Olly looked up. Higher and higher, to the top of the tower. ‘Can I get up there?’
‘In the lift—but you can’t abseil. Not unless you sign up and pay for it.’
Sign up?
Abseil?
From up
there
?
Gulping away the nausea that suddenly filled him, he rushed into the base of the tower and grabbed a handful of notes from his wallet to pay for his ascendance to the top. The lift filled with sightseers—people who wanted to go to the viewing platforms and gaze out across the naval city—and they all seemed to take an age to file in before the lift doors closed.
Not him, though.
Portsmouth was probably gorgeous, but the one thing he wanted to see was Lula. Nothing else.
Eventually the door closed, and he felt his stomach drop as the lift moved upwards. Impatiently he stood with the tourists, waiting for them to climb to the top of the tower, hoping that she wouldn’t start her descent before he could get to
her. Hoping that her nerves would make her wait until he got there.
Ping.
The door opened and he rushed out, heading over to the roped-off area where he’d seen the people assembled earlier. There was a young guy there, with a ring piercing his nose, wearing abseiling gear and a helmet.
‘Lula Chance? Where is she? I need to talk to her!’ He grabbed the man’s arm to make him look at him.
The young lad pointed through a door. ‘She’s in there, mate. About to descend. But you can’t go through.’
‘I need to speak to her. It’s urgent!’
‘I can’t let you go through. Abseilers only, I’m afraid. The outer doors are open, and without safety equipment—’
‘Then kit me up! Look.’ He pulled his wallet from his back pocket. ‘I’ll pay the registration fee.’
‘I dunno, mate…’
‘Do you want to raise money for leukaemia or not? I’ll sign one of those waivers—whatever—but I need to go through!’
The nose-ring lad seemed to think about it for a moment, then nodded and pulled a piece of paper from the desk behind him. ‘Here you go.’
‘Thanks!’ Olly scribbled his signature on the
form and then jumped over the rope and pushed past him, yanking open the door.
‘
Lula!’
He found himself in a corridor, with narrow stairs leading down to an open door through which a strong gust of warm wind was blowing. Outside there was a narrow platform, with a couple of people on it. One on the platform and the other climbing over. He saw wisps of purple hair…
‘Lula! Wait!’
There was real fear in her eyes, and she was gripping onto the arms of the guide for dear life, but she heard him call out and looked up.
‘Olly?’
Her eyes met his and it was like a thousand lightning bolts smacking him in the guts. There she was. Looking as wonderful and as gorgeous as he’d ever seen her! And she was standing on a really narrow ledge with a massive drop behind her…
The guide took one look at him and held up a hand. ‘Stay back! You can’t come out here!’
He held up his hands. ‘I’m abseiling, too.’
‘Not without kit, you’re not!’
Olly looked about him and saw an organised puddle of belts and metal clips arranged on the floor. He’d seen people do this, so he stepped
into one of the harnesses and pulled it up over his trousers, tightening it about his waist.
‘Better?’
‘Look…she’s about to descend a hundred metres, mate. I think she needs to concentrate on what she’s doing, don’t you?’
‘I need to speak to her.’
‘You’ll have to do it at the bottom.’ He grabbed his walkie-talkie and spoke into it.
Olly gazed at Lula. ‘Lula…I love you. I need you.’
She smiled, her eyes brimming with tears. Then she nodded. ‘I love you, too.’
‘We can be together!’ he shouted, hoping she could hear in his voice how much he meant it.
She stared at him. ‘Olly, I’m scared.’
‘You? You’re the bravest woman I know.’
‘I don’t feel brave right now.’
‘You can do anything you put your mind to. I need to be with you, Lula. I’m not going away.’
She locked eyes with him, then nodded. ‘Watch me. Will you do that? I’ll be able to do this if you’re watching me.’
He nodded. ‘I’ll watch every step.’
Unbelievably, he saw her let go and his heart froze. She was going to go! She was going to do it! He couldn’t help but see the map of the city spread out beneath her, and all he could think about was the drop.
The guy who was guiding the ropes from above beckoned him over. ‘Let me check you’re fastened correctly.’ He patted him down and tested the ropes and harness were all set up correctly. ‘You signed the form?’
Olly nodded and gulped. Was he really going to do this? There was nothing
making
him do it. He could turn around. Go down in the lift. He’d still give the money to the charity—it wouldn’t matter if he backed out. What was a few hundred metres between strangers?
The guide beckoned him forward. ‘She’s frozen.’
His heart stopped beating. She was stuck on the way down?
How?
It should be impossible to get stuck doing something like this. The only reason she wouldn’t be moving would be if…
If she was scared stiff.
Lula had to be scared. Terrified. Frozen to the side of the tower. He knew he had to help her.
‘Let me go down, too. I’ll talk her through it.’
The guy shook his head. ‘All right, mate. But you’ll follow my exact instructions, yes?’
‘Absolutely.’
He ran through the instructions and Olly fastened on his helmet and clipped himself onto the rope. The guide made sure he was securely tethered, and then allowed him to step over the safety barrier.
‘Wish me luck?’
The guy shook his head. ‘You won’t need it.’ He tapped him on the helmet and let go.
Olly plummeted. Or at least he felt he did. Gravity had never felt so strong. Or so reliable. He could feel the pull of the ground and made the mistake of looking down. The ground seemed to rise up to meet him and he lost all the breath in his lungs, but a quick gulp of air, a squeeze of his eyes and a muttered prayer made his limbs move.
Lula was about twenty feet below him, a bright splash of colour against the pure white of the tower. Holding the rope in his right hand, he allowed himself to rappel steadily down the side of the building until he came level with his beloved Lula.
‘Hi.’ He tried to sound casual—as if this was something he did every day.
Her large brown eyes looked out at him from beneath her fringe of many colours. ‘Hi.’
‘You need some help?’
‘Are you offering?’ She gave a nervous laugh and attempted to look down.
‘Don’t look down! Don’t look down…just…look at me. I’m here.’
He reached out and rubbed her arm and she closed her eyes with gratitude.
‘I think I tried to do too much. I always knew heights would be the death of me.’
He looked nervously around them. ‘Well, let’s hope not. Will you listen to me? Let me help you?’
She rested her forehead against the rope. ‘You want to help me? After what I did?’
‘Do we need to talk about this up here? Can this not wait until we reach terra firma?’
‘I hurt you.’
Ah, so we
are
talking about it up here.
‘Yes, but that’s okay, because since you’ve been gone it’s clarified everything for me.’
She glanced his way. ‘You see my point of view?’
‘No. Not at all. You think your only value to me is that of procreation? What about love? What about being connected? About being soul mates?’
‘You think we’re soul mates?’
‘Don’t you?’
She grimaced. ‘It’s hard to think clearly up here.’
The wind blew them slightly and she gasped and gripped the rope tighter.
‘Are you kidding? This is the clearest I’ve ever thought! Lula? Lula, you can do this. Listen to me. You need to feed the rope through your right hand, nice and slow. As you do that you need to walk your toes down the side of the building. Little bits… That’s it. Keep doing that.’
They were moving again, but he could see she was still terrified. Her legs were trembling and
kept losing contact with the tower. He kept pace with her, staying level, making reassuring comments as she kept the rope moving.
‘There are thousands of successful marriages in this world, Lula, where couples don’t have children. Our happiness together is not based on that being the only criteria.’
‘Easy for you to say
now
.’
He could hear the shakiness in her voice. ‘Easy for me to say because it’s true. I
love
you, Lula! Would I have come all this way—would I be abseiling down this tower for you—if I didn’t love you?’
She looked at him and met his gaze. ‘No.’
‘You’re my everything. I’ve been lost without you in Atlee Wold. Everything seems darker without you there. You put
light
into my life.’
Lula stopped. ‘Light?’
The ground was getting closer, but they were still very high.
He reached out and laid his hand upon hers. ‘Beautiful, bright light. It doesn’t matter to me if we don’t have children because I’ll always have
you
, and if we decide that we want to have them in some other way, then that’s good, too! We could get cats or dogs—they can be our family in the meantime. And if cats and dogs are too tame for you then we’ll get something crazy—like an alpaca or a snake!’
She smiled at him. ‘I’ve always wanted a house rabbit.’
‘There you go! Lula, tell me you’ll come back with me. That you’ll come back with me and marry me and be with me in Atlee Wold!’
Lula looked up at how far they’d come. She’d done some of it on her own, but she’d accomplished far more with Olly at her side.
‘Olly? Will you wait for me at the bottom?’
He frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I think I can do this now. It’s not far. Let me finish this abseil on my own. I’ll meet you at the bottom and we’ll talk then.’
‘Are you sure you can do it on your own?’
‘Abseiling? Yes.’
Olly nodded and rappelled down the last few feet to the bottom. She heard people clapping and cheering as she got closer and risked a glance down. It wasn’t far. There were people, and boats on the water. All those faces looking up—looking at
her
. It felt right to finish the abseil on her own. It had been
her
challenge and she was determined to complete it—as she had done all the others. It was just that on some occasions, such as this, it helped to have Olly at her side.
Did she always have to do stuff alone? The way she had her entire life?
No. She didn’t.
She’d found her mother at last—was there any
reason she couldn’t have Olly, too? Apart from the one thing she feared…?
But if she lost him because she walked away now, wouldn’t that hurt just as much? She’d already faced that fear and lived through the pain of losing Olly once. But he’d offered a lifeline. A second chance. And there was no reason not to take it because if it was true what he said—that he could be happy with just her—then wouldn’t they
both
be happy for many years together? Wasn’t that worth more than worrying about something that might never happen?
What was that saying?
’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all…
Her heart soared at the possibility of hope. Hope that she could consider being with Olly and going back to Atlee Wold and Patrick and her mother and all the other wonderful people she’d met there.
As her feet touched the ground she felt Olly’s arms embrace her and he turned her round to shower her face with kisses. She could hardly breathe, but that didn’t matter—because Olly was there and together they could face anything! Wrapping her arms around him, she pulled him tight before they had to separate and remove their harnesses and helmets.
The man at the bottom presented them both
with a T-shirt. Written across it was
I took the scenic route
.
Lula looked at it and laughed.
She’d done it!
* * *
Sitting in a cafeteria overlooking the waterfront, Lula stirred her tea and stared at Olly. She couldn’t get enough of just looking at him. At one time she’d thought that she would never see his face again, and today here he was—her knight in shining armour, who’d rescued her from a tower!
‘Would you really consider having a pet snake?’ she asked, smiling.
Olly reached out and took her fingers in his own. ‘I would do anything for you. You know that.’ He smiled, then had a thought. ‘Just don’t expect me to hold it.’
‘I quite like boa constrictors…’
‘If that’s what it takes.’ He squeezed her fingers and smiled.
‘We could also have a dog, if you wanted something a bit more traditional. I am prepared to compromise.’
Olly lifted her fingers to his lips and kissed her. ‘All great relationships are based on it.’
‘Is that what you think we’ll have? A great relationship?’
‘I don’t think it. I know it. I feel amazing when I’m with you. I feel alive—I feel the whole world
has woken up and I can see everything so clearly. It’s right that we’re together.’
‘And if I wanted to pursue…other things…would that affect us?’
‘Other things? What? More crazy stunts?’
She looked at him. ‘Children. Babies. I want them, Olly. I spent so many years telling myself that I didn’t, but I was lying to myself. Maybe I am a traditionalist at heart? But fertility treatment can be hard. Difficult. It can break people. That’s what I’m scared of. Right now I know I can’t have kids, and I’ve accepted that, but if we go down other routes and I accept the hope that I might get pregnant somehow…but it all fails anyway…I’m not sure I could live with the disappointment.’
‘Not us. I’ll go through every step of it with you. With every ounce of my being. If it doesn’t work out then we’ll be upset and saddened, but it won’t end us. We’re stronger than that—we’re bigger than that.’
‘But how do you
know
?’
‘Because we’ll be in it together. Because we’ll have made the choice together. I know my own heart. Even if I can’t have children with you I will still have
you
. And you are so precious to me…’