But, What if I Forget all This?
Image: Patricia Lambert
"Grandpa, I can't see the sky from down here." I tugged at his overalls, hopping onto my tiptoes like a sparrow.
The old wooden ladder leading to the hayloft might as well have been a mountain; each rung was spaced for grown-up legs- that didn't belong to a seven-year-old girl with grass-stained knees. Grandpa chuckled, a sound like dry leaves skittering across the ground. He squatted down, his knees popping, "Alright, Darlin'. Up you go, but you best hold onto my ears like they're handlebars," he joked.
His hands, as rough as corn husks, lifted me onto his shoulders like I weighed nothing more than a sack of feed-corn. The sudden height made my stomach swoop, and I clutched handsful of his flannel shirt, my fingers brushing the worn leather of his suspenders as he climbed those forbidden rungs.
The old loft smelled like old hay and dust, golden in the afternoon light. His boots thunked on each rung, steady as a metronome, while I stared at the widening alice of sky above u a blue so bright it hurt, like God had pressed His thumb right through the clouds.
When we reached the top, he swung me down onto the sun-warmed planks with a grunt, then leaned against the loft opening. "Now, he said, what's so special about seein' the shy from up here, huh?"I crawled to the edge, looking toward the farthest point, where the land dropped away into a patchwork of crimson sumac and yellow hickory
The wind carried the scent of woodsmoke from distant farms, and below, our scarecrow-Old Tom- listed sideways in the pumpkin patch, his burlap grin stitched on by Grandma.
"Down there,"I pointed at my own shadow, stretched long across the ground, "I'm just me. But up here--" I spread my arms wide, feeling the air rush under my sleeves, "Up here, I'm part of everything."
Grandpa's laughter rolled out, rich and warm. He nodded toward the horizon, where the sun dripped gold over the hills like honey. You don't gotta be tall to see far.' he said, "You just gotta stand on the right shoulders."