Life is funny, huh? One day you think you know someone, and the next day they’ve developed some strange obsession, something you can’t get into, can’t understand at all. This, unfortunately, happened to my brother.
Just, whammo, just like that, one day he was all about rock climbing. Couldn’t stop talking about it. Never said a word about rock climbing before, but now he was blathering on about it any chance he got. I’d see him weekly, as brothers still living in the same small town often do. He worked at the grocery store after all, and it used to be so nice just to chat up my own flesh brother so frequently. For whatever reason, could be all those “current events” going on a few years ago, he got really into rock climbing. Outta the blue, just like that. One day he’s telling me about some Netflix show I had no intention of ever watching, and the next day, all rock climbing.
He’d tell me about techniques, about climbers, and some close calls and heroic maneuvers. I’d just nod along waiting for the subject to change, but it never did. The problem was, we live in one of those flat states with no rocks nowhere to be climbed. That didn’t stop his rock climbing obsession though. He’d wear the gear. I never saw him climb a damn thing, but he’d be strapped with carabiners, pouches, boots, and those little khaki shorts. His hands would be chalked up and he’d be talking about portable oatmeal you can make in your mouth as you climb or something. I don’t know. I just kinda… went with it I guess.
My brother didn’t have a girlfriend or any sort of intimate relationship at all, so ya know, he had an apartment to himself to indulge in his new hobby. Nothing held him back. I didn’t see anything wrong with that at the time. Weird, sure, but he can be weird. Why not? This dragged on though, for months, for over a year. Always with the rock climbing. Always dressed to boulder a cliff face or whatever he said.
I still saw him every week. He never went anywhere to rock climb. I asked the manager at the grocery store if my brother took any time off, maybe drove half a day to somewhere with some rugged terrain and she said no. He’d been working his days. But the thing is, my brother talked about all the climbing he was doing. His hands looked gnarled and hard like a man who had been man handling some rocks. I tried to be subtle, ya know? Ask him how his climbs have been. He loved that. He loved when I asked about his climbs and he would go on and on and on about a particularly tricky route. I didn’t know what to make of that.
After months of me asking him, of me trying to snap him outta this thing, he finally gave in to my request to come over to my apartment for some pizza and movie or video games or whatever—brother stuff we used to do kind of regularly. He showed up dressed to rock climb of course, but I expected that. We just kinda stared at each other for a half second. I gestured him in and he sat down on the couch. He looked anxious, like he was holding back something. The pizza wasn’t supposed to be delivered for another 20 minutes or so, so I figured if he needed to confess something, probably something about this rock climbing obsession, then he can do it now, get it all out, and then we can eat pizza and enjoy a normal night like we used to. So, I told him, ya know, I told him if he’s got something on his mind then he could tell me.
He immediately looked relieved.
Out of a little backpack slung about his hip, he pulled out a coupla chalky rocks. He turned to me with this smug-son-of-a-bitch-smirk on his face and asked if I minded if he did a little rock climbing while we waited for the pizza.
Curious? Concerned? Kinda both? That’s how I felt, but I told him, “Sure. Go ahead and ‘rock climb’ or whatever it is you’re about to do.”
He closed his eyes, picked up the rocks, and started rock climbing. It was all in his head. The whole time, all the routes, all the rocks, all the climbs; They were all in his head. My brother, though, was making it real with all the grunting he was doing. His wiry arms flexed and bulged. His feet moved for toe holds. He whispered to himself, psyching himself up for risky maneuvers.