Mountains and Wind

 

It was dinner time. There were only some boiled potatoes, a few slices of dry meat and vegetable soup. A family sat around an old, simple wooden table and had their dinner. As the dinner was nearly finished, the father asked his daughter, "Lucrezia, have you finished all your homework?" His daughter, who just finished her dinner, looked at her father and said, "Yes, I have." His father smiled, and after a little while, he said, "Go and get my notes about K2. Read them before you go to sleep." He tried to keep his voice low, and appeared to be calm. Despite of all his efforts, his eyes sparked with joy and his voice was a little bit unnatural. Lucrezia noticed these

all, but she was completely carried away by the thought of reading her father’s notes. She knew what that meant: she was going to go to K2 with her father, and maybe she could climb with her father! What an exciting idea to think of, she has longed for this since she was six.

Lucrezia Noin, a fourteen-year-old girl, with medium height and short, dark hair, went to middle school just like other girls in the same age. She was very fit, although she did not appear to be very strong. Thanks to the years of training by her father, she was a good rock climber. She started climbing as early as six years old. Her father, Francesco Noin, was an excellent mountaineer and indeed he was quite famous. He had conquered the Mount Everest, the Mt. Blanc and many other mountains in the world. He once took little Lucrezia, who was just five at that time, to the Scandinavian mountain. Lucrezia would never forget the things she saw, the scene was breathtakingly beautiful. She was carried by her father, who did the climbing, and she just looked around and completely carried away by the view. Since then, under the guidance of Francesco, she learned every skill needed to climb mountains: climbing skills, survival skills, skills of detecting the directions of wind and position of the sun and many other more. This time, she would accompany her father to climb K2, or Mount Godwin-Austen, the second highest mountain in the world.

Next morning, Lucrezia Noin woke up at six and had her breakfast. She had to walk for two hours to school, all the way downhill, since the paved roads had been destroyed by wars before. On her way, she listened to the sound of the wind and the singing of the birds. The mixture of these sounds was lovely, but her thoughts were concentrated on the information about K2. Although K2 was only the second highest mountain, it was known as the ‘Savage Mountain’. It was the most challenging of 8000- meter peaks. She smiled, "This will be an interesting journey."

She arrived at school. Somehow, she felt she was a little bit different form other schoolmates. They did not seem to share her love for mountains. Maybe because they were all girls. "That’s stupid! Being a girl doesn’t mean anything. If they just have time to look up at the mountains." She thought. She quietly went to her desk and took out the stuff she needed. The bell rang and was followed by lessons. She tried to concentrate on the lessons, but the memories of K2 failed her. She was still fascinated by the photos she saw yesterday night. Her mind was busily doing planning for the trip to K2. She could not listened to even a word from her teachers. "Never mind," she thought, "I can revise them tonight." The bell rang again, the lessons in the morning was over. She had a quick lunch and began to write a draft of a list of the things to be brought.

The bell finally rang and it was time to go home. Lucrezia walked to the foot of the hill she lived in. After making sure that no one was nearby, she began to run uphill. The wind was cool and the smells of the trees and grass are so sweet. She enjoyed running, yes, running was the second best loved hobby while climbing was definitely the first. The pleasure she received from these two activities meant a lot to her. She ran like breeze passing through the hill. She ran faster and faster and passed her home. She ran to the streams and stopped. She gasped a little. The stream reflects the light shone gently. She sighed and throw her bag on the grass and began to drink the water from the stream. "Lucrezia, why are you here?" her father’s voice was heard. Lucrezia could only smile, she quickly realized that her father was carrying two heavy sacks. "Can I help you, papa?" she asked. "No, they are too heavy for you. Besides you should go home and finish you homework." Lucrezia just simply throw one of the sacks to her back, and ask, "Where shall we go?" Her father pointed to the nearest hilltop and they started to go. Francesco was ahead and he watched Lucrezia as she slowly carried both the sack and her schoolbag uphill. "Lucrezia was getting stronger and stronger." He thought. "Although she was not tall, she did have the strength to overcome those problems in climbing. She would be a mountaineer one day. But she will not climb K2 in this trip"

The sack nearly weighed Lucrezia down. She gasped as she reached the hill top, her father had already been there waiting for her. When she sat down and got a rest, her father took the equipments out of the sacks. He earned a living by helping some scientists to install equipment on the mountains and sometimes, being a rescuer in the accidents happened in mountains. "Papa, I have written down the things we needed to climb K2." Lucrezia said and, with some hesitation, she asked," Can I climb with you, papa?" Her father answered simply, "No." without looking at her. "But, papa," Lucrezia tried to argue, "I’ve climbed Mt. Blanc, and …" "You’ve never

reached the summit. Besides," he switched on the machine he installed. "you should know that K2 is the most challenging of 8000m peaks. You don’t have the strength to conquer it." Lucrezia was disappointed, if her father said she did not have the strength, he would never let her to climb. "I can climb up to a few camps, please give me the training I need." Lucrezia said calmly. Although she passionately wanted to climb K2, she had to be calm and reasonable. Being a good climber, she had to be calm and reasonable. "This will be hard, Lucrezia." "I am prepared for it." The daughter said confidently.