falls. It really doesn’t matter to me anyways.

I love you all. I had to do this. I couldn’t live with the dead inside me any longer.

-Brady

Note: Jada dabs her eyes as she reads the suicide note. I hadn’t heard it before. After everything that happened on the mountain, it blows me away, and honestly, I needed a moment, too. She hands me the tissue.

ME:

Thanks.

JADA:

It’s okay. I’ve read it fifty times and it still makes me cry.

…

ME:

What did Brady mean when he told Travis to ‘never stop looking for your horse?’

Note: Jada smiles briefly as she tries to remember something.

JADA:

Oh, it was something about the boys and horses and something.

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