Cora stood on the edge of the tower, staring off into the pale blue of the day, watching the wisps of clouds twist and turn a dance of joy in the high winds. One small step, and the building suddenly began to flash past.
They say you die before you hit the ground, she thought. She spread her arms and legs like a skydiver, feeling the rush of air envelope her, her long blonde hair whipping behind her, the ground a dark patch of pavement far below. She seemed to detach from her body, observing everything in slow motion, then watching her life scroll past as if watching a movie.
She saw her mother spank her for playing doctor with the boy next door. Long hours in church followed, condensed into mere seconds. She tried to be good, as the pastor said she should be, but Sin was always enticing her. Sin seemed to chase after her all of her life.
The ground is getting closer, she thought, in a peculiarly disinterested fashion.
She saw the boy next door grow up to take her to Homecoming, and saw the night of passion after the dance.
Next she saw the pink dot on the home pregnancy test, and felt the sickening in the pit of her stomach. Abject terror raced through her psyche, slamming her sensibilities. She couldn’t tell her parents.
I see people walking below, she thought, lost in their own little worlds, going about their lives as if nothing matters.
She saw the boy next door go pale and start shaking when she told him. He suggested abortion, but she cringed at the thought. Take a life? Never. Then she recalled reconsidering the idea. Why not kill two birds with one stone?
She saw herself come to the building, hardly knowing that she was putting one foot in front of another. She saw herself ride the elevator, wait for the observation deck to clear, then find her way to the ledge. Staring down, the ground seemed an eternity away. Now just ahead lay the ultimate abortion.
No. Her mind recoiled from the ground, rejecting the impending collision. I can work through this. I want to live, to see the flowers and the sky, to hear the quiet gurgling of the creek and the frogs calling out at night. I want to live, and to love, and to face what happens!
The ground faced her squarely, large enough now to be all she saw. Only milliseconds remained before she would end her brief sojourn on this Earth.
She bolted upright, body shaking and sweating ice-cold droplets. She was alive, sitting by the elevator.
“Ma’am?” The building employee stood over her in his uniform, looking like either a bellhop in an old movie or a general in some third-world army. “The observation deck is open now. You can go on up.”
She smiled broadly. “No, thanks,” she said. “I’ve changed my mind.”
