Sullivan laughed. He hadn’t considered the issue as that dangerous, but as he did, his smile followed into a pale contorted frown. One unfortunate jump could easily splat him flat onto his death. He would lie unconscious in the bare forest maybe on a death-beckoning rock, the sky above him spinning and whirling at a dizzying speed. Then the darkness would fall upon him and he would never wake up again.
But this was not a forest below him. It was just the sea. There was no apparent harm in it, was there?
“Umm…then let me at least count to ten before you push me,” he begged his two companions, who had brought him to Moloka’i.
Now on the ground, his bag had a brochure sticking out. It read, “VISIT THE TALLEST SEASIDE CLIFFS IN THE WORLD!” Sullivan had told himself only two weeks before that he had to do something to prove to himself that he was fearless, and this, to him, was how one did it. He was only on one of the shorter cliffs, but it was still very jeopardizing.
Poleka and Dini were simple friends who had decided to join Sullivan in his thrill. They stood behind him patiently, awaiting the moment…“Okay, five, four, three, two, go…” and one shove in unison was enough. Like the air propelling him, Sullivan flowed effortlessly, fleeting glimpses of everything splattering across his eyes, mostly as one continuous shade of green and sky-blue. And then he closed his eyes, reopened them, and felt as if trapped in the very middle of time. And then…the jolting splash. He was suddenly gasping for air, stretching his arms and legs, and his head popped out of the water.
“I made it!!!”
From high above, Poleka and Dini shouted back in jubilation. Then suddenly, the water becomes shuddering cold and he can barely swim. He tries to push back with his legs but they give way and only his head and hands are sticking out into the vibrating cold. He calls out for help but realizes he is not below a cliff but on a misty frozen lake in a forest clearing; around him, there are only trees packed close together and with very thick undergrowth. Poleka and Dini are nowhere to be seen. All is quiet. As he is about to succumb, he sees a vague silhouette amidst the fog, approaching steadily and sluggishly. Could it be an animal…a bear treading the ice? He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath as the image materializes into the face of a canine and stops in front of him. As it opens its jaws, Sullivan says his last prayers…but the animal only licks him all about the face and whines in a faded voice.
He opens his eyes to see a ceiling, his bedroom ceiling. Half a second passes and he realizes he is lying on the floor, and that he had probably plunged from the bed and scuffled and coiled while on the floor. Richy, his dog, was licking him awake in concern. But Sullivan still felt like shivering, and fear was written all over his face.