Morning all. It is time for the first prompt of the week so lets get this Monday morning started off right. Wiggle those fingers and stretch that brain because the morning writing exercise is about to begin. Timers at the ready and feel the burn of the fifteen minute timer.
Yeah I actually slept well last night and didn’t feel the need to hit my snooze repeatedly. So here we are. I like starting with someone’s fear. Especially since I think it will save his life. Something horrible is about to happen to his friends and he will have to face other fears to deal with them. Or so I think,. I’d have to spend some time playing with it, but that seems like a good expansion of this.
Monday, December 11th: The heights were dizzying.
The heights were dizzying. Admittedly he got dizzy if he attempted to stand on a chair in his kitchen. He found that out when he was informed that they were going on this trip. It didn’t encourage him. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” He asked.
It wasn’t the first time.
Eyes were rolled and exasperation stained every word of the response.
“You can go back down if you’d like?” Frank told him.
Dave looked back. There was the giant ladder attached to this platform that he had to force himself to climb up at the start of this venture. Up was fine, the thought of heading back down terrified him. It was the ladder or the zip line. He had those options at this point. As the zip line had the benefit of the harness, he chose to stay.
Frank moved forward and was attached to the mechanism and then sent off down the rope, screaming his joy over the jungle as he flew down the mountain on the zipline. George followed and then it was just Dave. Their guide looked at him.
“There is no shame in going down,” he was told.
Dave shook his head. “I’m here now.” He stepped forward. The guide nodded as though he passed some test and talked of safety the entire time he was helping to hook him onto the line. And then, before Dave could fully comprehend what was happening, His body was leaving the platform. He was racing through the air.
As he doubted any screams he would utter would sound triumphant he kept his mouth shut. The world flew by him at racing speed. As the one thing he thought he would enjoy was a panoramic view of the world, this was somewhat of a disappointment. The world was moving too fast for him to enjoy it.
‘Or I suppose I am moving too fast.’ He tried concentrating on the distance and the view was slightly better. It did feel like he was taking his eyes off the road and that he was a vehicle driving too fast down a road. The feeling made him dart his eyes back to the landscape closer to avoid any potential collisions.
And then he was finally at the other platform. It was here that Dave found out that he still had a climb do0wn another ladder to reach the ground. The others had already gone and were even starting to walk away. They looked exhilarated, pumped up and in no mood to wait around.
Dave felt vaguely nauseated.
He grit his teeth, nodded politely to the attendant who unharnessed him and then climbed down the ladder as quickly as he could to avoid thinking about it. With his feet firmly back on the ground he took a deep breath and unclenched his jaw. The others hadn’t waited. He saw them ahead and knew if he raced he could catch up. At the moment, he had enough racing for a while.
He decided heading back to the resort was the best idea. He would meet back with them there. All of them had their cell phones on them. If they missed him, then they could call to figure out where he was. He suspected they wouldn’t miss him until they returned to the hotel and wanted to tell him all about the adventures he missed.
Dave agreed to come on this trip because he wanted a quiet vacation. His work life involved running around chasing after project details in an eternal loop and he needed a rest.
Ten til Midnight 