Slice of Life 19/31

Today I threw my model off the roof of the school building. If you are reading this and go to a different school than Logan, I was allowed to do this with the permission of teacher, and this was not an extraordinary teacher, this was a normal teacher by Logan standards. Anyway, a huge project that took me many months to complete, just dropped from the roof of the building, and snapped in half. The unwritten will for the model was that after Expo (the time when we present our projects), I would do something grand to finally dispose of it. I then thought of the idea to chuck it off of the roof in front of anybody that wanted to see it.

              So, at the start of the day, I started to take off all of the small parts that I wanted to keep. This was a model of the National Mall in Washington DC, and because of that I made many scaled tiny buildings like the White House, the Capitol, the Smithsonian Castle, etc. I took of all of these to keep for myself and perhaps give away to others, and prepared to go onto the roof to throw the annoying piece of work off into oblivion.

                 David, was one of my teachers last year, and now he is the head groundskeeper for the school. He is the only one that regularly gets onto the roof, so I arranged that we would meet just before lunchtime, and as I said, anyone that wanted to see could come and watch from the ground. My friend Charlie wanted to come so he and I brought my huge model with a base of foam core to the ‘meeting place’ with David. Waiting for longer than we expected, the anticipation increased and increased.

              Finally, I see David jogging in from working outside, knowing he is a bit late for this event. He then takes us to the door that I have never been in, which leads to a ladder that goes to the roof. Once we got there, David takes his large key ring with many different keys attached to it and unlocks the door. There is a hatch that prevent the sunlight from coming in at the top of the ladder. David climbs the seven rungs and open the hatch with a key as well.

              It swings open, and beautiful rays of light come down, highlighting the place where the Capitol building once stood. Charlie and I collectively heave the model up to David, and Charlie climbs up. David then motions for me to climb the seven rungs, and I do so, clutching the cold metal tightly so that I don’t fall. Getting to the higher rungs, I feel the effect of ascending into heaven as the bright light starts to blind me.

              I reach the top, and set my feet on new ground (being that I haven’t been to the roof yet in my time at Logan). The wind chills me as Charlie continue to carry the model closer to the planned edge where we are going to drop it. Once we reach the edge, the kids in my class are delighted to see us and know that the next minute or so will be very entertaining. Charlie and I walk along the edge until we find a place where the model won’t get caught in a tree, and set up to launch it into the air. Some time passes as we communicate and figure out the countdown until the launch (or drop, shall I say) and we decide the kids on the ground will count down from three.

              I flinch as I hear a chorus of children’s voices right away.

              “Three… Two… One!” When they get to ‘one,’ I swing the model backwards and forwards in unison with Charlie and in one big movement, we let it go.