Storytime! (Again)
It was Monday again. It was always Monday. Everyone was always busy with something to do that clearly can’t wait a second longer now that their time of rest has passed. You get the feeling that no matter what it is, it was clearly pressing in on their very soul every second it couldn’t be handled. Why oh WHY couldn’t you have been able to complete this transaction yesterday, I needed it yesterday! The very existence of my life depended on it! Without my subscription to Time Warner, nothing is complete! …I never did anything on Monday. It was a personal rule of mine. Whatever couldn’t be done on the weekend could certainly wait until Tuesday.
So, there I was. Sitting at the kitchen table, working on a crossword puzzle and listening to the constant drip drip drip of the air conditioner as it wormed it’s way through my carpet. Eight letter word for greasemonkey…mechanic. Too easy. There must be some sort of trick.
I threw the paper away and got up to look out the window. The graffiti’d mural I’d drawn on the brick wall opposite remained. I brought over my supplies and sat in the sill with my legs hanging down, gauging the distance..three stories up, fifteen foot gap. Not the best of escape routes, the fire escape ladders had rusted off the building ages ago. No one seemed to bother coming to replace them, and I certainly wasn’t going to bother with it. I’d seen spy movies, someone might manage to pull the ladder down any time and break in, and then where would I be. No, it’s definitely better off the way it is.
The mass of multi-colored lines and splotches on the opposite wall had long ceased to resemble anything recognizable. But still, variety is important, and one has to have a decent view. I primed the pump on my supersoaker filled with watered down paint, and carefully took aim. The stream of green arced over the horizon of the mass of color. A few spattered bursts and a small red water balloon later, and I had a sky. It was a good sky. You could still see many of the strange shapes beneath it, but that was to be expected. The sky was never meant to be solid, space never meant to be empty.
I kicked back over into the room and grabbed my coat. I had an appointment today, I’d asked if it could have been Saturday instead, and it could, so it didn’t break my rule. I was busy Saturday trying out rolls for my midday snacks. They had to have just the right consistency or you couldn’t fill them with anything. Either they’d fall apart if you tried, or they wouldn’t absorb any of the juices. At least that’s what I thought. I actually didn’t even manage to get a single batch made until 6, and when I finally had everything together, I couldn’t bear to corrupt them. So I ate them all that night.
Just as I had tied my coat together, there was a loud knock on the door. I answered it, and a rough-clothed man with a utility harness over his shoulder was there. I pointed him to the hall, where the air conditioner vent hung over a steadily widening circle of water, and walked out the door, instantly taking off into a run. I didn’t look back to see what the repairman did, and I didn’t particularly care. I hate planned events, and I was determined to do something spontaneous. I decided to go to the park, and sit in a tree.
–
Tree climbing was rough business in the city, all the lower branches are cut off long before they grow thick enough to leave their mark, let alone hold weight. If you’re going to climb a tree, you have two basic options. Find a tree with incredibly thick bark, and grip your way up by your fingers and toes, rock climber style..or you could bring a rope.
That’s one of the reasons he wore his coat whenever he went out. It’s a beautiful full length number with very deep pockets, he can keep anything he needed in it. Among these things was a rope, suitably long enough for climbing trees with branches high enough not to be pruned into obsolescence.
The weighted end sailed cleanly through the air, landing taut just below waist level on the other side. He worked and pried and managed to slide the rope down closer to the trunk where the branch was stronger, wrapped both sides of the rope together, and began to climb. This was clearly what high school gym class was supposed to be preparing people for, climbing trees without branches. It’s clearly a very important skill everyone aught to have.
The thing about climbing trees no one expects you to climb, is no one expects you to be in them. It’s a wonderfully relaxing habit, retreating away from the attention of the world free to observe or retreat. Like being a god, but without the power. Power is overrated anyway, if you know everything you need to know, who needs power? He didn’t really feel like observing anything just now though, and he had managed to make his way to a rather secure grouping of branches where he could support himself at multiple points, so he decided to relax.
—
Suddenly it was dark. I reflexively grabbed at the nearest branches to my hands to steady myself as I snapped awake. How long had it been? It couldn’t have been very close to evening, the appointment was at two..it took about half an hour to walk here, but running takes only ten minutes.. A crash of thunder.
Oh, it was only a storm. Looking carefully, I could see the rims of the clouds shining where the sun should be. It probably wasn’t safe to be sitting in trees during a lightning storm though, so I decided to get down. Somehow my rope had slipped away while I was sleeping. I knew I should have rolled it and returned it to my coat, but I was only going to need to unroll it again when I got down anyway…Oh well, it was only 15 feet down or so. I need more practice falling anyway, there are so few opportunities for it in every day life.
Gripping the branch beneath me, I lifted myself up to stand, and let my feet fall behind it, slowing just enough to stay in a pullup position. Also something one rarely gets the chance for. What is there to pull yourself up on? Buildings? Stairwells? The only real tests require you to be reasonably adept to begin with. I pulled up. Once, twice, the strain in my shoulders and back and down my chest felt good. So few opportunities. Swinging back and forth, I let myself fly forward down to the grass, keeping my legs loose but strong. I let my front-foot touch down and used the full shock absorption of my arches on up to my hips to compress the fall, finally letting myself fall completely without putting the full shock on any one location.
The last part I failed. My face stung, my side ached, but nothing was broken. Another crash of lightning, and I was able to snap back to my feet. The wet ground no doubt cushioned my fall, or at least it would if I fell again, as I seemed to be covered in it. Pain doesn’t really affect me like it does normal people. Though I walked with a bit of a limp that seemed unnatural, so I thought maybe I should take another rest before going home. So long as I had already faceplanted in the ground, it seemed harmless to take another lie-down.
I love the rain. The sky is filled with silverlight, the air peppered with distortions. Waves and waves of solid-seeming barriers between you and the sky. All the moisture in the air even producing sunset-like effects if you closed your eyes just so. And the water, cool and refreshing. No one expects anything from someone who’s come in from the rain. You have no responsibility except to yourself, and it was worth any sickness that might arise.
I could feel the heat building up within me to fight off the cold against my skin. Burning like a candle in the wind, doomed to failure, but burning nonetheless. I stayed there with my eyes half closed against the backlight until my shivering left me cold, and managed to crawl to my feet. The pain was considerably more present now, but that was okay. Pain was just telling you what it was you shouldn’t do.
As it turned out, I probably shouldn’t have been moving at all. Home was a half mile away, and that was after I made it out through the winding paths of the park. I stowed the barely rolled and mostly tangled rope away in my coat, and headed back home with much less enthusiasm than I left it. The cold wind and the rain kept me happy though, and I imagine the endorphines released for the pain didn’t make things any harder on me. When I finally got back, I draped the australian oilskin across the back of the nearest chair on the way to the bathroom, and prepared it to be filled with barely tolerable heat. Not wanting to wait, I found myself curled in as the water rose around me, and as the water rose to the top and I cut off it’s source, I was able to sink into a state of peace that had no reason to be woken from.
