"Come on, you guys, let's go up Blackers, see if the tower is open."
Alex had told us about the Telecom Tower, how he and Dave had found an open door, and how they'd climbed up inside. It was still being built, with nothing fitted out yet, no equipment. Security seemed non existent.
It was a cold, clear Saturday, so Arabella and I dressed warm, in jackets and beanies. Alex didn't seem to feel the cold so much, or maybe he had so much energy, he could beat it. Anyway, I still had his big woolly jumper.
"How do we get up there?" I asked, being practical Leah.
"Walk up the road, that's easiest. Then we'll come down the quick way, straight down the hill and through the Bot Gardens. Takes a couple of hours, I guess, plus however long we're in the tower. If we can get in."
Being so practical, I filled up a bottle of water. "Here, you can carry it." Alex rolled his eyes, but took the bottle.
"I never thought of doing that," he said.
"As the actress said to the bishop," commented Arabella, who had a small bottle of her own. I'd seen her fill it, from the bigger bottle she kept under her bed. I looked at her, and thought she looked tired. She saw me looking, and I caught the tiniest shake of her head: don't say anything, Leah.
Half an hour later, our cheeks were flushed from the cold and the good fast walk towards the mountain. Arabella's eyes were bright, and her great flame of hair swirled as she spun in a circle in the middle of the road, then ran to us, laughing.
"God, I love you guys!" She wrapped her arms around us in a hug, before running again up the road.
I looked up at Alex with a query in my eyes. "Is she okay?"
"Not sure."
We followed up the road, and found Arabella sitting on a fallen tree trunk, panting. "I've knackered myself," she said, pulling in deep breaths. "How far to the top?"
"Bout ten minutes," Alex said.
"Jesus," Arabella said. "I'll walk the rest."
But when we got to the top, she saw another flat place, and she couldn't help herself, dancing.
Alex led us to a door at the base of the building's pedestal, around the back, away from the access road. "It's open," he said, and we crept in, trespassing, keeping silent. The space was huge, two storeys high, an enormous empty chamber. Two huge roller doors at one end were closed, we'd obviously come in an emergency exit.
"Come on," whispered Alex. He took us both by the hands to lead us to another door, behind which was a spiral set of concrete stairs, circling upwards around the walls. "This is the base of the tower," he said, as we started to climb. Just as well we were young and healthy and stupid, because it took us a good fifteen, twenty minutes, to get to a room beneath the huge cylinder of the concrete tower, going right up, far above our heads.
"I'm not climbing that," I said, looking at the steel ladders that went on up the tower.
"Yeah, fuck that," Arabella said, sitting on a ledge to catch her breath. "How far up are we, anyway?"
"About half way," Alex replied. "Hundred metres or so, something like that. I'm not sure how tall the tower is. I've a vague idea it's 250 metres."
"Fucking hell! That's one tall tower!" Arabella was impressed. "Where does that door go?"
She'd spotted a door, which looked more like a hatch, on the far wall of the space we were in. She got up, went to the door, and tried the handle. The door opened, revealing the world outside.
"Fuck, Bella, be careful!" Alex ran to her, grabbing her arm. They both looked out, leaning out. I came up behind them, took one look, and sat down, terrified.
"Don't go out there," I said, "it's too high, too dangerous." My heart was thudding in my chest, so hard I could almost hear it.
Mortified, I watched them both climb out; well, slide out on their bums, sitting one on each side of the door. At least they each had a hand inside the door opening, and I could see Alex's hand gripping Arabella's, holding her hand tight between them. I began thinking, what on earth would I do if they fell?
"Please, come back inside. It's too high. You're scaring me. Come back!" I dared not go near the door, for fear of startling them.
Thankfully, I heard Alex say, "Yeah, she's right, Bella. This is really fucking dangerous, let's get back inside."
But Alex waited for Arabella to get inside first, and when he closed the door he said, "They should fucking lock that door. I can't believe we could do that. That's not very safe."
I looked at Arabella, and she'd gone very pale, as if realising just how dangerous it was, what they'd just done. Her eyes were unnaturally wide, as if she'd just seen something... terrifying, awesome? I didn't know, but she scared me. I think she'd scared herself more. Which might have been a good thing.
"Yeah," she whispered. "They should lock that door, it's dangerous." She reached into her coat for her bottle. My heart thumped and my gut sank, but thank God, she only took one small sip. She looked at the bottle, looked at us watching, and put it away in her pocket. She gave the tiniest shrug. "This is why I need you guys," she said, in a small voice. "To rescue me."
"Give it me, Bella," I said, getting in as close to her mind as I dared, saying the name Alex had given her. Thankfully, she did, but I saw her hand shaking.
Arabella went on ahead of us towards the stairway going down. She held her hands back for us, one on each side, and she gripped my hand really hard and I squeezed hers back, and I guess Alex did the same. We went down like that for a few minutes, until we started going at different speeds. When we got to the bottom and back outside, my legs were aching, my muscles burning from all those stairs. I was never doing that again.
"Alex," I said, "I'm not going to do that again. Please don't ask me."
"Me neither," said Arabella, looking back up at the tower, her head tilted right back. "Jesus, look where we were," and she pointed. Half way up the concrete spire of the tower, we could see two narrow platforms, one above the other, and the outline of the tiny door was visible, leading onto the upper disk.
"Shit," said Alex. "I've had clever moments. That probably wasn't one of them."
