She stood still. Not sure what to do next. No, she wasn’t in any kind of danger but it sure felt like it as a pair of tongs lingered in her finger tips. The day-old meat that hung from the grip of the tongs waited to be given away. The crocodiles waited patiently beneath her feet as she dreaded her next moves.
The bridge beneath her was unstable, she was afraid if she were to move even an inch it would give beneath her. Jamie tried to keep her cool. But had failed miserably. She tried to force the meat to drop from the iron grip of the utensil but it wouldn’t budge as if it were afraid too. She couldn’t breathe. Her mind goes blank. Suddenly the tongs fell from her grasp and gracefully fell into the water with a silent splash alerting to creatures underneath her. She had fallen to her knees with a dramatic thud. The bridge shaking and creaking beneath the sudden contact.
She begged for it to stop even when nothing was happening to her. It was all in her mind. She could feel stares burning into her. In that moment that she felt so stupid. But she couldn’t help it. It was like she was standing at the edge of a cliff getting forced to jump into the water below even when she has a fear of heights and not being able to swim.
She was trying to calm herself as she remembered something she used to do with her father. Finding 5 things she could touch, 4 things she could see, 3 things she could hear, 2 things she could smell, 1 thing she could taste. The 5 things she could touch; she could feel the roughness on the concrete under her knees, the smoothness of the metal bars in front of her, the hand on her thigh from the person on her left, the arm wrapped around her shoulder from the person on her right, and her dampened hair. The 4 things she could see; she could see the sky that had white clouds scattered through it, the grated wire fence that hid behind the bars of the fence in front of her and the two hands on her shoulders. The 3 things she could hear; she could hear the water fountain behind her, the muttering voices around her and the snarls of the creatures beneath her. 2 things she could smell; the meat in front of her and the perfume that she wore that day. 1 thing she could taste; her tears that traveled rivers down her cheeks.
She regrets it.
