WARNING
Don’t Look Down!
12
A TRICK OF THE LIGHTS
“WOW, THIS IS cool!” Maxx was dazzled. “It’s great up here!” he announced, swinging around and dipping into the fort door. It was like Maxx was on the brink of something exotic. The others were right there with him.
When Maxx proclaimed the place as “amazing,” Lucas was delighted. It would have to be special to impress Maxx. And it was. There was something extraordinary about this place and every-one who came here knew it.
The sun-spilled doorway welcomed everyone like an honored guest. Slivers of light dangling like prisms between the wall-board cracks gave the place a near mystical feel. When the cross-slatted window shutters swung open, the tree fort came alive.
“Wow!” Maxx exclaimed again. He was in awe, soaking it in.
Except for any patchy worn spots, the thick timber walls and floors were smooth and aged to a cinnamon brown. Lucas’s on-going jungle phase brought in the current décor. The drama and detail urged his father to come up with some palm grass for thatched roofing to create a jungle effect. With shaggy grass feathering the open windows, both inside and out the fort became a tropical rainforest tiki hut.
The aged black ceiling fan in the center was never meant to work. The white silk mosquito net draping from the fan paddles circled the seating area like a tent. Everyone wanted to sit in the rope and slat chairs instead of the less-dreamy, built-in benches. They were single-seaters, dangling on the ends of old ship-ropes hooked into the vaulted ceiling. It was always a race to see who could get to them first.
Against one wall, box cubbies chock-full of goodies and treasures hung in rows beside a stack of built in bunks. The sagging rope steps on the wood rail ladder had survived a bazillion rowdy nights, but could still hoist more barefooted friends up and down and in and out, and up and down again.
It wasn’t planned, but the trinkets in the fort threw color splashes around the whimsical cloud-effect of the mosquito net. It all looked like something out of a designer magazine.
“My mom would even like this place…,” Maxx blurted out at Lucas.
The others were lounging, swaying lazily in the swing chairs. Maxx didn’t seem to care where he sat. Finally he and Lucas plunked down on benches across from each other.
The meeting was called to order. Trivial announcements were made, then on to the important stuff. Today it was all about Maxx. After the walloping he gave Dexter, it was unanimous. Maxx was voted into the club.
Mrs. Warbuck brought out milk and chocolate Mud Cookies to start. Time flew, and Sergio and Nick rushed off.
“These Mud Cookies are so good,” Sloane said, reaching for another one. “I need to get this recipe from your mom,” she told Lucas. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a splash of water hit her hand. An instant later two more drips rained down. “Hey… I’m getting wet!” she cried looking up. “Where’s that coming from? What’s going on?” she asked.
Three heads bobbed back. Another drip shot down from the rafters. “That’s weird,” Lucas said jumping to his feet.
“That was a pretty big storm we had, maybe the roof is leaking,” Maxx suggested looking around.
“Hey, there’s a puddle of water over here too,” Sloane said, pointing.
Lucas was already yanking on a rope twined around a beam on the second level and balancing on the wooden toe-holds nailed into the wall.
“No surprise if the roof is leaking,” he yelled down. “The tree is growing right through up here!” he cried.
Dangling on the rope, he began tearing at the foliage. Yup, it’s wet, he said to himself.
“Ouch!” His hand jerked back. His finger caught something sharp.
“What’s the matter Lucas,” Sloane yelled up.
“I think I cut myself on something,” he called back down.
“Oh no! On what? Are you ok?” Sloane was anxious.
“I’m OK,” Lucas yelled down. “It’s pretty wet up here. There must be a leak,” he added, searching around some more. The upper alcove was a squared off four-by-four space. He tugged at more of the underbrush.
Suddenly, a surprise!
“What the heck?” he said to himself. “Cool! Hey you guys there’s a window up here,” he shouted down. “The roof is made out of windows! It’s like a skylight… only you can’t see it ‘cause it’s all covered up with rotten leaves and gunk.”
Sloane and Maxx looked at each other blankly and dodged leaf-bits and twigglings fluttering to the floor.
“I never knew there were windows up here,” Lucas muttered to himself. He was hollering again, “Hey, it looks like they open up too!” He was excited.
“That sounds so cool!” Sloane called back, swishing a leaf off her shoe. “Skylights would be awesome in here,” she cried. “I want to see!” She leapt for the ladder. “I’m coming up Lucas,” she shouted.
Maxx followed her. A shower of leafy greens cascaded past. He was only part way up and already wheezing hard.
By the time they reached Lucas, the tightest clingers locking the two windows had been ripped loose. “Look out you guys,” Lucas called back. “I think I can get it open,” he said, giving the latch a hard jerk. Suddenly the heavy windows bumped and dropped open. Lucas threw himself out of the way and grabbed for a beam.
“Whoa!” Maxx cried, startled. All at once a burst of crisp air rushed in. Suddenly his lungs felt brand new.
Lucas was so anxious to see the cool view from up there that he was already wiggling and twisting up into the rafters. With a leg-swing up, he was through the skylight. What? Something is weird, he said to himself, trying to make sense out of what he was seeing.
“Wow!” he gasped, scrambling to stand. “Look at this!” he was hysterical. “Come on you guys! Hurry up! You gotta see this!” His words were racing.
Maxx and Sloane shot a quick look at one another wondering why Lucas was so wound up. Sloane had never heard him like this before.
Sloane sputtered a yucky spider web out of her mouth, slapped aside a straggly branch poking through the wall, and hoisted herself on the rafters. She popped up beside Lucas, panting hard. Maxx followed her.
What was this? None of them could believe it! Where was the tree top?
“Ohhh!” Sloane exhaled.
“Wha…?” Maxx lost his voice.
The moment was like a freeze-frame photo in the middle of a cosmic menagerie. Instead of standing on the top of the fort roof, it seemed they were standing on the balcony of the universe!
The intergalactic space was amazing! Planets, stars and galaxies hung in an unfathomable backdrop of inky-black. The light show was spectacular.
Sloane’s remarkable love for learning had her remembering that the universe was still expanding, and at an accelerated rate. Who does this sort of thing at a time like this?
“Hey, I think that’s Mars over there!” Sloane exclaimed. Their front-row seats in this universal theatre had her flipping out. She was already pointing out planets in the solar system. “Oh look there’s Jupiter, and there’s Saturn beside it,” she cried. “Wow, see how big it is? Just look at the beautiful rings around it! Did you know Saturn has at least sixty two moons?” She was ecstatic and breathless. It wasn’t normal for her. She was usually the one to keep her head on straight.
While Sloane was riding high, Maxx wasn’t at all looking at the planets or getting lost in the moment. This is crazy! He thought. His mind was spinning with questions that finally tumbled out of his mouth. “Where are we? How did we get here?” he asked.
While those two were doing their own thing… Lucas was in a dazed stupor. Nothing was registering.
“This is incredible! See all those light specs?” Sloane was going nuts. She was a talking textbook, “Each one is a galaxy. They could even be thirteen billion years old!”
Lucas’s brain finally defrosted. His eyes were twinkling too. “Yeah, look at all this!” he exclaimed.
With one foot in a dreamland and t
he other warily reaching back for sure footing, Lucas was mindful of how they got here. All they did was step through the skylight. The open window was proof. It was still there beside his feet. He wondered why he couldn’t see the tree or his backyard down below.
Is this real? He asked himself with teeth chattering. It had to be. If this was just a dream why could he see Maxx and Sloane’s breath steaming? Why was his heart ready to burst? The choke in his throat was fighting back tear pools in his eyes. It is real… he whispered to himself. I just know it, he believed his heart.
If anything at all was clicking in his head, Lucas might have thought a little deeper about the panoramic view of the town of Target below. Even if he had though, how would he ever figure this out? There was way more action than usual for the typically quiet town. The whole place was bustling with activity!
As neat as a freshly buzzed haircut, the forest running along the river helped him find his school. From there he could easily find his street in the maze of tiny doll-houses and spot the rooftop of his own house. Moving cars looked like toys on tracks. But there was something else. It must be an illusion, just a trick of the lights, he told himself. Or nothing. But it didn’t look like nothing.
Gray shadows moved like people. Some were big. Some were small. Some were holding things, he couldn’t tell what. Weird, Lucas thought to himself looking closer. Groups marched like armies. Even more spectacular. A glowing airborne freeway spi-ralled to the skyline, transporting the creatures in and out. They zoomed like electrons through a high voltage cable. That was one kind, but there was another. These ones glittered like jewels. They were fluttering and flitting everywhere. Some of these marched together too. What on earth? Lucas said to himself. It was a ball of confusion in his mind. A kaleidoscope. From what he could tell, his home town, maybe even the whole earth, was occupied by fantasmic invaders that looked like they were from another world. And maybe they were.
He checked to see if Maxx and Sloane saw it too. They hadn’t. They were too busy star-gazing.
“Hey look!” Lucas’s eyes lit up. “Look over there!” he shouted.