Stories of Our Life [Volume 1]

14: High Places

In all of Tina Goldstein's twenty-six years of living in this universe, she has always been afraid of heights.

Why, you might ask?

Well, it all started on a normal, summer afternoon when she was still seven. She was playing hide-n'-seek with her younger sister, Queenie, that day. It was her turn to hide and she was running out of places to hide in. She could hear Queenie in seventy already and she's still out in the open. Being in a hurry, young Tina didn't have to weigh her options and just unthinkingly climbed up a tree in the far end of the Goldstein family's garden. She sat on a branch that was relatively thin and was pretty high up, but Tina didn't care at the time for she really needed to hide. She sat there waiting for Queenie to find her for about fifteen minutes.

When Queenie finally shouted that she gave up, Tina was about to go down when she heard a cracking noise. She looked around and her eyes landed on a crack on the base of the branch she was sitting on. She panicked and tried to get down quickly, but her movements were too much and her weight just added more fuel to the fire, the branch cracked and she fell, hitting her arm hard on the ground, therefore fracturing it. Queenie had seen her fall and immediately cried out for their parents. When the Goldstein parents came, they immediately went to the hospital.

Turns out, Tina's fracture wasn't anything that serious. It was just a small stable fracture. Her forearm was put into a cast for about a month or two. Though the injury she had gotten that day, wasn't really that serious, poor young Tina was so traumatized by it she couldn't even think of being in a high place—even if it's just a few feet above the ground.

That's the story of her fear.

——

Newt had always known of Tina's little fear of heights. She had told him of it once when they both went for a ride on the Disneyland Pixar Pal-A-Round Wheel last summer. Newt had always wanted to go on that ride, seeing that that was his first time in Disneyland. But seeing the look on his girlfriend's face—which was adorable, by the way—he decided not to go on that ride for now.

"But Newt! You told me that you've always wanted to go on that Ferris wheel," she had told him that day when they walked away from the ride to find another one that Tina would be comfortable in. She was firmly standing her ground, rooted on the spot, and clutching on his jacket. She gave him a pout which made Newt laugh on how adorable she looked.

"No, love, it's fine," he had said, smiling at her while tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Tina blushed.

"But-" Newt stopped the words from her mouth with a light peck on her lips. He pulled away with a smile and led her towards the Mark Twain Riverboat.

Newt respected her fear. Whenever they go out on dates, high places were always off the list...

—

But this time he'd make an exception.

——

August 19, 2018

Newt stared at the date on his phone screen with a smile. Today was the seventeenth of March, and it meant one thing to Newt: his and Tina's first anniversary (and also Tina's birthday). Yes, today was the day he had asked Tina to be his girlfriend (with the help of Queenie ad Jacob, of course). She had said yes, of course, and told him that it was the best birthday gift ever. Newt smiled widely as he immediately called his Tina to see if she's awake. He stood up and walked over to the window of his apartment and watched as the streets of New York come to life as he waited for her to pick up.

Tina had picked on the second ring. "Hello?" her voice sounded raspy in Newt's ear from waking up. Hearing her morning voice always did funny things to Newt. He smiled again.