“Harley, get down from there!” Dorothy calls as he swings from a branch like it’s a gymnastics bar. “You’re going to get hurt!”
As we arrive with the ladder, the apple tree shakes, higher and higher, until Harley pops out with his arms and legs wrapped around a skinny branch as he maneuvers toward the apple he picked out.
Cooper and I stop in our tracks and stare up at him.
“I couldn’t stop him,” Dorothy says, worried.
The apple trees aren’t especially tall, but this one is high enough that if he falls, he’ll definitely get hurt. He reaches out to pluck an apple from its branch, and my stomach drops, panic seizing me when his hand slips. The apple falls to the ground, and he screams, wrapping his arms and legs tightly around the branch as he begins to cry.
“It’s okay, Harley,” I call up as Cooper sets up the ladder. “Hold on. I’m coming up to get you.”
“Okay,” he whimpers.
Cooper looks at me. “I should climb up and get him.”
I shake my head, stepping onto the first rung. “You’re stronger, so you should hold the ladder for us.” Plus, the sheer look of horror on his face reminds me that he’s afraid of heights, a detail I won’t rub in right now. Not when he’s finally talking to me again.
He nods and grips the ladder rails, clearly relieved. “Yeah, okay.”
I climb the rungs until I’ve reached the top. Harley is still a foot above me, but I can’t get any closer. “All right, buddy, I’m going to need you to crawl this way.” I hold my arms out, ready for him.
He looks at me, unsure, then blows out a puff of air before nodding. His movements are slow and deliberate as he inches toward me.
“Okay, let your feet drop but keep holding on, and I’ll grab you,” I tell him once he’s above me, the weight of him making the branch droop in our favor.
He unwraps his ankles from around the branch and lets them fall into my left arm while I use my right to hold on to the ladder and balance.
“I have you, don’t worry. Now let go.”
With tears in his eyes, Harley lets go of the branch, and his full weight falls into my arms. I slowly lower him in front of me until his feet are on a ladder rung.
“You climb down first,” I tell him, but I’m not sure he even hears me. Because the second his feet hit the ladder, he takes off.
“Thank you both so much!” Dorothy says, clutching her chest.
Harley’s eyes scan the ground. “Where’s my apple?”
Cooper walks over to where Harley’s apple rolled and picks it up. “It’s right here. It didn’t make it far.”
“Oooh, thank you!” Harley darts underneath the ladder, bumping the unstable base with his shoulder, causing it to tilt too far to the right.
Everything after happens quickly.
The ladder shifts and begins falling over. My scream gets caught in my throat.
I try to leap off, but my shoe catches on the side rail, twisting my ankle and my free-falling body.
The ladder hits the ground just as I fall into Cooper’s outstretched arms. He’s breathing fast and hard, pure panic on his face.
His horrified eyes lock on mine as he seems to process that he caught me.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“I… think so?”
He lets out a huge breath and closes his eyes for a second. I can almost feel the relief rushing through him. Then he says, “You were right about the three seconds.”
It takes me a second to realize he’s talking about how long Harley can be unattended, but once I do, a laugh bubbles out of me. Cooper’s lips slide into a lopsided grin.
