Eunice took her glass to the kitchen, rinsed it out, put it in the dishwasher, and then went out of Eric’s sight to get ready for bed. He reached over to an end table for the book he’d been reading the last few days.

It was not a new book; it was Americans on Everest by James Ramsay Ullman, about the 1963 American Everest Expedition. He’d first read it as a library book somewhere in the sixties before his first trip to the Himalayas, just to get a feel for what he was getting into. Eric had been close enough to Everest to see it; he’d never been on the mountain, although he’d gone respectably high on nearby Nuptse. Himalayan mountaineering had changed more than a little from the way it had been done in 1963 by the time he got there, and it had changed a great deal since then, to the point where it was almost unrecognizable. But it was still good to taste what it had been like back then, so when he’d spotted it at a cheap price in an online bookstore he’d ordered it.

But tonight it just wasn’t appealing to him. He desultorily worked his way through two or three pages, distantly aware of Eunice getting ready for bed, but his mind was elsewhere. That summer of 1958 had been a huge turning point for Eunice and Jeff, and it had also been one for him, in a very different way. All three of their lives had been permanently stamped by that summer, Eunice and Jeff’s pretty conventionally, while his had been as far away from conventional as could be imagined.

He’d felt pretty victorious when he’d driven the TR-2 into the Harrington Oil office where Jeff was working that August day. The summer had gone even better than he’d expected, even hoped. The last few days of that first big trip he’d been looking forward to sharing some of his experiences with his friends.

Wednesday, August 20, 1958

Eric had the Triumph shut off and was climbing the steps to the office when Jeff rushed out to see him. “Wow, good to see you,” his friend told him. “I was starting to think you’d fallen off the face of the earth.”

“No, not quite,” Eric smiled. “But I thought I’d better get back so we can get the apartment set up. I’ve got a few things I need to do before school starts.”

“You had a good time, I take it?”

“Great time. A real great time. I did things I never even thought about last spring. I’ve got a few stories to tell.”

“Look, I’d love to stand around and hear all the dirty details, but we’re almost done with this mailing and I’d like to get it finished by the time we knock off. Why don’t you go unload the car? I’ll call Eunice. Maybe she can drive over; she does that once in a while. I’m sure she’d like to hear the story.”

“There are parts of it that maybe she shouldn’t hear, but I suppose I’ll have time to tell you about them later,” Eric smiled. “Go ahead and call her up, see if she’d like to come over. I’d enjoy seeing her.”

“How about Donna? She’s been real apologetic and would like to see you again. I get the impression that she’d like to make up with you.”

Eric was somewhat less jovial as he replied, “That’s another issue that I’m going to have to think about, and probably handle by myself. Let’s not get her involved right now.”

A couple hours later, in the shade and the mosquitoes of the Harrington back yard, Eric started telling his story to Jeff and Eunice, who, like him, had cans of beer in their hands – they were all over twenty-one now, Eunice only by a few days.

The gist of it was that after Eric left Wychbold back in May, he’d started for the Lime Rock racetrack in Connecticut. He could have probably gotten there more quickly if he’d continued on the Ohio and Pennsylvania Turnpikes, but getting there quickly wasn’t what he had in mind. He tired of the Ohio Toll Road quickly, and east of Cleveland turned onto the twistier local roads that were more interesting and fun in a sports car like the Triumph. As it was, he spent two nights on the trip, camping beside the car both nights. He found the track on Wednesday, but discovered it wasn’t open until Friday, and then only for practice. He had little trouble filling the interim, and Friday morning he was back at the track in time to get some good practice in.

He wound up deciding to park next to a guy with a fairly new Austin-Healey “Bugeye” Sprite, who said was also going to be camping there for a couple days – Warren Hanneman from New Jersey, and they quickly made friends with each other. Warren introduced him to a college friend of his, Scott Ballard, and Eric was soon friends with him as well. After getting some practice in on the track, which was faster and less twisty than Waterford Hills, the three took off together to get some dinner and have a drink or two, with Warren riding with Eric since Scott was staying at a motel. It turned into more than a drink or two, but Eric was at least capable of driving the Triumph back to the track. “I sure had a head on me the next morning,” he told Jeff and Eunice. “But both Scott and Warren had it worse.”

Over the course of that evening and the rest of the weekend, Eric learned that both his new friends also had other interests; Warren was interested in rock climbing, and Scott in sailing. It turned out that Scott had a problem: his father had just bought a sailboat down on Chesapeake Bay and had to get it up to Rhode Island, and the sooner the better. Scott had been more or less detailed to handle the problem, but he needed an extra set of hands to help run the boat.

“That was exactly the sort of thing I was looking for,” Eric explained to Jeff and Eunice. “So of course I took him up on it.”

He went on to explain that they’d gotten a ride down to Annapolis to pick up the 32-foot wooden sailboat, which was well-built and solid if not in the best condition. “I’ve always wanted to learn something about sailing, and I sure did over the next two weeks,” he said. “It was a lot of fun most of the time, although it got hairy in a few places. We barely made it back to Rhode Island in time to get to the next race, another place in Connecticut called Thompson Raceway.”

What Eric didn’t say at the time, but told Jeff later, was that Scott’s girlfriend Clarice had already been asked to go along, but hadn’t accepted yet. When Eric and Scott got back to Scott’s place, she’d agreed to go, and somehow a friend of hers, a girl named Mindy, had gotten herself invited into the deal. With the two guys and the two girls, it had been quite a party every inch of the way. The boat had a limited amount of space, but that wasn’t the reason they spent a lot of time doubled up in the bunks. Eric also hinted that the girls liked to work on all-over suntans while they were well out of sight of shore, and that had made the trip interesting, too.

It all had been a great trip, and Scott asked Eric to go along with him on another sailing trip later in the summer. Eric agreed without a second thought; they spent a few hours getting their land legs back under them, then headed to the next race where they met up with Warren again. Of course, they all had a good time, and Warren suggested that Eric might like to try a little rock climbing. “It was something I’d never really thought about, but it sounded like fun and I decided it was something I wanted to learn more about.”

It turned out that Warren was a pretty good climber, but getting climbing partners during the weekdays at his favorite climbing spots could be difficult. Most of them were at a series of 200-foot granite cliffs about fifty miles north of New York, collectively called the Shawangunks. Eric was a complete neophyte when Warren took him there the first time and taught him the basics of climbing and rope work, then started leading him up routes of increasing difficulty.

“To make a long story short,” Eric told Jeff and Eunice, “Warren and I spent a lot of time climbing granite over the next several weeks. He was a lot better than I was when we got started, of course, but I caught up with him. By the time the summer was over with I was climbing some of the harder routes in the lead, with him belaying. Sometimes we’d put in three or four routes in a day.”

“You really like that climbing, huh?” Jeff asked.

“I sure do,” Eric told him. “It’s good to feel that you’re good at something that’s challenging and a little dangerous. I don’t know that I’ll ever get to do a lot of it again since there’s no good climbing around here as far as I know, but I thought it worked out pretty well.”

Most of the time Eric and Warren camped out near the climbs, moving from time to time. Sometimes on rainy days they’d find a restaurant or a bar and just sit inside for a while, and when prolonged rain came along sometimes they’d go into New York City to find something to do. “New York is fine,” Eric told them. “But I discovered I’d just as soon be out where there are more trees than there are people.” On race weekends – which weren’t every weekend – they’d tear down their camps and drive to wherever there happened to be a race, as far south as Virginia and as far to the west as eastern Ohio.

Eric made some other friends while he was at the race track, including an Italian guy from New Jersey across the Hudson from New York, who ran a foreign car repair service. The Triumph had been largely trouble-free most of the summer, but at one race track it started to run rough, and had little power. Eric was not a bad mechanic but his knowledge was limited, especially when it came to English cars. However, his new-found friend had forgotten more than Eric would ever know about Triumphs, and it only took him half an hour to get things sorted back out – and then only charged him a few bucks for parts and nothing for the labor! “I don’t know if I’ll ever get to return the favor, but I sure owe him one!” Eric said.

With the exception of another two-week sailing trip with Scott and Clarice and Mindy, that pretty well summed up the summer: climbing and racing, along with some sailing – and, of course, some partying, and seeing some sights. “I’d still be out doing it,” Eric admitted. “But both Scott and Warren were in the same boat as I’m in, having to go back to school. But it was a great summer and I wouldn’t mind doing it again!”

It was getting late on that August evening when he finished telling Jeff and Eunice about his adventures of the summer. “I’d love to sit here and listen to some of the details,” Eunice said when Eric talked about driving back to Michigan on twisting and hilly Pennsylvania and Ohio secondary roads in the little roadster. “But I’ve got to work tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll hear more of the details this winter, but for now I really need to be heading back to Amherst.”

“I’ll walk you out to your car,” Jeff offered.

“Sure,” she smiled. “Are we going to get together Saturday, as usual?”

“I’m not sure yet,” he told her. “Eric and I still need to talk about what we’re going to do about getting the apartment set up. I’m sure we’ll figure it out in the next day or so, but Saturday could turn into a trip back up to college.”

“I’d be willing to go if there’s room for me. I’m not real anxious to have to go back there, but I guess we’re not going to be able to put it off.”

“Well, I’ll let you know as soon as I know.”

Eunice didn’t have much to gather up, soon the two of them were walking around the house. It was several minutes before Eric heard her drive off, so he figured the two were having some private discussion with probably a little kissing going on. After a few minutes Eric decided he’d better do something productive, so he went into the house and got a couple fresh cans of beer. He was back in the lawn chair by the time Jeff returned. “It was taking you so long I figured I’d better go get us some cold ones,” Eric said. “I take it the two of you are getting pretty serious.”

“Yeah, pretty serious,” Jeff agreed, obviously not wanting to get too detailed about just how serious things were getting. “A few things have happened there while you’ve been gone.”

“Serious as in talking about getting married?”

“The subject has come up,” Jeff admitted. “We haven’t exactly made any firm plans yet, but if it happens it’s not going to be before next spring.”

“Well, good. I thought I was doing the right thing in getting the two of you to go along as co-pilots for Donna and me last spring. At least that part of it worked out pretty well. I guess it didn’t between me and Donna.”

“Look, I don’t want to push at you about Donna, but Eunice and I have been over to see her a few times. She’s not been having a good summer. She’s been missing you, and she knows she really messed it up with you, especially at that race last spring. I think she’d like another chance, if you’ll give her one.”

“I’m not going to say it’s not going to happen,” Eric shrugged, using a church key to open one of the cans; he handed it to Jeff, then opened one for himself. “But she’s going to have to be a little more accepting of what I want to do, or it’s not even going to get restarted.”

“I think she’s figured that much out. She’s admitted she had really been an asshole when we went up to that race back in May.”

“If she’d been willing to be a little more open to what I wanted to do, she might have gotten her way, or at least part of it,” Eric smiled as he took a long swallow of his beer. “But no, she wanted to wrap me around her little finger, and there was no way that was going to happen. She’s not a bad girl, but if she wants to get somewhere with me she’s going to have to be willing to bend a little.”

“I’m not trying to sell you on her, but I think she realizes that she made that mistake. I can’t speak for her, though.”

“I’m not sure how to handle it,” Eric admitted. “I’ll tell you this much, I’m not driving over to Meridian and begging her on my knees to get back with me. If she wants it that much, it’s going to have to be the other way around, and maybe I ought to let it go until we get back in school. Maybe that will send the message that if we get back together it’s going to have to be on my terms.”

“You could be right, but I guess I’m just as glad that Eunice isn’t here to hear it. I think she and Donna talk back and forth a little more than she’s letting on. She may even have been over to Meridian a couple times that I don’t know about, or at least that’s how I read between the lines. But that’s fine. They are friends and they are roommates. Besides, to a degree that’s girl stuff, so it’s probably just as well if I keep my nose out of it.”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Eric shook his head. “Jeff, I need to tell you something that I’d just as soon you keep from Eunice, at least until we see how this deal with Donna comes out.”

“Eunice and I may be getting pretty hot and heavy, but there are things we don’t talk about, too. What do you have on your mind?”

“Besides having a good time this summer, I learned a few things. I had a lot of time to think about women, both in general and Donna in particular. What it comes down to is that I’m not too sure how bad I want to get tied up with one woman just yet. I mean, marriage, kids, a little vine-covered cottage by the side of the road and all that happy stuff. There’s a big world out there, and I wouldn’t mind seeing some more of it. I’m not saying I’m done with racing but I don’t think I’m going to get more serious about it. I mean, I do all right at the level I’m at, but there are people out there who put a lot of money into it. I don’t think I want to spend the kind of money it takes to be that good, not that I have it to spend anyway. But one of the things I learned from Warren is that I really like the climbing, but all I really had from him is the one-oh-one course about rock climbing, even though it was pretty challenging rock climbing at times. There are a lot more things to do than that, and the heck of it is that there’s not much of it that can be done around here.”

“Obviously,” Jeff agreed. “I mean, we are a little short on mountains around here.”

“Right. I learned a lot from Warren, but I learned a lot more from some of the people we messed around with there in the ’Gunks, too. There’s Colorado, California, Canada, and of course, there’s Europe and Asia. All of them are pretty different than the rock climbing we did there. There’s a lot more fun to be had, and not all of it climbing. I wouldn’t mind experiencing some of it.”

“That’s your choice, I guess. I’m glad you like it, but well, I don’t want to say I’m afraid of heights, but they aren’t my cup of tea, either.”

“I can understand. In fact, until I went to the ’Gunks with Warren I didn’t really think much of it myself, but what it did is open my eyes to the fact that there are other fun things to do that I hadn’t really considered before. Sailing with Scott did that, too.”

“I can understand that. You’ve always been more open to doing new things than I have been. Eunice and I aren’t like that. I think if we wind up getting married, which is beginning to get pretty likely, we’re going to be thinking more in terms of that little vine-covered cottage by the side of the road you mentioned, and even kids, and things like that.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Eric grinned. “Hell, we’ve always known you’re going to walk right out of college into a pretty good job, one that will allow you to have a wife and kids and those kinds of normal things, and I’m pretty sure that’s what you want anyway. I’ve always known I won’t have that to look forward to, which is fine with me. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I’m pretty sure I don’t want it, at least not in the near future. There are other things to do, and if I learned anything this summer, I learned that I want to do some of them.”

“I have to say that doesn’t strike me as being real surprising. What you’re actually saying is that you’re not all that interested in getting back with Donna.”

“That’s what makes it hard. I am and I’m not. Donna could be a lot of fun, in one way. But think about it. Let’s just suppose I get a job as a teacher, where I have three months off in the summer. I’m not working on that, but let’s just suppose, OK? Now, based on what you saw up at Waterford Hills back in May, what do you think would happen if we were married and I were to tell her, ‘I’m going off to go climbing with Warren and some other buddies in Colorado for the next two or three months?’”

“You’d probably get to go climbing since she’d be looking for a divorce lawyer,” Jeff laughed.

“Something pretty close to that,” Eric nodded. “At best it wouldn’t be pretty, and about the last thing she’d say is something like ‘Go have fun, and drop me a card once in a while.’”

“So what you’re saying is that you’re not all that interested in Donna.”

“I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t know. It’s not a dead issue in my mind, but she’s going to have to learn to be a lot more flexible than she was last spring. She’s all right, but there are other fish in the pond, and maybe I’m not all that interested in fishing for a while. We’ll see what happens this fall, but right now I’m not making any long range plans that involve her.”

“That’s probably not the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” Jeff said. “I mean, Donna is all right, I like her in a way, but given a choice between her and Eunice, I’d take Eunice every time.”

“That’s probably the smart thing for you to do. I think you and Eunice are going to work out pretty well together, and I’ve thought that ever since our first movie date with Donna and her last spring. I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere near as well with Donna and me. I’ve kicked it around in my mind a lot all summer, and I’m sure I’m not done kicking it around. But enough of that. We need to start making plans about what we’re going to do about the apartment.”

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Somewhere in there I messed up, Eric thought, Americans on Everest lying open in his lap, unread. If I hadn’t been so damn hard headed, I might have been able to have a good life with Donna. Or, I could have done the bright thing and just turned my back on her. But no, I had to try and take the middle ground, and it didn’t work well at all.

But those were might-have-beens, and long ago at that. I made my choice, and what’s done is done. If I had the chance to go back and do it all over again, I’m not sure I’d do it much differently, either. Sure, I missed out on a lot, but I got to do a lot of things I enjoy, things that only a handful of other people would have even thought about doing.

He sat back for a moment, mentally exploring that summer and the aftermath – and in a very real sense, it was all aftermath.

He glanced up at the clock, realizing that he’d sat there longer than he’d intended. Eunice is right, he thought. Maybe I’d better get my butt to bed now or I’m really going to be dragging tomorrow. He put the book back on the end table; there would be time to read it some other time.

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