Jump

She slid into the cold water to avoid slipping and hurting herself on the rocks. Goose bumps appeared over her entire body causing her to shiver and she wished she had not taken that first step. But she was here and he was calling her forward.

Floating horizontal on the surface of the water, she glided forward by grabbing onto the rocks beneath and pulling herself until the water was deep enough to kick and swim in.

She chased him; her fingers just lightly brushing up against his heels as they swam fast to the sunken building. He reached the building first and climbed into the doorway. Turning around he offered her his hand and helped her in. He is always a gentleman.

 As she stood, she was surprised to find that the floor was not slippery like the rocks on the shoreline. Sure of their footing, the pair made their way through the doorways into each new room. Ducking under spider webs and avoiding nasty looking bugs that had made their home that abandoned place, they splashed their way through the hollowed out rooms.

Daylight shone through the windows and the small holes in ceilings illuminating the watery floor and showing areas where there may not be a floor at all. She tried hard to not think about what could be lurking in the shadows in the water.

 A wooden ladder, put there by some other explorer, made an easy access to the second floor. He let her go first. With him holding onto the ladder, she felt safe as she made her way up through the small opening in the ceiling.

Rocky concrete that had been worn away over the years, left only the small rocks on the surface.  All around her the concrete threatened to harm her if she were to slip and fall. Pain ran up her arms as she pushed her palms down on the surface to hoist herself up through the opening. She checked; no cuts on her palms.

She helped him up. There was no ceiling in this room, just the cloudy sky looking down on them. The outer walls were slanted at an angle.  Windows were cut through the inner walls to reveal a room on each side. She looked around, rocky concrete covered every surface of this place.

Her heart swelled with fear as she thought about what she was about to do.

She approached the first wall; examined it closely only to find that it contained no foot holdings. She tried to climb, but jumped back down for fear of falling and scrapping her skin. Not wanting to give up, but not wanting to climb that wall, she crawled through the window into the next room. Same layout as the first, except this time there was a metal square sticking out of the slanted wall.

She looked out the next window. This one over looked the lake. She could see others approaching. She went back to her task of trying to climb the wall.

She put her toe in a small crack in the wall. She pushed up and grabbed at the metal square with her left hand. She found another crack for her other foot and pulled herself up further; this time using the metal square as a foothold. She grabbed onto the top ledge of the wall and pulled herself up further. Surprised at her strength, she pulled herself up until she was sitting on top of the wall, looking down at the concrete room.

The warm breeze hit her back and she look behind her. She saw people strolling along the lake shore. Some pointed at her, others stopped to see what was going on. Trying to ignore their curious eyes, she turned back to find him crawling through the window. He was looking for a way up the wall. She sat there, no way to help him up without falling onto the hard concrete.

She cheered him on.

The others were in the room now too. One of which had bloody knees. She had feared getting cut and felt sorry for the other who did. They were less careful; not afraid to be scraped and they ran up the walls and made it to the top. He made it too and sat next to her as the others crawled along the tops of the walls to the outer edge. They stood up and jump! She clapped at their braveness, knowing that she would have to be next.

They sat on the ledge looking down at the concrete room and out at the people walking by. They caught their breath. He was ready to stand and she suppressed her fear and kept telling herself it was almost over. Taking a deep breath she lifted up her legs and stood up on the ledge, then quickly knelt back down. She was afraid. But she was doing this because he wanted her to. So she stood back up.

They stood there together on the outer ledge. They talked about jumping. Her heart started to race uncontrollably. She knelt back down. She looked up. There was a crowd gathered. She could feel their eyes on her and that made her turn red and her heart race even more. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and stood back up.

He jumped first.

Now it was just her. She remembered how cold the water was. She saw all the people watching her and giving her that silent pressure for her to jump. She saw him floating in the water, happy that he had jumped and made it. She moved up a step. Took another deep breath as her heart threatened to beat uncontrollably again. She was determined to not let it happen again.

She jumped.

The water came rushing up and she was under before she knew it. She kicked hard to make her way back to the surface. She saw him, smiling from ear to ear. She swam over to him and kissed him hard.

This is my account of what Jon and I did for our anniversary this year. I thought I would try a different way of explaining what we did. Hope you liked it.