Ashton asked. “Why not?” Kia replied. “Sometimes we play until it gets dark.” “In my neighborhood they sometimes play until it gets light,” Ashton said. “What does that mean?” I asked. “It means that they play ball all night long. If I leave my bedroom window open, I can hear the sound of the bouncing ball all the way up to the twenty-seventh floor.” “That’s pretty high up,” I said. “Yeah. It’s really high.” “It must be some view,” Kia added. “It is. If you stand on the railing of the balcony you can see all the way downtown.” “You stand on the railing of your balcony on the twenty-seventh floor?” I gasped. I hated heights. No, that was wrong. I didn’t just hate heights, I was terrified of them. “Not me. One of my brothers does.” “He just stands up on the railing?” I asked, not able to believe that anybody would do that. “Don’t you try to stop him?” Kia asked. “He’s my big brother. I can’t stop him from doing anything. Besides, it’s not like he does it all the time.
