Chapter 5
As they drove away from the airport and up Highway 21, they could see Mount Hood rising in the distance. The sharp, black rocks and snow-white peak seemed to want to cut through the silver sky.
Her father pulled off at a scenic overlook.
“Look at that,” her father said excitedly. “It’s magnificent. Imagine what it will look like when we are at the top looking down.”
Kendal didn’t want to imagine this. She had no idea how they were even going to make it to the top. The mountain was bigger than she had imagined.
“Hey,” her father said. “Let’s take a picture.”
They tried to take a selfie, but Kendal’s father kept making a confused face when he saw himself in the screen, and Kendal couldn’t stop laughing at him.
“Do you want me to take that for you?” a guy about her age said as he walked past them. He wore a camera around his neck and a blue knit hat on his head.
“Oh, please,” Kendal said as she handed him her phone.
“I’m gonna take a few,” the guy said. Kendal’s father put his arm around her and smiled stiffly at the camera.
“Wow, the mountain looks crazy right now,” the young man said as he handed back her phone.
Kendal turned around and saw that clouds were moving in from the west and swirling around the mountain peak like a plume of smoke.
Her father moved to the edge of the overlook and watched the clouds move in.
“Have you ever been up there?” Kendal asked the guy.
“My dad and I go snowboarding up there every year, but not this year. We’re heading to the Three Sisters instead. Every boarder I know who’s tried to conquer the Hood has come back injured or . . .”
Kendal would have asked, “Or what?” if the wind hadn’t suddenly picked up and forced the two of them to turn away. The cold breeze blew across the small parking lot as Kendal turned back to the guy.
“Hey,” the guy said. “Would it be weird to take your picture? It’s just that your hair and the light behind you is really amazing right now. I’m taking this photography class and I have, like, a dozen portraits to take.”
“Sure,” Kendal said, reaching up to try to tame her hair.
“No, leave it,” the guy said. “It’s perfect.” He took his camera off his neck and snapped a few pictures. “Where you heading?”
“To the top.” Kendal nodded toward Mount Hood. “My dad and I are going to climb it this week.”
“Just be careful, okay?”
She watched the young man walk toward a baby-blue van where his father waited.
“Kendal,” she said before he opened the passenger door. “That’s the name of the girl in the picture you just took.”
“Bjorn,” he said. “That’s the name of the photographer who took it.”
Right before he closed the door, Kendal shouted. “What were you going to say earlier?”
He tilted his head, confused.
“You said snowboarders have come back injured or . . . but you never finished your thought.”
The wind picked up again just as he answered her question. But Kendal was pretty sure he said, “Or didn’t come back at all.”