REM

The Drop

Death is inevitable, but try telling that to your child after a nightmare. You don't, you lie.

We were on a snowmobile trip. The trail conditions were excellent and the snow was still falling to the ground as well. My whole family had been invited up to my cousin's cottage, so we packed the van full of gear and loaded up two sleds for the trip. It was going to be just like every other time, a blast.

There weren't very many bridges on the trails that we rode, but for the most part, they were short stubby things which usually consisted of wooden pallets for loading product onto trucks. The only one that wasn't, spanned over a deep ravine that you couldn't see the bottom of. We hadn't taken that section of the trail before that I could remember, but today we were going to. There was a train wreck on the other side and everyone wanted to go take pictures of it before it was cleared. Train wrecks weren't very common, so the prospect of seeing one that had derailed sounded pretty cool at the time.

As we came to the bridge, my Uncle slowed to make sure everyone had caught up. Once he saw everyone, he gave the thumbs up and then we all started to cross it. The ravine was much wider than I expected it to be and when I got to the middle of the bridge, everyone's sled was on the structure. Next thing I knew, I was falling. As I was falling in slow motion to my death, the weight of all the snowmobiles seemed like an afterthought. If we had just gone one by one we would have made it.

Falling with my back facing the bottom of the ravine, I watched on as my legs and arms were pushed out in front of me. My black gloves and snowsuit were all I could see and my helmet visor didn't seem to obstruct my vision of everyone else and their sleds catching up to me as I plummeted. It was like a funnel we were all falling down, scattered slightly, man and machine.