"Richard Paul Russo - The Second Descent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russo Richard Paul)

Once theyтАЩd traversed the glacier, the descent became familiar again,
though heтАЩd thought this portion of the route had actually been much higher
up on the mountain. But when they came to the nearly vertical face just
below the Bamboo Col, they discovered that the tens of meters of fixed
rope theyтАЩd set on the ascent now hung in shreds, split and frayed and
swinging listlessly in the cold breeze or lying scattered in pieces on the
snow and rock at the bottom of the face. Sabotage was suggested, or
some freak and violent storm, but when they inspected the ropes they
found that the fibers appeared worn and rotted, as if the ropes had been
hanging on this mountainside for decades.

The fixed ropes would have provided a much easier descent of the
rocky faceтАФthe three of them could have abseiled down the steep drop in
less than an hour. Now that wasnтАЩt possible, and they didnтАЩt have enough
extra rope to fix new lines. With night approaching, they made camp and
rested for the next day.

In the morning, Father Dominic took the lead, and Rafael was once
again astonished at the priestтАЩs technical abilities. He found a path they
could all negotiate, and they made it to the bottom of the face with more
than an hour of daylight remaining to them. They stood together and
watched in wonder as the sun dropped behind the horizon and set the ice
and the clouds and the sky on fire.

He remembers ... he remembers....

Kiyoko asleep on the couch with DanteтАФtheir new tiny puff-ball of
dark gray kitten no bigger than RafaelтАЩs handтАФsnuggled up under her
chin....

The rich scent of wood smoke and pine needles....

Weeping as he stands alone in the frigid black night when he is
seventeen, suffocating a newborn pup born minutes earlier with its
intestines outside its body....

The rush of emotion fountaining in his belly and chest the first time he
kisses Kiyoko, holding her as her two cats watch with suspicion....

Trout fishing with his father, hiking along a rocky mountain stream,
breath icy in the early gray morning....

A gull hovering almost stationary about the waves, dipping slightly in
the breeze....

The smell of sweat on skin on skin.... LeilaтАЩs days-old fingers gripping
his thumb ... the overhead rumble of trucks crossing the bridge spanning a
dry creek bed ... the baking heat of summer on the slope of a dune ... the
two freckles on KiyokoтАЩs cheek just below her left eye....