“… So how was the hike?”

My brother’s voice reverberates through the phone.

“It was good.  It was really nice to go with Dad.  He got up the mountain pretty good.”

“He’s always been able to go pretty good.  I’ve seen him go places that mountain goats would have trouble with.  When he was younger he could walk straight up a brick wall.”

Through my mind race images of my father climbing to the peaks of mountains violently thrust out of the earth.  I imagine him standing on the upmost tips of stone giants sternly reigning over the world below.

“I’d say you should’ve came, but it was nice to have some bonding time.”

“Ha!  I can only imagine the scintillating conversations you two had.  Tell me how did you find a way to unite your big city style life with dad’s?”

“Never mind, we had plenty to talk about.  When you’re out in nature like that you don’t need to talk, you both just know.”

“Did you take pictures?”

“Yeah, I’ll put them on facebook so you can see.  Some of them turned out pretty stunning, but they don’t do the cliffs we were on top of justice.  I wanted to ask you, has Dad ever got kind of emotional when you’ve spent time with him?”

“No.  What do you mean?”

My brother’s voice quiets and has a subtle seriousness to it.

“Well, we reached the top peak, and we could see all around us.  It was amazing.  I took pictures, but they’re nothing like the real view.  It was almost holy.  We stood up there, side by side, and just looked out at the great expanse of the world around us.  There weren’t people for miles.  No roads, no phones, no cars, nothing.  It was just me, Dad, and nature cradling us.  It was truly indescribable.  But I digress.  We were up there, and on the summit there wasn’t much room.  It was almost claustrophobic when we both stood there.  When we were up there I glanced over at him.  He was in his rough element, and he looked back at me.  His eyes were red, I assumed it was from the heavy winds, but then he put his arm around me, I though that that was to stay balanced.  I was wrong.  His mouth moved.  ‘What?’  I shouted.  ‘Son, I love you,’ he shouted at the top of his lungs.  The wind carried it for miles.  The entire world must have heard the echoes.  ‘I love you too, Dad,’  I shouted back.”

I stop talking.  I realize how long it’s taken me to spit out the story with all the dramatic pauses and stresses .  I wait in expectance of my brother’s jealousy.

“Wow.  He’s never said anything like that to me.”

I stay silent.

“That’s really some story.  I wish I was there.”

“Yeah, it is some story.  It would have been nice if it actually happened too.  Ha, ha!”  I guffaw.

“I knew it.  Dad would never do anything like that.”

“We just stood at the summit, looked around, and he said ‘let’s get the Hell outta here,’ and we started climbing back down.  Would’ve been nice to hear something like that though.”

It really would have been nice.