The Chronicles of Yonder Old

Chronicle III: Kady's Day Down Under, Mate

Chapter 1

I lifted myself up and over the railing. Looking down, I realized how right this felt. From the roof of my apartment complex, everything in Manhattan looked so beautiful. I've seen the ugliness, though, and I was prepared to say goodbye. Goodbye Manhattan, goodbye world, goodbye moon. I thought someone would come save me, I really did. Like in the movies, when the handsome guy would talk the girl out of jumping. I was waiting for my Leonardo DiCaprio. Instead, I got a janitor.

"Hey, get down there little girl," he shouted at me.

"No, I need to face my fate."

"If you jump they'll make me clean up the blood."

"Well-"

"Seriously, like with a mop and rag and everything. The whole shabang."

Before he could say anything else, I let go of the railing and then I was flying. Jumping off a building doesn't feel bad. It feels liberating, like you have wings. I felt like I was soaring over the bustling streets of Manhattan. Then, I landed on the filthy asphalt with a plop. They were saying that I died on impact. I thought to myself well obviously, you idiots, I jumped from a twelve story building.

What they don't know is that I never died.

Chapter 2

The first thing I felt when I landed was pain. Raw utter pain in its purest form. Soon the pain let up and it was more like medium well than raw pain. After the fiery pain in my bones had cooled, I finally noticed that I was no longer in my body. I had floated up and up and was watching the reaction of a bustling Manhattan street as they came to the slow realization of the tragedy that had just occurred. Soon I had floated higher, and a sense of peace was restored. It was like I was seeing my whole life on display. I saw the playground next to my middle school where I was first bullied for having natural purple hair. I saw my childhood home and its patio where I would spend hours and hours reading books because I was quirky like that. I saw the soft shorelines where I had had my first love affair with my English professor and the rocky cliffs where he had broken up with me two days later because his granddaughter claimed I was "too young for him". And finally I had passed the city's skyscrapers and could see the janitor pointing his middle finger towards the heaven in complaint to the hours he knew he would have to spend cleaning up my blood from the bottom of the building. Tears came to my eyes as I realized I would never spend another day walking those crowded streets or haggling my way through shops in times square like my middle eastern father had taught me. All of a sudden, an idea hit me.

"Ouch!" I exclaimed, and then, doing a double take, because, there were not supposed to be other things floating around through my afterlife, I saw the figure that had bumped into me. "Who are you?" I questioned.

"I'm Idea," he said with a grin, "And I'm the reason you jumped."

Chapter 3

I slapped Idea in the face for hitting me and then left her to continue my exploration of the afterlife. I floated around some more above the bustling Manhattan street and went into some of the houses of the people who used to steal my snack at recess everyday, and left them a little treat. I also went into my mother's house, and let me just say she looks a lot better with makeup on. But after about 6 days of playing pranks on little kids and stealing their ice cream while they couldn't see me, I got quite bored. This can't be all there is. I knew there had to be a better place for me in the afterlife. I was such a good person my whole life, I stopped stealing little kids' ice cream cones 4 months ago (except for today)! I didn't deserve this boring fate for all of eternity. I just had to find the higher power that would allow me to ascend to the better place that I know is waiting for me. I needed to figure out where that higher power was because I couldn't stand floating around this bustling Manhattan street for one more second. Sure it's all fun and games while I'm stealing kids' ice cream cones, but when everyone goes to sleep for 8 hours, it's not that fun to just watch them snore all night. I'm definitely ready to get out of here.