Page 25 of The Promise of Tomorrow
Elena had asked if he’d take his car so she could enjoy another rush of them driving with the roof down, her breathing in deeply, not caring about the exhaust fumes in the air. He left the motorway at the approaching junction and followed the signs to Horton Green Park, a thousand-acre, landscaped National Trust estate, forty miles northwest of Manchester. The bungee jump would take place from a bridge, over the Horton Mere, a large lake to the south of the estate. The weather was perfect – no rain, no wind, sun not too bright. Back at the house, Rory had asked her if nerves had set in. But no, she’d whistled louder than the kettle and waved cheerily to Tahoor as they drove past after breakfast. He was out the front in his dressing gown, examining a flattened shrub.
Voice hoarse from singing along to rock music on the car radio, Elena glugged some water as they parked up. Then sheand Rory headed for the bottom of some steps at one end of the bridge. She gazed across at the mere, far into the distance. So much open space. Was that what the afterlife was like? One thing was certain: death couldn’t be any more restrictive than her life up to this point.
‘In the financial world, a bungee bet is an investment that appears to go wrong but then bounces back,’ said Rory as they walked over to Tim, who must have been almost six and a half feet tall. ‘Bungee jumping first started as part of a coming-of-age ceremony, on a Pacific Ocean island. Young men would jump from a tree with vines fixed around their ankles.’
Tim walked over and held out his hand. ‘Great to meet you, Elena. I hope Rory hasn’t talked you into this.’ His shaved head was as tanned as his face.
‘As if,’ said Rory.
Tim studied Elena. ‘There’s nothing worse than peer pressure – especially when it’s coming from a partner.’
‘Dude, we’re not dating!’ said Rory and shook his head.
‘We’re just housemates,’ Elena protested.
‘Whatever,’ said Tim and playfully punched Rory’s arm. Elena and Rory rolled their eyes at each other.
She blew on her hands. A mix of excitement and fear, from the other jumpers, spiked the wintry air. Sure, Elena was nervous, but that was proof she was reallyalive. As advised, she’d dressed in comfortable long trousers and a top, and sports shoes that wouldn’t interfere with the ankle harnesses. Tim explained the process and weighed her, his words not registering. Elena was too hyped about doing the most dare-devil thing in her life – apart from that dive off the top board of the local pool when she was nine, the last adventurous thing she’d done as a child. She hadn’t even checked out Tim’s credentials online. Normally an avid reader of disclaimers, Elena hardly read the paperwork hepassed her, simply signing on the dotted line before he’d finished reading everything out.
Elena was the first person to jump. She climbed up onto the bridge with Tim and stared up at the baby blue sky.
‘Are you sure Rory can’t come up here, at the same time, to watch?’ she asked.
Tim shook his head. ‘I allowed a boyfriend up once and after I’d counted down to one, and the woman had committed to jumping, he shouted “No, wait!”, messing around. She dislocated her shoulder by a panicked attempt to grab on to something at the last minute.’
But Rory wouldn’t do that. What a spoilsport this Tim was.
The team asked Elena lots of questions as they fitted the harnesses and rope, no doubt used to having to distract people with last-minute nerves. They needn’t have bothered.
‘Do you want to touch the mere with your hands?’ one of them asked.
‘What?’ asked Elena, who hadn’t really been listening. ‘No – I want my whole head dunked under the surface! Let’s really go for it!’
She shuffled onto a wooden platform that stuck out from the bridge. Tim went on and on, explaining how to jump. Yadda, yadda.
He began to count, reminding her to focus on the horizon, and to launch herself outwards, not down. Five, four, three… Boring! Elena didn’t wait for him to finish. Instead of holding them out, she pressed her arms against her sides and nose-dived straight down, like a bullet.
Sunlight sparkled on the water below like flashing cameras, as if paparazzi were capturing a newsworthy story.Falling, falling, an unstable sensation, nothing like flying, no control over the direction, stomach lurching, whoa, the speed, hair flapping, waterapproaching, no time for jubilation, then smack! Down under the freezing cold water before… whoosh, being pulled back upwards, gulping for air, trying to focus. Blinking. Dripping. Swinging. Shrieking with euphoria.She’d done it! Like an uncontrollable pendant, she swung in the air and an engine sounded beneath her. The bouncing slowed and she was lowered unceremoniously into the motorboat. A woman pulled her in and removed Elena’s equipment.
By the time they arrived back at the bridge, Elena shook from head to toe, as if her body couldn’t process the large amount of adrenaline that it had never experienced in nineteen years. Her body was high. High on life. High on a drug she’d avoided for so long, a free hit Mother Nature handed out. Who needed booze and weed?
‘Oh my God, that was amazing!’ she said to Tim, who stood, arms folded, next to Rory, who looked serious. ‘Can I go again?’
‘Sorry, but no way,’ Tim said stiffly. ‘The format of the jump is very important. Going outwards, with your arms stretched horizontally, makes the deceleration smooth and the bounce back kinder. You shouldn’t just drop like a stone.’
‘But I’m okay!’
Tim shook his head and Rory followed him up to the bridge, doing the jump exactly as Tim had advised. Elena whistled and shouted, punching the air when he got back to her.
‘That was incredible!’ she said.
‘Let’s just get back to the car,’ he muttered.
‘What’s wrong?’
Rory ran a hand through his curly hair, the yellow of his hooded puffer jacket much brighter than his expression. ‘Tim’s not happy, Elena, and he was doing us a favour, fitting us in at such short notice. As well as ignoring his advice, you hardly listened to the disclaimer. Tim said he had to repeat it.’
It was like living in a parallel universe, where everyone else was more safety-conscious than her. ‘I took on board the basics!’
