Have you ever been stuck in a tree? It has happened to me once. Only once though. I am not going to make the same mistake twice.
Like a lot of other kids, my parents were still at work when school was over for the day, so I had to walk from my school to my grand-ma’s house every day. I pretty much read the whole way, my nose in the books, not looking around to where I was going, my feet taking me home on their own. If you have not guessed it yet, I really, really like to read. I still do…
So that day, I had gotten to my grand-ma’s house in one piece. I had just arrived, walking along the fence on the one side of the house that was in the front by the road and I was almost in my grand-ma’s backyard, heard something. I stopped, everything was quiet. I started to move again, when I thought I heard something again. It definitely sounded like the meow of a cat. It could be a cat in trouble I thought. I really, really like to read and I also really, really like animals.
I just cannot go in my grand-ma’s house and ignore the, may be, could be, a cat in trouble. So I backed up a little and looked under the first house. That house is up on stilts. But I cannot see anything. I go around the other side, and peaked under to see if that cat is hiding there, but nothing again. I heard again the meow, and this time, it is meow, MEOW, MEOW. For sure there is a cat that needs me, Hina to the rescue…
I looked up and I saw it, the cat, stuck way up in our mango tree. The neighbor from the front house is not home,must still be at work so I cannot get help from that side. My grand-ma must be at the store for she does not answer me back when I call for her and I don’t know when she will be back. But anyway, she cannot climb the tree. She is too old. So there is only one thing to do. It is for me to climb the tree.
I really, really do not like heights. I get a little dizzy, very nervous and clammy…and that cat is till crying… MEOW, MEOW. It is calling for me “help, help”. I can see it looking down at me with its beautiful, liquid looking eyes as I look up nervously. I tried coaching it to come down on its own without success. I tried to entice it to jump in my arms… RIGHT!… I have to go. There is no choice you see. With four legs and claws up to the wazoo, I can’t believe this cat got himself stuck. It’s a cat, for crying out loud…
I can’t believe I am going up that tree. It should habe been my brother Moe, him and his claw like toes, could have done it so easily. He always wins at rope races. He cheats. He only has to hook the rope in between his toes and up he goes without any efforts or struggles. They are all curved so he can go fast. His last baby girl, Tekura, has the same toes I hear. She will be able to climb up a coconut tree faster than a coconut tree crab.
Anyway, back to the story. I am climbing that tree, slowly, carefully, making sure I am not looking down. They always tell you “don’t look down”. It must be working for I am climbing higher and higher, closer and closer to that darn cat who is looking at me. I am not paying any attention to the mangoes hanging close to me. I cannot bring down a cat and mangoes at the same time. I am almost there, “come on, minou, minou”, that’s how we call cats in Tahiti and I reach my hand, almost touching the cat. I can feel his breath on my hand and… he runs down, jumps down the tree and leaves me alone up there! I don’t know what happened, it happened so fast. But I must have looked down, because now, I am stuck up there.
I can’t move. I can only grab the tree tightly between my arms and a puny, pitiful “help” barely pass my lips. May be I believe that if I open my mouth wide to yell, I’ll be opening my arms wide to fall. That’s so stupid. But here I am, up there, all by myself, a little shaky, may be a lot, unable to move to save my life, to be stuck way up there for who knows how long…
Well, it could have been an hour or more or less, but I was so happy when I saw my grand-father, papa Tane, coming home on his bike. He heard me. He put the ladder against the tree and he saved me. Yea…
That was not even our cat!
story written by moi, Hina December 2009.