A shoe hung from the gutter. Caught by its white laces, the shoe didn’t move. It was like a rabbit held by the ears.
The woman didn’t know how it got onto the roof of her house. It hadn’t been there yesterday. She was sure of it. It certainly wasn’t her shoe, for she would never be so careless.
She dragged a ladder across the lawn. Torn grass marked her passage. It took her four tries to haul the ladder into place alongside the house. Checking that it was firmly set into the dirt, twice, she began to climb. As she moved further away from the ground, her progress slowed.
She refused to look down.
Halfway up, her palms began to sweat. She gripped the bars tighter and left fingerprints each time she let one go for another. The metal was cold.
She urged herself forward.
The woman was nearly at the top when a gust of wind pushed against her side. She huddled closer to the ladder, wrapping her arms around it. Above her, the shoe looked flustered.
Finally, she gripped the last rung, and she pulled herself up to peer over the gutter onto the roof beyond. A boy lay sprawled by the peak. His eyes were closed.
The woman was flabbergasted. “Hey! Boy!”
He raised his head, squinting lazily at her.
“What are you doing on my roof?” she asked.
“I’m waiting for the universe to spill its secrets,” he said.
“On my roof?”
“Your house is the tallest on the street,” he said. “I figure if I’m going to catch any of the drippings, I need to be as close to the sky as I can get.”
The woman looked closer at the boy. He was still a ways from acne and awkward interactions, with gangly limbs waiting to be grown into. Meeting his gaze, she noticed that his eyes hinted at years they should not yet possess.
She looked away.
Then she noticed he wore only one shoe. “You’ve lost a shoe in my gutter.”
“I didn’t lose it,” he said.
She looked from the boy to the dangling shoe and back.
“It’s there as my anchor,” he told her.
“Right,” she said. “I think that’s enough of your games. It’s time for you to get off my roof.”
“But I can’t leave now!”
“You must, and you will,” she said.
“But the universe is rippling. It’s ready to spill at any moment!”
The woman frowned.
“I can’t leave yet. Not yet,” he said. “Don’t you want to know what it has to say?”
“No.”
“But it would change everything!”
“I don’t care. Get off my roof right now!” The woman pushed herself higher, hoping to make the boy think she’d fetch him if necessary.
“You don’t care?” he asked.
“No. I don’t. Because all that you’re saying is foolish nonsense,” she said.
“It’s only foolish if you’re not listening to it in the right way.”
“Listen, boy. I’ve had enough. You’re going to get down, and then you’re going to come with me,” she said. “We’re going to talk to your parents.”
“They’ll never understand.”
“Of course they won’t. You’re being an unreasonable child. Now—”
“No,” he said. “They wouldn’t understand why you’re trying to stop me.”
She looked confused.
“Come and sit with me.” He patted the roof next to him. “The universe is about to speak.”
“No, that is enough!”
The woman moved to climb onto the roof after the boy but slipped and fell to the earth below.
The universe cried to the boy until the moon rose and the stars flicked on one by one.