We braved the Daredevil Dive at Six Flags a month before you left. I thought a dose of adrenaline might fix everything, so we dangled by a cabled harness, face-down toward the crowd, fifteen stories in the air. You volunteered to push the release button; heart thundering, I begged you to wait. But you pressed it without warning, and we soared through clouds like falcons, joyful screams echoing above cheering spectators. We glided across the park and away from our lives— a fused, suspended pendulum, revisiting a phantom-glimpse of what we once were, until our feet again touched the earth.
Finalist, Fall Contest 2023. Contest Readers’ praise included “great moment and interesting action” and “could feel the wind in my hair.”
You can find Ashley McCurry’s flash fiction/nonfiction in numerous literary journals. Her story, "Warehouse Dream," was recently awarded Honorable Mention in the Scribes Prize contest. Twitter: @amacwriting