Take The Plunge

• Elyssa Keen, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2015

Take the plunge!

This was my first time. I stood at the edge about to swing down, but I couldn’t, I was too scared. I desperately wanted to go on the swing because if I didn’t I just know my sister would be there waiting to make fun of me. If I was going to go on it, now was the time to do so…decision time. My palms were sweaty and my legs were shaky. I cautiously approached the swing and reached out my right hand to grab the rope which hung from the roof above me. Regretfully I looked down to the ground far below me which only made things worse. Straddling the rope, I close my eyes, lean forward and hang on for dear life.

The rope was only put in last week. It hangs from the rafters in the middle of the barn and is as long as a giraffe’s neck with a series of confusing knots halfway down. On either side of the rope sits the barn loft; two platforms built to store extra animal feed above the ground floor. Dad installed it so we could swing from one platform to the other.

It all happened so fast. One minute I was flying through the air when suddenly, halfway through the fall, I felt a sharp, unexpected tug. My eyes open for the first time. As I look down I can see my sister on the floor below me holding a part of the lower rope with a cheeky grin on her face. Before I can do anything about it, I feel myself being flung from the swing to ground below, I was free-falling.

I woke up a little while later in the prickly hay with a headache. I must have passed out because as I look about I see the blurry figure of my sister swinging above on the rope. I was angry at her; really angry. I got up, staggered over to the ladder and climbed back up to the launch platform. By the time I got back up to the top of the platform, my sister was on the opposite side. She had to come back because this side had the only ladder on it. I waited there for my sister to return back from across the barn.
“Please, Jasmine, can I have a turn” I questioned, a bit quieter than my angry emotion should have expressed.
“NO you big wuss!!” She answered sharply, with a loud, firm voice.
“But, but...” my voice trailed off. I didn’t know what to say. I was still very sore from the fall and I didn’t have the energy to push the argument further. I climbed down the ladder feeling sorry for myself and slumped out of the barn. My barnyard heroics would have to put off for another day.

The end