Wendall:

So after Maya finally caught on to my brilliant deduction that Perry and I should climb the tree, she disappeared from the back window, reappearing on the second floor.

“Come on, Perry, we gotta climb this tree,” I say. I’m already on the third branch when I realize that Perry is still struggling to get on the first one, hindered by the presence of all of that idiotic “Uncle Louie” paraphernalia. “Perry, drop that stuff!” I hiss. Sighing, he does.

So we both get onto the seventh branch, which we were supposed to climb across to the window. I nimbly cross, and land with a thud in the open window.

“What in the world is he doing?” Maya asks me, pointing at Perry, who is sitting in the middle of the branch, unmoving.

“I’m afraid of heights!” He whimpers.

“Oh, god.” I put my head in my hands. “Maya, what are we gonna do?”

“Just like a boy,” I think she mutters, or something like that. Then she pulls out one of the Uncle Louie action figures.

“What do you have that for?”

“This.”