Jump Start by Susannah McFarlane Read Free Book Online Page B

it used to be a whole rope bridge, but now it was more like a series of holes with a bit of rope joining them together. Big holes. The sort of holes you always saw people falling through in the movies.
    Second, for the last couple of metres before the bridge reached the cliffs on the other side of the canyon, there were only the two top ropes left. No bottom rope.
    And the third thing EJ noticed made everything else a lot worse. A strong wind was starting to blow. All the birds were hang-gliding in the stiff breeze rather than flying, and the bridge was starting to swing from side to side.
    Now EJ felt sick—really sick. She swallowed deeply but her mouth had gone completely dry. She felt her legs tighten and then go wobbly, like jelly. She knew exactly what needed to be done and that was exactly what was making her feel sick. All of a sudden, she felt more like Emma Jacks than EJ12. She would have to jump across the end of the bridge with big jumps, really big jumps, and she was not totally sure that she could.
    And then, just to make matters worse, it started to rain. Not little spots of rain or a light shower, but big wet rain. Rainforest rain. Excellent, thought EJ. The whole mission now depends on me being able to do enormously big jumps in the howling wind and pouring rain.
    EJ needed something extra to help her do this. It was definitely time to use the BEST system.
    EJ flicked her phone to video mode and called Hannah.
    â€˜Hey Em, where are you? Okay, I know you can’t answer that. What’s up?’ asked Hannah cheerily.
    â€˜I’m here,’ said EJ, swinging her phone around so her friend could see her. ‘And I came from there,’ she continued, swinging the phone around to show the first bridge. ‘And now I need to get over there,’ she finished, swinging the phone back to the last stretch of the bridge and zooming in, ‘on that!’
    â€˜Oh,’ said Hannah. ‘That’s not much of a bridge, is it?’
    â€˜No. You can see my problem.’
    â€˜I can,’ Hannah replied. ‘But how long is that gap at the end?’
    â€˜A metre or so, maybe a little bit more.’
    â€˜Well, that’s alright then!’ Hannah chuckled.
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜That’s no more than the high jump in your gym routine,’ Hannah explained.
    â€˜You mean the one I can’t do.’
    â€˜No, the one you can do but you psyche yourselfout of doing by thinking about the fall, not the jump. You can do this easily. Just concentrate on the jump, a big, long, beautiful jump, as if you have wings.’
    â€˜I’m not sure that will work...’
    â€˜Hey Em,’ said Hannah. ‘What’s the best that can happen?’
    â€˜I can’t tell you that, Han,’ said EJ, and she thought how close she was to completing her mission, shutting down Project Green Eye and rescuing all those animals. ‘But it’s good, really good. Actually it’s completely awesome. Maybe I can do the jump but I just think–’
    â€˜So stop thinking and fly. What are you waiting for—don’t be nuts!’
    That reminded her. Where’s Nuts? EJ looked up. She’d been following Nuts the whole way across the bridge. She watched as the little squirrel monkey took a flying leap from the end of the bridge, scrabbled up the cliff face, turned and sat there on the other side of the canyon, waiting.

    Half an hour to go. What am I waiting for?
    And then suddenly, standing on a wobbly rope bridge in the wind and rain, everything became clear to EJ12. She had jumped out of planes and onto riverbanks. She had leapt from trees to vines and vines to trees. She had edged her way across the first stretch of the bridge. She was going to do this jump too. EJ suddenly got it, Hannah believed she could do the jump and now so did she. She really did, she could feel it. EJ’s mouth was no longer dry and she suddenly felt lighter. She