A View From a Hill

Tonight's Episode

https://herschelsterling.com/#cat-family

Max decided to take a walk up the hill. It’s a hill his granddad groomed decades ago. It’s the smallest of three hills close by. This one is on the family property. Max is visiting the old place to try to see what is worth doing with it, now that his granddad and his dad are both gone.

There are stones along each side of the path and a mostly grown-out gravel mix to walk on, and it’s still walkable. It’s not a tall hill, maybe 200 feet, but it’s a little steep, so the firepit and the benches can’t be seen from the ground. That’s a great feature.

Max recalls the many times he climbed this hill with his dad and granddad. He remembers the races they would do, to see who could get to the top first. Learning later, it was a ploy to tire him out for bedtime. It used to be that they’d be above the apple tree at this point. It hasn’t been pruned in years, and it’s a few feet taller now.

The family across the road from his graddad’s has long since moved on. He had a little pal over there named Micky. He’d use a mirror to signal from this hill to Mickey’s house to see if he could come play. Mickey would use a wolf howl to let him know he was on the way and a hawk shriek to let him know he could not.

At the top of the hill, Max put the laid-down bench on its legs and noticed the dried and bleached moss stains. It’s been up here for a while. It’s sturdy enough to sit on. Max sees something dirty, glinting in the sun. He walks over to find it’s the old mirror he used to signal Mickey. He shines it up as best he can and flashes the reflection onto the windows of the old house across the road like he used to. Suddenly, he sees someone open the door of the house, and he ducks down back near the bench where he can’t be seen. He peeks up to see who it is. He hopes he hasn’t annoyed anyone.

It’s a young woman. She looks intently, turning her head inquisitively. She closes the front door and starts walking in the direction of the hill. Max wonders if this place might be worth keeping in the family.

404 Words

https://herschelsterling.com/#cat-family

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