Nobody ever looks up.
Something I discovered when I was a kid playing hide and seek. They will look in, under, and around things but they never look up. Even when I was in trouble or wanted to be alone and needed to disappear fast, up a tree or onto a rooftop was the best place to go.
At my grandparents old house, there was a tree by their garage that was perfect for this, especially in the late spring and summer when the leaves made someone practically invisible to anyone who did happen to glance skywards. The branches were set like a staircase, as long as you were able to scramble up onto that first bough. Halfway up, there was a comfortable set of branches that one could just sit and not worry about falling, as long as you didn’t move too much.
Many hours were spent up there, watching the world pass by. I even dragged a book up with me a few times to have a place to read without distraction. It was the perfect hiding spot and it was a sad day when I learned I’d gotten too big to climb it comfortably.
Behind the Random: Sometimes I miss the fearlessness of being a kid again. Once my goal used to be to climb to the very top of a tree. Now, in those rare moments I find myself in a tree, my goal is to not fall to a tumbling sappy bludgeoning death. The same with scrambling over fences and crawling through tight spaces and all those other amazing feats kids perform without a second thought to their well being. Are we more afraid or do we just better understand the consequences of failure?
642 Things 