Power of M

chapter 16

16. We go on a temporary vacation. Why couldn't we have just retired?

Great. We were in a tight situation. Again. From the moment I realized I was an adopted kid I knew my life wasn't going to be easy. But even for me, this was a bit harsh. How the hell were we supposed to get down? Last I checked, humans can't fly.

Time for plan B. Wait a minute what was plan B? Oh shoot. We didn't make one did we? Of course we wouldn't because our lives have never been a challenge. Everything is just a breeze.........I'm sorry to be the pessimist here but we are dead.

I shrugged off my negative feelings but I really don't know what kind of help that was. I mean come on it's not like I earn some magical power just because I shrug off my negative feelings. Unless I turn into some sort of Buddha, but I don't really know how that could help me either.

Unless I went to Violet and made her feel guilty for her actions and taught her about life and maybe helped her reach enlightenment. In my heart, ' hey that could actually work.' My brains on the other hand were like, 'dude focus. Your sister's and your own stupid lives are in danger. Enlightenment would take years of practice and since you are a complete failure it will never happen anyway. Think.'

There was a beech tree close to us and one of the branches was sort of close to our wall. I'm not saying step onto branch kind of closeness. It was maybe like a meter and a half gap between the wall and branch or maybe slightly less.

One meter and a half. Why does that value sound familiar?

I had another dangerous idea also involving Ash's foot. One meter and a half. That was Ash's exact height. This might actually work. The worst part? It was a lot more dangerous than our gymnastics routine on the bars. How is that even possible?

The wall ledge was a bit small and we were probably redefining physics laws again but if it meant escape, I was ready to do anything. After all I do have a secret weapon. Ash's foot.

She was still semiconscious. Actually I just wanted to use that word because I'm pretty sure the grammatically correct term is unconscious. But it doesn't matter. Semiconscious just sounds a lot cooler. Not the point.

Maybe the fact that she was unconscious kind of helped and made it feel less scary. She wasn't able to give me an incredulous look and tell me my idea was stupid.

But it wasn't any less scary and she didn't really have to be conscious to say all that. I pictured her saying it anyway. I was the one who had to do the swinging and lifting like some baby Tarzan.

After meeting Violet my dignity level went from 0 to like -97. Yup, that sounds pretty accurate. Sigh.

So I technically blame her for all my mishaps. Hey, it's easier than blaming myself.

Now to business. Before beginning the second part of my magnificent gymnastic routine, I did a small prayer to all the gods who may have been observing my embarrassing situation from heaven. Pointing nasty fingers and making fun of me. Yes, you are perfectly right. I am getting side tracked again

I lifted Ash up pretending she was a dead weight but actually she wasn't that heavy. But that's the human nature isn't it? Attempting to make a certain action sound much harder than it actually was.

I held on tightly to her hands and I swung her using all my strength at the tree branch hoping one or if I was lucky, both of her feet would get anchored onto the branch. No such luck. Ash's body came hurtling back and I winced as her body crashed into the wall. The only body part that I managed to prevent from knocking was her head. Phew.

"Sorry Ash." I muttered and swung again slightly harder.

Both of her feet did get caught onto a small crevice a woodpecker must have pecked out of the beech tree. I pulled the rest of her body with all my strength but something seemed to be keeping her feet in place and it held. Now that I had come this far, this was the moment I realized that my idea was possibly not.............the best idea. I'd come this far, ugh can't stop now. I hate it when that happens.

Now to become Tarzan. I held both of her hands as tightly as I could, went backwards and then ran and umm.........leapt off the edge and plummeted down to my death. Kidding. It was a whole lot worse. While I was halfway through the air, wishing I hadn't done this, Ash decided to wake up. And obviously like any normal person hanging upside down with her feet lodged in a tree branch holding something heavy (which you know, is such an ordinary situation) suddenly decides to wake up, that person tends to drop the heavy weight and stretch out and scream in shock when they realize where they are located.

Well that's pretty much exactly what happened to us. Ash screamed and let go of me and like I mentioned before, I plummeted to my death. Not yet. Sorry I can sense your frustration. If I'm going to die could I at least die a little faster. Sorry for my death being a delay, but I'm not boasting or anything but I have lightning reflexes. Only when I'm about to die and also when I am like ten feet above the ground. So it's like a onetime thing sadly.

Anyway to the point. I survived. How? I grabbed a lower hanging branch right on time and managed to haul myself onto it. I thanked my lucky stars for keeping fit even as an orphan even though there were no girls to impress other than Ash who would just shrug and say something like "I've seen better. Seriously Alex? Boring....."

Speaking of Ash, she was still struggling and I realized that her feet were getting dislodged. She was struggling that hard.

"Ash, hold on. Stay still. Don't move a muscle."