The Hidden Rooftop

Go up on the rooftop. What? Go up on the rooftop, the inner voice repeated again...or was it a feeling? Either way, Mila knew that she needed to leave her small, Manhattan apartment and climb the skinny ladder that led up to the secret rooftop. Overlooking a breathtaking view, she tried to turn around and face the cold ladder she was climbing, as she shivered on the freezing, winter night. One wrong move and she was toast. She had climbed this ladder before when she first moved in, peaked by curiosity, but a security officer had quickly reprimanded her and told her she couldn't be there.

Months later, the December frost seemed to bite her fingers. What was she doing anyway? This was dangerous and forbidden. But she knew. Deep inside of her, she had a gut feeling that she just needed to come up here. Struggling to flop over the barrier and onto the slippery, dirty roof, she took a deep breathe in. She stumbled to her feet to see a shadow in the distance. What was that? A man?

Shivers running through her entire body, she hesitated before once more feeling that powerful "gut feeling" urging her forward. She began to find her legs moving toward the shadowy figure before she could mentally process what was going on and stop herself. "Uhhh.. excuse me..." she said, with an obvious lack of confidence. The tall, skinny figure jumped and turned around to face her.

"Who are you? What do you want? Get away from me." A man's voice said anxiously, before backing away closer to the ledge, slowly. "I'm sorry," Mila began, "I didn't mean to scare you. Are you okay?" The man clearly shrugged his shoulders dramatically. "Are any of us really ever okay?" He asked without needing a response.

Stepping a little bit forward, his face still in the shadows, he continued, "This city is magical though, isn't it?" He turned around and faced the skyline before approaching the ledge once more and placing his hands on the side. Mila let out a breathe of relief. She didn't sense that this man wanted to hurt her. "It's incredible," she responded, herself slowly inching closer to the banner.

"You can come closer, if you'd like," he commented, still staring off into the city lights. "Okay," Mila felt like she could. She got a little bit closer before asking, "What are YOU doing out here anyway?"

"I'd say that doesn't matter right now." He said instantly. "But what about you? What brings you up to this gorgeous view this breathtakingly, chilly evening?"

"I...I don't know." She honestly answered. "I suppose just a feeling that I should be up here tonight."

"Hmmm." He looked at her sideways but it was still too dark for her to see his face clearly. "That's interesting." He said, almost under his breathe. "Well," he spoke louder, "this is one of my favorite spots, a good place to be a kind of, well, grand finale location..."

"What do you mean by that?" She asked, curiously.

"Oh, never mind. Forget I said that." He shook his head and lowered it. She felt a kind of sadness coming off of him and the need to cheer him up suddenly.

"Honestly, I've only ever been up here once before," Mila said. "I got kicked off by some 'power-hungry rent-a-cop', " she laughed.

The strange man laughed with her, "No way?" he seemed to ease up, "That's bad karma isn't it? That's never happened to me, out of all the times I've been up here..."

"Really?" She asked.

"Yeah," he responded, "Say would you like to hear about the first time I ever came up here?..."

"Sure..."

___________________________________________

"And that's how it all began, that's how Aunt Mila met your Uncle that cold, winter's night." Aunt Mila smiled at her niece, wide-eyed with wonder at the beginning of a beautiful, love story being told.

"Yes, she was something, she saved my life you know?" Uncle Lewis chuckled to himself. "I was ready to end it that night. Gonna jump off the roof and call it game over, but then she appeared like an angel out of nowhere, there just to rescue my foolish soul."

Taking her husband's hand affectionately, Aunt Mila continued, "He hid in the shadows most of the night. We ended up talking and eventually I got him really laughing."

"Yeah..." Uncle Lewis interjected, "She was a real miracle worker..."

Smiling big at her husband, Mila continued, "He appeared out of the shadows finally, and I was caught off guard, there before me stood a beautiful and handsome man. I couldn't figure out how someone so good-looking and charming could be so downcast."

"That's when I told her." Uncle Lewis said. "I said: 'My life sucks. My parents split up, I didn't get into my dream school and my girlfriend of 3 years dumped me. I hate my life.'"

"But he never told me that he wanted to end it that night." Aunt Mila continued. "In fact, I didn't know until our wedding night that I had actually saved his life that night. I thought I had just been there to cheer him up, and meet him so that we could fall in love."

"But it was so much more..." Uncle Lewis pulled his wife in closer to him. "When she told me she just had a feeling that she should climb up onto that roof, I knew. I knew God was real and I was not alone. I knew my life was not over and angels were looking out for me."

"And we fell in love so quickly; I think we always knew from that moment forward that we were meant to be together." Mila smiled at Lewis before leaning in for a kiss.

"Aunt Mila? Uncle Lewis?" Their niece asked.

"Yes child?" They answered at the same time, smiling at each other.

"I hope one day that I can have a love story as special as yours."

"And you will child, you will," said Aunt Mila. "Just remember to always listen to that deep, inner, voice, what many may call a "gut feeling," because you never know when you are being led by the leading of the Maker of the Universe Himself.

"And you may just very well save a life." Uncle Lewis winked at her.