Rooftops

You never know when you’re going to run into your soul mate. It could be on the train, in the checkout line in the supermarket, or you might have even known them since you were little kids. Sometimes they knock on your window in the middle of the afternoon.

Okay, that sounds like they’re some creepy stalker. Let me start again.

In 2000, when I was 12, also the year my baby brother was born, I moved from my cozy home in Calgary to rainy and gloomy Vancouver. My dad was in management, so his job had him relocated. I was not happy about having to move. I loved Calgary, I loved my friends, and I loved my school. I didn’t want to leave it behind. We moved to Vancouver the July before I started grade 8. My birthday was near the end of August, so I had no one to celebrate with.

The house my family and I moved into was in a quaint neighbourhood. It was two stories, and my bedroom was a decent size. One thing I liked about it was that part of the garage roof was right under my window so I could crawl out and sit outside. The house next door had a very similar structure, and the neighbour’s garage roof was so close to mine you could easily step on to it.
The day before my 13th birthday, I was arguing with my mom outside of our house, while bringing the groceries in, about how I didn’t want to do anything, because I didn’t have any friends. “Eden, enough of that please.” My mom told me. “Why don’t you go over to the neighbour’s?” she nodded towards the house with the garage roof that almost touched ours. “They have a son that’s your age.”

“I don’t want to.” I huffed at her. My mom just rolled her eyes and opened the front door.

The day of my birthday was spent eating pancakes my dad made, and watching cartoons for most of the morning. I wasn’t going to get any presents until dinner that night, so I spent most of the day in my room. I was sitting on my bed reading a book when there was a light tap on my window. I ignored it because I thought it was a bird, but then the tap got louder. I looked up and there was a boy’s face pressed against the glass. I just looked at him strangely as he smiled and waved at me. I cautiously got up from the bed and walked over to the window and opened it up.

“Not to be rude, but who are you and what are you doing on top of my garage?” I eyed this boy suspiciously. He grinned at me again. He had a big toothy grin and his face was covered in freckles. The sun seemed to make his red hair glow so bright that it was almost blinding.

“I’m Kalen. I live next door.” He said, pointing to the window adjacent of mine.

“Hi, but that doesn’t answer why you’re on my garage.” I said.

“I overheard you and your mom talking yesterday that it was your birthday today, so I went and got you this,” he handed over a pink envelope. I took it and opened it only to reveal a very generic birthday card. The message he wrote inside was “Happy birthday, mysterious neighbour girl.” I smiled slightly and thanked him. “So, are you going to tell me your name, or am I just going to have to call you ‘hey you?’”

“Eden.” I replied.

“Eden, huh?” Kalen seemed to ponder this for a moment. “Well, Eden, it’s nice to meet you.” He stuck out his hand for me to shake it, which I did. Someone called out Kalen’s name, and he looked back towards his window. “That’s my mom. I better go. I’ll see you around.” Kalen smiled before crossing the intersecting garage roofs and entering into his window. He turned back towards me and smiled again before shutting the window. I stood there for a moment, before shaking my head and chuckling.

Kalen and I became really close friends after that day. We spent a lot of our free time together, and we usually played video games and watched movies. Sometimes we’d take the bus downtown and sit in one of the malls and people watch. Kalen was very good at finding things to keep us occupied with. I think the reason for that had to do with his mother. When Kalen was 10, his mother, Lucy, was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. Lucy had severe migraines, she threw up a lot, and she sometimes had seizures. She was in and out of the hospital a lot up until Kalen and I were 15, and then she was admitted full-time. I think Kalen had such an enthusiastic personality and always wanted to keep busy because he didn’t want to think about what could happen.

For as long as I had known him, Kalen hadn’t exactly been a private person. He was very open, very friendly, and got along with pretty much everyone in our class. He was sweet and charismatic, and just an all-around good guy. I rarely ever saw him in a bad mood, except, of course, his sisters had been bugging him. We could talk about pretty much anything, except for anything that was happening in his life. Kalen didn’t like discussing what was happening with his mom, mainly because I think it caused him a great deal of pain and anxiety.

Kalen and I had different interests in school. I was more into sports and he was more into acting and drama. I played on our high school’s soccer, volleyball, and track team, and he was in drama all through school. But we supported each other’s interests. He would come to all of my home games, and I would go see all of his plays. We also met another girl in grade 8, Tiffany Stafford, who was in our homeroom, and she played soccer as well. Tiff was one of those girls that hit puberty at a very young age and developed breasts before any of the other girls in class. She had long, straight, brown hair, and she was fit. It was rare that she wasn’t dating any one, and she could be a bit of a try-hard at times, but I still loved her. She also had other friends she hung around with. If I wanted to classify them by stereotypical high school cliques, I’d have to go with that they were the popular girls, and Tiff was their Queen Bee. I very rarely ever hung around them, unless Tiff was having a party at her house, which seemed to be almost every Friday or Saturday. I got along with them well enough, but not enough to want to spend every moment with them. But, what I really loved about Tiff was that when she made friends with these other girls, she didn’t abandon Kalen and I. She told us that we were her friends first, and we always would be.

It was mid-October when Kalen didn’t show up to school one day. It was strange, because Kalen never missed school. I was honestly a bit worried about him. He was one of those people that had a nearly impeccable school attendance record. I spent most of the day wondering what was up with him. A few of our teachers asked me if I knew where he was and I had no clue. I didn’t know if he was sick, had an appointment, or what was really going on.

Tiff and I had soccer practice after school that day, so I didn’t get home until late. I was able to gather up all of the work Kalen missed and I was going to bring it to him when I got home. The school was only a twenty minute walk from my house, and Tiff lived more than 45 minutes away from it, so she ended up taking a bus home. I liked the walk. My neighbourhood was nice enough, so it didn’t bother me. It was maybe about 6 when I got home, and both of my parents were home. I entered the house and kicked off my shoes. I heard my mom call from the kitchen.

“Eden, is that you?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I yelled back at her. Her head popped out from around the corner.

“Good, you’re just in time for dinner!” She chirped at me. I went into the kitchen and my mom had two pots on the stove. My little brother was sitting in his chair. I walked over to him and ruffled his hair.

“Hey squirt,” I said.

“Hi Edie!” He smiled up at me. My brother was only two, so he didn’t quite know how to pronounce my name.

“I made spaghetti tonight,” mom told me.

“Sounds good. I’m just going to go over to Kalen’s for a minute to give him his homework,” I said, starting to head up to my bedroom.

“Was he not in school today?” mom asked. I shook my head. “Alright, well, don’t be too long.”

I nodded and headed up to my bedroom. I took off my socks and looked out of my window to see there was a faint light in Kalen’s room. At least I knew he was there. I opened my window and carefully crossed our roofs. I knocked on his window, and he didn’t answer. I kind of frowned and knocked again. There was still no answer. I was very confused.

“Kalen? Are you there?” I asked, pressing my face up against the glass. He was sitting on his bed, not really moving at all. I opened up his window and let myself inside. “Hey, Kalen, why didn’t you answer?” I asked him, setting my feet on the floor. He still didn’t look up at me. I was now officially worried. I set my backpack down and walked over to him, sitting down next to him. “Kalen?”
I noticed he was shaking. He kind of made a whimpering noise. “Kalen? What’s wrong?” I gently put a hand on his shoulder. “Why weren’t you in school?” He finally looked up at me and his eyes were bloodshot and glassed over.

“My, uh…my mom…” he managed to get out. “We got a phone call last night from the hospital, and…they said that she had taken a turn for the worse.” My stomach felt like it was in knots. I moved my hand from his shoulder to his hands in his lap. “They said she wouldn’t make it through the night and she…she…” Kalen burst into tears and it finally hit me. My stomach dropped.

“Kalen, I…I’m so sorry.” I finally got out. Kalen smiled weakly. “If you need anything…anything at all, I’m here for you, okay?” I had no idea what to say to him. I had never lost a parent so I had no idea what his mind was like at that moment.

“Would you stay here tonight?” he asked me. “My dad isn’t here right now, and my sisters won’t be here until tomorrow. And…I just really need you.” My hand tightened around his.

“Of course.” I told him. “I have to go back and get some PJ’s and tell my parents.” Kalen nodded. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, okay?” Kalen nodded again. I kissed his forehead and grabbed my pack, heading back over to my house. I stuffed some pajamas into my bag and went downstairs. My parents were sitting at the table.

“Mom, dad? I need to stay over at Kalen’s tonight.” I said. Both of my parents looked up at me.
“Eden, it’s a school night, you can’t…” my mom started to say, but I started to cry mid-sentence. My mom stood up and walked over to me. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

My bottom lip quivered, “Kalen’s mom…she passed away.” I said just above a whisper. My mom’s face fell and she just looked at me for a moment. She brought me into a tight hug. “Stay with him as long as you have to.” She told me. She let go of me, and I could see that she was starting to tear up. I nodded slightly and she let me go back to Kalen’s.

I entered through his window again and he was now curled up in his bed. I set my bag down on the floor again and laid down next to him. I still had no idea what to say to him. I’d let him talk if he had to. Kalen and I were still until he suddenly moved and put his arm around my waist and moved closer to me. I hesitated for a moment before deciding what to do. I put my arm around him as well and he started to cry. And I let him. He cried for about ten minutes before he started making desperate sounding gasps. I just held him closer and rubbed his back. He started to slow down his breathing, occasionally hiccupping.

“I…” Kalen started to say, “I knew this was inevitable, but I didn’t think it would happen so soon,” He said. I just kept rubbing his back. “I just always hoped that she’d somehow get better and everything would be okay.”

I wasn’t used to hearing things like this from my friend. Kalen exuded positivity and if I could describe him in two words it would be “sunshine and rainbows.” Hearing these words come out of his mouth was definitely something that wasn’t natural. Of course when he was in plays, he would sometimes have dramatic and heart wrenching scenes, but those were not his words. Those were scripted, and this was completely real.

“It’s pretty stupid to think that she would have gotten better.” Kalen continued. “I mean, this thing was inoperable, and she was sick all the time; there was no chance she would ever get better.” Kalen exhaled. “Am I stupid to think that?” he asked.

I didn’t know how to respond to that. I thought for a moment, “I don’t think it’s stupid.” I said. Kalen moved away slightly and gave me a strange look. “Your mom fought as hard as she possibly could against this. And she lasted a hell of a lot longer than the doctors thought she would. She fought to the very end.”

Kalen just looked at me with an unreadable expression. After a moment, he smiled. “She did, didn’t she?”

“She did. She tried as hard as you believed.” I told him. He moved in closer to me again and we stayed like that for a while. We didn’t say much after that. When it got to be about ten, we were both starting to get tired, so we got into our pajamas and went to bed.

I closed my eyes and was just starting to drift off when Kalen spoke in a soft voice, “Thank you, Eden.” I smiled slightly. “Thank you for everything.”