Little was said between Emily and Joel as they made their way back to her corner-apartment building. When they arrived, Joel stopped before the lobby doors.
‘How high is it?’ he said, looking up.
‘Twenty storeys,’ Emily said. ‘I live on the top floor. Pegasus is on the roof above that.’
‘What? Twenty storeys?’ Joel complained. ‘You expect me to climb twenty flights of stairs?’
‘I told you, Pegasus is on the roof.’
When Joel hesitated, Emily sighed. ‘Look, you’ve come all this way. Are you going to go back now just because you’ve got to climb a few stairs?’
‘Twenty flights aren’t a few stairs!’ he complained. ‘It’s a marathon!’
Too tired to fight any more, Emily shook her head. ‘Fine, Joel, go home. I guess I was wrong when I thought you liked Pegasus. Just do me a favour, will you? Keep your mouth shut. You may not believe he’s here, but others might.’
Emily said nothing more and pulled out her flashlight. She entered the lobby and walked towards the stairwell. As she pulled open the heavy metal stairwell door, she heard footsteps behind her. Looking back, she saw Joel.
‘It’s still going to be twenty flights,’ she warned.
Joel shrugged. ‘I know. But I haven’t got anything better to do.’
Climbing the first five flights was easy. Making it to ten was tiring. By the fifteenth floor, both Emily and Joel were out of breath and feeling nauseous. Taking a break, they both sat down on a stair.
‘I didn’t think it would be this hard,’ Emily panted. ‘I thought walking to school was enough exercise. But I’m really out of shape.’
‘Me too,’ Joel agreed between breaths. ‘I used to live in Connecticut and played school football. But it’s been too long.’
In the dim light from the flashlight, Emily looked at him. ‘So you’re from Connecticut?’
Joel shook his head. ‘I’m from Rome. You know, Italy. But when I was a kid my father got a job at the United Nations. So we moved to the United States and found a house in Connecticut. My parents commuted into the city every day for work.’
Emily was surprised. Joel didn’t have any trace of an accent. She’d have never guessed he was foreign. For as long as he’d been in her class, she’d never known anything about him. Just that he was a troublemaker. ‘So then you moved into the city and now live in those brownstones?’
‘Not exactly …’ he started. He paused. Suddenly his mood changed. He stood up abruptly. ‘I don’t want to talk about it any more,’ he said. ‘Are we going up or what?’
Without waiting for her, he charged forward into the darkness of the stairwell.
The final five flights were climbed in silence. When they reached the top, Emily drew the keys to the roof door from her pocket and stepped up beside him.
‘He knows you are coming, but I don’t think he’s too happy about it. So take it easy on him. You can get as mad at me as you like. But I don’t want you yelling at him. You got it?’
‘I didn’t yell at you,’ Joel challenged.
‘Well, whatever you call it,’ Emily responded as she inserted the key and turned the lock. ‘I don’t want you doing it to Pegasus. He’s hurt and in pain. You’re going to be nice to him or I swear I’ll push you off the roof.’
Joel looked shocked by the sudden change in her. ‘If he’s really here, I promise I won’t do anything wrong.’
‘Oh, he’s here all right.’
Emily shoved open the door and stepped out on to the tarmac roof. ‘He’s in that shed over there. ‘You still here, Pegs?’ she called out.
A soft nicker came from the shed. Joel’s expression changed from doubt to absolute wonder.
‘Remember,’ Emily held up a warning finger, ‘be nice or you’d better learn to fly real fast!’
She drew Joel towards the shed.
‘Did you miss me?’ she asked as Pegasus came forward to greet her. She stepped up to his head and started to stroke his smooth white face. A sharp intake of breath was all Emily heard from Joel. She turned back, and saw his disbelieving expression.
‘Pegasus, I would like you to meet Joel.’ She beckoned Joel forward. ‘Joel, this is Pegasus.’
Joel entered the shed and stood before the stallion a full minute before he was able to move or speak. Finally he shook his head and raised a hand tentatively to reach out and stroke Pegasus’s head.
‘I can’t believe it. Pegasus is real! And he’s really here!’ Joel’s eyes were beaming.
Emily watched his thick armour of anger melting away.
‘He sure is. But he’s also very hurt.’ She led him to the broken wing. ‘This needs to be set, but I don’t know how.’
She then directed him around to the other side. ‘Pegs?’ she said, speaking softly. ‘Would you lift your good wing so I can show Joel the spear? He’s going to help me get it out of you.’
Without hesitation, the stallion lifted his wing to reveal several centimetres of broken spear sticking out of his side. ‘Oh my Lord,’ Joel cried as he inspected it. ‘Who did this to him?’