Down the Cliff

   
      She stood at the very edge of the cliff, she had to go down. There was absolutely no choice, someone stood behind her, and they were going to push her down the cliff. They never told her when they were going to push, only that they would...and soon. At the beginning of the waiting period she was happy, glad, she started to think that the person who stood behind her had forgotten he would push her. Yet she only had to take a peek behind her, and see that the person was still there waiting for the right time.

      Soon the waiting period became worse than the idea of falling down the cliff. She wanted the person to push her already, she wanted to get to the bottom of the mountain already. All this waiting she could no longer take. Even though she wanted it to be over with, she could not bring herself to tell the person to push her down the cliff. So she just waited. Since she had nothing to do but wait she started to imagine what might be at the bottom of this cliff. Where there sharp daggers at the bottom that would pierce her? Was there something soft that would catch her? Water perhaps or maybe a cloud? Anything really was possible. 

   Suddenly she was pushed down the cliff. It had happened so suddenly, her arms flung in all directions, and the falling seemed so quick, and sudden. Then she felt a sudden jerk, it was a hand that had grabbed her. Suddenly she was flung onto the side of a rock. She didn't feel pain which surprised her. The only thing that went on in her head was that someone had grabbed her while she was falling. She stood up and looked around, and she must have been in a crack in the cliff, or a small edge that stuck out. She looked around for the hand that had grabbed her, and she saw someone.

   It was an old lady, she looked so weak. How did she have the strength to have pulled her into this crack in the cliff? So she walked up to this old woman, and thanked her. They talked for a while, she told her about how it felt waiting at the edge of the cliff, and how she actually wanted to be pushed down the cliff, at one point. She told her about all her fears, and how none of them had come true. She told the old lady how thankful she was to be saved from falling all the way down the cliff. When she told the old lady this, the old ladies face became hardened, and the old lady told her something that she would never have expected. She told her that she still needed to get to the bottom.

    The old lady just said that this was a pit stop, something to give her strength to continue with the journey. She didn't understand how falling down a cliff could be a journey. She told the old lady this. The old lady just told her that she needed to go down this cliff. That she needed to get to the bottom. The old lady had known that she wasn't strong enough to go down the cliff at one time. She told her she was ready to continue down the cliff.

   So the old lady gently pushed her down the cliff, and she went on falling. It felt different this time for her, she was no longer afraid of reaching the bottom. The old lady had changed the experience completely, and she was so happy to have had the old lady talk to her. As she fell down she couldn’t quite make out what was at the bottom. Yet she felt safe, and even though as she fell down the cliff fear gripped her, she knew she would be safe as she fell.

  Or would she…?