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I whimpered as I looked back at the lines dangling over the jungle. I’d just watched the rest of our group go screaming down them, and as their forms had disappeared into the jungle, my fear only increased.
“What if the lines snap?”
“They won’t,” Miguel said as he helped Marge down on her stomach into her sling. “It is very safe. I can assure you.”
“Doris, I’m no more enthused about this than you are.” Alice waved a hand over the sling holding her snug in the row of widows now ready to go. “But the only other way down is back on the UTV and then a bus.” She soured her face. “I’d rather risk the neck-breaking now than get on a stinky bus. If I’m going, you’re going.”
I whimpered again, and then I looked at the three women staring at me with expectant eyes. The three women I trusted most in this world. If they truly believed this would help me accomplish my wish, then I had to muster up the strength to do it.
“Okay,” I forced out.
Sylvie’s eyes lit up. “You’ll do it?”
“Yes. Fine. I’ll do it. But let’s hurry before I change my mind.”
“You heard the woman!” Marge boomed. “Strap her up and send us down!”
Sylvie clapped as Miguel walked me forward, my steps slowing as I got closer to the edge.
My stomach flipped and flopped when I peered into the cavern below. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Once you get going, you’ll forget all about your fears. I do this all day, every day, and you aren’t the first person to be terrified to go down. But I can tell you, once they did it, they all wanted to go again.”
“Really?” I asked as he hooked me up to the carabiner.
“Really. You’ll love it, Doris.”
“We’ll be right beside you over here,” Sylvie said from the other side of Marge. “I picked this particular zipline tour because it has four lines, meaning we all go together. We’re with you, Doris.”
“You got this, Doris!” Marge gave me a thumbs up from beside me where she was already hooked up, lying flat on her stomach with her guide ready to launch her off. “We’ll be right beside you.”
Alice looked less enthused in the harness beside her, wearing the orange helmet she hadn’t stopped complaining about.
“We’ve got this, Doris. Let’s fly like birds.” Sylvie mimicked Marge’s thumbs up.
I looked at them again, all ready and waiting, and then I dug into the resolve I would need to push off the platform.
You survived swimming with Great Whites, Doris. You can do this. God will protect you, and if He doesn’t, it just means my time is up, and He’s calling me home.
With that reminder about my fate even if I plunged to my death, I gave Sylvie a sharp nod. “Okay. Let’s go.”
The harness pushed into my stomach as I lay waiting, then one of the four men helping Miguel put his hands on my straps and stood behind me.
“Ready?” Miguel asked us.
“Ready!” Marge shouted, and I gave a sharp nod.
“3, 2, 1,” Sylvie counted. “Let’s go!”
With a blood-curdling scream, I got pushed off the platform and swooped into the open air surrounding me. The world fell away as the whirring noise of the zipline started, and I sailed along the line, my heart rate pounding as fast as the speeds we caught while we descended between the trees. Fear and exhilaration twisted and twirled inside of me.
“Whooooo!” Sylvie screamed. “We’re flying, Doris! We’re flying!”
I’m flying.
As the fear started to subside, that simple fact finally sunk in.
I was flying—like a bird. And Sylvie was right.
