Magic Short 12: Bungee Jump Bride

As if her wedding day was not going to be full of moments that she was never going to forget, Brenda's now husband had promised her a moment that would make the day even more special. She was impatient to find out if there was anything that could eclipse the preparations and the excitement of getting married.

Brenda and her new husband left the church to find a limousine waiting; even Xander, her husband, seemed taken aback. "I commissioned some people to help make one of the things you keep mentioning as things you'd like to do at least once in your life come true."

"Which one?" asked Brenda as she ducked into the big white car.

"I don't know. I gave them a list and they said that one would come true."

"So, what was on the list?" the heat of her curiosity burned whiter than the dress she was wearing.

"To tell the truth, I don't remember. I wrote to the show that is organising this about six months ago and I don't recall exactly what I put on the list of possible treats and challenges for you."

"What show?"

"You've heard of  'Wishes and Dreams'? I wrote to them when they started planning the show, but I had given up on them getting back to me, but last week they called me and asked it I was still interested. I said yes and we organised it for today; I thought it would make your day even more special and they seemed to think that it being our wedding day was an interesting human angle, which is how I managed to afford the videographer for the wedding; we'll get a wedding video and they get something to set the scene with."

"So did you tell them that I wanted to do something dare-devil, like be a magician's assistant in a dangerous illusion or try an extreme sport."

"I think I mentioned both of those, and driving a racing car and wing walking. What they've organised for you, whatever it is, will give them some exciting stuff for their show and you with some unique memories for the day and video to back it up. I hope you don't mind, Darling."

"I'm glad you didn't set up a meeting with a celebrity, because that might have been an anticlimax, Love."

Their conversation was interrupted by the lowering the panel that partitioned the rear section of the car from where the driver sat.

The driver was at the wheel in a chauffeur's uniform, but easily ignored in favour of woman in the passenger seat who was craning to see into the rear. "Hello, Brenda and Xander. I'm Petra Anders."

The striking woman with honey-blonde hair and flawless complexion did not need to introduce herself, because she was instantly recognised by the couple. They also know that this was not going to be a minor occurrence, because, as the presenter of the show, Petra only attending the most exciting of the dreams and wishes that the programme organised; usually she stayed in the studio and talked between the dreams made real.

"We will be taking a bit of time to get to the venue for your dream, so that your wedding guests can be rounded up and witness you doing what we have planned for you. This will also give me a little time to interview you."

The driver pulled over to allow Petra to join the couple in the back of the luxurious car.

While the couple were interviewed, Brenda was keeping half an eye on the outside in the hope of gaining clues of what Petra had in store for her.

It took Brenda by surprise when the limousine slowed to a crawl and turned off into a coned off area on the high estuary bridge. Petra lead the newly-weds, from the car to the walk-way at the edge of the bridge and to a makeshift shelter constructed across half the walk-way and cycle-way.

"Welcome to your 'challenge', Brenda," enthused Petra. "You wanted to do something exciting so we have set up a bungee jump for you. Our experts will get you properly harnessed and attached to the end of a bungee cord and you will make your way to the platform out over the edge of the bridge and you will leap off, trusting your life to the skills of our technical crew and one bungee cord. Our experts say that if they get things just right that you will have your head dunked in the water below without getting your dress wet. Then a rescue boat will come out to collect you as we lower you into it and you will be whisked away to a reception of your dreams, before departing on your honeymoon."

Petra barely paused to draw breath before adding, "And all your friends and relatives will witness your leap from the bridge. They are on the end of the dock down there." The camera swooped from looking at Petra to looking down over the rail at the edge of the bridge, to a dock near the shore where, on cue, a group of people, shrunk by the distance, waved.

The next ten minutes were full for the excited bride as she was given a quick safety briefing, while the harness was being fitted to her legs and a microphone and headset was being put on her head.

With Brenda still in her bridal gown, but fitted with the kit, Petra tried to get her reaction to the impending reality of throwing herself from the bridge. Brenda's answers were not entirely articulate, but her excitement to do it and her terror of the jump were absolutely evident.

Her husband carried her up the steps to the small platform from which she was to launch herself and then promised to meet her on the jetty where the other wedding guests were waiting. With a kiss, he left her to the technicians for her final preparations. Petra also left, but a cameraman remained to catch the last minute nerves and the moment close up. There were also a couple of camera drones positioned to capture the stunt.

The jump-controller, had a quiet word with Brenda to make sure that she knew to lean forward and push with her toes on the command 'Go!' after the countdown from three. They watched was the cord was hung under the platform to prevent entanglement with any of the bridge's structure and she heard the snap as the end of the bungee rope was attached to the harness holding her legs tightly together.

Brenda shuffled towards the edge and heard the countdown followed by an emphatic 'Go!' She bent her knees and leant forward and as she felt gravity taken control of her fate, she used her last moment of contact with the solid structure to push with knees and ankles. As she launched herself she spread her arms above her head and whooped.

For several seconds she was exhilarated by feeling of flying, the wind in her hair and the gasp heard from the people she had left behind on the bridge and unheard from her family and friends on the pier hundreds of feet below. She opened her eyes and briefly took in the view; the river below with banks on either side, the wedding guests crowded on the jetty, including her new husband and Petra, hurrying from the limousine parked at the landward end. A glance over her shoulder, let her see the structure of the bridge from which she had so recently leapt. For an instant, she felt serene, free-falling with no sound but the buzz of the drones filming her dare-devilry and the wind flapping the skirts of her wedding dress.

Then, as her body began to move faster down than across, something tugged at her attention. At first she tried to ignore it to taste the adrenalin and feel the peace, but it began to shout to be addressed. A tiny part of her mind had noticed that she was not attached to the bridge or the platform as is usual for a bungee-jump and was trying to alert her to this detail.

She was rushing head-first towards the river below and accelerating. A part of the safety brief came to mind, that if the bungee cord broke there was a good chance that she would not know about, because she would hit the water with such force that she would break her neck and die instantly. It was a calming thing to know that she would likely feel no pain, but terrifying to think that Xander would be made a widower on his wedding day.

As she thought about her life and whether she felt that she had been a nett benefit to the world, something unexpected happened. At first she did not notice, putting it down to an accelerated perception of time, caused by terror and adrenal hormones flooding her blood-stream, but soon she could not ignore that the rush towards the water was slowing. She guessed that she was about half way to the waters below, but was falling towards the river, with arms stretched perpendicular to the sides of her body, at a slower rate.

She tried to think of an explanation for this, but failed. She knew a body, hers in this instance, would continue in motion at the same speed, unless acted upon by an external force. The only forces she could detect were gravity, which should be taking her to her death at an increasing rate and the wind, which would only alter the exact point where she impacted the water. If the bungee-rope had been connected to her leg harness, it would be providing a force to counteract the gravity and at some point completely negate it so that she rose back towards the place from where she had come. This would be followed by bouncing up and down until a balance between the tension in the bungee and the force of gravity was reached.

She dismissed this speculation as futile, because as time ticked its slow measure until her fate was decided, she could see that she was slowing, against all logic and known physics.

She started a new thought about whether she would need to move her body to a posture the ease her entry into the water, but concluded in no time and for no readily obvious reason that any action on her part may break whatever force was slowing her still rapid approach to the river surface below.

A hurried look round showed her very little, but the boat standing by to collect her and a vast and expanding choppy surface.

The last moments before she hit the water were filled with wonder and panic. Then she touched the water; the sudden cold as her head was submerged, made her take a breath, before she was pulled back upward in the direction from which she had come. The sight of the water going away from her was lost on her as she tried to cough out the mouthful of water she had inhaled.

Caught by the wind of her upward passage feet-first, the skirts of her dress moved to cover her body and reveal her harnessed legs and blue underpants that her mother had lent her, because they were the same panties that she had been married in. The TV viewers who saw Brenda's dive from the bridge did not get to see this detail as the producers decided not to include it.

As Brenda sailed back into the air, she screamed her excitement to have survived, once the water she had breathed in was gone. She felt herself bounced up and down several times, before she came to rest, swaying a little, at a point about thirty feet above the waters of the river. The rescue boat was already on its way.

Brenda hung suspended in mid-air with no visible explanation for her remaining there, until the boat arrived and she felt herself being lowered into the arms of three men while another man and a cameraman watched and sixth man did his best to keep the boat positioned below her.

The man who had watched her inverted arrival on the boat, came forward and handed Brenda a towel and welcomed her aboard.

The man interviewed Brenda about her experience, while the crew turned the boat towards the pier and released her leg-harness.

The pontoon that the boat pulled up beside was occupied by another cameraman, Petra and Xander, but the rest of the wedding party could see as they leaned over the rail of the pier.

Xander helped Brenda to disembark from the boat, and the cameraman and the interviewer got off too.

"Welcome ashore, Brenda. That was spectacular. Do you know what happened?"

"I not totally sure," replied Brenda, "But I think I dived off the bridge without the bungee rope connected to me."

"You did," stated Petra, giving the impression that that part was planned. "What happened after that?"

"I don't know, but I was so terrified and excited, because I didn't know if I would survive. But something happened; it was almost if I had an invisible bungee-rope attached, but that is impossible; but so is any other explanation I've come up with. It felt as if God had rescued me."

Petra turned to the man who had been interviewing Brenda on the boat. "So, Miles, how did you do it? How did you arrange it so that Brenda survived jumping off the bridge without a bungee?"

"You know I'm a magician, so you know I'm not going to tell you how I did it, but I'm so glad to have helped make Brenda's special day that bit more special."