I’ve decided that I’m going to get over my fear of heights. Today. No matter what.

My friends all think I’m silly. Afraid of heights. But it’s not silly. It’s a phobia. Acrophobia. So it’s irrational. Therefore, it cannot be silly. By definition. But they, whoever they are, say you can overcome phobias. Just get out there and do something that might help. Go to a high hill and look over the city. Jump off a high dive. Well, maybe a low dive would be a better first step. I know. I tell myself all the time that that is crazy. After all, the low dive is only a meter above the water. Three feet! It is crazy. Okay. Not crazy. Just a phobia. An irrational fear. Irrational. So the only way to get rid of an irrational fear is to do something rational. Something that helps me conquer that fear.

A couple weekends ago, the guys went up to the Space Needle. I know. It’s only 604 feet tall. But that is crazy tall. Especially since they have floors made of glass or whatever that transparent material is. Ugh. I couldn’t do that. I made up some excuse.

I realized I was right to bail when just looking at their pictures made me break out in a cold sweat.

This weekend though, I’m going with them. We’re going skydiving. Nothing too high. Just a static line jump. One thousand feet in the air or something like that. But you don’t really need to do anything. I imagine it’s like those old war movies. They hook your line up to some cable on the airplane and they push you out. The chute deploys and you enjoy the scenery on your way down. The only thing scary is that first instant when you’re out of the plane. I hope. I suppose that the height will be scary too, but the scenery will be amazing. I hope I don’t throw up or pass out on the way down. I just gotta remember that I’m doing this because it’s rational to want to overcome an irrational fear.

Sounds like they’re here.

“You ready for this?” Rob is always ready for everything. His eyes are bright and shining. He looks excited.

“No.”

They all laugh. Rob grabs my backpack and tosses it in the back of his SUV. “Hop in. We’ve got a long drive ahead.”

I didn’t think anything of his comment. But it is six in the morning. On a Saturday. Rob said that the training was early, so we had to leave early. I hope in and am stuck in the very back. A couple of the guys had to hop out for me to get in and they hop in after me. I’m sure they had it planned that way. They don’t want me trying to escape. After all, I don’t have a phobia of jumping out of a moving vehicle.

I buckle up and we’re off.

Rob shouts from the front of the vehicle as we start moving, “I told everybody that you had to sit in the back because while you may have a fear of heights, also called acrophobia, you do not have a fear of jumping out of moving vehicles. I have no idea what that might be called.”

“Sanity,” says Carl.

I laugh with everybody else, especially since I had the exact same thought. I smile. This will be a fun trip.

I look out the window as is my norm on any car trip. I notice something odd as we approach the freeway.

“Hey Rob, aren’t we going the wrong way? Isn’t the skydiving place north of here?”

“No and yes.” I see Rob’s eyes in the rear view mirror. He is looking back every so often so he can talk to me. “No. We are not going the wrong way. And yes, the skydiving place is north of here.”

“Uh. So where are we going?” I‘m confused.

“Didn’t I tell you?” Rob’s voice sounds sincere, but his eyes have mischief in them.

“No. You know you didn’t tell me.”

“Right. I must have forgotten.” The mischief has gotten into his voice now. We are on the freeway and Rob has navigated to a comfortable place in the traffic. “We’re not going skydiving. We figured it was too high. After all, you couldn’t go up the Space Needle which is only 600 feet.”

“Six-hundred and four feet.”

“Right. Six-hundred and four feet. So we figured going up a thousand feet or more was too much.”

“So…”

The other guys were giggling like they did when we were kids.

“So we’re going south to go bungee jumping.”

Rob eyes were smiling. Our other friends were laughing. But all they seemed far away. All I could hear was myself screaming.

“Nooooooooooooooooooooo!”