Learning How to Climb Stairs

“So, what can we use?” Tom asked, looking up at the immense set of stairs leading up to the landing.

Letting out a breath, Nick started shaking his head, then paused, snapping his fingers, “My earbuds. We could use that. I’ll climb up, you toss a bud up to me, I’ll pull the cord up and then you shinny up the cord,” he suggested.

Tom nodded, “Can we get to your iPod to get the headphones?” he asked.

“It’s on the nightstand beside my bed,” he said, visualizing it. “There a digital clock there too, electrical cord hanging down. I could climb it and get the earphones,” he said with a grin.

“That sounds like a plan,” Tom replied, nodding approvingly.

Together they returned to the room, the passage under the door scraping Nick up some more, leaving his pale skin pink and raw looking. Climbing up onto his night table using the clock’s cord was easy, the hardest part being right at the top where the cord bent over the edge of the table. Pulling himself up, he circled the clock, now taller than him and made his way to the iPod.

Looking down at the device, he looked at the tangled mess of cord.  Kneeling down, he tried to remove the jack from the top of the device, but it was ignorant and refused to budge. Sitting down, he took hold of the cord above the jack, feet to either side and heaved, exerting himself to get it to come out. One last massive jerk, it came free. Walking over to the edge of the nightstand, he looked down, “Hey, stand back,” he said, waiting for Tom to move before he threw the jack over and stepped to the side as the cord followed it down to the ground.

Using the clock’s cord much like a fireman’s pole, he slid back down to the ground. “Bare skin on plastic,” he mumbled, looking at the marks on the inner part of his legs.

The shadows in his room were growing long and Nick knew night was approaching. Hustling over to Tom, each took an earbud and scurried to the door, dragging the length of cord and jack behind them.

Squeezing back under the door, they pulled the buds under and then the length of cord before scurrying back to the base of the stairs.

Climbing up onto the stair, Nick used the same principle as climbing the peg board in the school gym, shifting his weight from side to side and pulling himself upward until he was at the top of the stair.

“You know,” said Tom, “there are some who might call that kind of laissez-faire demonstration showing off.”

Nick grinned. “Just throw the earbud up here,” he said.

Tom started by swinging the earbud in a circular fashion, generating momentum and inertia before launching it up toward the stairs. It took a few attempts to time it just right before he was finally successful.

“Throw the other one up too,” Nick said, motioning with his arm, “You can hold onto the cord just above the jack.”

Tom nodded, picking up the other ear bud and swinging it up toward Nick who deftly plucked it out of the air and put it up on the stair.

Looping the cord around his midsection, Nick sat down and braced his feet, pulling Tom up as the other youth walked up the face of the riser.

The only hiccup they encountered when repeating the process was on the third stair up, when as Tom neared the top, his feet slipped out from under him and he let go of the cord and desperately grabbed onto the carpet at the edge of the stair.

The cord in his hand suddenly slack, Nick hurried over to the edge to find Tom hanging there.

“I can’t hold it!” Tom shouted, eyes wide.

“Wait,” said Nick, reaching out and snatching Tom but the wrist, grunting with exertion as he dragged the smaller boy up over the edge.

“Oh my god,” breathed Tom between gasps, lying on his back.

“You should loop the cord around your waist,” Nick advised, also breathing heavy.

Tom nodded. After that, he tied also tied the cord around his waist and the rest of the stairs leading to the landing near the front door were fairly simple.

“Halfway,” said Tom, looking at the flight leading to the upper floor of the house.

“Look at the size of that bloody shoe,” said Nick, shaking his head and pointing at a white running shoes with bright lime green piping.

“This one is TJ’s,” Tom said, walking over to it near the hollow dip beneath where her ankle would go. Putting his back to the shoe, he put his right hand on his head and slid it back against the shoe to measure his height against it. “Holy,” he said, finding himself below the opening for her foot.

“Huge,” said Nick, “if she came down on top of you, I doubt she would even notice or miss a step.”

Tom nodded, circling the massive piece of footwear, “It’s like an Al Bundy nightmare,” he said with a grin.

Nick chuckled. “So these girls are all pretty tight then, you know, close to each other? Does their friendship go back to the days of your declaration?” he asked.

Tom emerged from the other side of the shoe, “Yep,” he said, coming over and sitting down beside Nick. “That’s the beauty of living in the same community your whole life and blundering the way I did, everyone knows, everyone remembers, practically guarantees I’ll graduate from high school a virgin. But hey, there is always college right?”

Nodding, Nick simply said, “Hmm.”

“Hmm? What do you mean hmm?” Tom inquired.

“I’m just trying to figure out what Asha meant when she said with the three of them together I don’t stand a chance, I just don’t know what that’s supposed to mean,” he answered.

Tom shrugged, “Who knows?” he queried.

“It’s like they’re planning something,” Nick commented.

“We can ask her when we see her,” Tom said, rising back to his feet.