Interlude 1
Peggy Jo
P eggy Jo shifts sweet-smelling Amelia Rose from one shoulder to the other and clicks on the TikTok link that Dan has sent to her. It opens up on her phone in the Safari browser, and it takes an inordinate amount of effort and finger pokes at the screen to get it to play.
Once it starts, she smiles to see Dan’s familiar face on the screen.
A little worse for wear with that new, purple scar along his forehead, but alive and frowning at the camera like always.
The view bobbles around as he straightens the phone he’s recording on.
It flops over, and he straightens it again.
Peggy Jo pats her grandbaby’s back, waiting for the big burp that’s sure to come after such a heavy feeding from her mama’s breast, and waits.
Sitting back at what appears to be Peggy Jo’s own kitchen table, Dan waves awkwardly.
“Hi. I’m Dan McBride. If you’re watching this, you already know I fell off El Capitan.” He makes a diving motion and then a big splat with his hand. Peggy Jo’s insides go sour.
“Luckily, I didn’t die. I did break my leg.” He motions downward. “And my teeth.” He grins morbidly, but his smile looks okay.
“I had them fixed already,” he explains. “Oh, I have a really cool scar now.” He touches the purple, so livid against his strangely pale face. He hasn’t been out in the sun much since the accident.
“Or, at least, Sejin tells me it’s cool.
He’s my boyfriend.” He cocks his head, considers, and goes on, “If you already know I’m Dan McBride, you probably also know I have a boyfriend.
Or maybe not. Maybe I’m overestimating you.
I mean, it’s possible you have no idea who I am or anything about me at all. ”
He clears his throat. “Let’s start over.” He waves again. “Hi, I’m Dan McBride. I’m a climber, I have a boyfriend named Sejin, and I fell off El Capitan trying to free solo Heart Route. And I’m going to do it again.” He grimaces. “Free solo it, I mean. Not fall.”
Peggy Jo grits her teeth. That idiotic, amazingly lucky fool. She’s so proud of him and so angry with him all at once.
Dan shrugs. “Unless I do fall. But let’s not talk about that. It’ll upset my aforementioned boyfriend.”
Nodding firmly, he sits up straight and says directly into the camera, “You heard it here first. I, Dan McBride, am going to free solo Heart Route on El Cap, and this time I’m going to succeed. But first? I have to get this damn leg healed up.”
The video ends just as oddly and abruptly as it began.
Sighing, Peggy Jo reads over the text from Dan again: My new Get Rich Quick scheme: social media influencer. What do you think?
Amelia Rose lets out a long, rattling, disgusting burp that sounds like it came from a big, thick-necked truck driver who’s had a few too many caffeinated sodas to help him stay awake.
“My thoughts exactly,” Peggy Jo agrees with her. “That boy is plumb ridiculous. But we can’t tell him that, now can we, Miss Amelia Rose? He won’t listen. Here’s what you gotta understand, baby girl. Everyone’s gotta wreck their own bicycle. Even if it kills them.”
She kisses Amelia Rose’s soft head. “Hopefully the ones you wreck won’t be so damn big and scary.” She swallows a lump in her throat. “Lord help us. Hopefully he won’t wreck the next one too.”
She knows he’s waiting for a reply, Bella had explained read receipts to her not long ago.
Looks like a start, she fumbles out one-handed. Amelia Rose begins to cry, and Peggy Jo drops her phone to the coffee table. She stands up and walks the sobbing baby around Bella’s Pottery Barn-infested living room.
She clutches her shiny new grandbaby and blinks away tears. She believes in Dan. He’ll recover. He’ll train well. And, if he doesn’t come to his senses and give up on Heart Route, she believes he’ll conquer this goal.
No matter what, as the closest thing to his mama, she’ll keep the faith.
A new ping announces Dan’s response.
Onward up the wall!