First Draft Chapter 7

It was a foolish impulse really.
It was summer again.  I am positive I was fifteen now.  Believe it or not reader, I had avoided clashing with the Strates for almost a year.
An insignificant amount of time?  Well, maybe.  I had my warning at fourteen, by fifteen I had disregarded it.  It was not even a year and I had forgotten My lesson.  At the time it seemed like a long stretch though.  After all, I had made it though a whole school year.  The summer before seemed like an eternity ago.
It was another carefree summer.  Somehow I took it for granted that every summer would be, and every summer should be, like that.
And reader, absolutely nothing had changed.  It was like a rerun of last summer.  Abel still complained about how he had nothing to do.  My father was still the Duke’s fourth in command.  David was still my best friend.  We spent virtually every summer day together, along with our other friends: Simon, whom you have already met and others.
One day David and I passed the Strate Park.
The Duke treated his men well.  He created a park especially for the Strates, which was off limits to civilians.  A high fence ensured not only that we would not enter, but that we could not even see what was inside.
Curiosity had always nibbled away at me.  I longed to see what was in Strate Park.  Rumors declared that there were streams, waterfalls, green grass, all sorts of beauty.  The rumors even declared it was the most beautiful place in Urbae, and It was reserved exclusively for the use of the Strates.
I remarked to David upon passing that I would really love to see what was inside, and he, not realizing the danger of his answer, replied that he would as well, and all too quickly I became obsessed with the place.
I remarked frequently to David and all our other friends I would love to get inside.  One day our friend Icarus told me he knew a way in.
“I’ve thought about this quite often myself,” said Icarus to David and I.  “And I think I might have found a way in.”  Icarus shared my curiosity.  He had a very inquisitive mind.
We walked along the steel wall.  It was much too high to hope to leap over.  There was nothing to grab onto, so one could not climb over.
“Do you boys really want to get into the park?” Icarus asked.
“Very much so,” I answered.
David, who should have talked me out of anything stupid, was caught up in curiosity himself.  All of us badly wanted to know what exactly was hidden behind those steel walls.
Old Flash was really quite clever when he designed the place.  No trees or tall objects were allowed near it.  No one could climb up a tree and peer over the walls to get a glimpse of the park.  If it was possible to see part of the park from any other part of Urbae, I was not aware of it.
Icarus pointed to the wall.  “See how there’s a ledge on top of it?  What we need is a rope with a hook attached to it.  We could throw the hook up, get it caught on the ledge, then use the rope to climb up.”
“Sweet.”  I was overjoyed at the prospect.
“How are we going to get down?” David asked.
“Easy,” Icarus answered.  “We’ll use the rope on the way down.”
A flaw in the plan occurred to me.  “Where in the world are we going to find a rope with a hook on it?”
“That’s the beauty of it,” Icarus replied.  “My dad has one we could borrow.”  Icarus’ father was an inventor.  I had not yet met the man myself at this point in my life, but I had heard stories that described him as a rather eccentric gentleman.  But what is myth and what is fact?  What deserves to be recorded here, and what is nonsense?  To be honest, I am not sure if most of what I heard in the school hallways was untrue or not, but we heard plenty of stories about Dedalus, Icarus’ father.  According to these stories Dedalus had created many different wonderful and magical tools.  He had created a pair of wings that people could actually fly with.  He had also created all sorts of wonderful toys, which he had refused to let anyone market.  Again, I stress reader that I doubt the reliability of all these myths.
Another problem remained.  Strate Park was in the middle of the city.  It’s walls were patrolled.  We couldn’t just very well climb over in front of everybody.  I asked Icarus about this.
“Yes, that is a problem,” he agreed.  “We’re going to have to go around by 49th street.  It’s relatively isolated back there.”
“There’s still plenty of people who go past,” David interjected.  “Besides, it’s still patrolled.”
“That’s why were going to have to move fast, but I think it’s still doable,” Icarus answered.
I was excited, so when Icarus asked if were in, without thinking I replied, “definitely.”
David looked at the wall.  Curiosity was eating at him just like the rest of us.  One could almost see the inner turmoil with in him.  “I don’t know,” he replied at last.
“When will you know by,” I asked.
“I don’t know.  I want to see what’s over there but…” David’s voice trailed off.
“Come on Dave,” I encouraged.  “We won’t get caught.
“Not so fast,” Icarus interjected.  “This is a high risk operation we’re running here boys.  There is a high possibility we will be caught.”  Icarus looked at me to make sure I understood.  I nodded in acknowledgement.  “Alright, now we need to set some ground rules here.  The more people we have in on this, the higher probability we will get caught.  Agreed?”  David and I agreed.  “Okay, so nobody knows about this except us.”
Icarus already began planning out the finer detail of our journey.  He wanted to go early in the morning so not many people would be around and we would decrease our chances of getting caught.  Icarus also sneaked the rope and hook out of his dad’s collection, and he wanted us to begin practicing with it before the big day.  It did take some getting used to, but after a while we felt like we could scale anything.  David practiced with Icarus and me, and I think that’s what caused him to make up his mind.  After all those hours of practice, it would seem like a waste not to go into the park.  The whole time we followed Icarus’ directive, keeping our operation a secret from our friends and especially from our parents.
And then we decided to turn fantasy into reality.  Icarus and I slept over at David’s house the night before.  The following morning we awoke before it was light out.  We walked in the cool of the night air to the place where we had decided, where people did not pass by as frequently as they did in other places.
Icarus had the rope ready, as well as a spring device also designed by his dad.  Icarus used this to catapult the hook over the wall.  It took a few tries, but eventually he got it over, and then he pulled it tight.  He tugged it to make sure it was secure, and then he climbed up.  David and I nervously kept watch down below.  Once Icarus was at the top he perched himself on the ledge and waved, signaling for us to follow.
David and I glanced uneasily at each other.  “Do you want to go first?” I asked David.
“Sure,” he replied.  I knew he was very nervous by the way that his voice sounded.  I almost offered to go first instead, but then I thought David might not follow once Icarus and I got to the top.  With my encouragement, David began climbing the rope.
The air was beginning to assume a pink quality as the sun slowly rose up.  Off in the not too far distance, I could see a light go on in a house.  Pretty soon, the whole city would begin to wake up.
I was shaking, despite the fact that it was a summer morning, and the weather was not cold at all.  It was relatively cool out, but the weather showed every sign that it would be another warm summer’s day.
David made it too the top and sat down on the ledge.  It was hard for me to tell from down below, but I think he looked pale.  Icarus eagerly waved for me to follow.
I gripped the rope firmly.  Cool sweat was on my hands, and I worried that my hands would slip once I was higher up, but I lost the presence of mind to wipe them off.  I took a deep breath and steeled myself for the ascension.
Up on top, Icarus was already beginning to lose his patience.  At any moment a Strate on patrol could have passed by (the outside of the park was well patrolled) and that would have ended our little expedition very quickly.  Icarus waved wildly for me to begin my ascent.
I wasn’t ready.  I let go of the rope and shook my hands, trying to shake all the nervousness out of them.  I closed my eyes and tried to picture myself at the top.  Icarus’ voice disturbed my concentration.  “Hey, come on man.  Let’s go.”
Pushing the worries out of my mind, I grabbed the rope and started my ascent.  I climbed as fast as I could and with such purpose of mind that I didn’t even start to get nervous until I neared the top.  It was rather petrifying being up so high.  The wall was probably about as tall as a three-story building.  The scariest part was when I reached the top and had to climb up on the ledge, even though Icarus and David were there to help me.
Once I had gotten to the top, Icarus wasted no time before he reversed the hook and began his descent down into the park.  David followed after him.  I sat in silence and gazed at what I had so long wondered about.
In the hazy glow of the first light I looked out at the park.  It was a disappointment.  How could it be otherwise when my expectations were so high?
It was beautiful though; there was no denying that.  Rows of trees reached upward to catch the first rays of sunlight, which rested gently on their leaves.  Green grass nestled up against gently flowing streams.  Hills rippled through the ground.
“Hey, Jonny, let’s go!  Come on, look alive,” Icarus yelled up from the ground, shattering my thoughts.  I grabbed the rope and began the descent.  It was not near as scary as the climb up.
Once I was on the ground, Icarus grabbed the rope and tried to pull the hook down.  It remained stuck in it’s spot.  Icarus then tried to shake the hook loose.  No effect.  “Well,” David said, filling a tense silence, “at least we know the hook’s secure.”
Icarus swore.  He pulled hard at the rope in anger.  He cursed himself loudly.  “It would have been so easy,” he said “to bring tow ropes.  Why didn’t I think of that?”
I attempted to calm Icarus down.  “It’s no big deal.  We’ll just have to remember where we came in.”  And, in truth it really wasn’t all that big of a deal.  We would lose flexibility, but we still had our way out.  The thing was that Icarus had everything perfectly planned out, and now things weren’t going according to his plan.
We turned our attention from the rope, and looked at the park.  There was a moment of silence as we surveyed everything.  “It’s beautiful,” David said in a quiet awe filled voice.
And it was beautiful.  But many things are beautiful.  We routinely, in those summer days, retreated to the hills just outside of the city, and nature in her full majesty inhabited the hills as well.  This was no the first time any of us had been exposed to nature.
Icarus must have felt like I did.  “This is it?”  We all looked at each other.  Was this indeed all?  “Come on, let’s see what else is out there,” Icarus declared, going forth.  David and I fell behind him like sheep.
Our bold leader Icarus led the way as we spent the afternoon weaving in and out of trees, climbing hills and running down them, walking through mud and green fields, swatting insects and marveling at the occasional wildlife.  Though we saw nothing astounding our curiosity kept us hoping that something fantastic and magical justified Flash’s attempts to keep us out of the park.  Curiosity and hope excited us, and the time raced by.
Before we knew it the sun was directly over us, and we became hot and sweaty.  No strangers to summer weather, we were all in light clothing: short legged pants and short sleeve shirts.  Nonetheless, we longed for something to cool us off.  Our stomachs also made us aware that in all the excitement of getting into the park we had neglected to bring food and drink for the day and Icarus cursed himself for overlooking this and we all wondered how we could have been so foolish.
The first instance of relief was when we came across a stream.  Clear water rushed over rocks.  It was cold, but our bodies were hot and tired.  We took off our shoes and socks and rushed into the stream.  In some places the water was almost up to our knees.  We yelled and splashed each other and gently moved our tender feet along the rocky floor.
I noticed there was a sound of rushing water further upstream, and I called on both Icarus and David to come with me to discover what it was.  David was happy where he was, and even the curiosity of Icarus appeared to have given way to his weariness, so I splashed up stream by myself.
Not long after my friends dropped out of view, I found the source of the roaring.  A waterfall.  A beautiful waterfall.  I called excitedly for David and Icarus to join me.  I’m not sure if my voice carried down to them or not, but if they heard me they chose to ignore me, for they did not come.
I raised my arms as if to welcome the pouring water.  With arms still upright, I stepped inside the waterfall.  Water poured all around me.  The water caressed me.  My shirt and pants were soaked.  I felt my cares escape from me and be released into the water.  The water rushed on carrying my cares with it.  It was a very relaxing feeling.
I ran back to the others as fast as the slippery surface would allow me, eager to tell them of my expedition.  I got back, and they were no where to be found.  Neither their bodies, nor their shoes and socks were visible.  I called out for them, and heard a faint sound that resembled voices.  I put on my shoes and plunged ahead through the dirt yelling occasionally so I could hear them answer and allow their voices to guide me.
Eventually, the outlines of a lake became visible to me.  As I approached I could see two figures which resembled my friends, one on the shore, the other in the lake.  I broke into a run.
David was standing by the shore.  Icarus was swimming in the lake.  His clothes were in a pile by David.
“Fine idea just leaving me,” I said somewhat irritated to David.  David explained that they had meant to come back for me, but in the meantime had followed the stream down to where it filled into the lake.  I had simply taken the more direct route by crossing over land.
“Come on,” Icarus shouted.  “Come on in Jonny, the water’s warm.”  I removed my shoes and waded out into the lake.  Yes, the water was warm, surprisingly so considering how cold the streams had been.  I did not completely understand but I did not care at the moment.
I looked at David.  “Well, what are you standing on the bank for?  Let’s go it.”  David was hesitant about removing his clothes, and it felt awkward to me at first too, but once I flung my clothes off and embraced the warmness of the water, nothing could seem more natural.  My body already wet from the waterfall, I swam right out to Icarus while David let his body become slowly accustomed to the water.
“The water’s clean enough to drink,” Icarus called out to me.  He took a swallow to prove it.  I was hesitant.  The water looked clean, but one never knew in nature.  Icarus took another swallow.  He plunged his tongue inside the water and swished it around to show he was not afraid.  “Come on, what else are you going to drink,” he called out.  “We have to drink something.”
I agreed with this, and allowed the water to enter my mouth.  It quenched my thirst, but not my hunger.  Icarus was thinking the same thing.  “Well get more food eventually,” he declared.  “Until then we’ll have to let breakfast hold us.”
David, accustomed to the water now, swam out to us.  “Drink up,” Icarus declared.  “We shall never be thirsty again.”
“What a beautiful lake,” David commented.  “How unusually clear.”
“I could spend all day here,” I declared.
Icarus closed his eyes and plunged into the water.  We saw his shape go deeper and deeper into the water until we lost sight of him.
David and I looked at each other.  I went down, and felt every part of my body surrounded by water.  It was a pleasant feeling, but I could not stay there forever.  I hot up and swam towards the round sun to breathe the sweet air.  David’s body was penetrating the water now.
David broke through and breathed hard to recover his air.  Both of us caught our breath, and then realized that Icarus was no where in sight.
“Where is he,” I said, panicking.  “Is he still under?”
David looked around.  With a voice that tried to be calm, he replied, “I’m sure he’s alright.”
I plunged underwater again, looking for Icarus.  A school of fish swam by me, and then I saw Icarus’ body heading for the sun.
Icarus came, breathing deeply the sweet air.  Once he was done, I asked him if he had been underwater the whole time.
“Yes,” he replied excitedly.  “You wouldn’t believe what I saw.  It was really quite remarkable.”
“You were under that whole time?” David repeated his question in disbelief.  Icarus nodded proudly.  Neither of us could believe his stamina.  Both of us had come for air so quickly.
We relaxed in the warm embrace of the lake, while Icarus filled our ears with all the wonders of the depths of the lake.
I didn’t want to leave the lake.  I don’t think any of us did, but eventually curiosity about what else was in the park overtook us.
We swam to the shore and put our clothes back on.  “It was so nice,” David said.  “I hate to leave it.”
“We’ll be back,” Icarus answered.  “We’ll be back everyday now that we know it’s here.”  I eagerly voiced my support.
We struck out again, seeking to have our bodies dried by the sun.  Icarus tilted his face towards the sun and basked in its warmth. He turned to me suddenly, his eyes glowing.  “Imagine,” he said, “being able to touch the sun.”  Icarus stretched out his hands eagerly, as if he was trying to grab it.
“Careful Icarus,” David warned.  “Don’t look directly at the sun.”
Icarus seemed to disregard David’s warnings, stretching with longing towards the sun.
And we continued on, weaving in and out of trees, climbing up hills and running down them.
We did not know where we were going.  And so we wandered right into the main part of the park.  It was astonishing as well, with sculptures, fountains, nicely groomed bushes, benches and a herd of Strates enjoying themselves.
We all saw them at once and hurriedly returned to the trees, hoping that we had not been seen.  In our hurry to retreat, I fear we created too much noise as leaves rustled and twigs cracked under our bodies.  We did not look back to see if they saw us.
“Let’s get out of here,” I declared.  It was what we were all thinking, but for some reason I felt the need to vocalize it.
We ran through the park.  Icarus was leaps and bounds ahead of David and I as we struggled to keep up with him.
We heard, or thought we heard, the sounds of pursuers behind us.  I was never sure if it was my imagination or not until I looked behind me and saw men in black uniforms with black hats behind us.  We ran blindly forward.
“Icarus,” I yelled out, “which way is it?”  I meant the rope that we had left behind.
“I don’t know,” Icarus replied.  “Just run.”
Blindly following Icarus, who was blindly following his impulses, we ran right into another field, where another group of Strates were performing training exercises.
Icarus abruptly turned around and began running the other way.  Strates were coming at us from both sides.  David and I were running together.  I think he got tackled first, but I was soon after.  Icarus, as if he were suddenly equipped with wings, burst into a great speed.  The Strates leaped at him but he escaped them all and ran on.
I would later find out that Icarus would eventually wander around until he found the rope and hook where we had left it.  Icarus climbed up the rope and climbed down.  Did anyone see him?  If they did everyone turned away, quite leisurely, not knowing what near disasters this boy had just escaped from.  The sun shone as it had to on the swift legs disappearing into the crowd.  No one knew what amazing adventures had just befallen this boy climbing down from the sky, and everyone went calmly on.