The Last Jump, a Bonus Story

Surprise! Here I am, in the middle of the week, posting a blog entry!

I decided to do this because I have written something I consider pretty cool, and I wanted to share with you all. Yesterday, I participated in a little contest called Five Minute Fantasy, a fantastic idea run by Leah Peterson at http://www.leahpetersen.com. The idea is that you are given a prompt, and then have five minutes to write a story that features or includes that prompt. This was my second time participating, but this week the story turned out FAR better than last week's entry. So much better, that I am added it here as a bonus story. It's only about 250 words long, but still, that was part of the fun, seeing if I could get a whole story fit into a short amount of space. So, here it is, my Five Minute Fantasy entry.

The Last Jump

Darrell waved his had to shoo the fly away. The day was dark enough; he didn’t need the distraction of a common household insect to add to it.

“What’s the matter, Darrell?” came a feminine voice behind him. “You’ve done this before, hundreds of times. Now, you seem nervous.”

Darrell turned to look at LaShondra, his wife. She was beautiful, even after forty two years of marriage. The smile she brought with her into a room seemed to bring the light of day. He tried to return her smile, but he just couldn’t do it.

“Last time I did this…” he hesitated. “He was with me.”

LaShondra’s smile faltered. Then, she came up to him and wrapped her arms around him, filling him completely with her presence. The scent of her perfume, her shampoo, her womanhood, made his old bones feel revived.

“I’m here this time,” she whispered. “I know I’m no substitute for Ty, but I’m here. You won’t be alone. Never alone.”

He hugged her back, and kissed her cheek.

“I know,” he said. “I know. He was my best friend, since we were in second grade. It’s hard to accept that he’s gone.”

“He would want this,” LaShondra said.

“It’s time, sir,” the young man behind them said.

Darrell nodded, and then turned back to LaShondra. “You ready?”

She nodded, and the two of them turned to the now open door on the side of the plane, and jumped.

The End