Within A Year

Chapter 9

Today was the day I had been dreading because I had agreed to go paragliding. What on earth was I thinking? I had allowed Fletcher to coax me into it like he always did simply because I didn’t want to disappoint him. However as the moment drew closer, I was beginning to feel slightly sick. I hated flying, I hated heights and I hated not being able to touch the ground. This had to be the worst thing I had ever agreed to.

“You look nervous…” Fletcher said as we strolled towards the boats that were situated in the harbour, the boats that would take me to my doom.

“Nervous? Fletcher I’m fucking terrified…” I admitted, feeling my legs trembling as we made our way down to the paragliding boats were. My body was telling me to stop, turn around and run for my life but my heart was telling me to stay. Fletcher really wanted to do this and I couldn’t let him down, not again.

“Lacey… It’ll be fine, I promise…” He reassured me. I was starting to get annoyed with his promises because somehow he was always right, even when I refused to believe him. 

“Alright mate, you here for the paragliding?” A bald, middle aged man asked once we had reached the line of boats. He looked a lot more enthusiastic than he should but I suppose he probably did this every day. Paragliding was like taking a walk in the park for him.

“Yeah… I’m Fletcher, I booked yesterday.” The man scanned down his list and frowned,

“Err… Fletcher Daniels, is it?”

“Yep”

“Okay, come with me.”

My heart quickened as we paced towards a small shack where I assumed all of the equipment would be. I didn’t want to do this; I didn’t want to do this at all. He began handing us harnesses each from a large box in the corner of the shack.

“Here put these on.” I clambered into the complex harness and clipped it around me as tightly as it would go. It was quite difficult though considering my hands were trembling fiercely. I tried not to look at Fletcher because I knew he would be concerned, I didn’t want him to think I was wimping out so I maintained a brave face. The man checked that we had put our harnesses on correctly before beckoning us out of the shack.

“Right then, follow me and we will get you strapped onto the boats, you want to go up together yeah?” Fletcher gave me a quick glance and nodded firmly. Although I was relieved that I wasn’t going up alone, it didn’t remove my utter fear. 

I shakily followed behind Fletcher as we strolled towards the boat. I felt as though I could be sick at any given moment and that made me feel very on edge. Was this really worth it? Was putting themselves through all of this worry and fear really worth it? It was then that I remember standing on that window ledge, looking at the distance ground below me and not feeling scared at all. I felt free and maybe I could channel that emotion into this.

Before I knew it, I found myself climbing onto a rather shabby looking boat which didn’t make me feel very safe. Nevertheless I ignored it and kept taking deep breaths. The man dragged out a large, bright red parachute from the back of the boat and began clipping several ropes to each of our harnesses.

“Don’t be scared Lace…” Fletcher whispered, before he grabbed my hand comfortingly. I felt a warm surge rush up my rush and I gave his hand a small squeeze. I was so thankful to have him, even though he was the reason I was here in the first place.

“Okay you’re ready to go” The man announced, “The ride starts a bit bumpy so don’t be alarmed and it will last about ten minutes.” This caused my heart to beat even more vigorously. Ten minutes? I had to endure this fear for that long, I could tell bad things were going to happen.