They had to set him down twice before they made it all the way up the hill. The first time, they just stood in silence, wiping their cramped hands on their thighs. The second time, she came to him and put her arm around his shoulders and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek that felt like a feather.
“Almost there?” she said.
He nodded and bent to pick up his end.
Mimi plunged through the cave mouth without a moment’s hesitation and they set him down just inside the entrance, near a pair of stained cotton Y-fronts.
Alan waited for his heart to stop thudding and the sweat to cool on his brow and then he kicked the underwear away as an afterthought.
“God,” he said. She moved to him, put her arm around his shoulder.
“You’re being brave,” she said.
“God,” he said again.
“Let it out, you know, if you want to.”
But he didn’t, he wanted to sit down. He moved to his mother’s side and leaned against her.