UP ON THE ROOFTOP, HO, HO NO

I was terrified.  I peered over the edge of the roof and the ladder was gone.  There was no way I could get down.  No way at all.  Fear raced through the hallways of my mind.  I screamed.  I cried and called for my mother.  I was five years old and I was on a roof. I  had blithely climbed up the ladder to the roof of my house, even though I had been told never to do so.  I was on my way home from Kindergarten when I saw it .  It was just standing there, so inviting, completely unattended.  Daddy had been putting new shingles on our roof, and had apparently taken a break and left the ladder there for just anyone to climb.  Being an adventurous little girl, I couldn't resist.  I easily got to the roof, and was exhilarated.  I felt like I was in Heaven.  I ran up and down the eaves and reached for the sun.  I waved to the mailman who was coming down the street to deliver the daily mail.  I waved at the neighbors, gleefully.  They all seemed quite surprised to see a five year old on the roof, but I was having a wonderful time.  I did a little tap dance or two and sang a verse of "You are my Sunshine".  I was a free spirit. Closer to Heaven than I had ever hoped to be.

However, I soon tired of the game, and the sun was getting very hot on my back.  I decided to go back to earth.  But the ladder was gone! That's when I screamed. Eventually, my parents heard my cries and came out to the yard and stood below.  Of course they knew I was up there, having heard the pitter pat of my feet , as I danced over the roof  above their heads.  Daddy called up to me and asked me what I thought I was doing on the roof. "I was just having a good time."  I said, knowing that wasn't a very good answer.  My Daddy told me that I could just keep on having a good time for the rest of the afternoon,  because he had taken the ladder away, and he wasn't going to be in a hurry to bring it back.  He admonished me and reminded me that I had been told to stay away from the ladder, and to never go up onto the roof. "Please," I cried, "I want to come down now." "You'll come down when I am good and ready for you to come down" replied Daddy. Daddy was teaching me one of his famous lessons.  The lesson was, of course, when you have been seriously told not to do something, then don't do it.

I spent the afternoon on the roof.  I was hot.  I was afraid.  I was hungry.  I hadn't even had my lunch and it was getting near supper time.  I was not singing any more.  There were no more dance steps in my little feet.  When neighbors saw me up there, I no longer waved and called out with glee.  I was miserable.  Just as the sun began to set, Daddy came with the ladder.  As he put it up against the side of the house, he said, "You can come down now.  And don't you ever do anything like this again."  I gingerly  climbed down the ladder, expecting a spanking.  But I guess Daddy thought I had been punished enough; no spanking was forthcoming.  I bolted into the house, hot, sweaty and tired, but so happy to be back to earth again. It had been an endless afternoon. I got no supper that night.  I was just put to bed without ceremony.  My big sister laughed at me, and told me that she was glad I got no supper because I had been so naughty.  I calmly told her to shut up and leave me alone.

Mother, always the old softie, brought me a sandwich sometime during the evening.  But I couldn't eat it, still being somewhat distraught and disheveled.  All I could think of  was the feeling of dread fear I had when I saw that the ladder was gone and I realized how far down it was to the ground.  I learned my lesson.  I have hardly set foot on a roof since; my rooftop days were over.  No one could pay me enough to go up on a rooftop now, much less to tap dance up there.