Welcome to the Story Day! This one’s a bit long, so I split it up into two parts (not the two-parter I mentioned in another post). It was really fun to write and I think it’s pretty realistic.
Also, it involves a cliff. Need I say more? XD
So enjoy, and let me know your thoughts!
Prompt
There actually wasn’t a prompt for this one – someone asked me to write a story about gratitude, so I did.
Ergo, now YOU get to write a story about gratitude. 😉
Story
If someone had told you that you would fall off a cliff and die if you didn’t stop complaining, would you have believed them?
Yeah, well, neither did I.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened. Let me explain.
My name is Karla Berkis. I’ve lived in the mountains my whole life and never once been afraid of heights. In fact, during the summers, I’d hike to the highest point on my family’s property and survey the view, wishing I could cast myself off the cliff I stood at and soar like the hawks below me. Sometimes I’d even spread my arms and stand on tiptoes, closing my eyes and breathing in the wind as if just the sheer power of my imagination could lift me up and carry me into the heavens.
So when my mother angrily told me that if I didn’t stop complaining about every little thing I’d fall off a cliff and die, I laughed in her face. “I’m like a mountain goat, Mom,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I’ve never once missed a step.”
“It wasn’t meant to be taken literally,” Mom replied, obviously struggling to maintain her patience.
I wish I had taken it literally. Then again, maybe if I hadn’t, I’d still be the selfish, spoiled, self-conceited snob I was then. To be honest, nothing in my life was good enough except me and the view from that cliff. And I didn’t even realize that until it was too late.
Another day of school had been completed, and the late afternoon sun shed its dark rays across the land as I threw my backpack onto my bed in a huff and reached for my heavier jacket. Summer was on its way, but it wasn’t there yet.
As I stormed up the familiar trail to my “Me Place”, I couldn’t help thinking, Why would James tell me something like that? Doesn’t he care about our friendship at all? Apparently not.
Looking back on that, I laugh. James, my older brother, had told me that I should cheer up a bit – smile every now and again or compliment someone just ‘cause I felt like it. He said I was like a wisp of smoke – always drifting in a smog, blocking out others’ sunlight. That had made me mad. Really mad.
“Alright,” I told the hawks as I settled in my favorite spot with my back to a large tree. I stared out across the valley, my gaze resting on the shimmering town on the edge of the horizon. Our mom lived there. Our dad lived here, on the mountain. “So maybe I’m blunt enough to say when something isn’t right. He doesn’t have to get mad about it!”
What I had said to get him to make his comment was, Look at that girl over there. Can’t she realize that not everything is worth a laugh? Why is she always so cheerful? It makes me sick.
My only reply was the wind blowing my long brown waves out of my face. I closed my eyes and lifted my nose into the breeze, flaring my nostrils as I relaxed my death-grip around my knees and let my fashionable blouse billow. This was flying wind.
I got up and approached the brink of the cliff, glancing down only once before lifting my eyes to stare at the sinking sun directly ahead of me. How I wanted to just soar, to be free of the turmoil and chaos of every day. To be as free as those hawks, whose only worries were what they were going to eat and if they were going to be warm enough that night. Once a year they’d worry about mating and having chicks. What would it be like to have freedom like that?
Although I didn’t really feel like it, I lifted my arms and closed my eyes, letting the sunlight bathe my face with its warm rays. Wind raked its fingers through my hair and tried to take my loose clothing. It felt wonderful.
Until I realized that I was no longer standing. The rush of air took my breath away as my eyes popped open and I saw with a scream that I was plummeting off the cliff onto the sharp rocks below.
Wrap Up
*cackles* Enjoy your cliff-hanger, y’all! (Pun intended. ;)) And don’t murder me in the comments over it… 😛 The second part will come out next Saturday, so tune in for that!
Take courage, pursue God, and smile while you still have teeth! 😉
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