Crazy by Benjamin Lebert Read Free Book Online Page A

out
checking.
Checking,
in Neuseelen language, means being caught while up to something illegal. Janosch says
getting checked
is uncrazy. He laughs. The fire escape is a little to one side of the window. Just where you can reach it with a jump to the right. Bottom line is that means I can’t get there. I don’t jump. Let alone a big jump. Not even when there’s a fire. And I’d rather burn up than jump.
    Janosch, Felix, and the others flick their cigarette butts down into the inner courtyard. They take a step forward. Janosch sets his right foot on the windowsill and climbs up, the open cigarette pack held between his thumb and forefinger. He lets it drop into his pajama pants, where it makes a rectangular shape against his right side. Sits well. Doesn’t even move when he moves. Janosch is all prepared for the jump.
    “Crazy, huh?” he asks triumphantly.
    “Not crazy, dumb.” Fat Felix is pissed off. It’s the old song. The two of them collide. As always.
    “Crazy and dumb are essentially the same thing anyway,” Janosch whispers, and laughs.
    “Essentially—no. In reality—yes,” is Glob’s retort. “And in reality I’m not going up that fire escape again.”
    “Me neither.” I add my whisper to the conversation.
    “But essentially you’re going to do it, yes?” is what Janosch wants to know. He’s won—it’s over. Further arguments don’t count. Our leader has kicked us in the ass. Fat Felix still tries to disobey orders, but he’s cracking up.
    “What if my pants fall down?” he asks despairingly.
    “Then this dump of a courtyard will finally have something to look at. It would be great. When the headmaster drags the new kids in here every day to show them around, he tells them they’ve really got something to see. So show it to them!”
    Everyone laughs, even Troy, who’s come out of his corner.
    The beer is still hidden under his pajama top. It must be warm by now. Janosch waves me over to him on the windowsill. He thinks we should jump one after the other. Like two real heroes. When he gets onto a rung of the ladder, he can pull me over to him without any problem. I don’t have to take a real jump. All the same, I’m afraid. I can’t explain it. Sweat breaks out on my forehead. My knees are trembling. The drop is more than thirty feet. Janosch jumps. In a fraction of a second he’s hanging on the ladder. His feet grope for the lowest rung. It takes more than half a minute for him to secure his footing. He waves.
    “I’m afraid of heights. What if I fall?”
    “You won’t fall. And if you do, I’ll catch you. I’m here. And if Fat Felix can get his ass in gear, so can you.”
    Glob sticks his head out the window. He’s blushing. “I’ll get more than that in gear, but not till I’m upstairs.”
    “Sweetheart, I know that,” says Janosch. “So— Benni, you can get going.”
    Okay. It can’t be that hard. I jump. There’s a short period when I’m hanging in the air. Then I seize Janosch’s hand. He guides me safely to a rung of the ladder. We climb a little higher. Florian jumps. He needs space. My left side has problems in store. I should add that I never climb anything. I only have to see a ladder and I panic. My left foot keeps getting caught in the rungs of the ladder. My left hand keeps losing its grip. The higher I go, the worse it is. I’m very high now. Barefoot, of course. The ladder’s made of steel. Each step on the round rungs hurts. With luck I’ll be at the top soon. All this just for the girls, I think. Some people would say I’ll never need a girl. And on my second night, here I am hanging desperately off a castle wall, trying to get to them. That’s the way it is, according to Janosch. It’s right. We need girls, that’s all. Like light or oxygen. All of us. Even Glob. Why, God knows. Now Glob jumps. One hand is clutching his pants, the other a rung of the ladder. He gives a sigh of relief. Does Troy need girls too? It’s his turn to jump. It