Falling

"Okay, Trisha, we're going to freefall for about thirty seconds to a minute, okay?" the tandem instructor yelled in her ear. Dan, she thought his name was. "You remember the training class, I'll take care of the ripcord and everything, you just enjoy the ride!" She nodded, and he gave her the thumbs-up.

Chase grinned at her through his goggles, nodding to the music of the plane and the air screaming by outside. He'd jumped before, of course; he hadn't shut up about taking her to skydive since they'd started dating. You need to get out and do shit! he demanded. You show people around a stupid museum all day, now let me show you something. It was supposed to be a totally awesome, unbelievable experience. His words.

Trisha looked at the blue-grey metal skin under her shoes. She liked touring people around, and the museum wasn't stupid. The echo off serious tile floors lent credibility to her voice. She taught people things. She had all the comforting gestures for now if we can all walk over here and as you can see. The people would nod, and ask, and apologize when they forgot they weren't supposed to take pictures because of the delicacy of the paintings, oh, right, sorry! and she would pick up right where she left off in a delicious routine of culture and knowledge. Perfectly conditioned air, perfectly still.

Chase was so hot, but he didn't understand. He was supposed to be hot, anyway, at least Jill and Marisela kept saying so. Trisha was lucky. I mean, he's like a model, practically, he should be, insisted Jill. He actually had moved in with Trisha, and that had blown their minds. You go, girl! Trisha thought that phrase had been retired, but then Jill still thought that a hollow thanks to God for a Friday was a valid ritual.

"Isn't this awesome!" Chase shouted over the engine, jolting her into now. The words didn't so much reach her as bump against the noise and leave marks that could be read. Everything rolled over in her mind like laundry.

She leaned forward to him and he leaned forward too for the kiss, but it wasn't there.

"Did you pay rent?" she shouted across the inches between them.

"What? What the fuck?" he wanted to know. "What makes you think about that now?"

"Well, I mean, this is two hundred bucks we're spending, I'm spending, and..."

"You're gonna love it! After you're certified it'll be like twenty bucks tops. Don't worry about it, Trish!" He let her concerns bounce off his goggles and his toned abs, and it irritated her.

"No, it's fine, I'm sure it's fun, but it's been kind of bugging me, because, I mean, you didn't get paid this week yet, did you? Because I think we might be short," she tried to explain. For some reason it had to be explained, now and here, because the plane's metal was a buffer between them and the world. Something was in danger of dying, and she wanted to make sure it wasn't her. She didn't want to move into a cheaper apartment just because he'd convinced her to leave the earth and then fall back down to it.

"Trish, quit it, just think about the dive, okay? It'll be awesome."

"Okay, it's fine, I just wanted to know if you'd gotten paid, that's all." Her voice was getting hoarse.

"Trish, I quit that job, it was lame! Geez, are we married or something?"

"You what?"

He waved her away and pointed at the door, tired of being trapped in this room with someone who wasn't getting with the program.

The noise throbbed against her nerves and uncurled her stomach; it seemed like it would shake loose. The tandem instructor bounced to his feet, hauling her up with him; he tapped her on the shoulder.

"Okay, Trisha, we're ready. Can you stand up and turn around?" She stood like a prisoner being handcuffed, tugged gently to and fro by buckles being snapped and tested. Dan stood behind her, and she could feel his confident smile. The noise and the vibration came up through the soles of her feet; only that and an inch of metal separated her from miles.

He was strapped to her like an oversized backpack; she was conscious of his belt-wrapped pelvis right behind her tailbone. It wasn't sexual but it was invasive. The daredevil, the man, who'd done this a million times. He directed her on a tour of awesome like she directed people on tours of self-improvement. The gestures would be arms outward like a crucifixion. At least Dan showed her how to do these things. It hadn't occurred to Chase to do so; that's what they paid the tandem instructor for.

"Chase... when we're on the ground, can we go check the bank account? I'll feel a lot better."

"Yeah, sure, fuck! Whatever you..." he began, and somebody yanked the door open and let chaos in. The sky howled inside and searched the interior, lashing Trisha's ponytail against her cheek; she could feel Dan lean away from the deadly whip. She leaned back into him against her will, because out of the little hole in the side of the plane she could see clouds underneath instead of above. Her ribs squeezed.

Her boyfriend grinned at her again, drama flown away in the wind, on his feet like a boy whose turn on the slide had come. He yelled something awesome at her and faced the outside, a manly dude in a jumpsuit and snapping cloth. He jumped away from her and into his world.

Dan patted her comfortingly and drove her forward, stepping like toddlers toward a stranger. As they rolled out she kept thinking about solid tile floors.