"On his first day back at Winslow College's climbing wall after the long winter break, Nolan checks the belay sign-up sheet and sees that someone named Heidi Lane has written her name in the seven-o'clock slot every weeknight for the entire month of January. Sure enough, at seven exactly, a short, narrow-nosed girl with a shiny brown bob hustles in through the gym's double doors. She's wearing bluejeans and duck boots and fuzzy white earmuffs around her neck like headphones."
"She starts fast, faster than he would have advised, and with a kind of right-left rhythm. There's something Spider-Mannish about it, and he wonders if maybe that's what she's thinking of. She's about twenty feet above him when her left hand slips from a crimp and she falls back. Distracted by his thoughts, he's less ready for it than he should be. There's some slack in the rope."
Nolan returns to Winslow College's climbing wall after winter break and notices Heidi Lane has signed the seven-o'clock belay slot every weeknight in January. Heidi arrives on time wearing bluejeans, duck boots, and fuzzy white earmuffs and says the nightly climbing is a New Year's resolution. A harness and small climbing shoes fit her perfectly, and she watches Nolan closely while he fits the gear. Nolan explains route choices and the “all-you-can-eat buffet” approach. Heidi climbs quickly with a Spider-Man–like rhythm, slips from a crimp about twenty feet up, and falls while some slack remains in the rope.
Read at The New Yorker
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]