Your ride is this dinky plane with an intentionally cute name - ‘Miss Fortune’ - that looks airworthy from the outside… if a little worn.
The inside, though, is the first sign that you’ve done something insane. Dull metal benches and an ‘oh shit’ bar replace the seats you’re used to. The door? Clear plastic and sliding - clearly no more than necessary to get you into the air – it’s not like you’re riding it down.
When they give the ‘go’ signal and the first person vanishes, your brain realizes there’s something wrong and starts into panic-tremors-oh-god mode. But it’s not full-blown yet, because it’s not you.
When you’re about to jump, that’s the moment, where your brain realizes that it should never be up this high. In the three seconds before you run for the back of the plane, the instructors push you out.
And you fall.
And when you open your eyes, instinctively…you forget fear. And you find out that you’ve been allowed to view God’s easel.
You see a patchwork quilt of different hues of golden fields, gleaming metallic cities, and the turquoise of the infinite ocean. It’s why humans dream of wings.
And in those sixty seconds of free-fall, you learn many things, but one in specific.
Next time around, you’re going to jump, and keep your eyes open.
The inside, though, is the first sign that you’ve done something insane. Dull metal benches and an ‘oh shit’ bar replace the seats you’re used to. The door? Clear plastic and sliding - clearly no more than necessary to get you into the air – it’s not like you’re riding it down.
When they give the ‘go’ signal and the first person vanishes, your brain realizes there’s something wrong and starts into panic-tremors-oh-god mode. But it’s not full-blown yet, because it’s not you.
When you’re about to jump, that’s the moment, where your brain realizes that it should never be up this high. In the three seconds before you run for the back of the plane, the instructors push you out.
And you fall.
And when you open your eyes, instinctively…you forget fear. And you find out that you’ve been allowed to view God’s easel.
You see a patchwork quilt of different hues of golden fields, gleaming metallic cities, and the turquoise of the infinite ocean. It’s why humans dream of wings.
And in those sixty seconds of free-fall, you learn many things, but one in specific.
Next time around, you’re going to jump, and keep your eyes open.