Jump

She stood at the edge of the cliff, harness in hand, and looked down. The canyon was so deep, she couldn’t even see the bottom even though it was the middle of the afternoon. It had seemed a much shorter drop in the picture of the brochure. Katie took a deep breath and backed away from the edge. She hadn’t gone this far just to freak out. It’s no different from diving, she told herself. It’s just like jumping off the high board. It was just a farther drop. A longer time in the air. No friendly swimming pool at the bottom. Only hard, unforgiving rock. Katie groaned and nearly threw up. Why was she doing this?

“Katie, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” a friendly voice called out. Katie looked up from her doubled over position to Sam, who was already strapped into his own harness, staring at her in concern. Katie pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and stood up straight.

“Nah, I can do it,” she said, trying to believe it. “We agreed. No backing out after coming this far.” She sat down on the gravel a good distance away from the edge of the cliff and tried to feel confident.

Too soon, Katie was back at the edge, this time with an instructor and inside the harness. Katie nodded patiently as the instructor told her what to do. She listened closely, careful to keep her composure. You can do this, she told herself. You’ve done everything else so far… this shouldn’t be too hard. It won’t be hard.

Once everyone was ready, the instructor told them they would go one at a time. Katie would go first. In the split second before jumping, Katie’s mind went blank. She forgot everything the instructor had said, and didn’t hear what he was saying. All she knew was one moment she was standing with her feet on firm ground, and the next she was falling, no, flying through the air. She was dropping straight down, but it felt like she was flying. Katie spread her arms out and would have yelled with joy if she didn’t remember that opening her mouth would only make a lot of air rush into it. Then, all of a sudden, she reached the end of the bungee line, and was flying back up at full speed. This time she watched as the canyon walls blurred past. The rock seemed to change color, as if she were watching a sunset on fast forward, as she zoomed up towards the sun.

 

And then, without warning, she was back on earth, sitting on the ground, still in the bungee harness.

“Oh my god!” she exclaimed to Sam, who was looking at her with an amused expression. Katie leaned back and lay on the ground. She pumped both fists into the air. “Let’s do that again!”