Cliff Diver

by Tilda Sutter

I look down at the drop and want to scream. My back hurts and when I feel it, it has many knots in it. It probably hurts from all the jumping. I was about to. I had to. But it was so steep. I wanted to jump. But I was so scared. I was taking too long. People waiting to go on the slide after me were yelling.

I was at Grace’s end of the summer party about to jump down her water-slide/slip n’ slide.It was a huge blow-up slide. It was red and yellow. I mean all I had to do was dive, twist, sit. I had already done the slide a few times. How hard could an extra challenge be? I remembered seeing Olivia about 10 minutes ago and challenging her to do my challenge. I didn’t know she was in The Hamptons, let alone she was gonna be at Grace’s party. So I got her to do my challenge. When we waited in line we tried to get everyone to do it with us, but no one wanted to.

So here I was, about to jump. Olivia and I were about to jump. We had to head first dive, turn onto our back and then stomach. Then I just had to sit up. How hard could that be? Hard. Impossible. I was frantic. What if I couldn’t do it? I would smash into the the wall. I would hurt myself. I would break something. No. That wouldn’t happen. The slip n’ slide was blow-up. It wouldn’t hurt me. Before I knew it, Olivia yelled 1,2,3 Go! I tried to get some confidence so I would jump.

I remembered jumping off that cliff. In Hawaii, I was on Luma-Hai beach. It was about a month before the party. I had always seen my dad jump off that cliff, so I wanted to. It was about 15 feet tall.  When I walked up I remembered my feet hurting on the rocks. Then I went up to the cliff. I looked down quickly. I saw huge waves beneath me. There was a large, pointy rock  sticking out of the rock. If I didn’t jump far enough I would hit myself. But I still jumped. I  remembered trying to erase the picture from my mind before I jumped off that cliff. 3,2,1. I had jumped off the cliff. In mid air I remembered being so scared. But I still jumped.

I had jumped then. So why was it so hard for me to jump now? But still when I thought I would jump into the Slip ’n slide I didn’t jump. I was so scared. I felt as if the world would kill me if I jumped.  Olivia didn’t jump either. Grace was behind me. I knew she was gonna push me. I mean, she was Grace. Olivia saw Grace about to push me. So she jumped. I felt a quick push.

Water was in my face. What did I have to do again? The twist. I tried to get on my back. But the steep part was so steep. If I couldn’t do it here I would have to do it on the flat part. But the flat part was really tiny. I didn’t think I would have time to do it. But I couldn’t do it here. So I took a big risk. I was gonna have to do the twist after the steep part.

Time was passing rapidly. You could say I was freaking out.  The flat section of the slide was paltry. And I was on the flat part. The paltry, red and yellow flat part of the slide. The super short flat part that I was on. Quick, small, paltry, red, yellow, bouncy, flat, thin, annoying, uncomfortable flat part.. Stop it! I thought. Describing the flat part was not gonna help me. What did I have to do again? Twist. I had to twist.

I was on my back. Back back back. I was on my back. My back hurt. Painful, bouncy, colorful, That was what the slide was like.  Yes. Because describing things gave me confidence. Why did I have to go back on to my stomach? I could just end like this and say I did it. But I actually wanted to do it. So I put all my weight to my right.  Now I was on my stomach! Yay! Twist completed! Happy, Joyful, excited, full of joy, was how I felt. I suddenly had a burst of confidence.  But what did I have to do? Sit. I was about 7 feet from the end. I put my weight forward. 6 feet, 5 feet, 4 feet, Ugh.  Up! I was sitting up!  And I still had time! 3 feet, 2 feet 1 foot, Ow! I hit myself on the wall. “Wait that didn’t hurt. I thought to myself. Then I realized something. I had finished the challenge. I had  done something I was scared to do.  I did something that was hard for me but I did it. I did it. Grace had pushed me, and I was happy for it. If she didn’t push me I wouldn’t have done the challenge. I did the challenge.

Later

    I wasn’t the only one who did the challenge. Olivia did it too. We kept on making harder challenges and kept pushing ourselves. Still, no one wanted to do it with us but that was okay, I liked it with Olivia. We made about 12 challenges up. I completed all of them. So did Olivia. It took a long time, but we still did it. We did it.