8 years ago July 7th
It was a hot summer day at the neighborhood park. The air was humid and filled with the sounds of kids laughing and screaming. Enjoying the expansive playground and the freedom of summer break.
An 7 year-old Udo stood on the platform that opened up to the monkey bars. It was only about 6 feet off the ground to Udo it felt like 16 feet.
Going across the monkey bars wasn't a big issue for Udo but he was now trying to climb the playground Mount Everest. It was seen as a right of passage to be able to get on top of the monkey bars, and he would be seen as a legend going into 3rd grade. He also wanted to impress a quite but well liked blonde in his class, Zofia Reistch.
Zofia had moved on to their street last year, and was the new girl at Libero Elementary. With she sweet personality Zofia had made friends fast. The two had somewhat bonded after being sat next to each other in Art class. All year, Udo lived for Wednesdays when his class would go to art.
He now found himself on the platform mostly thanks to Zofia's best friend Gabi. Loud mouth Gabi as she was know by teachers, and Udo's parents had been teasing Udo about his fear of heights.
"Remember how you couldn't go down Big Bertha in kindergarten because you were such a scary cat, it was so funny Zofia, he cried until our teacher had to come get him down" Gabi said laughing.
"I was 5 Gabi, I'm different now." Udo shot back.
"Oh yeah...prove it", she said with her hands on her hips.
Other kids had now gathered around. Gabi knew how to draw a crowd.
"Fine I'll go down the highest slide here"
Gabi shook her head. "Not good enough. If your really not scared of heights anymore, then you should have no problem getting on top of the monkey bars"
The other kids looked to Udo then the monkey bars. It was something a lot of kids in the class and in their neighborhood hadn't done, at least the younger ones.
"Do it Udo! You might be the first kid going into 3rd grade to do it!" shouted a boy.
"It would be so cool", said another girl.
Then Zofia spoke up, " yeah it would be kinda exciting to see"
That's what did it.
So now Udo reached up and grabbed the first rung. He got some momentum & swung his legs up to hook them on the other rung.
"No turning back now" he thought.
After counting the 3 in his head he used his elbows and shoulders to push himself up in the space between the monkey bar rungs.
Next thing he knew he was on top of playground Mount Everest. It felt like he could see the whole park from here.
"Holy cow Udo you did it!!" a kid cried out!
"That's so awesome!!!" one of his friends shouted.
He managed to catch a glimpse of Zofia. She stood next to Gabi with a look of awe on her face. Her blonde ponytail waving in the breeze.
"Pretty cool four eyes.....a bit high up there isn't it? How ya gonna get down" Gabi said with a sneer. While impressed Gabi didn't like being shown up.
Then Udo made the mistake of looking down. He really didn't know how the other kids did it. He could always go back the way he came. It was too high to jump. He started sweating.
"Do you need me to go get your mommy Udddoooo" Gabi taunted. Looking over to the group of parents either engaged in a book, feeding a baby sibling, or chatting with each other.
