Page 45 of The Best Wild Idea
“Oh my God!” I yell at Silas, then repeat it again and again, leaning back into Jett. Sixteen hundred meters to go until we’re cruising at just over thirteen thousand feet when it’ll be time to jump. “Oh dear God what are we doing?” My heart pumps wildly while I study the latch on the door just a foot away. The lakes outside are quickly turning into mere puddles while we climb up into the sky.
Jett begins tightening the straps across my shoulders, pulling me closer. I feel like a rag doll being dragged into his body, as close as he can get me, but it still doesn’t feel close enough, knowing he’s the only thing saving me from plummeting. Ethan adjusts their straps and I watch as Silas allows himself to be jostled around, getting them as close as possible, appearing completely unbothered. If he’s nervous, his face doesn’t give him away. Instead, he looks like he’s about to take a joyride around the block on a moped, thoroughly enjoyinghimself, instead of about to fall toward earth from thirteen thousand feet up in the air.
The pilot’s voice comes over the loudspeaker again. “Three thousand meters, and the weather is holding. Prepare the doors.”
Prepare the doors?
“One thousand more!” Jett yells into my ear.
Trek pulls down a pair of plastic goggles over his eyes, then unhooks a huge latch from the door. He places one hand on a wide lever, grinning at me. My face twists into what feels like a polite smile while I try not to imagine what it’s going to feel like when that thing slides open across its track with us sitting right next to it, though at this point, it’s unavoidable. Even if I decide at the last minute not to jump, Silas will. That door is going to open up either way.
I might be sick.
“You first!” Trek shouts over the engine, pointing squarely at me.
I throw Silas a panicked look, but Jett is already scooting us toward the door. My legs turn to Jell-O and my heart pounds. My whole body is launching itself into fight or flight mode.
“Oh my God, oh my God,” I repeat to myself, too quiet for anyone else to hear over the roar of the engine.
Every time Jett scoots, I’m brought closer and closer to the door that’s about to open.
I start disconnecting my brain from my body as everything in me instinctively fights against what’s about to happen.
“Jesus Christ, what the hell have I gotten myself into?” I mutter under my breath. I imagine Grant here instead of Silas. Knowing I’d probably still be back in the hangar if he was.
“It’s going to be okay, Jules!” Silas yells behind me. “You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t!”
“Holy shit. Holy shit,” I repeat to myself, gulping in air, trying to stay calm.
I can’t hear him, but I can tell from the way Jett’s body bounces against me that he’s laughing; then he goes rigid again when the pilot’s voice comes over the speaker one more time.
“Thirty-seven hundred meters.”
I look back at Si, feeling totally helpless.
“I hate you!” I yell at him, breaking into a nervous grin, forced out by a hurricane of terrified energy welling up inside me. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I might do both.
“See you on the dance floor!” he yells back.
That wide grin is the last thing I see before I turn to the door and pull my goggles down over my eyes. Terror mixes with forced excitement. If I’m going to die, I may as well try to enjoy this.
The pit in my stomach starts spiraling over and over toward my toes while every part of me trembles with adrenaline.
“Four thousand meters,” the pilot says steadily into the speakers and my stomach spins out of control.
Then Trek gives me a nod before pulling the door wide open.
Chapter 18
Juliet
Nothing could have prepared me for the blast of air that hurtles into the plane the exact moment that door slides open a few inches from me. Traveling one hundred miles per hour at the height of those towering glaciers, I’m thrown into mental chaos. There’s suddenly nothing between me and thirteen thousand feet of thin air down to the placid lakes below. Not even a seatbelt to stop me from slipping out, should the plane tilt just so.
Jett scoots us another three inches toward the door until my feet are dangerously close to dangling outside it.
“Ready?” he shouts over the force of the wind exploding through the plane. It’s like a tornado has been unleashed in here and we’re going to be tossed out one way or another.
I squint out the open door while my heart thumps wildly out of my chest. Cold wind whips fiercely against my face, pulling my hair out of the braid I’d carefully made this morning — long strands flapping around my eyes, goggles pressing into my cheeks — while I close my eyes to exhale.
