Innocence - Flash Fiction

                                                            Innocence

The instruction came to her in a dream. In four days, she had to be at the pinnacle of her building at midnight on the fourth day of the fourth month in her fourth year.

At supper, Celeste without qualm announces her dream to Mom and Dad.

Mom made a furtive glance at Dad.

“Remember, we agreed,” Dad said.

"Mom, Dad. What is the highest part of our building? That is the pinnacle, right? Jimmy said because they put a cell tower on theirs, it made them taller than us. When will they set a tower on ours?"

"Yes, Sweetheart. Pinnacle is the tip-top of any structure, the building, a mountain, or anything else. I'm not sure about the tallest spot for our building, Honey," Dad said, "but I think it's the middle air-conditioning unit. It feeds all the common areas like the hallways, recreation room, and lobby,"

Mom grinned. "I think Jimmy's building has always been taller anyway. They wouldn't put a tower on us because other skyscrapers are much more suited to their purpose than ours."

"Oh, okay," Celeste said. The time came to ask. “Mom, will you take me to the roof in four days?” The roof at night was no strange place to her. Mom had taken her up there a few times after dark to explain the absence of stars were due to light pollution from the vast city stretching for miles around. Celeste accepted mom's explanation and wasn't sure what she was to expect at midnight on the appointed night.

Dad nodded.

“Alright, Honey. I’ll take you up. You have set an alarm and wake me. I can tell you we are not climbing on the air conditioner.” Mom said.

The final declaration of mom’s agreement bothered her. The dream was explicit. Go to the pinnacle. “Thank you, Mom.”

#

The next day, Celeste snuck up to the roof to double-check for the pinnacle. The air conditioner was much too tall for her. Getting onto the unit worried her. There appeared to be no way to scale the tall sides. Hopefully, Mom will relent and figure a way to get up there. On heading back to the access door to the roof, she realized it looked taller than the air conditioner as it jutted up from the smooth rubberized roof.

Circling the access, she found a sloping ladder affixed to the back, heading up to the top. If she were to go to the tallest part, then the creator of the dream would provide a means for her to do so. Celeste accepted the ladder as divine providence. 

On the third day, with two days to go, Mom pushed through the access door and stepped out on the roof with Celeste.

“Over here.” Celeste lead Mom around to the back of the access.

“You think this is the highest spot?” Mom asked.

“I think so. Look at it, isn’t it higher than the air conditioner?”

Mom studied the two and decided. “You’re right. It is.” 

Sleep eluded Celeste as she lay awake, waiting for 11:45 to come. She was a special little girl; mom and dad told her so, they never talked baby talk to her. They conversed with her like an adult. They explained things she wondered about and much she had not. She had not doubted for an instant that Mom or Dad would not have permitted her to go to the roof at the designated time. They had always promised they would listen to her.

She understood those things; she had been reading chapter books since the age of 3 and got the gist of the concepts the authors tried to convey. Celeste heard her dad tell a neighbor one day she was a twenty-year-old trapped in a four-year-old body. 

Celeste climbed out of bed and tip-toed out the door and headed down the hall and tapped on Mom and Dad’s bedroom door. “Be right there.” Mom emerged from the bedroom fully dressed. “Let’s go.”

Mom waited at the bottom of the ladder as Celeste gained the roof of the access. The sky appeared the same as she had seen before, dark with a few sparkles. “Stay in the middle.” Mom instructed as she made no move to climb.

“Okay, Mom.”

In the distance, a clock tower began to chime. The sky lit up in bright blue specks of light blending in with the city lights. A lovely cloud of pale blues and purples with dashes of red presented a heavenly scene.

Celeste satisfied God had called her up at this time to be a witness. In the light gray-violets of the cloud, he appeared. 

The little girl, Celeste, could not have been more pleased to learn God was a Bunny Rabbit.

Lisa Falzon - Kissed by starlight