“That’s nothing,” Casey interrupted brightly from her place on the ground where Ed had started tracing her foot on the cardboard with his pocket knife, “Mark can fall off a six-foot fence and do a perfect one point landing on his head.”
Little punk!
Apparently our newfound understanding didn’t include sparing me from being the target of teenage wit. I should have read the fine print.
“I did not fall on my head!”
“He totally fell on his head,” Casey assured an amused looking Ashlyn, “It was epic. But I also gotta admit he’s probably right to be worried here. If you’re going to do this, then you ought to take somebody with you.”
“Sounds fun,” Ashlyn grinned wickedly. “You offering to do the deed?”
I heard a hint of challenge in her voice that caught me by surprise. Then I realized she probably still remembered the ribbing Casey had given her over Tommy, and saw a chance for some payback now that she operated on territory more suited to her skills.
If so, Casey wasn’t falling for it.
“Nope,” the redhead replied with lofty decorum. “I’m busy getting new shoes. Besides, with the ladder gone, the first part of the climb is going to be a real pain in the butt. I’ll pass.”
Ladder gone?
I turned to examine the base of the tower with newfound alarm. Sure enough, no ladder presented itself.
“Now hold on,” I objected. “Where’s the ladder? I thought all these things had ladders.”
“They do,” Casey shrugged. “It did. Or at least it did until Don and Calvin Brower climbed up there a couple of years ago and got too freaked out to come back down. They had to be rescued and all the parents raised a stink about it. The problem was the company that owned the old tower had gone out of business so they couldn’t find anybody to bitch at. Then I guess one of the handier neighbors around here must have gotten the idea to take care of it himself. Whoever it was snuck in here one night and used a cutting torch to remove the bottom half of the ladder.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“Nope. The ladder’s up there, but you gotta climb a ways to get to it.”
I gazed up the imposing structure to where it vanished into the black sky, then back down at the tiny girl who intended to make the climb in disbelief.
“It’s not a big deal,” Ashlyn insisted with cheerful assurance. “The whole tower is practically a ladder.”
Which I suppose was true in a way. At the same time, the space between the supports seemed awful large and the little blonde’s reach looked awful short. But there were angled supports as well, so I guess she intended to make use of those.
Either way, the bottom line remained the same…as much as I hated it, I couldn’t come up with a legitimate argument against her making the climb.
It still didn’t sit well with me, though.
“So, since Casey is wimping out, and I can see you really are worried about this, are you offering to be my escort, Mr. Garrett?”
“Uhhhhhhhh,” I hedged, staring up at the massive structure again.
I had never really appreciated how big these things were. But now that I stood at this one’s base, my stomach sank as I imagined how far above me it stretched into the stygian sky. I didn’t need to see the top to know it waited a looooonnnnngg way up there.
Could I do something like this? I was a healthy male adult, but nobody would ever confuse me with an athlete. Sure, there were lots of beams and bars to hold on to, but I had never climbed anything taller than my cousin’s treehouse as a kid. This would be a whole different story.
“I’ll do it,” Tommy’s toneless voice interrupted my internal debate.
The offer caught me by surprise, and I saw Ashlyn’s smile freeze for a split second as well. Apparently that development hadn’t been intended on her part. But to her credit, she recovered in an instant and turned her smile on the young man who had stepped up beside me.
“Thanks, Tommy,” she replied with a sincerity that seemed perfectly genuine, “I really appreciate it, but I don’t think that’s such a good idea in this case.”
“Why not?”
I swear you could feel the air go even stiller than before.
It was a reasonable question, and asked with his normal lack of expression, but I suddenly got the same unnerving vibe I had when he asked if we were going to tear up the flags. An indefinable sense of menace hung in the air. It felt as if something behind those empty eyes prepared to weigh her next response with cold evaluation, trying to gauge whether he had just been judged or not.
But if Ashlyn sensed the same thing, she didn’t show a hint of it.
“Because you’re our number one defense, silly!” she laughed. “We’re all counting on you. If something nasty comes toward the gate while I’m up there, I’d feel a lot better knowing you’re down here with your bow and both hands free to take care of it. Okay?”
Maybe they teach acting in gymnast schools, with special emphasis on “perky and cute” because Ashlyn seemed as natural and cheerily sincere as ever. She was good. But when she had pointed toward the gate while mentioning it, she had also shot me a look of desperate appeal as he turned his head to follow the gesture. And that told me all I needed to know.
Crap.
I was really going to have to do this.
Ironically, I had been thinking of suggesting Tommy for the job in the first place. He was a lot more physically fit than me. Also, I doubted the high climb would bother him in the least. But the current tension in the air, combined with the pleading look from Ashlyn, served as a reminder there were other considerations involved. I still wasn’t convinced he posed a danger to any of us, but my feelings weren’t the only ones involved.
“She’s right,” I contrived a sigh of resignation. It wasn’t hard since I really didn’t feel enthusiastic about what I now volunteered to do. “I may be a little old for this, but that’s just another reason you should be down here if trouble comes along. It’s the smartest arrangement, and tonight we’re only getting single chances to get things right.”
He studied her in silence for a second before turning his blank gaze to me. I gave him the most convincing fatalistic shrug I could muster. Sometimes the less said the better.
Then the moment passed.
He didn’t say anything in agreement, or say anything at all for that matter. He simply reached into his pocket, withdrew the red glow stick, and offered it to me.
Hopefully that counted as him buying our little act, or at least acceptance of the situation on his part.
“Oh, right,” I took the proffered item while stifling an exhale of relief. After all, it would be dark up there. “Thanks.”
By this time I didn’t expect a reply from him, so it didn’t surprise me at all when he turned back to Ashlyn.
“One more thing,” he deadpanned, “let me see your glow stick a second.”
With a puzzled look, she complied.
Tommy knelt and pulled a roll of duct tape out of the bag he had picked up somewhere back on Chambers Circle. He tore loose a section a little over two feet long and wrapped one end around the top of the glow stick. Then he twisted most of the rest of its length into a narrow cord before attaching the other end to the same place on the little light. The end result was a necklace with a glow stick attached.
“Oh cool!” Ashlyn exclaimed. “Now I don’t have to carry it in my teeth.”
He handed her the necklace, then tore loose another piece of tape about six inches long.
“Use that to tape it against your front so it doesn’t swing and get hung on anything.”
“Got it,” she replied, and proceeded to do as instructed. “Thanks, Tommy.”
The boy nodded, which almost counted as excess verbiage on his part. He watched her put the contraption on, and nodded again as if satisfied with the result. Then he handed me the roll of duct tape and walked away.
I guess I was expected to make my own damn glow stick necklace.
/> It took me one abortive try, then a second to get something reasonable. It hardly counted as anywhere near as well made as Ashlyn’s, but it would do. It’s not like we can all be semi-Eagle scouts, right? At least it seemed secure and not likely to fall off.
“You ready, Mr. G?”
I looked up to see her standing beneath the lowest horizontal crossbeam.
“I guess so.”
“Well then…” Ashlyn chirped, and did a standing jump to catch the metal strut above her in both hands. Then, with ridiculous ease, she did a pull-up and grinned at me with her chin resting on the bar. “…let’s get climbing. I want to find out if Houston is still out there or not.”
###
“Mr. G, are you alright?”
Not hardly.
As a matter of fact, I felt the polar opposite of alright. I was busy coming to grips with the fact I was a forty-five year old writer climbing a cell phone tower without a ladder, while trying to keep up with a seventeen-year-old gymnast. And now that I hugged a corner support of said tower, somewhere between thirty and forty feet off the ground, I’m certain the word “alright” didn’t even enter into my opinion of my current mental state.
As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure the term “certifiably insane” ranked as my favorite choice of the moment.
I clutched the steel girder in a death grip, fighting to get my breathing back under control. My red glow stick did an adequate job of illuminating whatever lay right in front of me, but otherwise we now climbed in the dark. This made the operation as much about feel as sight. And in this humidity the metal struts felt slightly damp, giving me yet one more thing to worry about.
Ed’s little fire can gleamed a long way below us, surrounded by a packed gravel surface that would be like hitting concrete if I fell.
“This is my fault,” Ashlyn’s subdued voice came from the darkness above. “I should have let Tommy do this. I’m sorry, Mr. G. I was being a chickenshit and now you’re the one paying for it.”
“It’s okay,” I gasped, and started feeling around to put my foot on the next angled beam. It was either keep moving or spend the rest of the night here. “The guy obviously scares you. You’ve got enough to deal with tonight without having to put up with that, too.”
“I didn’t mean he ‘scares’ me…okay, maybe he does…but I also really meant it about being nice to him. He hasn’t done anything but help tonight. But…”
“But?” I started shuffling my feet up the angled beam while grasping the strut above. It didn’t look very graceful, and nothing at all like the way Ashlyn seemed to easily scamper up the thing, but it served.
“Well, I just don’t want him getting the wrong idea. And the problem is he’s like a one man black hole…everything goes in but nothing comes out, and I can’t tell how he’s taking things.”
“And I imagine Casey isn’t helping.”
“God, no,” she groaned, “Not at all. I hadn’t thought of that angle until she started giving me grief about it. I know she doesn’t mean it, but now it’s got me worried.”
“Understandable,” I puffed as I made it to where the two struts crossed and started making my way back up to the next level of the corner beam. Listening to her talk gave me something to focus on other than the climb, although it also reminded me of the look Tommy gave her when she and Casey had their backs turned.
“And the worst part is,” she continued, “he probably saved my life getting me out of that yard, which sorta makes me feel like an ungrateful shit for even worrying about it. I really hope I didn’t hurt his feelings leaving him back down there.”
“Probably not.”
“I hope not. I would hate to think he’s gotten help for his problems, yet no matter how much he tries to help others nobody ever lets him live the past down.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. He is probably stuffed so full of psychotropic drugs he doesn’t feel anything.”
Truthfully, I didn’t know if I believed that or not.
“I suppose your right,” she sighed. Then, as if she was simply incapable of staying down for long, she brightened and changed subjects. “On the good side, did you notice it’s getting cooler up here?”
I clutched the corner beam again and paused to check for myself.
“Yeah,” I exhaled. “It really is starting to cool. There’s even some movement to the air.”
“I know!” she enthused. “We’re getting level with the tops of all the trees but the pines, and now some breeze is starting to get through. And it must get better, because if you listen you can hear the wind whistling through the tower above us.”
I wish she hadn’t said that.
Because as I stilled myself to listen, I could also hear the thin wail of wind blowing through the struts and wires somewhere far above…and it was the most awful and remote sound I had ever heard in my life. It was the kind of background noise that echoed through vast gulfs and deep abysses…the song of windswept crags and skyscrapers. It was the sound of places where fools who climbed too high fell to their deaths.
Looking down, the ground seemed to stretch away, while drawing me downward at the same time. I could actually feel the pull of the drop beneath me.
“Aw shit,” I gulped, and hugged the beam.
“Okay, don’t move!” Ashlyn called from above. I guess my panic really showed. “Just stay there till I get back and I’ll help you get down, okay?”
“Wait!” I gasped. “I’ve got this. Let me get focused again.”
“Please, don’t. You really shouldn’t do this anymore. It’s not safe.”
“No, really. I’ve got this!”
“This is crazy, Mr. G. You’re going to get hurt and it’s going to be my fault. Please, wait there. I can go up and take a look and be back inside sixty seconds.”
“Ashlyn,” I gritted, while trying to nerve myself to loosen my grip on the corner beam so I could reach up for the next strut, “that wasn’t the deal.”
“It’s a stupid deal,” she insisted. “Besides, I’ve reached the ladder now. I’m fine.”
I looked up to see the girl about ten feet above me and off toward the middle of the tower’s side. Her concerned face and white pajamas were dimly visible in the yellow light of her glow stick. She sat perched on a horizontal strut, one hand casually resting on the ladder that started beside her. The fact that nothing but fifty feet of air separated her from the ground didn’t seem to bother her in the least.
“You see?” she smiled. “I’m really fine. And it’s easy-peasy from here. If I can’t climb a ladder by myself, then I’m in the wrong sport. And it’s not like I have to go all the way to the top. Maybe thirty more feet.”
“I don’t knowwww…” I fretted, not sure whether the drop below me or the idea of Ashlyn going ahead bothered me worse.
“Besides, can you see the glow in the sky above the trees from where you’re at?”
“Glow?” I looked out into the blackness around me.
It took me a second, but then I could just barely make out the slightly blacker forms of the surrounding pine wall. It created a dim horizon that still loomed above me, but that wasn’t the important thing. What mattered was I could see a horizon at all!
“Oh my god,” I whispered, “there is still light out there somewhere!”
“Oh, yeah! I thought so!” she laughed back. “Give me ten seconds and we’re gonna know what it is!”
I looked back at Ashlyn to see her swing around to the front of the ladder and dash up into the darkness. With her glows tick now facing away from me, she disappeared almost immediately.
“Ashlyn! Wait!”
I called for her to stop, but I’ll admit my heart wasn’t in it. In all honesty I felt pretty sure I had reached my climbing threshold, with true acrophobia now threatening to take over. And that could be disastrous. There existed the real danger I might freeze up and tonight there would be no friendly fire department to come pluck me safely back to the ground.
B
esides, I wanted to know what the glow meant as well. In the end, hope warred against concern with resignation winning out.
“Be careful!” I called after her, trying to ignore the fact it amounted to a lame concession of defeat. She might have been an athlete, but it still didn’t sit well with me that our forward scout in this effort was a ninety pound sprite in footie pajamas. I had an uneasy feeling we were screwing up and not thinking things through. But at the moment I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
So I waited, hung on for dear life, and prayed Ashlyn saw what we needed her to see.
One way or another, we were now about to find out the truth. Either the world still existed out there, or it didn’t. The next ten seconds were some of the longest I had ever imagined.
But then we got our answer.
“IT’S OUT THERE!” Ashlyn called out from somewhere in the darkness above. “I CAN SEE THE LIGHTS OF HOUSTON! IT’S STILL OUT THERE!”
I never knew so few words could cause such joy. Relief swept through me with such power I briefly forgot about my newfound terror of nighttime heights. Below me, I heard Casey shout in celebration as well.
“What do you see, Ashlyn?” I called back.
“I see lights,” she laughed, as if stating the obvious. “House lights, street lights, maybe even car lights! Just a minute, let me get a little higher so I can really get a good look over these trees!”
She was climbing higher? My sense of unease returned.
“Uh, Ashlyn…be careful…”
“Okay, that’s better. I can see the sign to the mall, and the tall building out in the Woodlands…oh, and I can see the Interstate, and cars moving on it.”
The Interstate?! The Interstate was only about two miles away! And if there were cars still moving on it, then the border to this thing must be closer. Probably much closer.
We could do this. We could get out of here!
“Ashlyn!” I called, “You did great. Come on down!”
“Just a minute…” her receding voice answered back.
What the hell? She was still climbing?
“What are you doing?”
Nightwalk Page 21
