SUNGLASSES AND ROCKETS Part 1 : New Moon

STUNTMEN

He moved away, taking long, measured steps. As for me, I could do nothing but follow him. Mute from fear, terrorized. There had to be a distance of at least some 20 feet between the roof and the tower! That was without counting the 15-feet drop. It was crazy! Nothing new.

We finally got a good distance away from the edge. I couldn't see the bridge.

Suddenly, Felix stopped. He stooped over slightly, taking up the stance of a runner about to race.

"Did you count your steps?" he asked.

"No..." I responded, confused.

"Count them starting from the edge," he ordered. "You should take the same number from here to there."

"But..."

"If you don't jump close enough to the edge, you won't be able to reach the tower."

He lunged forward and took off at a run.

"What if I go past the edge?" I heard myself protest. Oh hell!

Fossilized by fear, I dumbly watched Felix quickly race off. His boots seemed to drive into the ground with every step. The echo was a loud, amplified hammering. It took him seconds to get to the edge. Suddenly the noise stopped. Felix jumped into empty space, and almost immediately, a metallic scrape could be heard. He made it, I thought.

I forced myself to jog over to the edge. I took a look towards the bridge. Felix was going up, supporting himself on one of the railings. He looked at me.

"You can do it," he calmly assured me, shaking the dust off himself. "I know you can."

I gave a little nod. And me? I asked myself, overwhelmed. Do I think I can? I begged the Creator of the Universe to spare my life. I whirled around. I placed my left foot a fraction away from the edge. I started my sorrowful walk. I went about 70 feet. In total, I counted twenty-four steps. I turned around.

My heart had sped up so much that I felt its violent beating in my throat, almost in my mouth. I raised my eyes and looked forward. I breathed deeply and began the race of suicide.

The world was swaying. The Bat's nose cone got dizzily closer. I could hardly hear my breath shaking out of me. My mind was blank. The only thing I did was count steps: ten...fifteen...twenty-one. The edge was near! Twenty-four! I thought, right on the edge, and I threw myself into the void. The enormous rocket seemed to take off.

My feet suddenly crashed violently against a metallic surface. My knees followed them. I began to roll; in the middle of the confusion I noticed that I was rolling along the roof of the cubicle on top of the tower. An instant later I felt empty space. I was falling, but the fall didn't last for long. My back hit painfully against something and the shock threw me against the bridge.

I was saved. I had injured myself, I was dazed, weak, in love, thirsty, worn down, half dead...but alive. I had made it. I had been brave.

As soon as I started to get up, I noticed that Felix was jiggling the ladder in place, a few paces away from where I was.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

I looked up. I noticed that the ladder was hanging from the roof, about 60 feet right above the bridge. I could make out the hooks fastened onto some kind of railing on the gigantic hatch belonging to the silo.

"Ready?" Felix asked again, pulling firmly on the ladder.

"Are we climbing up?" I asked, stressing out.

"Yes."

I tried to faint.