Outstanding

The young Sherpa is a good student, that much is clear. An alert and curious teenager. Perhaps he hasn’t applied himself completely, perhaps he isn’t a fanatic of curricular obligations, but nonetheless a student without any major obstacles on his academic journey. Above average, it could be said. Perhaps not the most spectacular of the crop. Yet undoubtedly someone who easily passes the vast majority of his exams, not to mention his homework, and all the other booby traps of student life. In fact, as he contemplates, from a standing position now, the static figure of the Englishman sprawled across a grizzled crag of the Himalayas, he takes the opportunity to go over the list of outstanding assignments that he will need to present to his teachers when he gets down from the mountain. And he thinks for a moment about his sister, who ought to be at home by now. And about his father, who is gone. He also thinks about his mother, who at this time would be behind the counter of the Tourist Service desk, in accordance with the schedule imposed on her by the town council of Namche.