Perspective Short: The Firetower

 

            Apparently before we met, Evan thought that all of New York was just like the city. He obviously didn’t think that NYC took over the whole state, but he expected everywhere to be as municipal and city-like as NYC. Did that bother me? Not really. It was honestly a little sweet.

            So when he came to visit me for a week last summer, I wanted to show him the New York that I knew. We drove around, I showed him the mountains and the greenery, all of which he was mesmerized by. But, I didn’t want to just show him everything from a window. So we went hiking near the fire tower.

            Coolidge Park is where my family always went for day trips to the lake. It had hiking, campsites, it had plenty of sweet and secret places to go. So I took him there, and we took a walk through the trails.

            He told me he was clumsy, but I wasn’t expecting the spaz I encountered when we walked through the trails. Any kind of rock or patch of mud, and he’d almost trip. We couldn’t even hold hands because if he went down, he’d take me with him. It was sweet though. He didn’t take my laughter as an insult. He’d just smile back at me and kiss my head once he got back on his feet. And I kept thinking on our walk, if this is how he’s doing just walking, what’s the fire tower going to be like?

            I’ve been up the fire tower probably over a hundred times in my life. My Grandma Kay and I used to climb up the stairs to see the beautiful views that New York aren’t known for. It’s normal for me to go up the twenty flights of narrow stairs. Evan tried to make me think it was normal for him too.

            The fire tower is basically a skinny caged staircase with a treehouse on top. The thing is tall, twice the length of the oldest trees in the park. And I don’t know why he didn’t tell me this until we were half way up, but Evan Ringle, my supposedly fearless boyfriend, was terrified of heights.

            I took the lead up the stairs, at Evan’s request. He didn’t want to hold me back. And the higher up we climbed, the larger the gap was between us.

            “Evan, you okay?” I called from the top of the fire tower.

            “Uhhhhh yeah. Just…. Give me some time. I’ll make it.”

            “We can go back down if you want.”

            “I don’t even want to think about looking down right now.”

            When he reached the top, he looked at the horizon and put his arm around me, shaking with sweat. He faked a smile, but I knew what was going on in his head.

            “Do you wanna go back down?”

            “…Down?”

            “Yeah… we have to get down at some point.”

            “Right. Um. Sure.”

            And 15 minutes later, after an uncountable amount of “Fucks” and “Jesus Christ”, we were back down, and this boy, who I was just realizing I was falling in love with, passed out in the grass.