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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 37: Cooper 12
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 294
About a third of the way up the northeast face of North Hill Cooper came to an abrupt halt. The step supporting his right foot gave way, crumbling into a miniature landslide when he tried to shift his weight onto it. He quickly shifted back to his left foot, and watched the pebbles tumble away.
What if I had fallen? he wondered.
God could catch you.
Was that that voice again, or was that his thought? Did it matter?
He supposed that God could catch him. After all, he had gotten arrested, and God had gotten him out of jail in a surprising, indeed miraculous, way. God apparently wanted him here, and wouldn’t dying thwart God’s plan?
Of course not. For all he knew, the plan might have been for him to tell his story about God releasing him to Wilhelm, to build the man’s own faith for what was to come to him, and now he had done that and was no longer needed here. Too, then his foolishness was that he had stood for righteousness against the demands of an idolatrous government, and so like Daniel, and the three Israelites in the fiery furnace, God rescued him. Here his foolishness was of an entirely different sort, risking his own life, and for what? Was it for the thrill of risking his own life?
Of course, if he fell he wouldn’t actually die; that is, he wouldn’t stay dead. The combination of what he was told and his brief recent experiences told him that he would just come to life in another world.
How is that different from before?
There was that voice again--but it was right. He had always believed that he would live even if he died, ever since he asked Jesus into his heart as a boy. The only differences were that then his continued life would have been in heaven, and that the only experience he had to back it up was that he trusted Jesus, that is, he felt like he could trust Jesus implicitly. So really, there had never been any danger that he would die--not in the sense that people fear.
So why was he afraid?
He remembered a movie in which the hero found himself in a world in which whatever you imagined you could do would succeed. The hero rode a horse at a gallop toward a ravine and leapt over it, and then came back and said it wasn’t at all fun, because there was no thrill, no danger that he might fail, fall, and die.
Had God taken all the danger out of his life? Was it to be dull from now on, because he knew he couldn’t die?
Of course, it would hurt--a lot.
Yes, there was that. He would rather avoid that.
Resettling his weight, he looked for a new footing for his lead leg. He found it; it took him up more than the other, and he was soon finding a new track to the top. The lost footing would not have taken him up where he wanted to go. It had merely redirected him toward a successful path.
That, too, was a lesson.
He was in Sovereign Hands.
The hike was more of a scramble now--not true mountain climbing, at which he had little experience, but more difficult than mountain hiking. He slung his pole on his back, and using both hands moved uphill. Taking small steps to keep his balance, and relying mostly on his legs because arms tired out sooner, he moved up across the forty degree swell of rock. Getting to the top, he saw a path leading to the left, back toward a position above the ice cliff, and one rightward.
Not sure which one was better and estimating he was about eight hundred feet below the summit, he studied the terrain. Over to his left there were a couple cliffs that might get in the way. On the right, it looked smoother, but that could be deceptive. Still, the right looked better, and so he began to hike with his stick along a fifteen degree rising grade.
Passing several flowers which he identified as the famed Edelweiss, known from the song and the movie The Sound of Music, he hummed the song as he hiked. A snort came from ahead of him, and he saw a mountain ram in his path. It looked at him, and Cooper paused, enjoying the sight of the shaggy white-furred beast. After a bit, it leapt straight up from the path, going up a near vertical cliff like it was dancing, and was out of sight. Shaking his head, Cooper continued until he came to a petering out of the track. Going back a hundred feet, he put his pole back up, and carefully climbed an easy slope for fifty feet, which led him out to another track. This one went between rocks, and in their shadows were patches of snow, and in another ten minutes he had reached the top.
Looking down he saw Anderberg, and then off to the left and much farther down, Wenbrunnen. Taking a seat on a chunk of granite near the summit, he got out his lunch and began to eat the sandwich of dark rye bread with a sourdough tang called Walliser Roggebrot that was used as a ‘need a bread right now’ because it kept for several months. The interior of roast cabrito, or goat, and a white alpine cheese similar to what he thought of as Swiss with its holes but with a different tang due to unpasteurized goat’s milk, which the locals called Anderberg Emmentaler cheese, was also well buttered. The chill water from his waterbag helped the whole thing slide down, even as he swung his dangling legs back and forth and looked down over the mountains. Behind him Matterhorn loomed; but he figured the next challenge was to take on South Hill, which rose three thousand feet above Anderberg which itself was about thirty five hundred feet above the valley.
Enjoying the view but aware that time was passing, he got up. The trip down was simpler, as he knew where to go, and his experience kept him calm even when the descent seemed to drop away swimmingly from him. Dropping to one knee he waited, and then, stabilized, he continued. He arrived back at the chalet two hours before nightfall, and decided not to tell his hosts of his achievement. The last two times he had told them of something fantastic, they had thought him a comedian. It was getting just a bit tiresome to relay honestly what had happened, and have the others applaud him for a great joke.
It was too bad that he could not get his achievement listed--Brian Barrelmaster, First Ascent of Northeast Side of North Hill, Thirteenth Century. But the internal knowledge was a warm glow in his gut, an interesting challenge met, and a beautiful path made, and he had really appreciated the four Edelweiss flowers in that clump he had spotted. Shrugging, he sat at the table and prayed until the others came in for supper. Supper was good, and he was asked to tell a story. To his surprise, he did not mind, and told them of his world, more specifically of ski jumping, snowboarding--its many acrobatic tricks, and downhill ski saloming around flags like in the Olympics. The tale was such that Leonhard roused himself from his fireplace side chair to listen.
Before he went to bed, Wilhelm asked him if he minded going down the mountain next week for the bimonthly trade mission. He was getting concerned, and wanted to leave Hans home. Cooper nodded assent to this quiet request from a loving father, and went up to his brazier-warmed room holding the brass candle holder. Due to his exercise, and prayer, and descriptions of winter sports in the 21st Century, he fell asleep quickly. The next day was more work with Leonhard with the axe, and taking care of the stable, and learning how to milk goats for cheese and butter. The week went on, and he and Leonhard took the mule wagon out several times to Anderberg and up and down and around its streets to give Brian experience at handling ‘the mean old mule’. Whenever Leonhard said those words, the mule would whinny, show its teeth, and look back at Leonhard. So the week passed, and Brian was surprised to see Hans taking the announcement that he was staying home well.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #503: Versers Progress. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
