June 6, 99

PRESSURE




"Let's get things straight, Louise," he said. "If you don't want this, then you can leave. I'm not pressuring anyone here into doing anything they don't want to do."

The small group turned to look at Louise's reaction.

Her head was bowed. Her eyes closed. Above her, the clouds swirled in apparent ambivalence. A rainstorm was welling up in the sky.

"You don't have to do this, you know. But then again, why join us up here if you had no intention of taking the plunge?"

They were perched on the edge of an unfinished concrete bridge. About a hundred feet below was a swirling brown river. Muddied waters. The bridge was never completed. Some developer had probably deposited the budget kickbacks into his bloated account somewhere.

An older man was fastening the main cord to a secure iron pillar. Various members of the entourage were already giddy with excitement.

Louise looked up at the instructor. "Don't force me you... you...bully!" She was close to tears. "I'm doing it. I'm doing this, just stop pressuring me."

She went up to the old man and the cord, got herself hooked to the cable that would facilitate this exercise. Check. Double check. Louise's groupmates were wide-eyed in awe. They never figured she'd volunteer to be first.

Louise inched her way toward the edge. The old man in the greasy jeans held her hand for balance and moral support. And the instructor was strangely silent.

She took a peek over the lip of the bridgeway and very nearly lost her balance. This was it. No turning back. With a final glance at her groupmates and at the old man in the greasy jeans, Louise bent both knees simultaneously, jumped off the bridge, and let out a screech....

Everyone's breaths caught in their throats.

Before the bungee cord had reached the point where it would begin to bounce back, Louise had screamed her last breath, and hung limp in the harness.

She flopped around like a rag doll...

Above them, a rumble of thunder.

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