did their heavy breathing. None of these sounds was a reason for alarm, and yet...
  As Junior ascended behind Naomi, the wedge-shaped open spaces between the crisscrossed 
framing beams grew narrower, allowing ever less daylight to penetrate. The space under 
the tower platform became gloomy, though never dark enough to require a flashlight.
  The penetrating odor of creosote was now laced with the musty smell of mold or fungus, 
neither of which should have been thriving in the presence of timber treated with such 
pungent wood tar.
  Junior paused to peer down the stairs, through the trestlework of shadows, half 
expecting to discover someone stealthily climbing behind them. As far as he could see, 
they were not being stalked.
  Only spiders kept them company. No one had come this way in weeks, if not months, and 
repeatedly they encountered daunting webs of grand design. Like the cold and fragile 
ectoplasm of summoned spirits, the gossamer architecture pressed against their faces, and 
so much of it clung tenaciously to their clothes that even in the gloom, they began to 
look like the risen dead in tattered gravecloth.
  As the diameter of the tower shrank, the steps came in shorter and steeper flights, 
finally ending at a landing only eight or nine feet below the floor of the observation 
platform. From here, a ladder led up to an open trapdoor.
  When Junior followed his agile wife to the top of the ladder and then through the trap, 
onto the observation deck, he would have been knocked breathless by the view if he'd not 
already been left gasping by the climb. From here, fifteen stories above the highest 
point of the ridge and five stories above the tallest trees, they saw a green sea of 
needled waves rising in eternal ranks to the misty east and descending In timeless sets 
toward the real sea a few miles to the west.
  "Oh ," Eenie," she exclaimed, "It's spectacular!"
  Eenie was her pet name for him. She didn't want to call him Junior as did everyone 
else, and he didn't permit anyone to call him Enoch, which was his real name. Enoch Cain. 
Jr.
  Well, everyone had a cross to bear. At least he hadn't been born with a hump and a 
third eye.
  After wiping the cobwebs off each other and rinsing then- hands with bottled water, 
they ate lunch. Cheese sandwiches and , little dried fruit.
  While they ate, they circled the observation deck more than once, relishing the 
magnificent vistas. During the second circuit, Naomi put one hand against the railing and 
discovered that some of the supports were rotten.
  She didn't lean her weight against the handrail and wasn't in any danger of falling. 
The pickets sagged outward, one of them began to crack, and Naomi immediately retreated 
from the edge of the platform to safety.
  Nevertheless, Junior was so unnerved that he wanted to leave the tower at once and 
finish their lunch on solid ground. He was trembling, and the dryness of his Mouth had 
nothing to do with the cheese.
  Quavering, his voice, and strange to his own ear: "I almost lost you."
  "Oh, Eenie, it wasn't even close."
  ... Too close, too close."
  Climbing the tower, he hadn't broken out in .I sweat, but now he felt perspiration 
prickle his brow.
  Naomi sullied. She used her paper napkin to daub at his damp forehead. "You're sweet. I 
love you, too."
  He held her tightly. She felt so good in his arms. Precious.
  "Let's go down," he insisted.
  Slipping free of his embrace, taking a bite of her sandwich, managing to be beautiful 
even while talking with her mouth full, she said, "Well, of course, we can't go down 
until we see how bad the problem is."
  "What problem?"
  "The railing. Maybe that's the only dangerous section, but maybe the whole things 
rotten. We have to know the extent of the problem when we get back to civilization and 
call the forest service to report it."
  "Why can't we 'just call and let them check out the rest of it?"
  
  Grinning, she pinched his left earlobe and tugged it.
  Ding dong. Anyone home? I'm taking a poll to see who knows the meaning of civic 
responsibility.
  He frowned. "Making the phone call is responsible enough."
  "The more Information we have, the more credible we'll sound, and the more credible we 
sound, the less likely they are to think we're just kids jerking their chain."
  "This is nuts."
  "Brazil or hazel?"
  "What',"
  "If It's nuts, I don't recognize the variety." Having finished her sandwich she licked 
her fingers. "Think about it, Eenie. What if some family comes up here with their kids?"
  He could never deny her anything she wanted, in part because she rarely wanted anything 
for herself.
  The platform encircling the enclosed observation post was about ten feet wide. It 
seemed solid and safe underfoot. Structural problems were restricted to the balustrade.
  "All right," he reluctantly agreed. "But I'll check the railing, and you stay back by 
the wall, where it's safe."
  Lowering her voice and speaking in a Neanderthal grunt, she said, "Man fight fierce 
tiger. Woman watch."
  "That's the natural order of things."
  Still grunting: "Man say is natural order. To woman, is just entertainment.
  "Always happy to amuse, ma'am."
  As Junior followed the balustrade, gingerly testing it, Naomi stayed behind him. "Be 
careful, Eenie."
  The weathered railing cap was rough under his band. He was more concerned about 
splinters than about falling. He remained at arm's length from the edge of the platform, 
moving slowly, repeatedly shaking the railing, searching for loose or rotten pickets.
  
  In a couple minutes, they completed a full circuit of the platform, returning to the 
spot where Naomi had discovered the rotten wood. This was the only point of weakness in 
the railing.
  "Satisfied?" he asked. "Lets go down."
  "Sure, but lets finish lunch first." She had taken a bag of-dried apricots from her 
backpack.
  "We ought to go down," he pressed.
  Shaking two apricots from the bag into his band: "I'm not alone with this view. Don't 
be a killjoy, Eenie. We know it's safe now."
  "Okay." He surrendered. "But don't lean on the railing even where we know it's all 
right."
  "You'd make someone a wonderful mother."
  "Yeah, but I'd have trouble with the breast-feeding."