Towering - By Alex Flinn Page 0,39
touched her cheek with my own hand. “No. But I don’t understand. How are you here?”
“I knew you would come, that something would happen, that there was a reason. Destiny, or what have you. Every day, I waited, and every night, I dreamed.”
“Of someone coming to rescue you?”
She raised an eyebrow. “It was I who rescued you. And now, I do not know how I will get back to my tower.”
“You want to go back?”
“It is where I live. Where else would I go? Besides, Mama will worry if she finds me missing.”
I gaped at her. When you rescue a girl from a tower—even if she rescues you—you’re supposed to take her with you. Though, come to think of it, I didn’t know where we would go. I couldn’t exactly take her to Mrs. Greenwood’s.
Still, I tried again. “But you can’t go back. I want to talk to you, to know you. And what about my destiny?”
She looked uncertain, and as she did, she shivered. “I’m not sure. Maybe it was only my destiny to save you.”
“Do you want one of the blankets?” It would be hard to give it up, considering it was freezing out, and I had just been dunked in water, but it seemed like I should offer.
She shook her head. “I should go back. But I don’t know how to get up there. It was so much easier to come down. Can you help me?” She gestured to the sad tower.
“The thing is,” I said, “I came here for a reason too. I didn’t know what it was, but ever since I came here, I’ve heard something, something beckoning to me. That’s why I came. So I couldn’t just be here to fall through the ice so you could rescue me. There must be something else.”
Man, she was beautiful.
She looked up at me, then down, as if she didn’t want me to see her looking. “Maybe. But I do not think I’m supposed to leave. Not yet, anyway. Maybe someday.” She glanced up again, out of the tops of her eyes. “But if Mama finds me like this, my rope hanging, she will know I tried to escape. And then, she will make it so I can never come down again. Can you help me back to my tower? Please?”
Her voice became higher at the end, not hysterical but worried. I said, “Isn’t there a door?”
She brightened a bit. “There must be. Mama comes through a door to get inside. But she always locks it. I can hear her keys, and the turning of the mechanism each time she comes.”
“Maybe we can jimmy it.” I’d never jimmied anything in my life, but the tower looked old, so maybe the lock was too.
She took off, walking around the side of the tower. I could tell she was cold by how fast she walked, and how stiffly. I followed her. When we reached the door, it had not one, not two, but three locks on it, and they looked pretty solid. Still, she pulled at the handle. I did too. But without tools, there was no way to open it, and I had no tools.
“Can’t you climb back up?” I asked. “You climbed down.” I didn’t want her to leave, but it was cold, so cold that I worried I might freeze to death if I stayed there much longer.
She shook her head. “I am amazed I came down. You needed to be rescued, so I did. Suddenly, I felt a rush of strength, as if I had drunk a magic potion.”
“Adrenaline. I read about that. Like, once, I read about this woman who lifted a car off her father, when he was being crushed.” It was weird. She was such a delicate flower, yet strong enough to slide down a rope and rescue me. It was sort of hot, both that she’d saved me and, also, that she needed my help. I could use someone needing me right now.
“I just knew I had to do it.”
I thought about climbing ropes in gym class. Or about a hundred rock-climbing birthday parties. This wasn’t much higher, if at all. I had no doubt that I could do it myself, but could I lift her? Maybe if I simply bouldered up, I could use the rope to help her, sort of a hip belay? Not that we had any equipment. But if you didn’t fall, you didn’t need a harness, right?
If I brought her up, could I come see her