Inspector Martin grew all kinds of fruits; from berries to citrus to apples. After we said hello to his wife and picked Ed’s father’s toolbox from the shed, Ed wanted an orange so we went to the orchard. I, on the other hand, needed to use the loo so I thought I would have a lavatory break while she picked her fruit.

But then two little boys came running to us screaming, “Help! Help!”

I recognised them as children of Mr. And Mrs. Knight, who were Inspector Martin’s neighbours. They were dressed in identical clothes – light blue shirts, brown waistcoats and matching trousers, but one could tell them apart by their hair colour and face structure.

“Hello, children,” I greeted with a big smile. “What’s the matter?”

“Our kite got stuck in a tree and it’s too high up for us to reach,” the blond cried and quickly grabbed Ed’s wrist. “Come help us, mister!”

Before Ed could correct their presumption, they pulled her away and I followed them to the only mango tree in the orchard.

It stood tall and old, bearing no fruit. There was some sort of wooden contraption-like ladder built around the front that was embedded into the trunk. Three brackets that lead up to the first branch of the mango tree stuck out of the trunk and connected to vertical wooden beams. Inspector Martin must have built it for easier access to the tree, since the first branch was so high up.

However, it appeared quite ancient and rickety, probably on account of being subjected to termites and harsh weather over the years.

“That’s our kite, mister!” the blond pointed to the second branch of the tree, where the multicoloured kite was lodged within the branchlets and leaves. “Could you climb up and get it for us?”

“Alright first of all, I am not a mister but a miss,” Ed corrected. “Secondly, do you want to kill me?”

“You are not a miss,” said the other boy – a brunet.

“Am too, and look at that apparatus over there,” Ed said and gestured towards the structure. “It’s practically falling apart. One step on it, and I’ll fall right on my skull, and all the beams will pummel right into me.”

The boys gasped, shaken by her morbid description.

“But our kite!” the blond whined.

I made my way to the contraption. Whereas Ed tried to convince them that there was no hope, I pressed down the first bracket with my hands to check its sturdiness.

“Listen here, lads. Either accept that your kite is part of the tree now, or call a monkey to help you out because I don’t think anyone is willing to climb – Nkwanzi, what are you doing?”

Satisfied that the ladder was not that sturdy but sturdy enough, I turned around with a triumphant smile. “I will get the kite down for you boys.”

The boys were overjoyed. “Really?”

Ed glared at me. “Yes, really?”

I nodded in the affirmative.

The brunet pouted. “But misses aren’t supposed to climb trees.”

“Do you want your kite back or not?” I retorted, but in a playful tone.

“We want our kite back,” the boys replied at once, eyes sparkling with expectancy.

I grinned. “Then I will climb and get it for you.”

“Oho!” Ed exclaimed. “Excuse me, miss, but just because I am heavier than you, you think you’re light enough to climb that thing?”

“It will hold,” I stated with nonchalance, then turned to grab onto the short beams. They wiggled a bit, but I took no mind.

Ed scoffed. “She thinks she is a superwoman now. Get down from there, dimwit!”

I ignored her and climbed the first step. The beams wiggled once more and the bracket underneath me sank and creaked, but nothing broke so I kept ascending.

Ed scoffed again. “And she ignores me. Dear God, why do I even try with this one? Today, I leave your stubborn daughter in your hands because I am done. You hear that, Nkwanzi?”

“You’re just as stubborn, Ed!” I called back, now attempting to climb the first tree branch.

“Uh-uh,” she dissented. “Unlike you, every wayward act I do is sensible.”

“That’s debatable!” I shot back. I stood on the first branch and supported myself with the second as I reached my hand out to the kite. “And I’m not arguing with you about this!”

“I think you're both crazy and unsensible,” I heard one of the boys say. “One thinks he is a miss and the other actual miss climbs trees.”

What wonderful praise from a boy I’m helping.

“My son,” Ed started, employing a sage-like tone. “Listen carefully for I am about to teach you an important lesson.”

I grabbed the kite and let out a small squeal of excitement, then proceeded to descend.

“Just because I do not wear dresses or have pretty long hair doesn’t change the fact that I am indeed a miss,” Ed remarked.

“Then uncle, why do you dress like a mister? Do you want to be one?”

“Why would I want to be a mister when I keep telling you to call me miss?” Ed reasoned.

“You’re confusing, mister.”

“I literally just said-!”

Ed’s rant was cut off by my scream. Once I had applied pressure on my foot on the first bracket of the ladder, it had broken and threw me off balance, hence the terrified wail.

It took a tremendous amount of upper body strength and thrashing about for me to keep hold onto the first branch and hoist myself up into a sitting position.

Nearly numb with fright and huffing, I looked down to see what was once a rickety old ladder contraption now collapsed in a pile of planks and beams. Ed and the boys’ jaws almost hit the ground with how agape they were.

My dear friend then closed her mouth and looked up at me with an air of indifference. “I told you so.”

I scoffed and threw the kite down in irritation. The brunet rushed in and scooped it up.

“Thank you, miss!” he hollered at me.

And just like that, he and his brother turned their backs to us and took to their heels, giggling all the way.

“What the hell!” Ed shouted after them.

“Bye, Mister miss!” the blond screamed back from the distance.

That phrase sort of lightened my mood, and I let out a little laugh. But as soon as I did, I was effectively reminded of my full bladder.

“Ed, hurry up and get me down from here,” I ordered, bringing my thighs together.

Ed tilted her head to the side and placed her hand on her hip. “Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? I left you in the hands of the Almighty in heaven, so He will be the one to get you down from there.”

“Don’t joke around, Ed!” I whined. “I really need to pee!”

Ed gasped. “Well that changes everything! I should really do something then!”

She put the toolbox down and trotted under the branch in a panic. And then she put her hands together in a cup gesture and raised them up to me. “You can pee right here in my hands, sweetheart.”

The furious glare I shot her only made her double over in laughter.

“Ed!” I chided, banging my hand on the branch in frustration.

She was so silly and infuriating in the direst of times.

Still recovering from her joke, she added in between donkey brays, “Wait here, miss superwoman, I’ll go get a ladder.” She shuffled off, still laughing.

I knew she thought I deserved this for being stubborn and not listening to her, but I had no regrets. My goal had been to help those little boys get their kite back, and I had accomplished it. My bladder had nothing to do with it.

It must have been around ten minutes that passed, and Ed was nowhere in sight. I tried to think of anything else but my bladder, but I wasn’t going to last much longer. Lifting my head upwards and shutting my eyes, I sent a silent prayer to Him to either help me or give me courage to jump and still live.

“Rose?”

My eyes snapped open at that familiar voice. I looked down and spotted Callum eyeing me curiously. He was dressed in a loose dark green button-up tucked into black trousers, plus his boots.

What really caught my attention was the bright yellow and pink wicker basket he carried in his hand, except I had more pressing issues to concern myself with – issues that pressed into my lower abdomen.

“Callum, I need your help!” Was my form of greeting. “I’m stuck in a tree!”

“I can, uh, I can see that.” He chuckled, somewhat amused. “Yet I’m not all that surprised. When the boys told me there was a miss stuck in a tree, I had a feeling it was you.”

What do you know? The little rascals did turn out to be helpful.

“Can you get me down?” I asked, both anxious and impatient.

“Yes,” he replied and placed his colourful basket down. “All you need to do is jump.”

The nervousness tipped above the impatience as the height/distance between me and the ground registered. It would be a rather hard fall.

“Will you catch me?” I asked, my tone laced with uncertainty.

He simply gave me a small smile and raised his arms towards me. “Rose, I won’t let you fall. I’ll catch you, I promise.”

I was put at ease by his reassurance, but the reminder that I would pee myself in front of him if I didn’t jump was a catalyst.

So I pulled myself together and pushed off the tree. My eyes shut involuntarily and I let out a small squeal as I swooshed in the air for a slight moment, then flung into what I recognised as Callum’s body.

He stumbled a bit as his arms swept across my back and waist, enveloping me. My fingers gripped his shirt collar and shoulder like they were my lifeline.
My feet then made contact with the ground below as he lowered me gently, and my hands slipped down to the front of his shoulders.

“Are you alright?” he asked, pulling his head back slightly so he could look at me.

My breathing was heavy and my heart raced; either from the adrenaline of having to jump down the tree or the delicate yet protective way this boy was holding me so close to him.

Whatever I felt at that moment was far less than the feeling of my bladder stirring and threatening to burst.

“I...I have to go,” I declared before slithering out of his hold and making a break for the nearest latrine.

After my lavatory break, it was like a gallon of rocks had been released from my lower abdomen. I walked back to the mango tree half-expecting Callum to be gone, and yet he was still there. Chatting away with Ed. Who didn’t seem to have brought with her anyone or anything like a ladder.

She saw me arrive and broke into a beam. “Well what do you know? I had returned to tell you help was futile and that you’d have to break your ankles jumping from that tree but then a saviour showed up.” She slapped Callum on the arm. “And I didn’t have to lift a finger, just like I prayed.”

“You’re really lucky I got help, otherwise I would’ve released my liquids right on top of your head,” I snapped at her. It instantly hit me what I had just said in front of Callum.

I slapped a hand over my mouth and looked at him in embarrassment. He seemed flustered, but folded his lips in, clearly fighting a laugh.

Ed just outright burst into laughter. “You’re so crass, Nkwanzi!” she reprimanded, but she was imitating those old women who often told her the exact same thing. “Such a vulgar mouth for a lady!”

She made such a good impression of the old lady voice that I couldn’t help but burst out laughing as well, and even Callum joined in.

The mood was successfully cleared.

“So what are you doing here, Callum?” I asked after our light moment.

“He was picking strawberries on Mrs. Plumberry’s request, and he’s heading to LightHouse right now,” Ed replied on his behalf. “I told him you two can go together since you had some things to check over there.”

I had nothing to check up on LightHouse.

Ed noticed my slightly confused expression and she added, “Then you both can talk or whatever.”

Then it hit me. Establishment Day.

“Oh yes!” I exclaimed with a bright smile. “I do have some seriously serious things that I must check on at LightHouse on no other day but today. So Callum, you’re coming with me?”

He smiled back and nodded.

*****

I honestly had no idea how to bring up Establishment Day. It was getting dark soon, and I needed to get the plan over and done with before the sun rose. Ed had provided me with this opportunity specifically for that.

“So...” I said as we walked on the street. He was pushing his bicycle along. “It’s a cute basket you’ve got there.”

The pink and yellow wicker basket that held the strawberries was settled in the metallic basket at the front of his bicycle.

“It’s actually Mrs. Plumberry’s. When she handed it to me, she told me that it’s specifically for strawberries.” He explained and gave me a sheepish look. “Doesn’t look very manly, does it?”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re helping an elder do a task which she otherwise could hardly manage by herself, and it’s not even for anything in return,” I pointed out. “That’s man enough for me.” I gave him an impish smile. “The basket is a bonus.”

He chuckled. “I don’t even know what that means.”

“Don’t worry about it. You don’t need to.”

The street lamps were lit because of the impending darkness, but then they suddenly went out. Callum and I stopped in our tracks and disconcerted groans of shop owners echoed all around us.

“The power went out,” he noted, looking around.

It was when my eyes caught sight of somebody lighting a candle through the window of the eatery next to us that my memory was jogged, and I released a gasp of realisation.

“LightHouse!” I shrieked.

“Uh, what?”

“I need to light the oil lamps at LightHouse!” I elaborated.

“You can-”

“We need to hurry,” I Intercepted his sentence and rushed behind him so I could push him forward while I picked up my pace in an almost run.

We didn’t have a caretaker for LightHouse so whenever things like this happened, I was the one on standby. It was a difficult job to light the oil lamps when the power went out, since it involved climbing ladders to reach the bracketed and hoisted lamps. Some of the tenants complained that I shouldn’t be doing it because I was a woman, yet irritatingly, none of them offered to help. The only one who did was Inspector Raphael when he happened to be around.

Luckily, I had come with Callum. He was the one who did all the climbing and lighting while I held his basket of strawberries.

The last ones to be lit were on the patio at the back of the flat.

“So...why couldn’t you get a caretaker?” Callum asked as he was still up the ladder to one corner of the roof, where the lamp was hoisted.

“Well, we can afford it, but I was the one who talked mother out of it.”

He cocked his head to peer down at me. “Because...?”

“Because it would be a waste of money.” I shrugged. “Why pay a caretaker when I’m here? It’s logical and economical.”

“I’ve done quite some economising through the years so I understand you,” Callum said as he climbed down the ladder, and I smiled at that.

He then faced me and continued, “But this isn’t an easy job.”

I groaned, sensing the impending point of view. “Not you too.”

“Look Rose, I’m not saying you can’t handle it nor that you shouldn’t do it because it’s a man’s job,” Callum went on, rolling the matchbox in his hands. “I’m saying things could go wrong. Risk of fire, risk of falling-”

“I’ve done it enough times and I’ve been fine. You don’t need to worry.”

He looked sceptical. “It’s just that after today, I’m finding it hard not to.”

I surmised that he was talking about the mango tree incident.

“That was different,” I said quickly.

“Was it?” he arched an eyebrow. “Ed told me how it happened. It was a consequence of your stubbornness. Or was it recklessness?”

Hearing him attempt to scold me annoyed me. “But nothing bad happened to me!”

“Because I was there.”

I huffed, glaring at him. “I would’ve figured it out sooner or later!”

Callum tilted his head to the side and observed me, like he was trying to figure me out.

The truth was that if he hadn’t been there, I would’ve jumped and probably broken my ankles like Ed said. But I wasn’t going to admit that. I was fine by myself and I didn’t need him criticising my actions just like everyone else. It was irritating.

“Callum, I’m not going to not do my job simply because there are risks involved,” I said instead.

“It still wouldn’t hurt to have a helping hand, don’t you think?”

He was sort of right, but I wasn’t about to give in.

“But economising-”

“I will come here to light the lamps whenever the power goes out,” he declared.

My lips parted in surprise. “B-but it’s my duty.”

“And I won’t strip you of it,” Callum responded and chuckled. “I figure you wouldn’t let me do that.”

I furrowed my eyebrows. “Then how..?”

“If I make it here first before you when the power goes out, I will light the lamps. But if you make it here first before me, you can do the honours,” he reasoned. “Same goes to putting them out.”

Oh.

The annoyance that had built within me fled as I welcomed the idea. Callum looked at me with his chin tilted downwards and a corner of his lips curved up. It then dawned on me that he had been calm this whole time while addressing the issue whereas I’d raised my voice and almost blew up at him.

Other than slight embarrassment, I felt deflated. I didn’t even have to be quarrelsome because he easily found a middle ground I could accept.

How did he manage to understand me in such a short while?

“Deal?” he asked, his eyebrows raised.

I couldn’t help smiling. “Deal.” I nodded.

A/N:

Whew, long chapter. I just realised this is going to be one short book. I had initially planned on finishing it by June, but I didn’t think it would be possible.
But now I actually see myself hitting that target, lol.

Thank you for reading😊 and don’t forget to vote⭐!