Nate and Larry just stood there, looking up. They had done many scary things in their fourteen years of life, but neither one of them was having an easy time contemplating this one.

“I got to admit, I’m not that good with heights,” Larry said quietly.

“Me neither,” Nate said. “They give me the heebie-jeebies, actually.”

“I want to back you up on this one, man,” Larry said. “I just need a little time to think.”

“Me too.” The sick feeling in Nate’s stomach was worse now. He thought he might throw up.

“You know what, you two?” Naomi said. “Heights don’t bother me one bit. Back in Maine we had this elm tree that went up forever. One time when I was eight or nine, I made it all the way to the top.”

“I don’t know,” Nate said. “It seems like if anyone’s going to risk their neck climbing this thing, it should be me.”

Naomi reached for the binoculars and hung the strap over her neck. “Besides,” she said, “if I spot your dad’s rifle, I’ll need you two to go where I point you and bring it in.”

She tied her hair back in a ponytail, so it wouldn’t get in her way climbing.

She was wearing jeans and sneakers, luckily, but she had no gloves, and the metal of the ladder was cold. Hand over hand, she pulled herself up its rungs while Nate and Larry stood below, coaching her. When she got to the first break, they called up to her, “Way to go, Naomi.” She didn’t stop but kept on climbing.

Somewhere around the halfway point she hesitated for a moment and looked down.

“You okay?” Nate yelled.

“I was just feeling a little light-headed,” she called down to him. “But I’m fine. I don’t think I’ll try looking down anymore, though.”

Below, Nate watched the figure of Naomi move slowly up the ladder. She was getting smaller now—no more than a dark smudge against the sky.

“How’re you doing?” he called out.

Her voice came back to them as if from a cloud. “Okay. But it’s pretty windy up here.”

“You scared?”

“A little.”

She had almost made it to the top when they saw her hesitate. She had paused on a single rung, going nowhere, within a few feet from the walkway that marked the top.

“What do you think’s going on?” Larry asked Nate. The two of them were afraid to call up to her, in case the sound of their voices might spook her.

“I can’t tell. This was a dumb idea. We shouldn’t have let her do it.”

Neither one of them moved, watching her. Finally Nate called up, “Are you okay, Naomi?”