Author's Note
This is one of my most favorite chapters. Hope you enjoy! :)
~
“MAR… VIIIIIN!!!”
I felt as though my own heart was stopping and the whole world was spinning. I was not sure if I should be disappointed or frightened because I might be feeling both, a mixture of anxiety that made me tremble so hard. This was one of those times I’d dreamt of for a long time, waiting for it to happen, excited for me to experience. However I felt different when it was once in front of me. Fourteen thousand feet above ground, on air.
“I – I can’t. I think I can’t do this anymore, Marv. I – I’ve changed my mind.” I said while backing off from the opened door that led to the mouth of the sky. Summer break was still months and several exams from now but Marvin managed to take me to another adventure far from home. One of his another surprises. I love this. Anywhere and anytime.
“Come on, Elz. You can you it.” Marvin said while tightening the grip of the straps all over my body, the only things that would keep my body in safety from the free fall.
I shut my eyes so tightly and locked my hands on the cold metal bars. What could possible go wrong in a matter of seconds? A minute of free fall?
Well, one wrong tap and you might lose your life.
Oh, right.
When I opened my eyes, I saw Marvin just staring at me. His green eyes rose above all the anxiety. Okay, I told myself. This will be the last thing that you’ll see what else could you even ask for? You’ll be in his arms with the clouds hugging both of you. It’s a perfect scene. And when it’s the only thing that is right, it’s okay, because it worths more than all those who went wrong.
“Okay,” I breathed in. “I’ll do it.” I was not sure where that courage came from, I was only sure that the next thing I felt came from him. He smiled and there was this inevitable urge that forced me to smile too. That smile was the only thing I could rely on now.
“Excited for the big jump, Elz?” Marvin offered his hands.
I let go of the cold metal bars and transferred my grip on his warm hands. “If anything goes wrong, I love you okay.”
Marvin smirked, not even a hint of anxiety showed. “Nothing will go wrong. Bend your knees, cross your arms, straighten your shoulders and jump with me. Tap this button on your shoulder to open the one side of our parachute. I’ll do the same to open the other.”
We walked towards the end edge of the door. There was a platform where we should jump off. I was welcomed by the bright sunrise across the distance, the roaring of the engine behind and the crisp morning air that swept through the clouds. I could almost reach them! But I was far too scared to strech my arms. Bend, cross, straigthen and jump. Bend, cross, straighten and jump. Oh, and tap the button. Bend, cross, straighten, jump and tap!
“Goggles on,” Marvin said to me and we both pressed the goggles from my forehead to my eyes. The bright rays were dimmed and I saw the view more clearly without hurting my eyes. We went up to the platform. “Fourteen thousand feet,” Marvin said exactly what I had in mind.
“Thanks for confirming it.” I sarcastically said.
Marvin smiled. “Don’t be afraid. We’ll jump together.”
I looked down for the first time with my goggles on. Intead of being afraid, I was amazed at how beautiful the sight from up there was. “Bend, cross, straigthen, jump and tap.”
“Tap after thirty-five seconds. You’ll hear this beep.” He pointed to the red dot light on his earpiece. “But don’t waste your time waiting for the sound. Spend the first seconds enjoying the free fall.” He winked and went farther to the edge. He offered his hand again and I followed. My heart beat faster and faster and all the oxygen in my lungs seemed to escape towards the clouds.
Bend our knees, and we bent.
Cross our arms, and we crossed.
Straighten our shoulders, and we strengthened.
Then…
Fudge!
What’s next? “What’s next?” I shouted for him to hear despite the engine noise.
“Jump!” Marvin said, and without wasting another second, he wrapped his arms around me and we jumped. I hardly had time to prepare. I wanted to be angry at him but I knew this was not the right time.
We were falling. Falling! Free fall. There were no ropes holding us nor foam or net to catch us. Just me and Marvin fighting to get through the air. I screamed to the top of my lungs. It felt like flying and seemed like the clouds were passing through my hands. The view was so different from what I used to look at. Finally, I got a chance to see the world from a bird’s point-of-view. I was sure that somewhere, someone out there wanted to be in this very spot floating on air with the person they love.
For a brief moment so many things passed my mind. My old life before Marvin came, my few years in highschool, my friends and family, Marvin and Me, our story, to become successful someday, my life ten to twenty years from now, the next time I would sky dive again…
All of those in a span of thirty-five second. I heard the beep from my earpiece and immediately tapped the button on my shoulder. For few seconds nothing happened. A thought suddenly hit me. What if the parachute was broken? What if it did not sprang above? What would happen to me and Marvin? After the dreading, I finally heard a quick shwoosh and our free fall slowed down. The parachute opened large above us and enveloped the air to prolong our stay above-ground. I held on the straps that connected the parachute to our vests and gear to be sure that it would not be torn away.
We would land safely. We needed to survive. I needed to survive so that I could go home, write this chapter and continue our story; he needed to survive so I could have my inspiration in all those. That, those were what I wanted. We would survive.
Feeling the assurance of safety, the anxiety and disappointment from earlier vanished like they were wiped away by the air that passed through us. So with Marvin still holding my waist, I slowly let go of my grip on the parachute and extended my arms wide beside me like wings and closed my eyes for a while.
You’re flying, Ella! Another check in your bucket list.
I glanced at Marvin and saw him grinning. I knew for sure than neither of us would forget this moment. I wanted to scream again, but this time it was not just any curse or random syllable. Two clear sentences with a reply. “I love you, Marvin! You. Are. Real!”
“I am, we are. This is real. Hold on to that.”
~
“We set feet on the ground with euphoria from being high.” Marvin said as we walked out of the skydiving park to the streets. We sat on a streetbench in front of a small café.
“Without any illegal drugs,” I nodded. It was indeed very satisfying.
“You’re enough to be my drugs. I’m addicted to you.”
My heart flipped again like how he always could. I could still feel my hands like passing through the clouds and my feet floating. “PSDS,” I said and laughed. “Post-Sky Diving Syndrome.”
“It’s a pleasure to have PSDS with you. Next time again?”
“I’d love to,” I said and kissed him.
“Ex—cuse me,” said an old man standing in front of us. “Can you move to the other bench? I reserved the other one for you two. This particular one is special for me and my love, so please?”
I was surprised not because of the warm permission, but because he addressed the permission to me and Marvin. For you two. The old man was warmly smiling now and pointing to the next bench. I wanted to ask why he could see Marvin but I realized that maybe we were in another world away from reality that separated me from my love. So I should not separate this special bench to the old man. “Yes, sir.” We stood and sat on the other bench where a violet box with one pair of entwined hearts sat.
“Can you please hand it to me? I left it there to – ” he coughed but laughed. “To save your seat so that we can exchange.”
“I’ll do it, sir.” Marvin took the box and handed it to the old man. They exchanged some other words and smiles before Marvin returned to sit beside me.
“What did he say?” I asked. The old man, alone on his bench with his box, was now looking up the sky, craning his head like waiting for someone from above.
“He said he was waiting for someone and somewhat apologized for the exchanging of benches.” I wondered if what he was waiting would suddenly fall from the sky. Marvin placed his arm around my shoulders. We cuddled on the bench for minutes (Yes, in public) while watching the people and cars on the streets until we felt hunger.
We went inside the café. It was crowded, we almost went out to find other café when a group of teenagers in uniform I couldn't recognize went out of our sight and I saw a free couch table by the glass window. “There!” I told Marvin and we rushed to the couch under the beautiful rainbow painting. When we got there, there was a blue sign on the stand where the number should be placed. Written on violet font with a red heart sticker after the words, it said:
THIS TABLE IS RESERVED
“Sorry, sir and miss. This table is reserved.” We turned to see one of the employees. He was maybe in mid-thirties or somewhere near that with dark brown hair with white streaks and eyebags but despite that he seemed smart and a person of success. I wondered what he was outside the café. “If you want we sign you up in the waiting list for another table or,” he looked at the counter and saw a couple leaving the stool chairs. “Or you can sit there in the breakfast stools?”
I looked at Marvin for his response. Maybe he was as hungry as I was so we both nodded and went to the counter stool next to the cashier. The sound of the keyboard and computer printing receipt echoed to our place, but it was a waste of time to find another seat or another café, I did not know when this surprise would end.
We checked the menu and both ordered the same specialty Love Pancakes. “Love Pancakes, sounds special.” I said while it was being served to us.
“It is,” said the same guy who served our food from the other side of the stool, he was also the one who’d talked to us earlier. I checked his name tag: Hi, I’m Jake. “Recipe was made by my grand father and passed to my mother now to my generation.”
“Can’t wait to taste,” Marvin said and was the first one to take a bite. I took a slice from mine. It was indeed flavorful and special. The taste would slowly touch your tastebuds and explode into your mouth, like love itself. We even stopped noticing the distracting noise around us.
“We should go here often,” I suggested in between chews because I could not stop eating.
“Every other sky diving,” Marvin laughing at me.
“Hey don’t laugh at me.”
Marvin took another bite. “You look cute.”
I rolled my eyes and hid my face because I felt like blushing. I suddenly saw the old man sitting on the bench earlier. He was taking orders, two of each he said. He did not pay and stepped aside after. “It’s you again?” he said, laughing. “Today is full of you two, eh?”
“Hi, Sir,” Marvin said. “Is that someone you’re waiting arrived?”
“Oh, My Love?” He smiled. “Not yet, kid. Maybe traffic. Or maybe too busy to prepare our things for our outing.”
“Outing? You’ll travel?” I was surprised to know that he would travel with his what I assumed to be his wife.
He nodded. “Oh dear, I could not count how many years already but I was sure it was our anniversary.”
I felt a tinge of happiness and jealousy. I wanted to have that with Marvin. Years and decades of anniversaries. “Happy anniversary for you,” said Marvin when I could not manage a reply.
“Thank you, thank you.” He laughed his way to his table.
“Wait, that was the reserved table, right?” I remembered the painting of a rainbow above the table.
“Yes,” Marvin stopped eating too and stared at the old man.
“You must be the couple he saw in the bench area?” asked Jake. We nodded. “Oh. I apologize. He is quite persistent most of the time.” I was puzzled of why he was talking to the old man like that. Did they know each other? So I asked. “Yes,” he said with a sad smile while wiping the already-clean portion of the counter by our stool again and again. “He is my father.”
“Father?” I asked, hoping it did not sound rude.
He laughed, but it did not reach his eyes. His eyes went back to the old man sittin on the other end of the café. “He was a great doctor and I wanted to follow his steps after my short shift here. He has his own schedule everyday. The number one fan of his own restaurant.”
“He’s waiting for your mother, we assumed?” Marvin said to answer the curiousity in our heads.
He nodded and pursed his lips. I was glancing at the old man while Jake was talking. The old man was still staring at the sky or somewhere above. “Every morning he waits outside, rain or shine, in the same bench. When he gets hungry, he’ll go here inside. We reserved a table just for him because the café got packed at this time.”
“Why is he looking up?” I asked.
He attended a customer who asked for extra tissue and syrup then answered my question. “He’s waiting for my mother.”
“She’s…? She’s – upstairs?” I felt nosy already. We better leave before Jake or the old man get pissed at our questions, but my plate was not yet empty and I could not leave the pancakes alone.
He placed his hand on his nape, I saw the old man did that too. “She passed away years ago.”
My eyes widened. I suddenly covered my mouth in shock. We were in awkward and sad situation. If only I knew. Thankfully, Marvin replied again for the both of us. “I’m sorry. We did not mean to – ”
Jake smirked and waved Marvin’s apology. “Nonsense, I encounter people and couples like you who ran into my Dad. I got used to it.”
I told myself that supposed to make me feel better. Jake went to the cashier and his substitute cleaned a newly vacant table. So the old man was staring up the sky to wait for his wife who passed away. It was heartbreaking. I was just there and I saw no sign of her. I wondered if he was up there with us in the aero? Would she see him? Would he be the one she would think of when we was in the infinite seconds of free fall, the distance between the sky and the ground...
He loved her that the after shock of her lost could still be felt. I stared at him. He did not seem to be sad. Maybe he too lived in a world where the two of them still existed.
“Ella, I’ll just go to the comfort room.” Marvin said. I let him. The old man went to the cashier. He smiled at me and I managed a smile back.
“Good service. I might increase your salary.” Jake and the old man laughed, but I saw Jake’s eyes glinted.
“Would that be all, Sir?” asked Jake, discreetly wiping his tears so that his father would not see.
“Jake is your name?” he smiled. “Good name, give me a blueberry for my wife and a red velvet for my son, ‘is name is Jake too.” He grinned.
Jake served the take out. The old man looked at me. The line was piling but they did not seem to mind. “Where is the boy you’re with?” he did not give me a chance to answer and turned back to Jake. “Give another red velvet to her. For picking a good bench this morning.” He winked.
Jake placed a plate of red velvet on the counter next to my almost empty plate of pancakes. “Thanks,” I whispered.
“Thank you.” He said with a sad expression I assumed to be a sad smile.
“Eh, Jake?” The old man said, nodding disapprovingly. “This is my café. You should serve the customers happily. Next time I see you looking like your house got on fire last night, I’ll fire you.” Then the Old Man suddenly patted Jake's shoulders like a folk giving jokes. He walked out of the café with a smile.
I turned the other way just in time a tear escaped from my eye.