A tree leaned over the garage of my house on road 17. The branches thickly draped over the roof line making it an ideal hiding spot. It was our fort. I first discovered it while collecting the blossoms to make a necklace and Salem help me find crates and boxes for tables & chairs. From the roof we could see all the nearby main streets and so if on the rare occasions Auntie went to visit her sister, we had a place to talk and play while keeping watch for Aunties return. We even had a secret path thru the hedges so that Sylvia could come and go unnoticed by the neighbors.
I looked over towards Sylvia’s house. Sylvia’s bedroom window was on the other side of the house. Auntie had full command of the side facing me, however Auntie had the habit of closing her window shutters at 10 a.m. in order to prevent the days’ heat getting in the window. No one bothered the store room window.
I waited in the shade.
There was a movement in the branches.
Salem’s grinning face peered thru the foliage. I jumped. Salem laughed and patted the ground. He watched with me, as he was part of my conspiracy, to send messages to my new friend. He patted my shoulder and handed me the thin jute rope. The rope went thru the insides of a thin metal tube. Another piece of twine was tied to a soldered loop on the outside of the tube. If I could get the 2 ends of the rope tied in the correct places, gravity would help glide the message tube to the store room window and then she could pull it back to retrieve Sylvia’s message. They could have the perfect message system. According to Sylvia, Auntie hardly left her room or the salon (fancy kind of living room). When Auntie wanted anything she rang the buzzer (once for her sister and twice for her) and they supplied it for Auntie. The only time Auntie did anything was at 5 p.m. when she made dinner. The she went back to the salon and watched TV while Sylvia and her sister cleaned up.
A banging sound brought me back to reality. Auntie was closing her shutters. I jumped up and hurriedly began to climb down the tree. Salem stopped me. He was doing a funny hand signal with his thumb and fingertips together. “Be Shweesh” he whispered. I looked at him from the tree trunk. He made the hand signal again, and added a funny slow waving motion with his hands…”ala mahlik” he said and again said “be shwish” I smiled. He was telling me to go slowly and carefully. I crept along the hedgerow very quietly and trying to stay in the shadows just in case Auntie came out.
Finally I reached the area of the storage room window. Even though it was on the first floor it was still high up. I jumped and my fingertips barely reached the sill. I dug my toes into the lines of the rough concrete willing my arms to work, willing myself up to the level of the window. Sweat was pouring off my face badly and there was dirt and sweat in my mouth. A head appeared thru the window. I looked up. It was Doreen. “What are you doing?” she demanded “you are going to get us in very bad trouble.”
“No I am not” I replied while straining to pull myself up.
Sylvia came in. “Erin, Have you figured out a message system?
“I think so….I am going to tie this string thru the slat of the shutters and then we will give it a try.” Doreen muttered about trouble again and Sylvia told her to leave us alone.
I tied the string to the shutter and waved at Salem in the tree. He forcefully slid the cylinder down the rope. It glided perfectly to the window.
Sylvia waved to the tree, then said “That’s great now how do you get it back?” I covered my mouth to prevent giggling.
“Like this” I whispered…and waved at Salem who gently pulled the other twine and the cylinder back to the garage.
Flip flop flip flop….both girls heard the sound of slippers on stone. I jumped and ran into the hedgerow to hide. Sylvia closed the shutters. I waited in the shadows, willing Auntie away from the window and praying that she would not check it out. I waited what seemed to be forever. After a while Sylvia came out the back door with the trash. She waved in my direction and went back inside. All was well.
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