Jump. Jump. Do it. Jump.
Forest Winkley took a deep breath and fell, not jumped, from the 25th floor of a high-rise office building. Sudden dread caught in his throat, and he realized that if yesterday had really been a dream, or just a fluke, he would soon be a boneless puddle. After he fell from the roof of his 4 story condo last night without a scratch, he'd spent some time morbidly researching what SHOULD have happened to him, and why, perhaps, it didn't.
Eyes closed, he counted to ten. Nothing but the wind and his heartbeat. Forest waited to hit the ground; knew that he should be getting close, but as quickly as the dread had come, it dispersed. The wind stopped rushing and started calmly blowing. He had stopped falling again.
The side of the building off of which he had fallen overlooked a wide alley, used mostly by delivery trucks and hobos. Upon opening his eyes, Forest discovered a young woman staring up at him, gape-mouthed, from about four stories below. In her shock, she had dropped everything she'd been carrying. Every fiber of his being seemed tense as he called down to her.
"Excuse me, but did you happen to see what stopped my fall? I think I might be stuck." She closed her mouth and blinked a few times.
"No," she said slowly, "but if you were trying to kill yourself, you didn't do a very good job. Um...do you want me to get a ladder or something and help you down?"
Forest pondered this for a moment, then nodded, "I guess so. That might help."
"I'll be right back, I promise!" she called. Ignoring her dropped backpack and purse, the girl ran off toward the street. This gave Forest time to reflect on his situation. His first instinct was to try and swim, as he had last night. The air was still air, but his hands dragged through it like sand. He kicked his feet and was met with sandy resistance. Same results as before. Using this method, Forest slowly maneuvered himself feet down and began to reverse-swim his way to the ground, hands cupped and pushing up, feet pointed, just as he had last night.
When he had been at it for about 15 minutes, the girl returned, as promised, with a ladder. "Oh!" she said, surprised, "Wow! You figured it out!"
Forest smiled, "Well, sort of. It's very slow going. Do you think you can pull me to the top of the ladder? I can probably climb down from there." With a bit of effort from his swimming and her pulling, Forest managed to climb to the ground. He was out of breath by the time he got there. He waved his arms a little, expecting the air to feel like sand, but the air was normal again, providing as little resistance as the first 21 floors of his descent. The girl smiled at him.
"Hey, man, I'm glad you didn't splat on me. That woulda sucked. My name is Dory Mathers," said the girl. Forest got his first good look at her. She couldn't have been more than 13, judging by her clothes and facial acne levels. Cute kid, he supposed, but what was she doing in this alley at 2 o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon?
Realizing he had created an awkward silence, Forest said, "I'm Forest. Forest Winkley. It's a pleasure to meet you, young lady. What brings you to this decidedly creepy alley at 2 o'clock on a Tuesday?"
"Well," she began hesitantly, "I guess you could call it instinct. My mind wandered in study hall and took me with it. I ended up here. I can't believe I brought all my stuff, though; that's just weird." Forest followed her gaze to the left, where her dropped backpack and purse had unceremoniously ejected their contents: things from a student's life including books, spirals, pens, and a deck of cards. Dory squatted and began shoveling things back into the bags. She was done before Forest could bend to help.
"I sure wish I knew what was going on," he remarked, glancing back up at the ledge, "I'm glad you were here to see this, Miss Dory." Forest instantly regretted calling her Miss. It was a force of habit, what he called anyone younger than 20, but somehow he didn't think Dory fit the profile of a Miss. Maybe a Ms...
She smiled, though, and wasn't offended. "Yeah, me too. Way more exciting than science flashcards." Dory went to the ladder and folded it up. "Wait here while I go return this to the sign-hanging guy. I told him it was for a science project for school." She ran off without waiting for his reply.
There had to be an explanation for all of this. Forest knew he couldn't keep diving off of buildings to gather data, but he didn't know how else to empirically measure something that wasn't there until he fell in it. Looking up, he saw only air. Reaching his hands as high as they could go, he felt only air. Climbing on a nearby dumpster and jumping down, he felt only air. What the hell was going on? He sat on an overturned milk crate and assumed the Thinker position. It was time to start at the beginning and figure this whole thing out.
