The Fading Light

Dylan had been walking steadily uphill for what felt like days. It had, in fact, been 3 hours and 37 minutes, a climb he’d completed many times in his life.

He was lost.

Or simply exhausted, he couldn’t tell anymore. Nothing around him made sense, he had started to notice this feeling come over him more often on his hikes. Since turning 50 his mind couldn’t keep up with his body and the exhaustion would go straight to his head. He had lived in these hills his whole life, losing his way wasn’t something Dylan did, but now as he looked up through sweaty brow, all he could see was unfamiliar rocky outcrops and leaves from unfamiliar trees. None of this panicked Dylan, as he wiped the sweat off his head with a rag, he dragged it through his unkempt beard and shook his head vigorously like a dog. He knew he could just push on to higher ground and he’d see the world beneath him laid out like a map on his kitchen table, he’d be able to see his shack, and far below that the town, roads, train station and farther in the distance, if his eyes could pick it, out the Susquehanna River.

Dylan made it to the lookout point; he slumped back on the rock feeling the burning pains in his legs and back. ‘Would they be able to make it up here?’ was Dylan’s first thought. ‘They’ll all be suffering the same age-related physical deterioration I am, but maybe that city life has been good for them, gyms, health foods, warm houses, easier on the joints. On the other hand, Patrick was always a bit of a chubster, and Jessika never really liked exercise even when we were young. Alex was the only one who could keep up back then.’

The ‘they’ Dylan was swirling around his exhausted mind were his 3 closest childhood friends, they had grown up together out on the Appellation hills, gone to the local school together, hiked to each other's homes every day, found solace in each other's shared experience of life as a teenager in a small remote, abandoned part of an otherwise busy bustling country. Each of them had one at a time left. First college then maybe University, except Dylan, Dylan was too busy working as a cashier in the local town shop and never had the will to leave his family home. Then each found jobs and partners and moved away to bigger things, each followed their respective dreams. But not Dylan, Dylan would look up at the stars and dream of what might be out there, but he didn’t want to study astronomy so that he could be locked up in a lab all day pouring through research papers, because the next day Dylan might be dreaming about the wonders of the deepest depths of the ocean, or what microbes can live in rocks, or when the first tree grew fruit.

It wasn’t that Dylan wasn’t interested in anything, it was that Dylan was interested in everything, but no one thing enough to dedicate his life to. The thing that had piqued Dylan's excitable mind now was a news broadcast he had heard on his old 1970s transistor radio about an upcoming eclipse that would be best viewed in the mid-northeastern area of the USA at 4:30 pm on the 22 of April 1997. Dylan sat on his lookout rock thinking about his life and how it had led him to here… Now. He thought about his childhood, his upbringing and the years that had flown past him that he hadn’t noticed (those that he could remember) that had led him to this point sitting in this time, on this rock.

On his way back down the 10-mile trail that would take him back to his shack, Dylan mulled over how he could convince his old friends to come and watch the eclipse with him.

Arriving home Dylan looked around his worn-out old shack in a dismal frame of mind, ‘I’ll need to tidy’ he thought. Dylan had built the shack in his 30s on his father's small plot of land leading onto the hills, at the time he had had dreams of making it into a luxurious 3-storey lodge but with his mother passing and his father's illness it never became a priority. His father had sold the main house and most of the land to pay for medical bills and upkeep before passing. What was left was a 3-acre patch of hillside and woodland that Dylan had built his tiny 2-room, hermit cabin. A small kitchen area, with a stove, a fridge, and a door at the back leading to a bed. Just enough for Dylan with no spouse or children he didn’t need much.

The small dining table had become cluttered with letters and magazines, Dylan frantically sifted through them looking for his old phone book and searching for the names of his 3 best friends. It didn’t take much searching, the only phone numbers he had were the local mechanic, the store where he used to work, his Dr, Dr Herman a handful of acquaintances and his 3 childhood friends. He called each one and after a short catch-up, Dylan would deliver his proposal, almost word for word to each of them.

“Hey d’you remember when we were kids and we saw the eclipse, we hiked up Little Bear Ridge and sat all day with blankets waitin' for the moon to come over, well that was just a partial eclipse and this year, in just a few weeks in fact, there’s going to be a TOTAL eclipse. And the best place to view it will be right here, back at home in Huntersville Pennsylvania. Now I know we haven’t seen each other for a few years, and I know you’re busy, what with your job and your life and all. But you’ve missed my last 3 birthdays, and I am missing you a whole lot. So I’m hoping, you can find the time to come down here and pay me a visit, I’ve got a viewing spot all picked out, and you can stop out in one of the lodges around here or I can make room for you to spend the night with me” Dylan looked around his tiny shack “Or y’know we can camp out under the stars like we used to”

Now Dylan was sure that each one of them would make excuses as to why they would be too busy and wish him the best and say happy birthday if they didn’t see him before the next one. But to his surprise, they were all pleased to hear from him and expressed a great deal of excitement at the prospect of seeing the eclipse in their home town with him.

Alex gave a full and frank breakdown of his life living in New York and working as an investment banker, he spoke excitedly of his girlfriend and their travels around Europe, rock climbing and kayaking. Dylan listened and politely endured the conversation, though his mind was almost entirely focused on his eclipse endeavour.

Patrick seemed a bit more apprehensive about the concept but agreed nonetheless with the premise. Providing Dylan understood that he had a stent put in his heart, and although his doctor was encouraging plenty of fresh air and exercise, he wasn’t going to be racing up Little Bear Ridge anytime soon. Dylan completely understood and explained to Patrick that he too was feeling his age and had no intention of jogging up there.

Jessika sounded the most excited to hear from Dylan, she was now lecturing as a professor of medicine and had chosen to start to move away from being a practising Dr to try to pick up her childhood love of writing, she had already written some well-received journals on various medical subjects, but wanted to start writing fiction. She attempted to query Dylan about his medical state, including his mental health and his, as she put it, ongoing trauma response to the death of his mother and father. At which point Dylan phased out of the conversation as politely as he could, attempting to shrug her off with ‘We’ll talk about it when you get here’.

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Dates and times had been discussed and agreed upon, and Dylan was set to pick them all up from the train station, or more accurately meet them at the train station where they would all get a taxi. Patrick and Jessika had elected to book two nights at a motel in the town a few miles out from his shack, and Alex had agreed to stay with Dylan, for a ‘taste of the hermit lifestyle’ as he put it. Dylan would have much preferred to spend the night with Patrick or Jessika, but he didn’t quibble, he was excited to see each of them again.

Dylan spent the day before their arrival eagerly packing provisions for their hike, he found his dad's old welding visor to view the eclipse with, made sandwiches and filled water bottles. Made up a cot in front of the fire for Alex to sleep in the kitchen.

The next day Dylan stood at the train station, pacing back and forth in anticipation of seeing the faces of his friends that were etched into his misty memory. Anxiously he checked his father’s timepiece again and again, scanning up the tracks for any sign of a train.

The first to step off the train was Patrick wearing a thick overcoat that made him look 3 times bigger, or maybe he’d gained weight. Dylan rushed at him with unexpected tears in his eyes forming.

“You’re looking well,” Dylan said with a beaming smile.

“Don’t lie, I look like crap” Patrick responded “You look… thin!?”

Next Jessika sauntered down the platform with the grace of a swan imperceptibly powering herself through water.

“DYLAN!” She screamed

Just as Dylan was about to break his embrace with Patrick to swap it to Jessika, Alex grabbed him from behind and lifted him into the air with a bear hug that startled Dylan as he writhed to escape it.

“You smell awful” Alex proclaimed with a grin on his face. “And you weigh nothing, what are you eating!? Or are you eating?”

The group all got into the taxi and made their way back to the outskirts of their home town, along the way pointing out landmarks and discussing memories of lost summer days in the park, they talked about their parents and what had become of them. Patrick spoke of how he had wanted to move back here to raise his kids, but his partner had work commitments in the city and it never would have worked. Alex talked at length about his plans to buy up a few properties around his parent's old place and turn them into hiking lodges, but he never found the time. Jessika just looked out of the window, lost in her own memories of childhood, and occasionally looking across to Dylan with a concerned look in her eyes.

Disembarking the taxi they all agreed to meet back at Dylan's early, 8 AM to have coffee and prepare.

“We’ll need to set off by at least 11 Am, which leaves us 5 hours to get there I know it’s only 10-11 miles, but it’s a hard 10-11 miles, It’s not all a well-trodden path and it is all uphill,” Dylan said, trying to prepare them.

“Yes, Hike Leader!” They all jokingly chanted back at him in unison with a mock solute.

“I’m not joking I barely made it up there myself the other day and I know every rock on these hills”

Dylan showed Alex to his shack and waved goodbye to Patrick and Jessika.

Alex burst into his quiet shack like a hurricane blowing open the door.

“Nice place you got here Dylly” Alex said snooping around, kicking the makeshift cot Dylan had set up. “How much did it cost ya” Dylan didn’t know whether Alex was joking so just ignored him.

They sat up into the night chatting about old times and joking.

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They all convened at Dylan's shack at 8:30 Am, Alex was already awake and doing press-ups on the lawn outside the shack.

“Sleep well?” Said Patrick in a mocking tone.

“Sure, if you don’t mind bugs crawling over you all night, smelling of fire smoke or the sound of Dylan's snoring and deranged sleep muttering like a 90-year-old”

Dylan came out of the shack carrying 3 premade satchels, 1 for each of them, containing sandwiches and water.

“Ready!?” Dylan said excitedly

“I thought we weren’t going until 11?” protested Jessika

“Yeah, me and Alex discussed it last night and we thought it would be better to get a head start on it, in case there were any hold-ups” They all looked at Patrick.

They set off in high spirits, trudging up the long and arduous track through the woods, Dylan led for a few miles but steadily dropped back to walk with Patrick at the back. Alex would call back encouraging yet mocking remarks at them whilst also asking Dylan for directions. At which point Dylan would storm up the hill to join him, pause and look around for a while with a look of confusion, and gesture in a direction without much confidence.

“How’re you holding up?” Dylan asked Patrick at around the halfway mark.

“I’m ok, just need to have a sit down in a bit I think” Patrick wheezed, his face drenched in sweat.

“Yeah, I think I need to stop for a while too.”

They both sat on a fallen tree.

“Jessikas worried about you, you know.” Patrick said “She said she’s seen signs that you’re struggling with symptoms of early onset dementia”

“Does she say so!? It’s hard out here Patrick I haven’t got a family like you, and there’s no one checking on me or anything like that, so I don’t know, would a person even know if they’re struggling”

“How’re you guys doing?” Jessika called down to them.

Dylan and Patrick got up, patted each other on the back and continued up the hill.

Alex made it to the lookout point first and was already sitting eating a sandwich when the rest caught up.

“What time do you call this!?” Alex said jokingly as they all squeezed to sit side by side on the rock.

“2:45 pm.” Said Dylan looking at his father's timepiece, “Still plenty of time”

The four of them sat enjoying sandwiches chatting and looking out across the view.

“What time is the eclipse going to happen?” Jessika asked

“Oh, wait there I’ve got it written down somewhere” Dylan rummaged through his satchel and pulled out a tattered piece of scrap paper “4:15 or 45, here Alex you read it your eyes are better than mine”

Alex took the piece of paper and looked at it for a few minutes “I don’t care how good my eyes are, no one can read this Dylan it looks like you wrote it during an earthquake. That might be a 4 or a 6 but the rest is just scribbles”

“It’s ok we’ll just wait, we’ll see it when it happens”

Hours passed and apart from a scare from what Patrick insisted was a bobcat that he saw down in the woods, and an eagle flying over. The group just sat and waited, Alex walked back down the hill a way to see if he could get a signal on his cellular phone but walked back up disappointed, stopping only to do a few pull-ups on a reachable branch. Jessika wandered off for a while to inspect some plants that she thought had medicinal qualities and Patrick ate another sandwich.

“Hey everyone, this is it, do you see that, the skies turning darker!” Dylan shouted in excitement

Clouds had started to come over by this point and the sun was no longer visible

“Are you sure?” Alex asked, “What time is it?”

Dylan looked down at his father's timepiece

“7:30 pm…. Did we miss it?” Dylan looked solemnly at the timepiece

“So it’s just getting dark because it’s night?” Patrick said in annoyance

Jessika walked over and squatted down near Dylan and held both his hands in hers, she looked into his eyes.

“Are you sure the eclipse was today?” she asked Dylan softly.

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They all made it back down the hill in the dark, slowly and silently. Apart from a couple of stumbles from Patrick and a few curse words from Alex.

By the time they all made it back to Dylan's shack, there was only time to light a fire and drag out enough bedding for them all to sleep on the floor, which they did, soundly despite the uncomfortable conditions.

The next morning Dylan woke up early to make them all coffee, they sat outside to watch the sunrise and discuss the hike, they talked about how their feet were hurting, the scratches and bumps they’d suffered, the length of the hike and their collective reluctance to do it again. But no one mentioned the eclipse.

By 3 pm they had all got their belongings together and were in the taxi heading to the train station, Dylan didn’t join them, he wasn’t sure he could take the walk home.

In the taxi Alex handed a letter to Jessica, “I found this on Dylan's floor it’d been kicked under the cupboard, says it’s from a Dr Herman, what do you make of it?” Jessika read through the letter several times with an increasing frown across her brow.

“It doesn’t sound good Alex.” She said morosely.

As the three of them sat on the train looking out the window in silence contemplating what had happened, the light started to dim and the sun on the horizon started to look like a slice was missing.