Corpus Civilization

Armenia

"Thank you, sir."

Levon nearly sashayed onto the cable car with his wife, his legs jittery with a mixture of anticipation and fear. His wife smiled reprovingly at her husband's childish giddiness but said not a word to him that would suggest she didn't appreciate his excitement.

At 360 meters above ground, Levon felt quite literally on top of the world as they boarded the Wings of Tatev. Breaking the record for the longest cable car ride in the world, the Wings of Tatev was ridiculously popular among tourists. Whether to get a snapshot of Armenia's verdant valleys or to prove to loved ones their fear of heights had diminished long ago, people flocked to the site in throngs. Because of the popularity, Levon and his wife had to wait one hour before they could board the grayish-white cable car.

"All window seats here." Levon's wife remarked cheekily. Benches inside the spacious cable car lined the vast glass perimeter, and there was no reprieve for acrophobes. No seat didn't lie touching the thin, clear border separating the safety of the inside with the horrible 360 meter plunge just outside. At this new revelation, Levon balked at his wife's hip, glancing among the benches as if expecting another more isolated bench to appear just to accommodate him.

"Honey..."

"Oh, don't back out on me now." Levon's wife grasped his hand in a vice, urging him into the cable car. "If you don't move, Lev, those boarding people are going to run into your back. Come here—that's a darling!"

Levon grimaced as he plopped onto a cushioned seat alongside his wife. Not only was he starting to regret choosing a wire-suspended cable car venture for their activity of the day, but realized with trepidation that many more people were going to be seated with them. The troubling notion that one of these people might throw-up or have a panic attack in the middle of the twelve minute trip unnerved him greatly.

"Hey." His wife made repeated attempts to soothe the slight jitter in his legs. "Just hold my hand and try to enjoy the view. If you need to, look at the sky. You know what they say: don't look down."

It seemed like an easy enough task, not looking down. But Levon was wont to challenge himself and to defy the weakened limits of his character. He made a pact with himself to look down throughout the ride. And before he knew it, he was.

After the simple, mechanical intro of a recorded track played over the speaker system, the cable car jolted to life. Levon, among the four other guests inside the moving transporter, yelped as the cart strode out of its docking port into midair. A glass floor enabled the guests to view the rolling hills peppered with luscious trees and the amiable countryside with ease. Various noises of amazement from guests mingled with the classy, new age music pouring from the speaker. Cameras clicked, eyes widened, and hands pointed at the aestheticism of the landscape.

Despite his reservations, Levon had never seen anything so magnificent in his life. At this height, trees appeared like stalks of broccoli on some massive Titan's dinner platter, juxtaposed alongside various swaths of farmland. Tilled fields and pastures filled with roaming cattle looked nothing more than brown stamps with moving white speckles on the inside. Quaint countryside towns were vague settlements against the spacious background of Mother Nature at her finest. Levon felt a stirring in his heart. As he stared down at how small the Earth's components seemed at such a height, wonder moved his fear away.

"Honey." He started, ready to verbalize the empowerment growing in his chest to the one that he loved. "Honey, isn't it so...so..."

Words could not capture how beautiful the world appeared so high in the sky. So Levon decided to squeeze his wife's hand and draw her in close. It was apparent that she was equally as moved, if not more, by this position in the clouds. Her dark eyes sparkled with emotion as she regarded him with a smile.