Big Ass Steve is the foreman of the ironworkers, and it is his decision to send the rookie out to get the flag. The rookie’s name is Felix. He’s twenty years old this month, and he is the rookie because this is his first time out on a tower crane job. His nickname, “The Cat,” is written on the back of his hardhat. The flag in question is green with a big yellow “O” in the middle, the symbol of the University of Oregon, and it is flying in a slight breeze on the very end of the boom. This is 112 feet straight out from the “wheel” of the crane and a perfectly deadly distance of 242 feet (24 stories) above the pavement.

“We’ll send the Cat out,” Steve says, and he smiles to the three men gathered at the top of the crane near the control cab. “He can use the exposure. Something clean and simple that he can show off to the coeds.”

The men laugh a little. Steve waves at Felix who has climbed another 30 feet above the cab to a small platform at the highest point of the crane where he can take a clear picture of the sunrise.

“We’re getting ready to rock n’ roll, man,” Steve shouts, “I need you out the boom to take off that flag.”

Felix turns away from the sunrise and looks toward the very end of the boom. His face begins to shine with excitement. He puts his camera away into a deep pocket of his tool belt and then slides down the ladder stepping over two thick cables to stand next to Steve. The Cat is slight of build but wiry and strong. His face is smooth and youthful, his skin almost alabaster with a rosy flush along the top of his cheeks. Above his lip is a thin wispy line of dark hair that might be a mustache. He wears glasses with black plastic rims that make him look studious, if not careful.

“Okay, the deal is, you go out along the catwalk, right?” Steve tells him. “But you’ve got those truss braces every ten feet so you have to swing out and around them as you go…you getting this?”

“Yes sir, yeah,” Felix says.

“Remember, I’m not sir, I’m Steve, okay?”

“Right.”

“So you have to swing out around the trusses, but you keep yourself clicked into the safety belt. You slide the belt with you. You only unclick it when you’re back on the catwalk, right?”

“Yeah, right.”

“You take your time. You breathe easy. You enjoy the view, and you don’t lose your concentration. Remember, Frank’s still got a few picks this morning, so the boom will be moving. You’ll feel the thing twist and bend when he brings the cable up with a load on it.”

“Right.” A sliver of doubt has wedged its way into Felix’s voice.

“You’ll do fine. It’s a piece of cake,” Steve says, “Oh yeah…Remember, whatever you do, like always, you don’t drop anything. Guys working below you, you don’t put anything out into the air and down onto their heads. Number one rule, right?”

“Right.”

Felix the Cat begins to walk out along the boom while the men next to the control cab smile at each other. Steve sticks his head down into the cab to talk to the crane operator.

“Hey Frank, I got a man out on the boom. He’s going for the flag.”

“Yeah? Alright. That’s fine. You want me to hold off?”

“No, no, he’ll be good. Go ahead with your last pickups. Just don’t give him anything too harsh.”

“Roger that,” Frank says, and he smiles a little.