Three To See The King by Magnus Mills
Author:Magnus Mills [Mills, Magnus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-12-18T05:00:00+00:00
12
I didn't really like going on the roof, not if I could help it. It seemed a bit high to me, and I'd actually never been up there before. Nonetheless, one afternoon I found myself clambering round on top of the house as if it was second nature. This was all to do with the chimney, of course, and Mary Petrie's insistence that it still needed lengthening.
'No point in doing it yet,' I said, when she raised the subject. 'It's practically autumn now and we won't be opening the shutters till spring.'
'Oh yes, and then you'll find another excuse to put it off,' she replied. 'I want it done now.'
'We haven't got a ladder.'
'Look!' she snapped. 'Do you want me to go up there and sort it out myself?'
'No, no,' I said. 'I'll take care of it.'
I wasn't sure how I was going to lengthen it exactly, but I decided that if I went on the roof and carried out an examination, then she'd probably be satisfied for the time being. Having seen Simon, Steve and Philip all go up there without a ladder, I knew it must be possible. I waited until she'd gone for a walk, however, before I tried. To my astonishment I found it quite easy once I'd managed to scramble over the eaves, and by the time she came back I was an accomplished climber. I made sure she saw me at work with a tape measure, checking the length of the chimney against its diameter, as well as taking a note of the circumference. Then I tried to get down, and found I couldn't.
She'd already gone inside when I made this discovery. The trouble was, when I dangled my foot over the eaves I couldn't find anywhere to place it. At the same time I felt sudden beads of sweat developing all over my body. I sat there trying to keep calm and puzzling how the others had found it so easy. When I thought about it I realized they were simply more used to it than I was, especially Steve, who'd done countless alterations to his house. It just needed practice, that was all, so after a while I tried again. It was no good, though. The moment I began my descent the beads of sweat returned and I had to go back up. Now I was certain I was stuck.
Just then my eye was caught by the sight of some travellers in the distance. Such people had become so commonplace over recent weeks that if I'd seen them from the ground I'd have barely given them a second glance. From high up here on the roof, however, they appeared in a new perspective, and therefore held my gaze a little longer. Long enough, in fact, for me to notice that they weren't heading west, as I would have expected, but directly towards me.
Peering more intently I saw that there were three of them, and that they were walking single file in the steadfast purposeful way I'd come to recognize amongst these migrants.
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