“It’s not that much further!”
“Eileen, you’ve been saying that for five miles.”
“That’s because it’s not much further than it was the last time I said it! Besides, you’re not even really…”
“Don’t say I’m not walking.”
Eileen turned back to look at Arthur and shot him a wry smile. Arthur grimaced back. His mechanical legs whirred over the loose rocks on the mountain’s narrow trail with the effort they took to keep him balanced. Eileen lifted her camera and snapped a picture of him.
“Well, at least you don’t feel as tired as you would, normally.”
“It’s a hard thing to get used to.”
Arthur wobbled. Eileen dashed down to where he was struggling and snatched his hand. She heaved, straining visibly. Arthur watched her with an amused air of defeatism behind his eyes.
“I’m heavier than I used to be. I don’t think you’re of much help here.”
“Oh, shut up. I can try!”
“You can.” Arthur’s legs whined with a myriad of tiny motors. He made it over the patch of rocks and back onto a more solid part of the trail. Once he was sure the ground was stable, he sighed. “I can, too.”
“That’s the spirit! Come on! I know you’re going to love the view.”
Eileen darted back up the path, then waited for her brother to catch up. He smiled up at her through the effort every step cost him. While it was true his new legs didn’t feel like they even knew what it meant to get tired, there was a different kind of exertion wearing down on Arthur. He felt each step as if someone else was taking it, and kicked himself for his literal line of thinking. Of course, someone else was taking each step. These things strapped to his waist were. They were heavier, far heavier than he’d remembered his old legs being. Something about the incline seemed to make matters worse, too.
“There’s something to be said about running before you can walk,” Arthur said.
Eileen stopped, balancing on a rock.
“But there’s nothing to be said about hiking before either!”
Arthur chuckled.
“No, I guess there isn’t.”
He listened to Eileen’s humming and the occasional click of her camera. She dashed back to him and got low to the ground. Arthur followed her down to the ground, and felt his pulse quicken.
“What is it?” he whispered.
“Sh!”
Arthur’s eyes snapped around the woods. His hand instinctively went to his side. But there was no pistol there. There wasn’t anything to defend himself. He looked around for a stick or a rock or…
“Don’t move!” Eileen snapped.
“Lee…”
“Shi.” Eileen raised her camera. “Just a second more.”
A squirrel popped over the top of the rock she’d been balancing on just a moment earlier. It stopped at the sight of the two hunched over on the trail. Its head tilted ever so slightly to one side, matching the wholly flummoxed feeling in Arthur’s stomach. Eileen’s camera clicked twice beside Arthur’s head. The noise spooked the squirrel. It dashed away into the underbrush. Eileen rose.
“Got it!” She danced a little on her way back up the trail, but stopped when she saw Arthur still crouching low and growing a little pale. “Hey, Artie?”
“Yeah?”
“You alright?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.” Arthur rose a little. “I just remembered something, that’s all.”
“What’s that?”
Arthur forced a smile.
“Nothing you have to worry about, Lee, I promise.”
Eileen tilted her head, reminding Arthur of the squirrel a little too much. He chuckled, and held his laughter long enough for her to smile and turn to walk on. When her back was turned, he let his face drop back into its normal, sullen pallor. His legs whirred to get him back upright and to take the steps necessary to follow her up the trail.
“Where did you find this place?” he asked after they’d walked for nearly another mile in the relatively silence of his legs and her camera.
Eileen stopped, camera still up in her face.
“I come out here a lot, actually. It helps to get away from the town. Everything’s changing so much there. It doesn’t even feel like home anymore.”
“It looks like it. Mr. Lan’s shop is gone.”
Eileen lowered her camera.
“Well, that’s because they came for him not long after you went off. Something about being one of them.”
“Oh.” Arthur stopped a few steps below Eileen. Her smile flickered like a dying candle. He reached out a hand for her. She stepped back a little, but raised her camera to him. It clicked. She smiled.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’m sure that will look great, later.”
Arthur grinned.
“Of course. I’m happy that camera’s getting some use.”
“I don’t know why you left it behind.” Eileen skipped further up the trail, and spun to take in everything she could photograph.
“They wouldn’t let me take it.”
“That’s a shame.” The camera clicked at a bird landing on a branch above Arthur. “I really like this.”
“I’m glad.”
“Hm…” Eileen stopped at a fork in the trail. She balanced back and forth on one foot and then the other. “What time is it?”
“I think it’s nearly noon.”
“Not that much time, then. I say we push to the top. There’s a nice clearing right before it we can stop and lunch in, too. How’s that sound?”
“Sure.”
“You’re thrilled, aren’t you.”
“Lee, I…”
Eileen skipped back down the trail and hugged Arthur tight. He nearly fell backwards. A sharp whirring of his legs held him in place. Eileen giggled in his ear.
“They’re better at catching me than you.” She released him, and took a small step back. “But you’re not getting any better at opening up, are you?”
Arthur looked down.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. You’re stuck with me, anyway. Nothing I didn’t see growing up.”
“Growing up? You were six when I left!”
“Yeah, but I still remember. Not all memories are bad, Artie! Like…” She danced a little on the spot. “Remember Muffin?”
“The cat?”
“Yeah! She loved sitting on your lap, especially if you’d already fallen asleep. You’d wake up there she was!”
“Muffin…” Arthur chuckled. “Man, I almost didn’t remember.”
“She slept in your spot on the couch all the while you were gone, you know.”
“Really?”
“Yup! Remembered you well enough for that. Look at you, grinning about it.” Eileen poked his shoulder. “Maybe you did learn something about showing how you feel, huh?”
“Maybe, Lee. Maybe.”
“That or I’m just a good influence on you.”
Eileen was already back and leaping up the path before she could see her words for another smile from Arthur. His legs whirred back into action, and heaved him up the trail after her. The thing that struck him the most about his new limbs was their lack of feeling. There was the usual jostle of each step felt in the rest of his body, but not the impact itself. Not even the rubbing of the shoes which he knew didn’t properly fit his feet. If he took those off, he wouldn’t even feel the dirt the same way that Eileen’s bare feet did. That was an adjustment he hadn’t considered.
But as he caught sight of another bright smile from Eileen, Arthur tried to reflect on all the things he did feel. He was home, and felt safe. The dappled sunlight was warm on his skin. The gentle breeze soothed the bandages on his arm and ruffled what was left of his hair in a way he’d forgotten it could. There were also those internal feelings. Something akin to warmth from the way Eileen still ran up and hugged him, looked at him with those wide eyes, and encouraged him along. It was only when they reached the clearing that she had been so excited about that he realized that he felt something else.
“Hey, Lee?”
“Mhm?”
“I’m getting a little hungry.”
“I thought so. This spot’s the perfect place for a picnic.” She darted back to him while hanging her camera around her neck. “What do you think?”
Arthur looked out over the small, clear circle made by what seemed to be a natural gap in the trees. The warm summer sun, previously having to drip through the green leaves, shone down onto waving green grass and small patches of rainbow wildflowers. A few butterflies floating on the breeze buffeting the grasses together. Two birds sang out from a tree on the far side of the clearing, either to each other or to announce the arrival of people in their protected piece of forest. Arthur breathed deep the floral air, and exhaled in a long sigh.
“I like it,” he said. “You packed a lunch?”
“Mhm! Let’s find a spot to set the blanket out and we’ll sit for a bit, too. I’m tired. Are you getting tired?”
Arthur nodded, despite feeling no fatigue. He watched Eileen drift from patch of grass to patch of grass until she jumped, waving at him, from one near the shade of a large pine. He trudged over to her, being sure to walk along the edge of the clearing to make sure he didn’t step on any of the flowers or grass. Eileen took her bag off her back and dug through it for the blanket. It was a bright affair, sewn together from pieces of smaller blankets. It reminded Arthur of a mosaic, if he looked at it the right way. She spread it wide, half in the shade and half in the sun, then returned to her bag for the food and drinks.
“Alright, so I have some sandwiches here. Only turkey, though. There’s some salad I made and, dammit!” She sat back. “Guess the bit of oil I brought for it spilled. Sorry.”
“That’s alright.” Arthur looked down at the ground. “I think I’m happy just to have something green.”
“Well, good. I’ve couple bottles of sun tea, too. Also!” She lifted a parcel wrapped in brown paper like a trophy to the sky. “Mrs. Billings made us coffee cake!”
“I might start with that,” Arthur said, reaching for the parcel.”
“Artie, no!” Eileen stepped back. “It is special, and I’ll leave it in the sun to get warm first.”
“Fair enough.”
Arthur kept staring at the ground.
“What is it?” Eileen asked.
“I, uh… I don’t know quite how to go about sitting on the ground.”
“Oh, well.” Eileen looked around. “That’s not a problem, hold on!”
“What?” Arthur asked.
Eileen was already up from the blanket and had gone through the thicket into the woods. Arthur waited, listening to the rustle of leaves as she wandered through the brush. There came a loud thud, and a gasp of surprise. Arthur turned, and felt his hand reach for his nonexistent gun.
“Lee!”
“I’m fine! Hold on.”
She emerged a few moments later, bent over and pushing a part rotting log. She grunted when it snagged on a stump or small rock. Arthur moved to help her, but she waved him off. One final heave to get it over a lump of dirt outside the clearing. Eileen stood, and spread her arms to display the part of log to him.
“A throne for a king!” she said.
Arthur chuckled.
“Thanks, Lee.”
“I don’t know if you get tired standing on those things, but it has to feel good to sit somewhere.” She returned to the blanket. “What do you want first. Sandwich or tea?”
“I’ll take the sandwich.”
Eileen tossed it to him. Arthur grabbed it out of the air and walked towards the stump. She’d left in sitting in the partial shade of the pine, which he was appreciative for. The clearing was nice, but the direct sun was a little hot. His legs whirred to lower him onto the seat. There was a perceptible dampness to the log, but nothing compared with his experiences away. It was pleasant to sit, even if he couldn’t exactly feel it. Arthur unwrapped the sandwich and bit into it.
The two ate in relative silence, admiring the view and the breeze offered by the day and the clearing. Every now and then Arthur let his gaze drift down to look at Eileen. She stretched out on the blanket, arms and legs spread to take full advantage of the soft cloth, staring up at the branches of the trees. One hand rest on her camera, the other brought the sandwich to her mouth for an occasional bite. Her eyes snapped to Arthur, sensing him watching. She smiled, but the gesture held less warmth than the other times he’d seen it that day. Something about his face must have revealed his reservations.
“I missed you,” Eileen said.
“I know.”
“I mean, I really did. It was over, and they said you weren’t coming home. I didn’t understand it.”
Arthur gestured to his legs.
“I get it, I do. But it made it harder. I don’t know. Do they hurt?”
“They don’t feel much of anything.”
“That’s better than hurting, I guess.”
“I guess.”
“You seem to be getting the hang of them.”
“Five days now, and I’m on a hike? I think so.”
“See. This is good for you. I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to come.”
“I wasn’t sure if I could keep up.”
“You were always faster than me, Artie.”
“That was then.”
“You kept up fine.” Eileen brought her camera between them. “Hold that pose. You almost look happy.”
The camera clicked.
“Thanks, Lee.”
“Absolutely.” Eileen rolled a bottle of tea to him. “Made this the other day. Hope it’s good.”
“There anything you aren’t doing these days?”
“I had to step up while you were away, you know!” She sat up and snapped the top off of her own bottle of tea. “There’s plenty I can do now.”
“Really?”
“Mhm! Plenty I won’t have to do now that you’re back, too.”
“Already going to put me to work, are you?”
“No, you need you rest. Someday though…” She waggled a finger at him.
“Someday.” Arthur nodded in agreement. “That cake ready?”
“Oh! Probably.” Eileen rolled over to the corner of the blanket where the parcel of cake sat in the sun. She felt it with both sides of her hand. “Yup! You were good to wait. You know it’s better warm.”
“So I’m told.”
Eileen stuck out her tongue. She tossed him a loose piece of cake. This one Arthur only just caught, and nearly fell off the log to grab it. He chuckled at Eileen’s light applause. He resisted giving her the satisfaction when, after his first bite of the sun-warmed cake, he knew that it was the better course. She snacked on her own piece, satisfied in the knowledge herself and happy only that she was able to share it with him. Anything that could help him to find some joy left in the world.
“Should we get going to the top?” Arthur asked. He pointed to the sun. It appeared to be only an inch or so above the tree line. “We want to make sure we’re back before dark.”
Eileen nodded. She stood from the blanket, stretched, and held out her hand to take Arthur’s trash. She gathered it and the blanket back into her bag. The bag went back on her back and her camera when back into her hands, strap swinging free underneath. Arthur’s legs whirred and, although he tottered for a moment a half-seated position, he pressed on with her to the top.
She kept ahead of him most of the way, bouncing from rock to log to underneath trees. Her camera snapped at multicolored mushrooms, the way the light shone through a spiderweb, or a particularly well-perched snail. Every now and then, Arthur found it facing him, and found himself unsure whether to smile or maintain whatever pose or demeanor had attracted its aperture towards him. The warm grin Eileen shot him no matter what he did always made him feel as though he made the right choice.
The trees thinned a little as they approached the top of the small mountain. Arthur discovered his legs working a little harder by the increased intensity of the whirring. More small rocks and less firm soil disrupted their grip on the soil. He felt, more than once, in danger of falling. If he were wiser, Arthur knew he would have brought a hiking stick. That was the thing. This was too treacherous. There were too many things to stumble on. He felt the urge to ask Eileen to turn around. They could always try again, when he felt sturdier. If not…”
“No!”
Arthur stopped while trying to settle his foot on a loose patch of dirt. His eyes scanned the path up ahead. Eileen was gone. But it had definitely been her voice.
“Lee?” he called.
No response.
His foot dug into the earth.
“Eileen?”
His legs whirred, trying to keep balance and take a step forward.
“Eileen!”
Arthur felt his body shiver. The sun and the breeze did little to warm him. The only thing he could hear over the beating of his own heart was the whirring from his legs. They struggled over the dirt, the rocks, the sandy bits of the trail. He forced them forward, collapsing to his hands on more than one occasion. He felt the rocks bite into his palms. He felt the sweat of some kind of exertion dampening what was left of his hair. Forceful step after forceful step brought him to a crest in the trail. Once he righted himself, he saw Eileen.
She stood, hands wrapped around her stomach, and head tilted towards the ground in a small patch of shade by a blooming berry bush. Her hair blew gently in the breeze. Her body shook with the force of sudden, struggling sobs. She didn’t look up from the ground as Arthur whirred his way over to her. Only when he was at her side did he see what she was looking at.
Her camera lay on the ground in a hundred distinct shards. The glass of the lens twinkled up at them like flecks of melting ice. Bits of the frame clattered from precarious perches on the ground as the wind blew them away. Arthur teetered briefly while his legs found purchase on the ground, and while he thought of something to say. In the end, with nothing coming to mind, he reached out an arm and brought Eileen to him. She nuzzled into his side, and they each shuddered with her cries.
“I’m sorry,” Arthur said, loosening his grip on her slightly. “I…”
She shook her head at his trailing voice.
“I forgot… the strap…” she said. She stepped away from him and reached for the thin band of leather around the shattered frame of the camera. “Around my neck…”
“Oh.”
“I…” Eileen looked through the frame for the film. It stretched between the two halves of the frame, which finally snapped in two as she lifted it. She looked it over. Her shoulder slumped. At first, Arthur thought this was a gesture of sadness, but then he watched her shrug her bag off her back and open it. She gingerly wrapped the two halves of the frame holding the film in one end of the blanket, then put the entire parcel back in the bag. She looked up at him through red, dampened eyes as she closed the bag. “I’m sorry. That was yours.”
“It’s alright,” Arthur said. He reached a hand to help her get back to her feet. “You were using it more than me.”
“I know but…” She wrung her hands. “I’m sorry.”
“Hey, it’s okay. We’ll… I don’t know.” Arthur sighed. “Do you want to keep going?”
“What?”
“Up the trail? Do you want to try to make it to the top?”
“Can you?”
“I…” Arthur took a few steps around Eileen, feeling the ground as best he could through his whirring legs. “I can do my best. Will you help me?”
“Mhm…” Eileen wiped at her eyes. “I can. Sure.”
“Then, I think we should try. Huh?”
Eileen nodded. She took Arthur’s outstretched hand. He guided her, slowly, away from the bush and the remains of the camera. He felt her resistance, at first, and the occasional turns of her head to look back at it. His eyes scanned ahead for more stable ground. Every few steps he’d lean on Eileen, or else she’d step ahead and haul him forward.
By now, the trees had mostly given way to low bushes and patches of thick moss and lichen. Loose dirt became hard, worn rock. It wasn’t much easier to walk on, but Arthur was thankful for it. As they neared the very top of the mountain, he was able to let go of Eileen’s hand. She trailed close behind him. His steady pace kept them both walking until the trail crested and leveled out. Arthur looked around, and sighed with satisfaction.
Eileen stepped beside him. She raised her hand and pointed with her finger.
“Through the gap in the trees there, if you step right here…” She moved slightly over. “You can see the village.”
Arthur tilted in place.
“Oh, look at that!”
“There’s the river, running through it.” Eileen traced her finger in the air, slow enough for Arthur’s gaze to follow. “Then that gap there is where the main road over the hills go. In the winter, you can see people from here, too.”
“Wow.” Arthur settled in place. The whirring in his legs subsided once he was balance. “It’s quite a view you’ve found, Lee.”
“I know.” Eileen’s hand dropped to her side. “It would have made a good picture.”
“It would have.” Arthur wrapped his arm around Eileen’s shoulders and tugged her to his side. She looked up at him, surprised by his smile. “But I think it makes a better memory.”