The Freefall Trilogy (Complete Collection) (15 page)

'I can read ye like a book, Lucy!' he grinned.  'I know exactly what's goin on in y'heed.'

'…I'm not jealous!' she implored. 

Oh God!
  Was it that obvious?  Did they all know? 

She broke with
Froggy's playful glint quickly, facing forward again, cringing as she felt him laugh against her back.

'
Yer eyes were greener than Snowy's!' he chuckled. 

She clenched her eyes shut, lowering her head.  Lucy felt
Froggy's hands, squeezing her tight shoulders.

'
Donnay worry, Lucy,' Froggy shouted.  ‘Some of 'em have got a couple a jumps on ye.  So what?  Y'should still be qualified by the end of the day.  Like I told ye, it is'nay a race.'

It took a few seconds to filter through. 

Oh…

Lucy's eyes blinked open, her head slowly rising.
 
Her shoulders slid from just under her ears.  She grinned with relief.

'
Snowy's a lucky man, by the way,' she heard Froggy chattering on.  'Ma'missus does'nay like pie.  No wonder he wants you to mo—.'

'...
FROGGY!'

Lucy's mouth fell ajar as the voice permeated her helmet.  She blinked down at the walkie talkie strapped to her chest, lowering her chin timidly.

'...Hello?'

'Hello Lucy,'

Lucy flinched.

'Josh?' she breathed, brow crumpling.

'
Hiya, baby.  That's me.'

She snorted, eyes glittering.  Lucy started to laugh.  She turned back to
Froggy and grinned.  He glanced up sheepishly.

'I'll hand you over to your somewhat indiscreet, but more than capable instructor,' the walkie-talkie crackled.  'If he
's quite finished chatting, perhaps he could go through the brief with you again?' 

She could tell by the tone that
Froggy was in trouble.  The look on his face crystallised it.

'Concentrate Lucy, please,' the walkie-talkie told her, albeit a little more gently.

Froggy
proceeded to talk her through the brief again.  And once more after that.

'Lucy, y'ready?' she heard Froggy shout, feeling him shuffling behind her, shunting her forward along the bench.

She nodded quickly.

'C'mon,' he shouted.  'It's time t'go and start spotting.'

Froggy
knelt with Lucy at the door, breathing in the stench of diesel, squinting across a perfect blue sky.  They couldn't have hoped for better conditions.  He jabbed his finger at the dropzone.  She stuck her head all the way out, golden curls whipped from beneath her navy blue helmet.  She nodded confidently.  She certainly wasn't shy of the wind.

Big crystal blue eyes glinted back at him through the
perspex goggles.  Froggy smiled at the touch of colour in her porcelain cheeks.  The plane was still gently banking.  They were about a minute from their exit point.  He held his arm out against the gush of the wind, pointing down at the earth in a vertical line.  She peered down after it, then nodded again.

The plane levelled off.  Giles turned back from the cockpit and tipped him the wink.

'Lucy?'
Froggy shouted.  'Are y'ready?'

He could see it in her eyes: the terror; the exhilaration.  She blinked at him.

'Ready!' he watched her say.

She climbed up to the door steadily, back to the blue, placing her left foot against the doorstep.  He was with her every step of the way, gripping the yellow handhold at her right thigh with his left hand; the freezing cold bar with his right.  Froggy glanced down at her legs in the navy blue jumpsuit, raising his eyebrows.  She wasn't nearly so shaky this time.

He watched her foot swing out.  She began the exit count.

Ready, set, arch. 

The two of them fell in perfect synch.

She was stable. 
Froggy let go of the handhold.  He pivoted in front of her, watching her squint down at the alti as the air rushed up, pulling the stray curls perfectly straight.  Froggy came around to her right, watching her look for her heading. 

'Good!'

Lucy turned her head and fixed him, slowly lowering her right hand, raising her left.  She stopped at a perfect 90 degrees and grinned. 

'Brilliant!'

She turned to her original heading, so he had her sideways on again.  Froggy watched her check her alti.  He squinted down at his own.  He saw her leg kick out.

'No, no, no!'

Froggy's heart clenched. 

'Fuck!'

He reached for her, but his arm fell into nothing.  He saw her eyes bulge.  She went into a spin.

Froggy drew his hands to his sides in a controlled, fluid motion, raising them behind his back, swooping after her.  He could see her below him, tumbling.  All arms and legs, like a ragdoll on a spin cycle, somersaulting towards earth.

'Arch!  ARCH!' he screamed into the wind rush.  He knew she couldn't hear.  Froggy squinted at his alti then looked for her again.  His dark eyes flared as he saw her wave off.

Josh stood on the wet grass scowling up at the sky, shielding his eyes from the late afternoon sun.  She should have been open by now.  He saw the over-inflated tandems;
Froggy's orange parachute burst, way off target.  Josh chewed his fingers.

What the fuck's going on?

Maybe she'd bailed?  But if she had, why would
Froggy have jumped?  Joshua's brow knitted tighter, eyes scanning the sky.  It didn't make any sense. 

Suddenly, he saw it.  A splodge of blue in his periphery.  Joshua
's eyes flickered; he breathed in sharply.

‘LUCY!
'

His fingernails blanched as his grip tightened around the walkie talkie.  Joshua started to run.

It went like a dream.  They fell away together into the blue.  Lucy got stable in record time.  She went through the drill in her head and started her checks; Froggy beamed back and nodded as she performed her 90 degree turn. 

She turning back to her original heading, squinting down at her
alti.  The frown melted, lips twisting as she felt the euphoria burst.  Lucy wrestled with the updraft to turn back to Froggy.  In a beat, it was gone. 

Her heart clenched: the warm ball quickly turning to ice.  The roar of the wind was incredible.  It wasn
't just beneath her, it came from everywhere; flipping her like a crisp packet in the wind.  Earth/sky/earth/sky/sea/blinding sun.  Over and over in rapid rotation.  She pushed as hard as she could but she couldn't arch.  Her body was rigid; frozen by fear.  Lucy was out of control.

The face of her
alti was just blur.  Her eyes were stinging with tears.  She didn't know how low she was. 

I don't want to die...

She had to get that parachute over head.  It was her only hope.  She waved off quickly, still tumbling, wrenched her left arm forward uselessly, the right back as she flipped through the air.  She grasped the drogue, quickly throwing it out. 

Lucy held her breath, waiting for what felt for forever.  She sagged in relief, finally feeling a jolt.  Within a couple of seconds, she knew something wasn't right.  It took her two seconds more to crane her neck and look up. 

‘One thousand and… Fuck!'

It wasn
't like all the other times.  It wasn't quiet; Lucy's stomach turned.  What should have been big and blue and square was a bunched up mess.  The lines were twisted.  She was spinning again.

‘Come on you motherfucker!' she screamed through gritted teeth; knuckles blanching, wrenching her arm muscles as she tried to part the lines.

'Oh please, you bastard… please, come on!  Oh shitting hell!  Oh fuck!' 

And you thought the shopping bags were heavy...

She scissor kicked hard, sweating profusely, the adrenaline surge reaching its peak. She gaped as she finally felt herself pivot. 

‘Come on!  Come on!' Lucy squealed, blinking up hopefully.  She finally saw the twists start kicking away. 

As the world whisked around her, Lucy heard a beep through the rush.  A wave of dread washed over her with the realisation of what it was. 

Her altimeter was going off.  2,000ft.  She'd reached her hard deck.  She panted up at the two twists remaining. 

A few more seconds…

But it was useless.  Lucy didn't have any time left.   

She couldn't get her breath; her heart was galloping.  Her raw, rope-burnt hands let go of lines.  She barely had the strength left to raise her right hand.  She blinked down at the handle.  Tears pooled in her eyes. 

If this doesn't work...

She gripped it in her trembling, sweaty fingers.  Lucy screwed her eyes shut and pulled.

She slumped forward as the parachute disconnected.  She was falling again, fast and hard, belly down.  She blinked down at the fields, bigger than she'd ever seen them in freefall.

I
'm stable.

She grabbed the reserve handle and yanked.

Her stomach dropped.  She was shooting upwards.  Finally, the wind stilled; all she had left was the hiss in her ears.  Lucy blinked up at the white canopy, fat and square and perfect against beautiful blue; felt the euphoria burst in her chest.  It was stronger than she'd ever felt it before.  She reached up with trembling hands, pulling the toggles from the risers, sobbing her heart out.  Now all she had to do was land.