She sat on the ledge as her body trembled and burned. Adrenaline release? Exhaustion? Both? She didn’t know. She could hear a quiver in the panting of her breath. The ground was so very far down. She was close to the end of her strength, but she was also close to the top.

She carefully stood up.

Behind her, the wall was as smooth as a playground slide. To her left, a crack ran upward, and on her right the wall flattened and dropped a good forty feet to a ledge below.

“You’re almost there.”

Lila looked up and saw that the top of the wall was a mere two feet beyond her reach. She looked for chalk marks and saw none. Had she boxed herself in? This is where her yellow brick road had led her, so what was she missing?

“There’s no handhold.”

“There is,” Andi yelled. “You just don’t see it.”

Lila looked again and saw nothing.

“Go to that crack.”

Lila shuffled along the ledge to the crack on her left, about five inches wide.

“You know how to play rock paper scissors?”

“Yeah.”

“With your left hand, do paper.”

Lila made paper.

“Now slide your hand into the crack just above head height.”

Lila moved her paper into the crack.

“Go deep enough so that the rock presses against the knuckles on both sides of your hand.”

Lila did as Andi instructed.

“Now make a rock.”

When Lila made a fist, her hand expanded, filling the gap, pressing against the walls of the crack.

“That’s your handhold—that fist. You need to jump, using your fist as a handhold and—”

“I need to what?”

“Jump. Pull yourself up with your left hand and grab the top of the wall with your right.”

Lila’s arms were heavy and weak. Her legs shook so badly, she thought she might collapse and fall off the ledge at any second—and Andi wanted her to jump? “I can’t,” she said, more to herself than to Andi.

“Don’t think about it—just do it.”

“No, I’m serious. I don’t have anything left. I can’t jump. I—”

“It’s all in your head. Your mind will give up long before your body will.”

“I’m shaking. My legs feel like—”

“Don’t do that, Lila. Don’t give up. You’re stronger than that. Trust me—trust yourself!”

“I’m coming down.”

“That’s fear talking. Don’t let your head get in the way! You know what to do, so do it.”

“It’s too high.”

“God dammit, Lila.” Andi’s voice turned hard with exasperation, or maybe anger. “You get your ass to the top of that wall or don’t expect to see the inside of a courtroom again—not under my watch!”

“That’s not fair.” Lila stared at the top of the wall, which seemed to move farther away.

“If you let your mind fuck with you like that—”

“You can’t do that. I worked hard—”

“It’s your fear that’s stopping you. Nothing more.”

Lila started counting down in her head. Ten, nine, eight…