The Trek that wasn't

It was one fine Saturday evening. The feeling of tomorrow being a bright Sunday didn’t get me to bed at the expected time. Dinner was just fine, and everyone was sitting, conversing with each other. All of them were discussing the importance of fitness, and how they try to consistently go out for treks in order to not become couch potatoes. I comfortably slid into the conversation pretty easily.

‘A day without fitness is a day, nothing!’ yelled Uncle Matt.

‘I go for a trek every Sunday, as well as continue with regular exercise. Managing work as well as daily life is no piece of cake,’ said Aunt Amanda calmly.

The conversation continued smoothly before a 13-year-old me asked everyone in a mysterious manner ‘Why don’t we try to go for a trek tomorrow morning, as we do almost every time?’

Everyone felt dead silent. Uncle Matt, who was carrying a carrom board, was left stunned like a mullet and stayed there for 90 seconds like a statue. Aunt Amanda whispered something in 6-year-old Nate’s ears before I decided to break the silence. I still never understood the reason behind the silence.

‘Why is everyone….’ I tried to speak before being interrupted by Aunt Amanda.

‘Trekking at 6AM in the morning during Summers with a mask on is nothing but impossible.

The COVID-19 has halted everything, you remember?’ Aunt Amanda interjected immediately. All I did was nod, and that was the most abrupt ending to a conversation as weird as this. There was constant whispering between Aunt Amanda, Nate and Gina.

The night spanned out decently, we played board games for quite some time. Carrom, cards and snakes and ladders. All of us shared some ice cream, bringing an end to the night. I couldn’t help thinking why everyone would not want to go trekking, something we always do. Uncle Matt was sitting in a corner, working on his laptop.

‘Uncle Matt, can we go trekking tomorrow morning?’ I said.

‘It’s very late right now, making it a difficult chance for you to wake up.'' said Uncle Matt.

‘I will wake up, for sure.’ I said in an indifferent tone.

‘Alright, then. I’ll wake you up at 6 in the morning and we’ll all go trekking tomorrow.’ said Uncle Matt, with a smile on his face.

I was confused by Uncle Matt’s reaction towards going for a trek. He was stunned the first time but agreed to the trek. All I could think was that if Uncle Matt sleeps at 1AM in the morning, there is zero chance of him waking up at 6 in the morning. I doubt he’ll wake up before 10AM. And that’s when the night ended, I slept comfortably. I didn’t have a clue of how wrong I was.

I slept through the night without any plans of waking up tomorrow morning before 9 AM. And out of the blue, a familiar voice started nudging me and gently spoke ‘Wake up, wake up. After almost 20 odd minutes of hearing chants of ‘Wake Up’, my eyes finally opened. And all I could see was something unexpected.

Uncle Matt was sitting in front of my eyes, all dressed up for a trek. Looking as fresh as a daisy, he said ‘Come on, boy. It’s time for our weekly trek. Didn’t you volunteer last night?’

I was so sleepy that I didn’t even realise what was happening, and there was no chance of me remembering all the things that happened last night. All I could think of was that I probably was in sleep. It was one of the better dreams I had dreamed of, in quite some time. Without much hesitation, a sleepy me got up to get ready for the trek.

For the first time in my life, I realised that my dream was not going as fast as it always did. Everything was going slowly, but after splashing some water on my face, I realised: It was a reality, far from a dream. My uncle had woken up at the designated time and woke me up too. I didn’t know why, but I was in no mood to go for a trek. With immense courage, I went to Uncle Matt to tell him I couldn’t go for the trek.

By the time I went to him, he had woken up almost everybody for the trek, I gathered all sorts of courage, and went to him.

‘Uncle Matt, I can’t make it to the trek, I’m too sleepy and so are others. It was a long night yesterday, and everyone is tired.’ I said without meeting his eyes.

A puzzled Uncle Matt said ‘Listen, you know we have a trek every time I come here, right? You asked me to organize a trek today, and it was almost confirmed that there won’t be any treks this time around. You have the chance to change the fact, I think you should reconsider your decision. Today is the last opportunity, and remember, there is no tomorrow’.

Uncle Matt was set to leave for his town tomorrow, and we weren’t going to meet him for long. Every time he came, all of us had the default trek, but due to COVID-19, there wasn’t any planned this time around. I would forever regret if we didn’t go today, and his emotional blackmail worked. I eventually agreed and saw Uncle Matt’s widest smile ever.

Everyone was up at the crack of dawn. When Uncle Matt says something, there’s no denying it. Going to the trek wasn’t exactly everyone’s decision, as we had to follow Uncle Matt’s orders. It was like being in an army under a Major. We always enjoyed all his decisions most of the time, but you could only have imagined how disastrous it was going to be.

We hadn’t yet decided where we were going. There was this hill where we had been almost every time but all it seemed now was boring. There were other options, but it was all deemed as a place not ‘safe’ for kids. Spoken as the safest hill in the city, we went to the Southern Tops.

It was a 20-minute drive from our home to the hill. Everyone was sleepy and the only person who looked energetic was Uncle Matt. It was all bright and shiny at 7 in the morning, before becoming all dark in a matter of seconds. There was a sudden stink which made us all almost throw up. All of us got out of the car. It was a 10-minute walking distance from the car to the hill. It was just the beginning of another adventure, just another.

I couldn’t believe my eyes after looking at the surroundings. The entire place was absolutely disgusting and filthy. There were animal waste lying all over, filthy hair lying around, kids puking, loads of garbage, people not having their masks on, wild pigs running. A perfect definition of an unhygienic place. This area had reached the greater heights of filthiness. There was only one question lurking in my mind amidst all this: Were we in the right place?

I felt as if I was going to faint, but there was no choice. Once you take up this challenge, there is no looking back. With two masks on, we battled all the odds and finally reached the bottom of the hill, only to realise that it wasn’t the entrance. We weren’t super-humans who could fly above with sheer ease.

Uncle Matt earned redemption as he took us to a much easier hill trekking. The Plain slopes were much better than the filth at Southern Tops. It was a much better atmosphere and a relaxing arena. We mounted up and came back down in no time. The exhaustion and no input of food made me throw up immediately after coming down, making me feel much better. Although there were many shortcomings on this trip, the absence of my sister made it special. There was a slight redemption in the end, this trek will go down in history as ‘you know what’.