Week 5--Nothing good can come of this
The oak tree looks different from up here, Stevie thought. The squirrel drey, wedged in a fork of branches, was closer and looked bigger, larger than a soccer ball. And he could see the little entry way, where the grey squirrels could enter and leave.
"C'mon, Stevie, hurry up!!"
Stevie peeked over the edge of garage again. "I don' wanna!!"
Up here, looking down, his sister seemed smaller, less intimidating, and the ground seemed much further away. The sense that this might be a very bad idea returned.
Putting her hands on her hips, Marjorie turned her face into a scowl. "You HAVE to! Don't turn into a baby now!"
She stood directly at the foot of the ladder. His heart beating faster, Stevie realized that she would never allow him down it. The only way off was to jump. If he complained any more, she might even take the ladder away.
"C'mon, Spider-Man! Show us you can fly!"
Just twenty minutes ago, Stevie had been watching the TV, singing the theme to his favorite superhero show. It had been great until his older sister walked into the room.
"What're you watching?"
"Cartoons, duh!"
"Don't 'duh' me, you troglodyte!!" (At nine years old, Marjorie loved to show off her adult vocabulary.) "Mom's gone to the store and left me in charge, so you have to do what I say!"
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
Stevie's only response was to stick out his tongue, earning him an eye roll.
They watched in silence for a few moments.
"How come Spider-Man doesn't just fly out of there?" On screen, the webslinger was trapped in a cell filling with cement.
"Spider-Man can't fly. Everyone knows that."
"Of course he can. Every superhero can fly."
"HE can't!
"Can too! I'll SHOW you!"
Proving the webslinger could fly somehow turned into Stevie wearing his Spider-Man pajamas and holding the big sheet off of mommy and daddy's bed, jumping off the garage onto every couch cushion in the house arranged on the lawn. And here they were.
Stevie eyed the distance to the ground. He looked at his sister's fierce glare. He knew he couldn't fly. He knew he wasn't Spider-Man. But trying to fly still seemed safer than trusting what Marjorie would do if he tried to come down the ladder.
He stepped to the edge and took a deep breath.
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