A leap of faith

• Jasmine Kelly, Grade 10
• Poetry
• 2006

A Leap of Faith

I step up onto the ledge, the wind on my face, the feeling of freedom in front of me. Behind me unpaid debts and a shattered life, my office. Soon men will come and take it all away, along with the rest of my wealth, there is only one way out and that is twenty-one stories down.

Annette would be sitting at home, my beautiful wife, so delicate. She will be fuming, she’s angry with me because I lost all of “her” money, as she so literally put it. Annette has never worked a day in her life; she was born poor with a pretty face and a cunning mind.

I met Annette at a party in the Hampton’s three summers ago. She had heard of my inherited wealth. She was well connected and stylish; in Autumn I took a leap of faith and married my love. However, the true Annette was revealed after she got a rock on her finger. The love of my life had gone, I went into mourning for my lost love, I was heart broken.

Annette blames me for the stock market crash; she thinks I am a failure because in her mind it is easy to get money. For the last 10 years everyone she’s known has had so much, she cant possibly grasp the devastation this causes to the whole economy. Annette couldn’t spell stock market, let alone comprehend its importance.

I had never trusted this game but my friend Rodger (no last name) had convinced me it was a sure bet “You can’t loose in today’s economy, come on take a leap of faith, and trust me.” He had so casually persuaded me, as he slouched on my leather sofa holding a Cuban cigar, before swaggering out the door, my cash in his hand. So I leapt, I sank everything into stocks and bonds and for a year it was going fantastically, gold was up and all my investments were skyrocketing, I had wanted to buy a third house only a week ago.

Then Monday came, the markets dramatic slump seemed like a tinny blip compared to BLACK THURSDAY as the paper dubbed it, the stock market crashed. Now I couldn’t give my stock away. And I am reduced to this, standing on my office window ledge looking at the world that was. Everything looks the same from the 21st floor but I know, it has all changed; it is a catastrophe from which I will never recover.

Some would argue I had so much to live for, a beautiful wife, two houses I could sell, at least I would survive, barely. Eating handouts and living in the slums but I would make it, I should try, life was a gift I had so stupidly squandered.

Ha who am I kidding, I can’t do this I’m a coward. With a sigh of relief I step down.


I am falling. I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t go on living, I am not strong enough.

Its not the fall that kills you, it’s the shame and the circumstances that lead you to the jump. I feel nothing. I am nothing. I am the last piece of a shattered life.

By Jasmine Kelly