mud and dirt, and when the plastic has been rolled up and stowed he can’t find some of the pegs. They’ve sunk into the wet ground and disappeared.
Reiner reappears, striding in through the undergrowth. His silence says that he is truly in his element here, on the steeple of the world, among storms and peaks.
I can’t find all the pegs.
Hmm, Reiner says. He helps himself to tea and goes to sit on a rock, staring out intensely into the distance.
He digs in the mud for a bit, then wanders off to look for the metal they threw away last night. He can’t remember where they put it, nothing looks today the way it did in the dark. Eventually the glint of silver catches his eye and he carries it back in a bristling pile to put away. Reiner watches him and says, you were scared of the lightning.
Yes. Weren’t you.
He shakes his head and sips his tea.
I make breakfast. Reiner throws out the last of his tea and comes over to eat. They don’t talk and there is a deep tension, some remnant of the electric thrill of the storm, between them. Reiner eats slowly, thinking and staring, and he’s still busy when his companion finishes. He is impatient with waiting and goes off again to look for the missing pegs. When he next looks Reiner is perched on a rock, his shirt off, rubbing cream into his skin.
Don’t you want to help me look.
I’m busy, Reiner says.
Busy.
He comes back and collects the dirty plates and cutlery together. He stows them in his bag and by then Reiner has finished rubbing and has started brushing his hair. The brush flickers, the strokes go on, repetitive and infuriating.
He goes off to clean his teeth. When he gets back Reiner has finished brushing and is putting his shirt on. Then he also squeezes out toothpaste onto his toothbrush and wanders off.
He comes back a few minutes later at a quick, efficient pace. Ready, he says, let’s go.
We haven’t found all the pegs yet.
What.
The pegs.
Reiner clicks his tongue in irritation, he sighs. He comes over to the flattened patch where the tent was pitched and peers around at the trampled ground. After a few moments he says, leave them.
What.
Leave them. We’ll use something else.
It’s not my tent. I have to take care of it.
Well, they’re gone. I can’t see them. Come on, we’ve wasted a lot of time this morning.
He looks at him and from a long way inside words travel up through great resistance, he says, you haven’t done anything.
What.
You haven’t done anything. I’ve done everything this morning. I want to look for the pegs.
Reiner gives again that impatient click, he tosses his long hair expressively. Without a word he picks up his rucksack and sets off along the footpath they’ve been following. The one left behind stares in amazement as he strides off, his dark figure shrinking rapidly till it disappears. Then he puts the tent away in his bag and starts to follow.
The path goes at first through lots of twists and turns, following the contour of the hill, he can’t see far ahead, but as he comes around the side of the mountain the slope opens out and the path unravels a long way into the future. Now he can see Reiner in the distance, a tiny figure, moving fast and not looking back. He tries to speed up, but he is tired and heavy. He is also carrying more than his share, it is Reiner’s job to carry the tent but he strode off without it, everything in the end is coming down to a few lost pegs and the weight of a tent.
After a while he stops trying to catch up. But when they are on the other side of the mountain he gets a full view of the path going on, then taking a sharp turn to the left and descending towards a river. Reiner is far along, approaching the turn. The path doesn’t travel a direct route, and he sees that if he leaves the track here and cuts across a steep slope he can come out ahead of Reiner at the river.
He goes off down to the left, scrabbling between little scrubby bushes and loose rocks, trying to keep his balance. From the corner of his eye he watches Reiner, he sees him speed up when he realizes what’s going on, trying to keep his lead, then slowing down again when he realizes he