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THE HAPPY HILL
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The "third Happy Place" of Walker
Easterling in Sleeping in Flame. On their first day together,
he takes Maris York there to show her Vienna from above. Later,
in From the Teeth of Angels they both show the Hill to
Arlen Ford. |
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We stood at the bottom of a staircase in the
Thirteenth District. (...) She looked at the steps and then at
me. She let her tongue hang out as if she'd made the climb three
or four times that day already. "So what's up there that's
worth four hundred steps?"(...) (Sleeping in Flame) |
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| At the top of the stairs, Maris turned around
for the first time and looked behind us. Above the treetops of
the Tiergarten you could see wet rooftops and smoke from chimneys,
slices of sun reflecting hard off windows everywhere, like flashy
clues to God's whereabouts.(...) After the stairs came a dirt
path that wound up and into a forest. Without hesitating we kept
on, walking side by side. (Sleeping in Flame) |
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Before leaving a forest, we passed a giant antenna
for O.R.F., the Austrian National Broadcasting Company. Its high,
intricately worked steel and busy electrical noises were completely
out of place here. She looked at it for a moment, shook her head
and moved on. "It looks like some invader from Mars sitting
here, trying to decide what to do next." (...) (Sleeping in Flame) |
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When we drove up, I thought that [Lainzer Tiergarten] is where
we were going, but Walker (...) led us on a path alongside the
park to a staircase that went straight up forever. When I asked
if the top was worth the climb, Maris and he said yes. Unconvinced
I asked what was up there, Maris said "Happy Hill"(...)
We walked through woods a while until Walker veered left,
and suddenly we were out on a huge open meadow with a great view
down over the city. (From the Teeth of Angels)
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