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This was exactly the kind of excursion she’d had in mind when she made this deal. Well, maybe not a lighthouse specifically, but experiencing something new and different. A sense of satisfaction flowed through her.
“If you think it’s pretty down here, you should check out the view from up there.” Grant’s voice interrupted her peaceful moment, and she glanced over at him. Even in the darkness she could see the twinkle in his eye.
“Like, at the top?” Her calming cascade of satisfaction stalled, and she pointed her finger at the sky as if there were any question about which direction “up” would be.
“That’s the spot.” He pulled two headlamp flashlights from his pocket and handed one to her before slipping the other over his forehead. “And we’d better get started if we want to catch the sunrise. We’ve got roughly nine floors of rickety spiral staircase to get to the top.” He headed around the side, where there was an old wooden door secured closed with a padlock.
Molly followed, tugging her own headlamp over her head. “Are we allowed?”
“Allowed?” He twisted his mouth to the side and bobbed his head back and forth as if considering the meaning of the word. “Let’s just say it’s probably better if we don’t get caught.”
Without further explanation, he reached down and spun the dial on the rusty old lock. It made a grinding sound as he turned it first to the left, then right, then left again before it popped open. He pushed the door open and a stale, musty odor drifted out.
“Come on.” He stepped inside, disappearing into the darkness.
Molly eyed the opening then looked to her right and left to make sure no one was around. “Here goes nothing,” she whispered, and stepped over the threshold into the lighthouse.
The inside was dark and dank. She switched on her headlamp and stood just inside the doorway to get her bearings. Whatever calm feelings she’d harnessed outside had now officially been replaced by a galloping pulse and a hefty dose of trepidation.
“Hanging out with you is turning into a dangerous hobby.” She gripped the handrail and stared at the seemingly endless stairs that twisted up into the darkness.
“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘adventurous.’” He waggled his eyebrows. “And weren’t you the one who commissioned this excursion?”
“I’m not sure trespassing qualifies as an excursion.”
He shrugged, climbing up the first steps of the spiral staircase that wrapped around the inside of the structure. “Potato, patahdo.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Trust me, the view at the top is worth it.”
Carefully, she stepped on the first step, testing it to see if it would hold her weight. She wouldn’t have stamped it with the sturdy label, but she didn’t fall through, which seemed positive. “Carpe diem,” she muttered to herself.
They climbed for a while in silence as Molly focused on step after worn wooden step. It didn’t take long until she was out of breath and starting to get dizzy.
She paused to catch her breath and gauge how far they’d gone. “I can’t believe the lightkeepers used to do this climb a couple of times a day. They must’ve been in great shape.”
“It was the original StairMaster.” Grant sounded much less winded than she was, and she wondered what kind of workout he did to stay in such good shape. Also, she wanted to tell her old spin instructor that he had nothing on lighthouse stairs.
“How did you know the code to get in this place?” Molly was partly curious and partly trying to distract herself from the vigor of the climb.
“I have a buddy who works for the parks department. They haven’t changed it in years. We used to come out here right after they stopped the restoration.”
“Why did they stop?” Molly had noticed that the stairs were in decent condition. They certainly weren’t original, but not much else looked like it’d been touched in many, many years.
“About twenty years ago, they started the process. They repainted it, fixed the broken glass at the top, and put in new stairs. But there were budget cuts before they could get it up to code, and they never finished.”
“And now it sits here? Empty?”
“Pretty much.”
“That’s kind of sad, really.” The interior was getting lighter, which made Molly think they were getting close to the top. But she trudged step after step without looking up, not wanting to be depressed by how far they still had to go. “It’s like a piece of history forgotten.”
“Not today.”
It only took two more turns around the cylindrical lighthouse before the platform at the top came into view.
Grant stepped on it first and stood to the side to wait for Molly to join him. “It’s a bit of a tight squeeze up here, but it looks like we made it in time.” He led her on the catwalk around the giant light in the center to where there was a small part of the window that could be opened. Grant pulled the hatch, revealing an opening to the outside that was just big enough to crawl through. “After you.”
Molly eyed the opening. She wanted to ask if it was safe, but let it go. She’d come this far, hadn’t she? “Hakuna matata,” she whispered to herself and crawled through.
She stepped out onto the narrow walkway that surrounded the light and clenched the old metal railing with both hands. Grant followed, stepping close to her in his gentle, protective way. A soft breeze skimmed her skin and ruffled her hair as she took in the scene before them.
