Skydiving

I am taking part in a homeschooling creative writing linkup for tweens and teens.  This post is for the 11th linkup and will be using the “He had two thoughts before jumping out of the plane” writing prompt.  

He had two thoughts before jumping out of the plane. “This is crazy” and “I should stop thinking”.  Last week, John had finally made the decision to go skydiving.  Now, he’s having second thoughts.  “Relax,” the pilot told him “You’re over thinking it. Just step out.” That was the last thing he heard before he willed his legs to move, and jumped.

The next thing he knew, he heard a deafening roar in his ears, and he saw a row of clouds rushing towards him. Instinctively, John closed his eyes and waited for himself to be creamed.  But it never came.  He opened his eyes once again, but the clouds were gone. Below him, lay one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen. As John looked out over the vast mountains, valleys, canyons, and lakes before him, time seemed to slow down. He took in every detail of the landscape below him. Then, as he began to recall procedure, time began to flow normally again. He reached for his parachute rip-cord, but couldn’t find it. He looked over his shoulder, but when he did he was paralyzed with fear. The rip-cord was gone.

The pilot set the plane controls to autopilot, and stepped into the back of the plane. “I need to close the hatch,” he told himself  “Then I’ll radio in to ground control.” But he changed his mind on his way back. He rushed back to the cockpit as fast as his ever tiring legs could carry him. When he reached the cockpit, he nearly fell out of his chair as he reached for the radio controls.  “Ground control” he gasped, “We have a problem!”  Moments later he heard a crackling voice respond “We read you, what’s going on?” He glanced back over his shoulder through the cockpit door to the main hatchway.  There, stuck to the hatch door handle, was a parachute rip-cord. “My passenger is free falling.” he replied as a sick feeling set into his stomach. Quickly, he ran back to the hatch to close it, but when he got there he was actually surprised.  He picked up the rip-cord and examined the end.  It was a clean cut.  “That explains why his parachute didn’t deploy. It was cut.” He thought to himself.  He reached to close the hatch, but jerked back his hand in sudden pain.  “Ow!” he yelled.  As he examined the hatch handle, he noticed a tiny piece of jagged metal; just big enough to cut through a rip-cord and a finger.

Panicking now, John began to fiddle with his backpack, trying to manually open the parachute.  He hauled the pack off his back, but his trembling hands failed him. He accidentally let go, and stared over his shoulder in horror, as his backpack tumbled end over end towards the sky. But he knew it was merely an illusion, he knew what was really happening. He was falling, rocketing closer and closer towards the ground. He knew these would be his last moments.

Ground control had been completely useless, the pilot thought to himself after a brief discussion. Frustrated, he grabbed an empty can and threw it against the wall. He watched it as it rolled across and followed its direction. It rolled right up to the flight suit cabinet, then it hit him… He knew exactly what he had to do, but he had to act fast. He opened the cabinet and snatched out a parachute.

As John frantically looked around for something that could help him out of this predicament, his life began to flash before his eyes. He saw everything from his first steps to when he got his drivers license, he saw it all, in startling detail. Then he heard someone calling out his name, almost a whisper. Could it be a part of his past memories?  It grew, and grew, until he knew it wasn’t in his head. Wrenching himself back to reality, he looked up, but couldn’t believe what he saw.

There, rocketing towards the ground at almost double his current speed, was the pilot. If it hadn’t been for the circumstances, John would have shouted for joy.  But his thoughts were jostled as two huge arms enclosed him, sending him and their owner tumbling.  It took a few seconds before he actually realized what happened.

He had made it! John shouted his thanks, and heartfelt joy, but he couldn’t hear the pilot’s reply over the wind whistling past his head.  Once he was back on the ground, he once again thanked the pilot. “I promise to do two things,” John said “First, to repay you somehow one day, and second-” He paused.  “And second, never to go skydiving again!”