Penny and I carried the ropes, swimsuits, and lunches. It was a cool but nice day, and new pale green leaves were everywhere. Penny and I had taught Michael everything we could about the Earth, Air, Fire, and Water skills. He looked ready.
Penny and I knew so well what he was feeling as he looked up into the big maple tree, rope over his shoulder. “It’s nice to know you guys know first aid and everything.” He started climbing.
“That’s no substitute for your own powers,” I said.
He smiled down at me.
Michael didn’t have that spidery, at-home look in the trees, but he could climb. Down came the rope. Penny and I checked the length and he tied it off. Down he came with a smile on his face. “First swing is for my tree-teacher, Ariel,” he said, bringing up the puller rope.
It was a fun 45 or 50 foot swing. I was proud of Michael. I played, holding on with my hands and swinging my legs out.
Penny flew, and then Michael.
I knew climbing up the rope was hard for him.. He stopped twice on the way up, but we didn’t say a word.
“I think I’ll do my woods run next,” he called down to us. “My arms need a break.”
A few minutes later, we left him at Carter Road and watched him head into the wilds.
“Have you ever been in love, Penny?” I asked as we rode around to meet Michael.
“Not really. Are you?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure what I feel or what I want.”
“That guy I kissed at the State Park, it was exciting, but I don’t think I’d call it love.”
I didn’t know what else to say about it. We perched on a picnic table, and soon Michael came trotting out of the woods.
“That part, I’m good at,” he said.
“You’re good at all of it!” I said.
He rested and we ate some cookies. “What do you want to do next?”
Penny asked.
“Alder. Forty feet.”
“Wow!”
“And then fire and lunch.”
We walked over to the alder grove near the playground. Michael picked out a fairly slim one, looked at me, and started up. And he didn’t stop every 10 feet to rest.
“How high?” he said while still climbing.
“Thirty.”
“How high?” a few moments later.
“Forty-five!”
He kept going a few more feet.
“Fifty!”
“I knew I had to go straight up,” he called to us. “When I stop, my arms get too tired to go on.”
“It’s different for everyone,” I yelled up to him.
“My arms are shaking, I’d better come down.” He started climbing down.
Something was wrong. I could feel in my stomach that something was wrong. He started slipping. “Use your feet, damn it, Michael!” I started climbing the tree as fast as I could. Tears threatened to burst from my eyes.
“He stopped at 40. No, he’s sliding again!” I could hear Penny say.
“My hands are bleeding!” Michael screamed.
He was sliding toward me fast. I kept climbing. Hang on, Michael! I held
on with only my legs, let him slide right into me, then pinned him to the tree.
He was crying and his whole body was shaking.
“My hands are all torn up!” he sobbed.
“I’ve got you, Michael. We won’t fall.”
He was holding his hands out from the tree now, and I could see blood dripping from them. “How high are we?” I called down to Penny.
“About 30. What can I do?”
“I don’t know yet.”
I had to do something. I couldn’t hold him up there until his hands healed. “Michael, let’s go down together now, okay?”
“What’s the use? I’ve failed! If you help me down, I’ve failed.” He started crying again.
“Michael?”
He tried to collect himself. “What?”
I think I understood what he needed. “Do you want to continue down on your own?”
He was silent.
“Your hands are scraped, but it isn’t deep. I have the salve in my pack. Do you want to finish on your own?”
A moment later he said, “Yeah.”
“Tell me when you’re rested enough.”
“What’s happening?” Penny called up.
“He’s okay. I’ll be right down.”
After a few more moments of slow breathing, he said, “I think I’m okay now. Ariel? Thanks.”
“Have you got the tree?”
“Ouch! Yeah. I’ll use my feet more.”
I started moving down. “You’re on your own.” I climbed down the tree.
“Is he okay?” Penny asked me.
“No. But he wants to finish on his own. I can’t take that away from him.”
Michael moved down very slowly. He was holding with his arms more than his hands. Twenty feet. He did use his legs more — he had to. I held Penny’s hand. He kept coming. Ten feet. Slowly, slowly. We helped him to the ground. He looked at me.
“You did it, on your own,” I said. Tears were in my eyes. I wanted to put my arms around him, but I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to. A moment later, we turned and followed Penny to the picnic area.
I carefully cleaned his hands under a stream of cold water at the drinking fountain, making sure there was no dirt or splinters anywhere. Penny got our lunches out. He carefully patted his hands dry on his towel. “Let them air-dry a few minutes, and pat any blood that starts. I’ll get out the goldenseal salve.”
I had kept it in my daypack for a year now, and we had used it several times. I carefully put it all over Michael’s palms.
“It feels good. They don’t sting anymore. I’ve been thinking about it. The only thing I still have to do that will be hard because of my hands is making a fire. But I’m going to do it!”
“I believe you.”
“Are you guys going to eat or what?” Penny said, mouth full.
Michael and I went over to the table. We shared food and had quite a feast.
“You’re really brave,” Penny said to Michael. “I would have been scared out of my mind if I had slipped while climbing. I probably would have just fallen.”
He was starting to smile. His hands were raw meat, but he had wanted to finish so badly. I could understand.
“Would you open my fire pouch? I’m going to do it now before my hands swell up or anything.”
“I’ll get twigs. We can make smores!” Penny said.
I spread Michael’s tinder out on the concrete edge of the barbeque. Using fingertips, he laid it out. Holding the flint and steel hurt his hands, but he did it. A spark. Another. The third spark took, and he bent down to puff it into flame. It went out. I thought he was going to cry, but he picked up the flint and tried again. A spark. It took and he puffed. A flame!
“First smore is for the fire-maker!” Penny said.
Michael took twigs, then sticks, and built up the fire. When it was blazing, I dabbed some more salve on a few places. We roasted marshmallows, made smores and talked for a long time. Michael said he was thinking of getting a job, but he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. Penny and I told him about our
Search and Rescue receivers going off at school. No one said anything else about alder climbing.
He held his bicycle handlebars mostly with his wrists on the way to our swimming beach. He went into the bushes and changed into his trunks, and than I sat down with him. “A nice thick coating of salve will protect your hands from the water. Try not to rub it off.”
His tanned body looked so nice. I was feeling that tingly feeling inside again.
We wished him luck and he got into the water. Penny and I got into our suits just in case. Swimming was the last dangerous test — hardly anything could happen running. We saw him rest about halfway to the buoy, then again when he got there.
“He’s on his way back!” I said.
“He’s very tired, I can tell,” Penny said. “The alder shook him up.”
“Yeah.”
He floated and rested three times on the way back. As he neared the shore, we were bouncing up and down and cheering for him. He pulled himself onto the beach and lay there breathing, but there was a smile on his face.
After he had rested and changed, I put salve on his hands again. The jar was almost empty. We rode slowly back to the park, and then just walked around awhile talking about movies and anything that came to mind. When he was ready, he led us down to the road.
“You said you found your limits swimming, Ariel. And you found yours running, Penny. I found mine in that alder tree. Don’t expect five miles out of me today!”
He started running. We hopped on our bikes and rode along with him. I was glad when he turned around at one mile.
As he loped back into the park and slowed to a walk, we carefully put our arms around him.
“Michael, you are a tested Wood Sprite now, master of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water!” Penny said.
“And you are our brother forever!”