Flying Mounties
"Oh come on Benny, you can't be serious!" said Ray indignantly. "I'm afraid so, Ray. I absolutely CANNOT be seen walking around like this!" Ray rolled his eyes. "You lost a BUTTON!!! It's a BUTTON!! Don't you have any others?!? I can't believe we're wandering around Chicago looking for a mountie button!" Benny kept searching, his eyes trained on the ground. He chose to ignore Ray's comment. Just then, a gunshot rang out and Benny's head shot up. "Ray, gunshot" he huffed as he took off in the direction of the sound. "Oh yeah, this makes sense! We've wasted ten minutes looking for a button and now you go chasing off after something you didn't even SEE!!" Growled Ray as he followed suit. Benny was far ahead. As he turned a corner, he saw a figure dart off in the distance and lit off after it. "Benny! Wait up!" yelled Ray after him. Fraser was out of sight, but Ray kept running.
Fraser was making progress. The gap between him and the mysterious gunman was closing, but it was still considerable. Fraser screeched around a corner just in time to see the gunman climbing the ladder on the side of a tall structure. He gave chase and started climbing also. Up and up he climbed, until he reached the top. It was nothing more than a narrow ledge with a sheer drop on every side. No one in sight. With a shock, he realised that he had climbed up a shaft of a building under construction, and that the gunman had used a hanging beam to cross to safety and then removed it. Fraser was trapped. As he looked around for a way out, he inadvertently looked down and his blood ran cold. Caught with a sudden rush of altophobia, he very carefully sat down and clasped the ladder in a death grip.
Ray arrived at the scene. No one anywhere. He looked left, right, and up. A flash of red caught his eye and he saw Fraser sitting very still on a beam high up. "FRASER!! DID YOU GET HIM?!?" "NO, RAY. I DIDN'T" "WHERE IS HE?!?" "I DON'T KNOW, RAY." "WELL DON'T JUST SIT THERE, GET DOWN HERE AND HELP ME LOOK!!!" Silence. "I CAN'T, RAY" "WHY NOT?!?" Ray was peeved. Again, silence. "BECAUSE I CAN'T MOVE, RAY." "CAN'T MOVE?!? WHY THE HELL NOT?!?" Pause. "WELL, RAY, IT WOULD SEEM I'VE COME DOWN WITH ALTOPHOBIA" Ray was puzzled. Acra what? "ACRAPHOBIA?!?" "NOT ACRAPHOBIA, RAY, ALTOPHOBIA. FEAR OF HEIGHTS. IT WOULD SEEM MY JOINTS HAVE LOCKED ONTO THE LADDER..." "Oh, shit." Thought Ray. "WHAT DO I DO??" "WELL, THE GUNMAN USED A BEAM TO ESCAPE, SO IF YOU COULD FIND ONE, IT WOULD HELP!" "A beam?!?" Ray thought to himself. A light bulb went on over his head. He ran into the adjacent building and began climbing.
"It's not that high." Fraser's heart skipped a beat. "Dad, please. This is not a good time." "Why can't you just climb down? You've GOT the ladder." "Yes, dad. But it would seem that that's the only thing that I can trust right now." "You can trust me, son" "I don't think so, dad. Not right now." "Why not?!?" "Because if it was up to you, you'd probably make it worse!" "Hey! I'm trying! I coulda just left you up here!" "Oh, Ray. Please don't surprise me like that. I wasn't talking to you in particular." "Then who were you talking to?!?" Pause. "Myself, Ray. It often helps if phobics reason with themselves. It helps to calm them down...Why are you out of breath?" "The elevator was broken. I had to run up the stairs." "You didn't have to run, Ray. I'm not going anywhere." Ray growled in exasperation. He then set off in search of a beam.
It wasn't long before Ray found the object in question. A long, heavy beam was lying on the rooftop and Ray could see the gravel around it had been moved around: another sign that it had been used recently. He grabbed the end of it and started hauling it across to where Benny sat stone still, talking to "himself". "Hey, Benny! How am I gonna get this across to you? It'll fall to the ground before you get to it!" Benny thought. A wind picked up and something hit the back of his hat. He cautiously looked behind him and a large rope was dangling there, as though waiting for him to use it. So, he carefully grabbed it and swung it over to Ray "You can tie the beam to it and then I'll be able to get off here." So Ray set to work, with Benny coaching him on how to tie the proper knot. Then, Ray hefted the tethered end over the edge of the building and "fed" it over to Benny's end. "Okay, Benny. Now, slowly, reach for the beam. That's it. Good. Okay. Lean forward...steady. You can crawl forward now. Good, steady. Don't rush it." Benny's feet hit solid roof. "Thanks, Ray." Ray gave him a wry grin. "Anytime. Shall we go find that button?" Benny smiled. "Sounds good, Ray."