NOT THE FIRST TIME

 

NOT THE FIRST TIME

Not the first time it’s happened of course.

When hundreds – if not thousands  - of people are crammed into a skyscraper like the Penrose building and alcohol takes its Saturday night toll  - you expect something to happen.  We just hadn’t thought it would be Alex though.  He was always so careful, always warning us about the fragility of the wire that we wanted to climb through, just a few inches above the seemingly so solid wall.

 

If only Jonny hadn’t been so daredevil you said.  But we all knew he’d come a cropper one day.  If it had only been some  other self-appointed rescuer.   It was really astonishing that it hadn’t happened more often.  Alex’s oft repeated warning had had an effect obviously.

By the time we got down there the ambulance crew were assembled already but too late of course.  We watched  in stunned silence as his body was reassembled and carried away.

And the following morning there was only the single footprint to remind us, the drooping flower where no flower had ever previously been seen, and that strange, cloudy rainbow whose tears, like our own,  could be observed gently watering the dismal scene.

Anne Hill

This, too, is a product of Rory's Story Cubes: a high-rise building, a flower, a footprint, a rainbow with a cloud.