It is a sunny summer afternoon on the outskirts of Chicago.
Ziva had gone over to Alice’s house next door to see if she could invite her to come play with her Barbies. Alice was, however, unwell, having picked up a virus from her sister. She came back into the house, dejected, and sat next to her uncle, who was watching cricket on the TV.
Seeing her long face, uncle had to ask, “why are you sad, Ziva?”
“I don’t have anyone to play with.”
“I can play with you.”
Ziva’s eyes lit up: “Can we play House?”
“House is boring! Let’s play outside.”
“Outside…but isn’t it hot outside,” Ziva was looking out of the window?
“Maybe, but a little sunlight is good for you. That is how you get your vitamin D; That’s what makes your bones strong.”
Ziva was still unsure, so she asked the in-house expert. “Mommy, is it okay if I go outside and play?”
“Yes, Ziva, go with uncle. It will be good for you.”
“Okay. Let’s go!” She bounded off to the door to put on her shoes and uncle trod over slowly to do the same.
At the park, there were quite a few options to choose from. However, uncle quickly discovered that most of the items – from the swings to the slides – were made of metal and they had become quite hot in the afternoon sun.
“Ziva, I don’t think we can play with any of these. They are too hot. You will get burnt.”
“Oh no!”
“Sorry, Ziva.”
“It’s okay, uncle, we can go back and play House.”
Uncle was not ready to give up on the outdoors yet. He looked around to see what else they could do, till he spotted something at the edge of the park.
“Ziva, do you know what I used to play when I was your age?”
“Daddy said he played cricket. Did you play cricket?”
“No, I never played cricket. I used to climb trees.” Uncle led Ziva to the tree he had spotted earlier. It was a small Osage Orange tree, about 15 feet tall.
“This would be a great tree to climb, don’t you think, Ziva?”
“I don’t know, I have never climbed a tree.”
“Really?” Uncle was very surprised.
“Yes. I don’t know how to climb a tree.”
“Well, that’s the easy part. You just need to climb.” With that, uncle lifted his leg and stepped on to the lowest branch which was no more than two feet off the ground.
“Now you try it, Ziva,” uncle stepped back down.
Ziva was still worried. “It is too high, uncle.”
“The first step is always the hardest, Ziva. Do you want me to help you?”
“No, uncle, I want to do this without your help.” Uncle was impressed with the firmness in Ziva’s voice.
Ziva stood next to the trunk and wrapped her arms around it, locking her fingers on the other side. Leaning back, she placed one foot on the tree and lifted herself up.
“Good, Ziva, that’s the way to do it!”
She tried to take another step up with her other leg but her arms weren’t strong enough to hold on and she quickly hopped back on to the ground. After one more attempt, she decided that was not the way to do this.
She stood next to the branch and placed her hands on it. With a short hop, she lifted herself on to it. She just managed to get her torso over the branch and started to tip over to the other side. Uncle grabbed her legs before she could fall over.
“Uncle, I told you I don’t need any help!”
“Yes, but your mommy will be angry with me if I don’t bring you back in one piece.”
She nodded.
Ziva did think this method was promising. She tried again and as she started tipping over, turned just enough so that she was facing the trunk while she got one leg onto the other side of the branch. She was off the ground and fully on the branch, clinging on tightly.
Slowly, she dragged herself closer to the trunk and using it for support, lifted herself so that she was sitting. More confident now, she quickly, raised both legs and placing them on the branch, pushed herself up to standing.
“Well done, Ziva!”
Ziva beamed at uncle. She was ready to climb higher. The next branch was poking off just a foot above the first one and it was easy for Ziva to just step on to it. And the one above that was even quicker. Before long, Ziva had climbed 5 branches and she was now well above uncle.
“Ziva, I think the next one too small, it will break if you step on it,” uncle pointed out and started climbing after her. After climbing two of the branches, he was almost face-to-face with Ziva.
“What do you think? Did you like climbing a tree?”
“I love it!”
“Is it better than playing House?”
Ziva thought about it. “No, it is different.”
Uncle nodded. “You should ask Daddy to build a house on the tree in the backyard, then you can climb a tree and play House at the same time.”
“You can’t have houses in trees, uncle. Houses are on the ground!”
“That’s probably a good thing. Daddy would not like all the ideas I am giving you.” Uncle looked at his watch. “It’s time for tea. Do you want to climb back down now?”
“No. I want to sit here for a while.”
“Okay.” Uncle climbed one more branch and sat down too.
Kids were coming into the park play. Ziva observed them from her perch, hidden from view. “They can’t see me.” She smiled, her new hiding spot made her happy.