Page 33 of Chasing After You
“Straight up, I think,” she points to where she’s saying. “I thought I felt something get caught in my hair, but I figured it just snagged on a branch or something.
Shockingly, I am able to locate her necklace. Less shocking, it’s way out of reach.
“I don’t suppose you’ll stay down here while I climb up and get it?”
“Nope.” She didn’t last time either.
“Maybe you want to just go ahead, and I’ll wait on the ground,” I offer. “That way if you fall, I can go get help.”
“Um, no. Staying on the ground means you catch me if I fall.”
“Right. I’ll catch you.” I nod, agreeing to the terms. Ridiculous though they are.
“No, you can’t now. You blew it. I no longer trust you. Catching me wasn’t your first instinct.” I think we both know that’s bullshit. Catching her will always be my first and only instinct. “Now you have to climb the tree with me and hope neither of us falls.”
“Because we can’t trust each other not to drag the other down with them?”
She grins. “It does seem like that’s where we’re at now.”
NESSA
For a minute there I was starting to think recreating this night was a terrible mistake. Now that I’m standing at a set of massive roots leading to a sturdy tree trunk I’m about to climb, I can’t help thinking it was kismet all along.
How else could I possibly have wound up losing jewelry in a tree, not once, but twice?
“Want a leg up?” Matti asks, already leaning into his right knee and making a stirrup with his hands. Our kids were obsessed with climbing trees for about five or six years there. They still love a good climbing tree, but the hunt for finding one taller and more precarious than the next has slowed. Thank God.
We never wanted to hold them back from exploring and pushing their boundaries, but we weren’t exactly keen on them disappearing up a sixty-foot oak either, so Matti and I got a lotof practice going up with them. Not like we could blame them for their interest in trees. Our love was more or less established in one. And they are nothing if not grown from that love.
“Nah, I think I’m good without a leg up, but thanks.” I reach for a knobby part of the trunk just to the right past my head and pull up, my toes finding ridges in the thick bark to cling to. One has to appreciate the unexpected twist of being better at tree climbing in your forties than you were in your teens.
Matti waits until I reach the first sturdy branch before he follows me. Working in silence, we strategically map out where to place our hands and feet, making our way to where my necklace dangles between leaves and hanging moss.
The branch it’s caught in is a sturdy one, and we both scoot our way down until we’re sitting side by side, just a couple of feet from where my necklace waits to be rescued by us.
“Going on your belly?” Matti asks, pointing down the length of the tree’s long limb.
“That’s my plan.”
“I’d offer to get it for you,” he starts, a half-smile hanging crookedly on his full lips.
“But you know I’d just turn you down?” I finish for him.
“Yep.”
“It’s not because I can’t accept help,” I insist, though some have told me I can’t. My sisters, mostly. Some friends. And maybe I am exceedingly independent with most people. But not him.
“I know that.” He nods, the half-smile stretching out. “It’s because you want to see if you can do it. It’s a competitive thing.”
“Exactly.” Sometimes I miss how much he gets me.
“Go ahead.” He nudges me onward. “I’m here to hold onto your feet to steady you. You know, ifyou need it.”
I did know that. “Thanks.”
Careful not to abuse the tree, I lower my torso until it’s flush with the wood. Then, a lot like a giant caterpillar, I make my way down the length of the branch until I reach my pendant. “Got it.” I wave it around so Matti can see from where he’s waiting behind me.
“Great.” He puts more weight onto my ankles, anchoring me in place. Thatifwas forgotten the second I started scooting away from him. I don’t mind. We’ve always known how to let each other fly while being ready to catch should one of us fall. Even if I did imply otherwise before we even started this climb. “Now stop waving it around,” he orders. “I’m pretty sure flinging motions just like that one got us here in the first place.”
