"You want to try something?"
"Like what?"
"Come here and grab hold of the bar."
Tel came over and grabbed. He could just keep his feet flat on the tar-papered roof and still hold on. "All right," he said.
"Now pull yourself up and hook your left knee around the bar."
"Like this?" He kicked up once, missed, and tried again.
"When you kick, throw your head back," she instructed. "You'll balance better."
He did, pulled up, and got his foot through his arms, and suddenly felt the bar slide into the crook of his knee. He was hanging by his left knee and hands. "Now what do I do?" he asked, swaying back and forth.
Alter put her hand on his back to steady him. "Now straighten your right leg, and keep your arms fairly straight." He obeyed. "Now swing your right leg up and down, three times, and then swing it down real hard." Tel lifted his leg, dropped it, and at once began swinging back and forth beneath the pole. "Keep the leg straight," Alter said. "Don't bend it, or you'll loose momentum."
He got to the third kick, and then let go (with his thigh muscles, not his hands) and at once the sky slipped back behind him and his body swung upward away from the direction of the kick. "Whoooo," he said, and then felt an arm steadying his wrist. He was sitting on top of the bar with one leg over it. He looked down at Alter. "Is that what was supposed to happen?"