Rebound by Michael Cain Read Free Book Online

movie. One of those life-affirming movies,
starring Jack Nicholson or Meryl Streep. It was so outrageous, yet
made such instant, inscrutable sense. Susan turned back to the sky
and watched as the paraglider dipped for an instant, and then rose
back up, even higher than it had been before.
    “It’s beautiful,” she
murmured, more to herself than to Kevin. She wanted to know what it
was like up there, flying through the air, the entire world
stretching out below her.
    “And so dangerous,”
he said. “I mentioned the risking our lives part, right?”
    Susan groaned and
shook her head. “Yeah, you mentioned that.”
     
     

Chapter 4
     
     
     
    Susan felt peaceful,
if not a little amused, as the guys running the paragliding outfit
strapped her into a harness and lashed her to Kevin so her
shoulders were firm against his chest. She marveled at how the
thick pull line seemed to make sounds like it was made out of
metal, which comforted her quite a bit.
    But she flashed back
to the first thing the two paragliding guys had her and Kevin do:
read and sign a release form. She hadn’t done more than glance at
it before she signed. Mark would’ve had a fit, but he didn’t have a
say anymore. In truth, she was sure that if she’d read the release,
she would’ve balked and not signed.
    That alone would’ve
ended Kevin’s crazy up-up-in-the-air idea. But right then, it felt
like her idea too. That was until the speedboat started to pick up
velocity, and the guy not steering gave the metal links that
connected them to the lead line, and the line to the boat, one last
check. That’s when panic struck.
    Susan could feel
herself start to hyperventilate. She knew she was about to scream,
begging for them to stop the boat, to let her go. And just at that
exact second the guy hit a button, releasing the extra line holding
them down, that also released the parachute strapped to Kevin’s
back.
    With an abrupt
leave-your-stomach-at-the-door jolt they were forty feet in the
air. Someone was screaming like they were being murdered. It took a
moment before Susan realized it was her. She slammed her eyelids
shut, squeezing as hard as she could. She couldn’t take it, the way
getting ripped from the boat and up into the air made her feel so
defenseless. Without the thinnest sense of control. Susan thought
she was going to die, which horrified and comforted her. The horror was probably just some knee-jerk
reaction to impending death. Some genetically imprinted warning
device that said, don’t do this, stupid!
    The part of
Susan that was comforted was the one that didn’t want to go on any
more. That didn’t want to keep remembering how it felt getting
stood up at the church. That didn’t want to go back and have to
explain to her co-workers what happened--to see their open pity. Or
face her mother, God forbid. That part was
happy to be forty freaking feet in the air with the only thing
keeping her from certain death, a well-used parachute.
    That part was sure
that this was the end, and it breathed a great sigh of relief. The
whole nightmare would be over soon.
    Susan felt the heat
and pressure from Kevin’s arms, wrapped firmly around her where her
belly met her rib cage. She felt his chest heaving and his heart
thudding against her back and realized she had a death grip of her
own on Kevin’s forearms.
    “Are we dead yet?”
she screamed.
    “Nah.” Kevin’s voice
was in her ear, yet his words seemed to streak away with the
pounding wind. “But if you open your eyes--”
    How did he know she
had her eyes shut?
    “You’ll see that it
looks like heaven.”
    Her whole body
trembled, stiff and tight, bracing for impact. She had a hard time
registering what he’d said.
    “Really...it looks
like...heaven?”
    “Close enough. So are
you gonna look or what?” Kevin snapped.
    It was the first mean
thing he’d said since he’d been back--the old, fun Kevin, who told
her how it was, and it automatically made Susan start to relax.