Flesh and Bark

The precise moment she knew she didn't want to be with him occurred 3 months before she finally left. She was clinging to climber's staples embedded into a Redwood tree, being belayed by an overweight seventeen year old boy. She was breathing deeply. The smell of the tree was overpowering.

She hated climbing, and she always forgot this until she was actually off the ground. She loved Redwoods, but, 20 feet off the ground, she realized that she was able to love them much more when she was looking up at their flakey bark and dark green needles, and not when her body was wrapped around one of them for dear life.. She had reached a part of the trunk flooded with sticky sap. To complete the course she had to climb twelve more feet, and pull her body onto a board suspended by wires. She then had to jump accross a series of boards before she the belayer would float her down. She carefully balanced her weight on two staples and stared at the sap. There were small mites encased in it. The sight made her queasy. She imagined it would burn like molasses against her bare arms.

And that was when she knew. She couldn't imagine having his child. She could no longer suffer his pedantic self important drivel. The idea of his flesh on hers was something she could no longer tolerate.

"I want to come down," she called.

"Oh, you can do it. Just keep going," called the boy, trying to be encouraging.

"I don't want to," she called back. "Please just let me down."

"Ok. Just lean backwards off the tree." He pulled the rope into a tight break. She could feel it almost lifting her off the staples.

She clung to the tree for just a second longer, and then pressed her mouth against the amber sap. She expected it to cling to her lips, but it was smooth and cold against her skin. She leaned back and stared up as the course receded away from her as she was belayed to the ground.