The day would come when Ku would ascend the mountain. Ku, early in the morning, packed all his necessary equipment into a makeshift hide bag. Crouching down, he hugged both of his parents. Alone, without anyone else from the village to cheer him on, he ventured out into the darkness without a shred of fear or doubt, knowing he had trained and gathered intel over the years just for this expedition.

A melodic jingle chimed from the man’s bedroom, snapping him out of his daydream.

The man calmly got up to go pick up his phone. “Hello?”

“Hi, is this Theodore?”

“Yes, this is him speaking.”

“Hi, this is Delilah Kirtan calling to ask if you’re still interested in the teaching position at Gillette High School.”

Theodore’s heart tremored. “Yes.”

“Okay, great. Can you tell me a bit about yourself?”

Theodore revealed what he thought the interviewer wanted to hear most.

“Very nice. Are you free next Monday for an onsite interview?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, thank you for your time, Theodore. I hope you have a great rest of your day.”

“Thank you. You too.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

Theodore ended the call. A terrible despair welled up inside. “What the hell am I doing?” he muttered under his breath.

He opened his Photos app and scrolled through his favorites on his phone. An odd-eyed Khao Manee, a stylish computer flashing with over a thousand RGB LEDs, the interior of a boba shop late at night, and many more snippets fluttered by, going further and further back into the past. After a minute of digging, he swiped by a portrait of a smiling woman in an amusement park, finally stopping on a snapshot of a ripped piece of binder paper. Jotted on it, legible italics polluted by ink blots could be deciphered.

In the single paragraph, he reread:

“No one listens. I can’t choose anymore. But I want to say thank you to someone who encouraged me to write before I leave. He helped me with my work under the oak tree at lunchtime. He always told me to be more confident as a writer. ‘If you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect others to believe in your writing?’ I tried to make it work. I’m sorry. But I loved all the time we shared. So thank you, Teddy. I’ll miss you. It hurts so bad.”

Theodore blinked, his throat dry, wondering if he should drive down next week to Gillette High School, wholeheartedly trying for the teaching position. Is this what she would have wanted? No, that’s not what it’s about. What’s the right thing to do in this situation? Should I do it for her? It’s not about that either. Theodore knew the reason why he hesitated. As stubborn as he was, he felt scared.

He walked back out into his small kitchen, trying to put his mind at ease. It was steamed egg time. He took a deep breath.

Removing the lid, a huge billow of steam rolled towards his face, temporarily clouding his vision, warm and humid. Veiled and dazed, his mind played out the rest of Ku’s story like a movie.

The Mountain of a Thousand Dreams did not exceed Ku’s expectations. After all, Ku had thoroughly done his research, traveling to the surrounding villages at the base of the mountain during his teenage years. While working odd jobs and meeting different people from each community, he would learn valuable skills as well as their folklore. He would learn their different cultures and find that there existed a much bigger world out there for him to explore.

From each place he stayed at, he would ask the people what they knew about the mountain. Some would tell him about what kinds of plants and animals were indigenous to the region. Some would tell him about the existence of special mountain trails made from their ancestors which the spirits would use to ascend. Some would give him journals or maps for him to investigate on his own. However, no matter where he asked, there would always be something about the fog and the clouds, ranging from tragedy to tales of salvation, constantly reminding him of the villagers’ belief in reincarnation.

By the end of his research, Ku had accumulated a wealth of knowledge of not only how to navigate most of the mountain, but how to survive in the mountain. He had also trained his body to its peak fitness, his physique akin to a Greek god, in order to ensure the best chances of mounting the summit on his first attempt.

Ku had a good feeling about this. As he hiked up the moderate incline from the base, many of the vegetation smelled or appeared familiar, some of which he grew back at home. The path he went on did not prove too difficult either with his hefty hide bag securely strapped across his broad chest. Gazing ahead into the dark forest beyond, he smiled in his march of progress, excited to discover and experience new things, hoping to bring back many more stories down the mountain than those he brought with him on his way up.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The sun eventually rose at the crack of dawn. Sunlight seemed to flood the forest with color. Verdant green, white aspen speckled with black, and most notably a thin bluish layer of fog that pervaded the area harmonized with each other in this untouched ecosystem. Before long, Ku spotted docile deers poking their heads out from behind the brush, edible mushrooms to forage, and cute little finches dancing in the foliage. Believing it to be more than his imagination, he keenly felt a cleansing reinvigoration, as if all the pores on his skin had opened up and his mind heightened to a clarity of nirvana. The Mountain of Thousand Dreams couldn’t have been more lively!

Day and night shifted back and forth as Ku ascended higher and higher. All looked well. Beyond the metaphorical significance of the mountain he hiked, it was truly nothing more than a beautiful place to live in.

How lovely did the fresh aspen pleasure the senses. How delightful did the gentle breeze flow and weave between the trees. How wondrous and mystical did the ever present fog hang in the air, growing denser and denser the further Ku climbed.

On the fourteenth day, the fog thickened to the point that he could barely make out the path ahead. He couldn't see more than a few feet before him. Proceeding with caution, he kept onwards, slowing with each step until he became practically blind. He had now reached a standstill.

Conditions drastically changed in such a short time. Such was the folly of life. Perhaps he had to turn back.

The mere thought of giving up elicited a binding anxiety that clenched his heart. Years worth of effort met with failure. He felt tears returning to the corner of his eyes. Right as he teetered on the edge of defeat, mentally preparing himself to face his parents back down, a blue light blinked into existence. He himself blinked twice. "A will-o-wisp?"

The blue light, hovering at a distance difficult to gauge due to the sheer lack of visibility and depth, bounced up and down as if it were nodding. The blue light then started shrinking deeper into the fog. Ku followed.

After a few minutes of gradual turns and mild inclines, Ku reached a fork in the road. On the path diverging to the right, the fog had cleared and a distinct path snaking up to the peak revealed lofty clouds forming a dome, insulating the top of the mountain from the outside world.

On the path to the left, the blue light vigorously zipped around, as if urging him to continue following it. However, unlike the path to the right, the path on his left remained foggy and obscure with no end in sight. The blue light froze, sensing Ku’s indecision.

Ku thought if it wasn't for this light, he would have likely turned back, never to have realized how close he had come. On the other hand, his goal was to his right. All he had to do was take the final steps.

The blue light began shrinking again. Ku, slightly panicked, thought this wasn't the plan. On a whim, he leaped out and chased, sprinting after the blue light, abandoning the peak. Diminishing faster and faster, Ku cried out for the light to wait. Branch, stumble, boulder, abdomen, jab, cough, crunch, splash! Ku reflexively held his breath, submerging into a body of water. A sensation of warmth encapsulated his entirety. A vacant complacency placated his ambitions. He heard a voice echo, "Welcome to my humble abode."

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle. Ku broke through the surface, greedily gasping for air. Looking about in shock, the fog had disappeared, replaced by soothing curls of steam. A magnificent ceiling of icicles twinkled overhead. The voice from the blue light echoed, "You are my first human visitor."

Ku calmed himself in a few breath’s time. "What is this place?"

"It is my personal hot spring room."

"Hot spring?" Ku suddenly felt a nostalgic warmth waist down, a familiar warmth we all innately know and love and never received enough of. The warmth of a mother’s embrace.

Ku swished his arms in the hot water like a toddler.

"You like it?" the blue light asked.

"Mmm, it feels very nice.”

"These hot springs are for all living things to enjoy. They contain special minerals eroded from the heart of the mountain with excellent healing properties."

"What should I call you by?"

"I am a mountain spirit. I have no name."

"May I call you Qian Meng?"

"Okay. But why?"

"The villages that live near the bottom all refer to this mountain as the Mountain of a Thousand Dreams. The fog and the clouds are supposed to represent our dreams."

"I see."

"Speaking of which, do you know why the mountain is covered in so much fog?"

"That's not fog. That is steam coming out of the hundred and eight hot springs in here. If you look towards the entrance behind you, from where you entered, you can see streams of steam from the springs condensing and exiting back out. There are also other openings that lead out to other parts of the mountain."

"Oh." Ku looked up and pointed. "What about the icicles up there? Why don’t they melt from the steam?"

"That's not ice. That's glass."

"Oh." Everything had been accounted for. Ku felt satisfied.

The mountain spirit asked, "So why did you come here from one of the villages below? Life on this mountain is not easy. You must be adequately equipped and well-prepared. There are many poisonous plants and dangerous beasts here."

Ku frowned, thinking the journey, for the majority of the duration, had been quite pleasant. He loved it. But to answer the mountain spirit, he fumbled on his words. He didn't know what he should say. The mountain spirit awkwardly hummed.

"I think," he slowly began, "I wanted to ascend the mountain to initially find out what hid at the top. But as I spent more time sightseeing, I think I did what I did just for the sake of doing it, if that makes sense."

The mountain spirit confirmed, "So the purpose is in the action itself?"

Ku smiled in eureka. "Yes!”

Theodore always appreciated the abrupt ending to the tale. Sometimes you just have to go through the motion of things. In his workplace t-shirt, he sliced open a loaf of dutch, spreading the halves with mayonnaise. He slapped on tomatoes, pepperoncinis, a handful of lettuce, turkey cuts, mustard, and other ingredients up to order for the customer standing before him.

Although sandwich construction felt quite tedious and monotonous at times, there existed an unspoken harmony in the way he assembled everything. A well-oiled machine, dexterous fingers, and a devotion to the recipe down to the number of olives for a specific sandwich, Theodore quietly performed. By nightfall, he helped close shop, rinsing the dirty dishes and sweeping the floor before he locked up.

At home, he brushed his teeth and showered in his dimly lit bathroom, scrubbing off three days worth of filth. Then, rather than browsing on his computer deep into the night as he always did, he decided to call it in early. He also left his phone on his desk as he lay there in the silent darkness, hearing the hooting of owls from someplace he couldn’t quite pinpoint. Moonlight crept through the blinds. An ethereal loneliness deepened and waned. “Only seven more days until Gillette,” Theodore murmured to himself. Drifting off for the first time in a long time with his thoughts intact and his emotions in touch, he faced the fear that lingered in his heart.