The children skipped back and forth on the desolate beach. Just when my eyes became mesmerized on the soothing ripples of water that rolled into the shore, my body sunk into a bed of balmy sand on the edge of the water. “The pirates are coming!” the children exclaimed in the distance. Letting out a heavy sigh, my eyes caught a reflection on the turquoise water. It was a figure that stood tall behind me. Unthinking, an involuntary movement snapped my neck up and to the left where I was greeted with nothing but blue skies and puffy clouds above. I turned back to the water with a squint in my eye, and as I caught view of the figure again I tilted her head to the right and followed the welcoming invitation to enter into the alternate universe.
I’ve never been afraid of heights. Never been afraid to fall. It’s the moments you see the possibility of going down that make you fight even harder to stay alive. We entered a building that was 104 stories high, towering over what looked like a monstrous city of Tokyo and San Francisco combined. Dark grey clouds rolled in and I frantically searched for a door in the base level of this dark and ominous building. Entering the building I had a companion, but I was alone now. Confused by what happened to my accomplice, I carried on with my mission. The empty lobby had dark figures in the distance. A desk, a few chairs and maybe a piece of art of two hanging on the walls. All of this was hard to make out when all I was concerned with finding was the dark stair case door that was lit by a single bulb hanging above.
Step by step I raced up the stairs, climbing steadily and without fatigue. Rounding corner after corner, floor by floor, the steps gradually melted into an inclining walk way and before I knew it, I was forced to stop into a small space that resembled an elevator. The elevator was lined with red walls and no buttons. It rose all the way to the top of building and as the doors opened, offering a starting block for yet another obstacle, my heart leapt out in grasp of reaching the journey’s end. I did not know where I would end up, but I wrestled with every fiber in my body to run forward. Finally reaching the roof top of the soaring silver structure, my feet found their way to the edge. I nervously peered over, my stomach dropping, and looked down. There he was. The same figure that I saw standing behind me on the beach. He stood tall on a white pier surrounded by a mean, crashing sea. Gazing up at me, his eyes begged earnestly and longingly for me to join him. The invitation was clear: Jump.
The top of the skyscraper seems to sway in the hurricane force winds; I froze. An unfamiliar feeling came into my throat as a tiny lump formed when I swallowed. It made it’s way down to the pit of my stomach when I realized that for the first time, I was afraid of heights.
A little girl startled me with a small yellow shovel while squealing in her british accent “Quick, dig a hole, we must find shelter!” My eyes broke off from the alternate world that faded away with the rippling of the water. I jumped up to meet the group. The building had faded, the pier lost in memory but the butterflies were still swimming around in my stomach which left me with a smile.
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Photos by James Nord
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