I notice them while Chloe admires the view. From the top of Rigi, we can see all the way across Lake Zug. The view is stunning in the daytime, but in the darkness of night, it’s like staring into a gigantic black hole. The towns and villages that surround the lake look like earthbound constellations trapped by its gravity.
We aren’t even supposed to be here, having snuck the tent in my bag pack while pretending to be guests at the hotel on the top of the mountain. Other than a radio tower, the hotel is the only major structure on the summit. The Swiss made it very clear there is a strict no camping policy, but Chloe convinces me that if we set up the tent late and pack up early, we won’t get caught.
“Besides, it’s November. It’s cold outside,” she said a few hours earlier, while we ate dürüm kebabs at the Zug train station. “They aren’t going to be on the lookout for rogue campers.”
Maybe it’s her Australian accent, but she said rogue in a way that made us seem more like pirates than trespassers. We weren’t just going to camp out illegally for a night – we are going on an actual adventure.
“You know,” I said in my smartest sounding voice. “Mark Twain once climbed Rigi. It took him three days.”
“Who the fuck is Mark Twain?”
“You know, Mark Twain? Samuel Clemens? Tom Sawyer? Huckleberry Finn?”
“Are you just saying a bunch of random names now?”
I shook my head and went back to eating. I guess there was no reason she would have studied Mark Twain in Australia, so I didn’t bother trying to explain.
A funicular delivered us to the top of Rigi and we spent most of our evening in the hotel bar. Chloe insisted we should drink just enough to appear like patrons, while staying sober enough to find our way across the mountain to set up our tent later.
We snuck out of the bar just after midnight. The plan was to camp out near the closest clump of trees, but once we got outside, Chloe had other ideas. She looked up at the swollen moon and started moving towards it.
At first, she just kind of stumbled in its direction. It wasn’t like Chloe to just abandon a plan, so I was concerned that maybe she hadn’t followed her advice about drinking too much. That stumble quickly turned into a confident walk before changing again into a slight jog. I looked past where she was jogging and barely made out what I hoped was her destination – the viewing platform that stood out about 100 meters from the hotel.
I ran to catch up with her, relying on the pale light of the moon to avoid tripping. When I finally made it up to her side, Chloe ignored me. She seemed to be in a trance. I felt relief that she stopped walking after we arrived at the platform and didn’t try to climb over the barricade.
We both stared off into the darkness and neither one of us talked. I looked at Chloe a couple times and almost said something, but I could tell she wasn’t in the mood to speak. She definitely valued silence. It was a small price to pay to spend time with her.
I thought back to how I met her at that party, one of the few I actually attended since I came to Zurich for my MBA program. I was only going to be there for the fall semester and was determined to take my classes seriously. With limited German skills, it was easy for me to stay in my dorm room and study.
But Mike convinced me that I had to have some fun, so when he threw that party for our class, I reluctantly attended. It didn’t take me long to find Chloe. At nearly six feet tall, with short bleached-white hair, she literally stood out from the crowd. She definitely wasn’t in our class. I did a little recon and discovered that she was a friend of a friend of Mike’s. She had come to Switzerland working as an au pair for some high-powered family in Zurich.
It took three vodka shots and a beer before working up the courage to talk to her. I barely introduced myself before she told me to shut up.
“Just stand here, okay, and don’t say anything,” she whispered in my ear. “I just need a guy to stand here and pretend that he’s with me. Can you do that for me?”
Before I could really process what she said, I nodded a few times and took my place next to her, leaning against a living room wall. From the next hour or so, she did all the talking, while I just stood there.
I learned more about the Swiss family that employed her. The Mom, a vice president of some sort of financial company, was into commodities and Scandinavian guys. The Dad was into hiking, skiing, and much younger women. He had made a few passes at Chloe, but she claimed it was nothing she couldn’t handle. She took care of four kids, all very well behaved.
Chloe got two nights a week off and had concluded that she was now wasting one of them at this party. I just nodded and drank another beer.
“What was your name again? Will was it?” Chloe said as she grabbed onto my hand. “You’ve been a good soldier. Do you want to go make out?”
I nodded again and she led me into somebody’s bedroom. I remember little of what happened after we landed on the bed. I woke up on the floor the next morning with a colossal headache. Chloe was gone, but she left her number in my pants pocket. We had been hanging out fairly regularly ever since.
The wind started to whip around the mountain. We were dressed warmly, but it was still cold enough that we huddled closer together. I think I heard their voices on that wind. That’s why I turned around.
A blob of white suddenly appeared in the field below me. Then another. Sheep just start falling into place like gigantic snowflakes on the grass. I know they aren’t being dropped from the sky, but in the darkness, it certainly seems that way.
“Hey Chloe,” I say quietly, while reaching back for her shoulder. “You really need to turn around.”
“Not now. Don’t ruin this. I need this. I need this view right now. I need this moon.”
More and more sheep pop up in the field. I decide I can’t take no for an answer.
“This view is pretty interesting too.” I turn around, pick Chloe up, and place her in front of me. She fights me at first, but stops as soon as she sees them.
“What the fuck? Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
The field is now nearly completely full of sheep. Looking closer, I notice that the flock is perfectly aligned and facing us. We stand there, frozen in place, with no fucking idea what to do. Fortunately, the sheep decide for us.
As if on cue, half of them turn 180 degrees in one direction and the other half do the same in the opposite direction. I look at Chloe and her eyes quickly meet mine with a look of disbelief before darting back to the action.
The sheep start moving. The two halves walk towards each other but shift slightly so they can pass by. They walk a few meters past their counterpart and then reverse course. The sheep walk backwards and stop when they reached their original placing.
“Did you know sheep could walk backwards?” I whisper. “I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sheep walk backwards.”
Chloe doesn’t answer. I look over at her and notice that her mouth is just hanging wide open. I’m not sure she could respond, even if she wanted to.
The sheep show continues. They mix back together and break out into smaller groups. There are sheep marching in small circles on one side and sheep weaving around each other on another, like a choreographed dance. A couple of sheep flit around the entire group like fireflies. The moonlight is granting all of them an iridescent glow.
The dancing becomes more and more complicated, but it never becomes chaotic. And then, without warning, they stop just as suddenly as they started. The sheep stand there without moving for a few seconds and then slowly lope back into their original formation, with one exception. There is now a path down the middle that leads to a small clearing in the forest.
“I think we are supposed to go down there,” I say, without looking at Chloe.
“I think you’re right.”
We slowly make our way down the stairs. As I get closer to the sheep, I see they are looking at us. I make eye contact with a few of them, but can’t stay locked in. Their eyes reflect the moon in a way that sets their corneas on fire.
Once we make it through the sheep, they reposition themselves so that they are now surrounding us and not the viewing platform.
“I think they are protecting us,” I whisper. “Let’s put up our tent here.”
“I think you’re right,” Chloe says again. I can’t tell if she is feeling comforted by the surrounding sheep or completely freaked out. She takes the tent out of her bag, and we go to work setting it up. It’s very low profile and just big enough for the two of us.
“Is this little thing supposed to keep us warm? I don’t know how that’s going to work?”
“You’d be surprised,” Chloe says. “Although it really should be much colder right now.”
“Do you think the Moon is keeping up warm? I swear its orbit is closer to the earth tonight.”
“No,” Chloe says as she looks around. “I think it’s the sheep. They aren’t just protecting us; they are keeping us warm.”
“Kind of makes you want to snuggle up with one of them,” I said before instantly regretting my choice of words, “Don’t look at me like that. That’s not what I meant?”
“Like what?” Chloe says with a smirk. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but if you’d rather sleep out here with them, be my guest.”
I shake my head, and we dive into the tent. I turn towards her, but she turns the opposite direction. As I wrap my right arm around her, I can feel her breathing slow down as she quickly falls asleep.
The sheep are gently baying outside, and I find it comforting, like rain tapping on a roof, and it puts me to sleep almost as quickly as Chloe.
In the morning, the sheep are gone.
“Did we really see what I think we saw?” I ask as we quickly bag up our tent.
“Do you believe you saw it?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Well, you can depend on your eyes when your imagination is in focus.”
I have no idea what that means, but nod anyway and go back to packing up our tent.