This post was inspired by my new favourite course provider – Writers’ HQ and the Flash Face Off theme Up and Down. I chose the following picture as my inspiration:
I wanted to fly. Everything was pulling me upwards into the sky. I breathed deeply and pulled my arms backwards as if I was in a swan dive off the top board. I stepped up onto the ledge ready to take flight. I stepped up from the graffiti covered concrete roof top and my toes felt their way to the edge. I pulled myself up to my full height and breathed again. The air was so clear and fresh. What a difference 23 floors made. I allowed myself to linger. The world seemed to pause with me. I couldn’t hear anything – the traffic was muted; the wind had stilled; the hum of the air-conditioning unit held its breath.
The feeling of standing on the edge was intoxicating. Gravity pulled me forward and down. Everything inside me wanted to fly. I resisted the natural urge to be pulled to the ground. Adrenalin kicked in and survival instinct made me want to take a step back to safety. Stay there for another minute! Do what you came to do! I shouted at myself. The coward in me whimpered and had already gone back to cower at their desk on the 15th floor.
I stayed. I opened my eyes to look around me at the other office blocks which jostled for position in the overcrowded city. I wondered if other people would be on the roofs with their own personal challenges. But there was always just me. Getting a little bit braver every day.
I took another breath and stepped back into my normal life on the 15th floor. My day would come very soon. They’d never know what hit them.