Homeless Pete
This story dates back a few years, but I was thinking about it last night and decided to write about it. I was actually sworn to secrecy about the events of this night, but it's too good a story to not share with my loyal readers.
About 5 years ago, my friends and I decided that the summer wouldn't be complete until we had broken into our church and climbed into the bell tower in the middle of the night. It seemed like a reasonable goal at the time, honest. We were all talk all summer long, but never actually took the initiative to do it. One night, Molly and our friend, Jamie, staged a kidnapping and blindfolded some of us and took us to the church. The church is actually just across the street from my house, but they decided to drive us around to throw us off so we didn't know where we were going. I peaked though and knew where we were.
We arrived at the church and used the key to go through the back entrance(yes, I have a key to the church, I'm that important). It was the middle of the night, but we couldn't turn on any lights because we didn't want to raise any suspicion. Molly and Jamie didn't plan too well, and forgot the flashlights. In order to get into the bell tower, you have to climb a 20 foot ladder and go through a trapdoor. There's about a 3 foot gap between the top rung and the door, and there was no way we were going to make it without lights. We aborted the mission and decided to come back a different night, but to actually be prepared this time.
A few nights later, the big night arrived. We made our way in with the stealth of trained burglars, and made the treacherous ascent up the ladder. Little did we know that the trapdoor led into a tiny room with another ladder that actually let you up to the bells. We climbed the second ladder and found the view breathtaking. You could see for miles. I'm kind of scared of heights and had to go back down to the little room. When I was standing there, I noticed all the frozen dinner dishes littering the floor. I realized that a homeless person was obviously living up there and was going to kill us if we didn't get out soon. I tried, unsuccessfully, to get everyone to leave...I couldn't tell them that a homeless person was lurking in the shadows. Blowing his cover would surely lead to our demise.
After we all left, I told everyone what I saw. We decided to name the phantom "Homeless Pete." About a week later, Molly and I were driving home in the middle of the night, and saw that the light in the bell tower was on(something I had never witnessed before or since). It was close to Easter time, so Molly and I decided it would be a nice gesture to make an Easter basket and invite Pete to our house for Easter dinner(yes, we really did think about doing that). We decided that Pete probably just wanted to be left alone, so we didn't do it. I regret that decision.
I often wonder what Pete is up to, and if he still lives up there. We would sometimes see him walking along the street, but I haven't noticed him lately. I hope life has been kind to him, and that we didn't inconvenience him too much with our late night cavorting.