Bree clutched the little red helmet that Nick had just handed her. She stared at the foot bridge, stretching between the two sides of the gorge. Pat was already in the middle, setting up equipment on a small platform. Nick was strapping a dark green helmet onto his head. He raised his eyebrows. "What'sa matter?" he asked.
"Nothing, I'm just not over the top about plunging to my death," Bree answered, her eyes travelling down the far rockface of the gorge to the rushing white-capped water, where the waterfall tumbled hundreds of feet to the rocky bottom of the river below. "I mean, call me crazy but..."
"You aren't plunging to your death," Nick laughed, "I promise. I did this. And look, I'm still here."
"There's stories of people that've jumped out of planes without parachutes and landed and survived okay, too," Bree answered.
"Well you'll have a parachute for that," Nick said.
"What?" Bree's eyes lit up.
Nick shook his head, "Nothing. I mean. You'll be on a bungee line. It's like the parachute. Yeah." He tugged the strap on his helmet tight and turned away, grabbing a harness from a large pile of them. He tossed it to Bree, then grabbed a second one and started stepping into it.
Bree wasn't sure Nick's cover for his slip was convincing enough to trust. She stood dumbfounded, holding the harness, watching as he slid the thick material around his limbs. It felt like a dog's leash to Bree. She turned the material over in her hand. "My dad did this?" she asked, studying it.
"He stood right where you are standing right now," Nick replied truthfully.
Bree sighed and started yanking the harness on, imitating what Nick had done. He came over and helped her, tightening the harness for her. It fit snug and she imagined that it had to be similar to the feeling a straight jacket gave someone who wore it. Might as well be one at this rate, she thought to herself as Nick motioned for her to follow him onto the foot bridge.
Others were already on the bridge as the two neared it and Bree watched as it swayed back and forth. "Oh my God," she muttered, stopping right at the mouth of it. She grabbed onto the two posts keeping it moored. Nick pressed into her back, pushing her to move forward. She could hear people behind him, too, having lined up. "Are you sure this thing is safe?" she demanded.
"Bree, of course it is, I walked across it, and --"
"You're still here, yeah yeah. But that was sixteen years ago."
"So?"
"So it could be worse for wear by now," she pointed out.
Pat was waving for them to come forward. "Bree, just do it, I promise it's safe," Nick replied. He pointed, "Dude, if it held up Pat it can hold up anything."
Bree held her breath as she took the first step onto the first rung of the bridge. She felt the cables tighten beneath her weight, and was certain the cross beam creaked. Her stomach plummeted out from her; she imagined it ricocheting off the rocky wall of the gorge before disappearing into the misty falls. Her knuckles were white from how tightly her fingers clutched the top cable that formed a loose netting on either side of the bridge. She took another step forward. The bridge tightened again and actually did creak as Nick followed suit and stepped on immediately behind her.
"Oh my God," she muttered.
"It's okay," Nick said.
Bree's hands were shaking. She took another step forward and her foot hit the edge of the step instead of squarely on it and her heel dipped into the empty space between the steps and her heart nearly stopped as she started to plunge forward. Nick grabbed the back of her harness as she tripped, keeping her upright. Bree's breath was ragged now. "Shit," she whispered, not even caring if Nick heard her. "Shit. Shit. Shit..."
Nick nudged her forward to the next step...and the next... the people behind them were getting antsy, angry it was taking her so long to make her way across the bridge. Personally, Nick was just pleased she was doing it at all. He smiled as he recalled the way Brian had looked, hunkered down, kissing the earth, once he'd broken away from Nick and Amanda and returned to the side of the gorge.
"What are you smiling about?" Bree demanded, "What'dya got a death wish or something?"
Nick laughed, "Keep it moving," he said.
"You're amused by peril," she commented, "Brilliant."
"Just go," he laughed.
Bree felt like she could've strangled him at that moment. Pat was staring at them with irritated eyes. Bree inched onward, step-by-step, across the stretch of the bridge. At long last, she reached the midsection platform where Pat stood with the others who had already arrived there, and she scrambled onto the platform with a noise of relief and clutched the rail that surrounded. Nick stepped up beside her. "See?" he asked, "You made it."
"Barely," she replied, though she knew even as she said it that she was being dramatic.
Nick shook his head, "You're so much like your father," he laughed.
"You mean sane?" Bree asked pointedly.
Nick's laugh was drowned out by Pat's whistle. FWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET. He covered his ears, "Jesus Pat," he yelped when she'd lowered the thing, "We're all right here."
Pat held up the bungee cable, "Well then, Mr. Carter, since you want to be smart, you get to help me out with my demonstration." She beckoned him forward.
Nick stared at the bungee cords. "You want me to go first?" he asked, tentatively. Pat continued to beckon him. Nick sighed and stepped forward. Bree shuffling to keep her eye on him, nerves building in her stomach. He was seriously going to do this? she wondered.
"As you can see," Pat announced, "Nick's got his harness correctly administered..." she moved his shoulders, forcing him to turn around for everyone to inspect his harness. "Now we take these rings here..." And Pat proceeded to connect the bungee cords to Nick's harness with loud, metallic clicks and clangs. She knocked on his helmet, "Got this thing tight enough, Carter?" she demanded.
"Yes m'am," Nick replied.
"In that case," Pat announced, "All that's left to do is jump." She turned, unhitched a gate in the rail, pulling it in and securing it. She motioned at the newly formed gap in the rail. Nick shuffled forward to the edge of it.
Bree's palms were pools of sweat, just watching him.
Nick looked down at the falls below. His heart rate tripled or quadrupled or something. He held his breath a moment. He couldn't back down now - he'd gotten Bree here hadn't he? But it had to be granted that he was just barely shy of screaming bloody murder and running for the cool, damp grass on the side of the gorge. Last time, after all, in all his bravery, he'd been harnessed as a duo with Amanda. She'd amped his nerve up. If he'd died last time, he at least would not have died alone.
He peered at the mists coming up off the waterfall, fading away into nothing.
This time, he supposed, he had no reason to fear death.
And just like that, he took two quick steps forward off the platform and into the misty air.
Amanda watched through the diamond-shaped cut away in the cement bridge as the first bungee jumper dropped from the platform. The cables tightened when the jumper had reached the end of their length and his long form swayed in the waterfall's air, the cables bouncing and dropping, his body curling and rolling with their motion. She could still feel it - what it felt like to take that plunge. Her skin raised goosebumps all along it, recalling that airless, flightful feeling. She clutched her paper and pen, and stared, watching as each person took their turns, wondering which of the many flights she witnessed was Nick and Briana's.
