The Flight Of Realisation

• Cooper Martin, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2017

Yesterday was a very special day. It was the first time I went solo skydiving, it was one of those ‘bucket list’ events that I knew I’d do one day.
The plane was nearly at jumping altitude and we were all ready to jump, the tension was rising, but I could not tell my buddy’s that because they would think I’m weak or something. The final seconds of the ten second count down were hectic and I was really regretting the idea of coming up.
As soon as we get to one on the countdown I hear a loud bang, it was the scariest thing I’ve ever heard, it was the sound of one of our motors cutting out. Without warning the bump knocks us out of the plane and there we have it we were descending down to earth. I try to orientate myself and I look around to see if everyone is alright. I see Johnny (all good) Phil (all good ) and then there I see Scott descending to earth like a stone in water.
He has passed out and has no way of deploying his parachute. I looked over to Johnny and Phil to see if they had noticed, but realise it was just me who has seen him. I look down and see the ground was very quickly coming close, I had to take action so I instinctively air dive toward him and give him a firm squeeze to wake him up. “It worked, it worked” I said to myself. Scott was really disorientated, he wouldn’t listen to me and wouldn’t loosen his grip on me, I could see in his eyes how scared he was. I knew what I had to do to save us both.
I see that Phil and Johnny have pulled the trigger for their parachutes and off they go. Without another thought I reached around Scott, held him as tight as I could and pulled down hard on my release cord. The next thing I know we are floating down to earth, I knew we were going to be ok.
We soon hit the ground and it is all over. I look around and all I can see is instructors running at me to see if I’m all right, but I don’t see Johnny or Phil. I panic thinking they hadn’t made it. I am quickly proven wrong, as I turn to look for them they pounce on us both with excitement, we all made it out alive.
What started out as an adventure with my mates turned into a life changing experience. My skydiving days are over, I’m just lucky to have my mates to find another adventure with.