Imagine that a clock is ticking down. You
know that the rope is burning away above you. You can feel the
wind whipping around you and the sound makes you know that the
flames are burning much hotter than they were with that trial
run. You know that you weigh a lot more than a watermelon. You
have to concentrate. You are spinning around slowly with only
one thought on your mind................ escape or die
With
a sudden jerk the crane kicks into high gear and the cable
hoists me upside down, by the ankles. Looking downward, I see
the ground pulling away rapidly, surprised at how quickly I’m
pulled higher and higher into the sky.
Twenty feet – I see the people in the
audience very clearly from this height. Some have their arms
crossed firmly, some applaud and cheer; others simply stare,
their mouths wide open. Beginning my struggle against the
straitjacket wrapped so tightly around me, I attempt to force my
arms away from my body – the attempt is in vain. The jacket
doesn’t give a millimeter.
Sixty
feet, and still rising – my body weight pulling down
heavily on the hemp causes the rope to start untwisting
slightly. Spinning slowly in a circle, I become aware of every
motion, every slight twitch and pop of the burning fibers. “Get
out of this,” I say to myself. “You’ve got to get
out!” Wrenching sideways, I feel the rope make a sudden
lurch down, frightening me. Time is ticking by as I make my way
skyward.
Eighty feet – losing my sensation of
the crowd, my concentration now turns to the wind. With each
gust it sways me slightly back and forth, creating red-hot
flames and billowing a continuous cloud of black smoke into the
blue sky. My eyes follow a small rainstorm of flaming diesel
whipped away from the rope by the blustering air.
Falling
toward the earth, each droplet disappears, consumed by the flame
long before smashing into the pavement below, leaving only a
tiny trail of smoke as proof of its existence. One-hundred feet
– with all the blood rushing into my head, I feel a kind of
euphoria. Losing the upside down sensation, I feel as though the
world around me is inverted. For a brief moment my mind begins
to wander, contemplating the vastness of the space around me and
suddenly I feel very alone. “Concentrate, I’ve got to
focus!”
