Page 30 of Free Heart
“He didn’t die, no,” I say.
“That’s why you made the get well soon cards, Tanner, because he’s going toget well,” Heather says, before mouthingsorryat me and continuing, “But we want him to heal up as fast he can.”
“Why?” Holland asks. “Why can’t he take a long time to get better?”
“He can take as long as he wants,” Heather says, her tone baffled. Despite owning Tater Tots, sometimes she still seems surprised by the things kids will say. “But most people don’t like feeling bad, and I’m sure Dan would like to feel better very soon.”
“My mom says he’s an idiot,” Marshall says, and another few kids agree.
“My dad says he’s cool,” Holland offers in dispute.
“My dad said he just had a bad day, and I can be like him when I grow up,” Natalie says.
“Well,” I say, and I weigh my words. I want to defend Dan, but I also don’t encourage these kids to copy him or think he’s doing something they should emulate now or at any point in the future. “Dan is both an idiotandcool.”
Heather laughs, and I smile at her before going on. “I think it’s fair to say he did a very dangerous thing and, unfortunately, there were consequences to that choice.”
“Oooh, consequences,” Holland says with her cute little lisp. “Those are always bad.”
I refrain from arguing the point, though it’s tempting because consequencescansometimes be good. I need to clarify things about Dan. “See, Dan almost died. Even now he’s very badly hurt.”
I crouch down and several children, including Jeanie, crowd in to hug me. “He’s in a lot of pain. So even though what he did was brave in one way, it was stupid in another. You never know which way fate will go, do you? It can reward bravery or punish hubris.”
“Fate? Is that like the devil?” Griffin asks, tilting his head. “Or the boogeyman?”
“No,” I say, but before I can explain Jeanie asks, “What’s hu-bris?”
“Arrogance,” Heather answers, standing over us, watching me hug the children. “Pride.”
We’re way off track now, so I simply say, “None of you should try to be like Dan. I’m sure he’d tell you the same thing.”
Though I really have no idea what Dan would say. I’ve never asked him how he feels about the idea of someone following in his footsteps the way he’s followed in Alex Honnold’s.
“Sejin,” Heather says, pulling me away from the group after the kids tire of me. “I wanted to talk to you. I don’t know if you’ve heard about everything that’s going on in the climbing community right now to try to support Dan?”
I shake my head. My phone’s been set to notify me only of texts and calls from my favorites list. I’m avoiding all the journalists, reporters, casual acquaintances, and other climbers who suddenly want to pretend to give a damn about Dan.
Heather nods toward the teacher’s aide, a young woman named Evelyn who’s quite good with the little ones. Taking the hint, Evelyn immediately herds the class away from me. “C’mon everyone. Get on your mats. Mr. Chris will be here any second to do yoga with you.”
“Noooooo,” several whine, but most simply jump or hop like bunnies to their mats and wait there.
Heather steers me into her office. “You haven’t heard about the GoFundMe?” she asks, as soon as I’m seated.
“No?”
“I think your friend Rye started it, so I’m surprised he didn’t tell you.”
I’m not. Rye knows everything that’s been on my plate. He also knows how little Dan is loved among the area by climbers and regular folk alike. Not that he’s loathed, but he’s never gone out of his way to make friends and that’s taken a toll. I’m sure Rye wouldn’t want to tell me if the GoFundMe hasn’t actually garnered much—or any—support.
Heather sits down at her desk across from me and brings up the GoFundMe page. I see that Rye’s set it up with a nice picture of Dan smiling as he climbs up a steep rock face. It’s clearly Rye’s own photo taken while climbing together. He’s written up a flattering paragraph about Dan as a person and a pity-inducing paragraph about his fall and current financial situation.
Rye’s requested twenty thousand dollars in aid, which will probably make only a small dent in the expenses Dan’s going to face, but is still a lot in the scheme of life. Ialsosee that only thirteen hundred dollars has been raised by…I glance further down the screen…forty-seven donors.
“Wow, that’s…that’s great. I should talk to Rye about it.” I wonder if Dan knows, but I think he can’t possibly. There’s no way he’d let Rye even set up something like this. Dan of the“pure motivations.” Dan of the “money doesn’t play a part in my climbing.” Dan of the “money doesn’t matter” bullshit.
ThatDan is going to find out just how much money matters soon enough. As soon as those bills start rolling in.
“It’s a little disappointing actually.” Heather sighs. “I’ve seen some climbing accident recovery funds get twelve thousand or more just the first day. But don’t worry, I’ve been thinking of ways we can boost this. What if we host a fundraising event here? With the children? They can perform their KPop songs for their families, and we can charge for tickets.” She smiles as an idea strikes her. “If the parents agree to let the children do the selling, we can put them out front at all the local stores, like the Girl Scouts or those bell-ringing Santas. Who could say no to those cute faces? What do you think?”
