{"id":6438,"date":"2025-04-17T21:14:23","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T04:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/blogs\/100words\/?p=6438"},"modified":"2025-04-17T21:14:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T04:14:23","slug":"ascent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/blogs\/100words\/2025\/04\/17\/ascent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ascent"},"content":{"rendered":"

I turn aside before Everest\u2019s summit. Hobbling to a low drift, I scoop away the snow. I have found her, still lying where she had collapsed on her fateful ascent years ago. I peel off her goggles. She stares at the cobalt sky, as if daydreaming. Her ivory skin remains unspoilt, despite the passage of time.<\/p>\n

Laying down beside her, I unclip my mask and gasp in the thin air.<\/p>\n

My heart pummels my ribs while I remove our gloves.<\/p>\n

I wrap my wife\u2019s stiff hand in mine and gaze up at the heavens, waiting to see what she sees.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From Guest Contributor Christopher Mattravers-Taylor <\/p>\n

Chistopher has been shortlisted in the Summer 2023 and Autumn 2024 Voice.Club Competitions and longlisted in Periscope Literary\u2019s 2023 short story competition. He was also a finalist in Globe Soup\u2019s October and November 2024 100-word competition. His short stories have variously been described as fierce, dark, humorous and descriptive. Currently he enjoys writing short stories with a speculative edge, and now is beginning his debut novel. He lives in Bristol, UK, with an amazing wife and two wonderful children he does not deserve.<\/p>\n

His writing is coloured by his experiences as a ME sufferer, particle physicist at CERN, property developer, core driller, disability benefits claimant, Dalmatian breeder, traveller, and more besides. One thing has remained constant in his chaotic life, however: his love of Encona Hot Sauce.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I turn aside before Everest\u2019s summit. Hobbling to a low drift, I scoop away the snow. I have found her, still lying where she had collapsed on her fateful ascent years ago. I peel off her goggles. She stares at the cobalt sky, as if daydreaming. Her ivory skin remains unspoilt, despite the passage of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2336,4652,13198,13288,13289,4897,12759,41,749,7435,13290,9936,2014,1736,3149,1996,1109,153],"class_list":["post-6438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-100words","tag-affair","tag-air","tag-ascent","tag-christopher-mattravers-taylor","tag-everest","tag-gloves","tag-goggles","tag-guest-contributor","tag-heart","tag-heavens","tag-low-drift","tag-ribs","tag-skin","tag-sky","tag-snow","tag-summit","tag-time","tag-wife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/blogs\/100words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/blogs\/100words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/blogs\/100words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/blogs\/100words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/blogs\/100words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/blogs\/100words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6440,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/blogs\/100words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6438\/revisions\/6440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/blogs\/100words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/blogs\/100words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/blogs\/100words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}