Tangled Up in Blue

Over the Edge

Keegan

I am about to be dangling off a cliff, with only a lousy rope between me and certain death.

The wind seems a lot stronger on top than it did below, and I'm frozen with fear. 

But I don't want anyone to know it.

I'd followed Blue and the ROTC members a couple of miles along a winding path that curved up and around, through trees and around boulders, until we were standing on top of the sandstone cliffs.

Clad in fatigues, they all jumped into action, anchoring rappelling ropes to two thick tree trunks that stood about ten feet from the edge.

Then they quickly wrapped other ropes around their rear ends, creating harnesses with an elaborate system of knots.

And then, before I even realized what was happening, they'd clipped themselves to the rappelling ropes and, one by one, simply walked off the cliff.

Headfirst. Hollering and howling and whooping as if it was the greatest moment of their lives. 

They sounded young and brave and free.

And completely insane.

Blue stood near the edge with a beat-up iPad in his hands, reading out what sounded like a safety checklist before each team member stepped off the cliff.

He looked deadly serious and sounded very business-like.

But now that the rest of the team has seemingly disappeared into thin air, he is looking at me.

I'm sure I look scared to death, because I am. 

There's no fucking way.

"There's no fucking way." 

I repeat what I was just thinking, starting to back up, turning to head back down the path I just came up.

"No way, Blue! Are you kidding me?" 

I'd been all brave and gung-ho about this down at the car. But not now.

Blue is instantly at my side. "Keegan." His voice is warm, reassuring.

He sticks the iPad under his arm and puts both hands on my shoulders, chuckling as he pulls me to him.

 "You're not going down like that," he says, kissing me. "I'm sorry. I should have warned you. They call it Aussie Style. These guys have been trained to do that. You're going down butt first, slowly, with me right there next to you."

"Oh." I stand there feeling foolish.

"And remember, you don't have to do this at all. No one's going to think badly of you. None of those guys down there will, I guarantee you. The only thing they're thinking about is how to get you away from me."

I'd seen the hungry way some of the ROTC guys looked at me. But I do not want to back out in front of them.

Or in front of Blue.

"I'm doing this," I say, taking a deep breath and squaring my shoulders.

I walk back toward the edge to a pile of rope and start clumsily wrapping a length of it around my waist and through my legs, then trying to tie it the way I'd seen the others doing.

"Hang on, hang on."

Blue tucks the iPad into the backpack on the ground nearby; then he's again at my side, gently taking the rope from me.

"You gotta know what you're doing with the seat; otherwise, you could get yourself killed. Besides, I brought a harness for you."

He grins and holds up a contraption with what looks like a waistband and two leg loops.