The Tree of Knowledge

Lead Climbing

My tiny rebellion cost me dearly. I have eight fresh lashes across my ass left behind by Ryan's belt. It's difficult to sit down.

But I can't even bring myself to care. In two days, I'm seeing Jace again. Nothing else matters. I walk around the house singing. I play with Little Bird, who has recently mastered par-a-boo. I even help out with the housework.

Rebecca thinks I've lost my damn mind. Quite possibly she's right. I overhear her telling Ryan they should take me to a head shrink. That maybe Mara and Isaac's deaths unhinged me a little. Funny how I start acting happy and they think I've gone insane.

It's a beautiful autumn day and I'm seeing Jace again in two days. They can't possibly come fast enough.

Two days later I'm like a kid on Christmas morning. I rush out the door and fly my TARDIS to Stone Works.

Today, the white wicker basket has two sandwiches.

When I walk through the door, Jace has beat me there. Duke bounds up to me in excitement and knocks me on my ass in the door way. He then proceeds to lick my face with abandon despite my protests. Jace rushes over to wrangle him.

"Just like old times, right?" he says with a smile. "Duke! Chill!"

Duke does not chill, preferring instead to bound about the room in happy circles. I produce a chunk of turkey from my basket and toss it to Duke, who snatches it out of the air and runs away, into the silos with it. Jace eyes the basket.

"So what'd you bring me?" he asks.

"Roasted turkey and smoked gouda on Rebecca's honest-to-goodness fresh baked croissants and waldorf salad."

"You know you're amazing, right? I pretty much live on hot dogs on sliced bread from the 99¢ Store."

He dives into a sandwich happily.

"What'd you bring me?" I ask, eyeing the open backpack on the floor.

He grins and upends the bag. Out spill his climbing shoes, harness, and ATC.

"No more suicidal shit from you. Today, we put up some top ropes."

*****

It's called lead climbing.

Your belayer clips an ATC, a sort of breaking device, into his harness. He feeds a rope through the ATC. One end of the rope gets tied off in a nice figure-eight knot with a loop on the end. That loop gets clipped into your harness with a locking carabineer.

"It's so unfair that you still have your gear." I complain as I take my skirt off. "I couldn't think of any excuse to bring mine with me when I moved out. My mom and dad probably sold it all on eBay. They sold everything else."

"Kit," Jace says awkwardly, "Why are you getting naked?"

"I'm not getting naked." I roll my eyes at him, like this is no big deal, pulling my harness on over the pink lace panties I absolutely did not pick out with this is mind. "It's not like I can wear a harness over my skirt. You might recall it's a sin for girls to wear pants."

"But getting naked in front in front of a man you're not married to isn't?"

"I'm pretty sure it isn't."