A Night Fall

The night air was crisp and clear. A light wind whisked making it chillier then expected for the time of year. To the point where the forecast was calling for light snow overnight.

Bundled in her wool housecoat, grasping it tightly at the neck to keep warm, Anna walked out onto the balcony of her ninth floor apartment, not bothering to slide the door shut behind her. Tears glossed her eyes and glazed her cheeks, sniffling and sulking as she approached the stone railing.

It wasn't suppose to be this way; life. Things weren't suppose to turn out like this. It was too difficult - the treacherous journey she had faced and what was yet a maze before her. She appeared incapable of making the right choices. Turning left when she should have turned right in an unforgiving world where simply being young was no longer an acceptable excuse.

Thoughts of her misdeeds mangled within her mind and there were many. The parties, too many to count, always involving drugs and alcohol in immaculate quantities. Ingredients that formed a continual blockage in her decision making ability from skipping classes and dropping grades to constant disagreements with her mother and worse. A DUI conviction was all but a guarantee for Anna. An incident that cost her victim his mobility and her mother her only vehicle, unable to afford another.

Taking in her surroundings, she glanced ahead, overhead, and to both sides of her before peering over the thick rail to the quiet street below. Not an eye was set upon her; nobody was watching.

She shed her housecoat, baring only a light tank top and shorts, sock feet, bracing both arms atop the rail as she hopped up.

Her mother poked her head through the curtain just as Anna caught her balance, standing straight.

“Anna, come on, not this again. Get down from there,” she urged, but not the least bit surprised.

Anna's cry intensified. Her tears freezing to her face in the cold as the wind picked up. This was not the first time she contemplated suicide from this spot. She had been up on the rail so many times that the ledge was beginning to wear.

“This is it mom, I can't do this anymore. I can't live like this,” she cried.

“You said that the last time too, and the time before that. We'll work this out together,” stated her mother, now out on the balcony.

“Things keep getting worse,” she started, “I've ruined my life, I ruined someone else' life, and I'm ruining your life. Why do you even care about me after everything?”

“I'm your mother that's why. Now come down.”

Anna refused the request sliding a few millimeters closer to the outer ledge. Her head was a rock balancing between her shoulders and she was barely hanging on; barely able to keep it from guiding her body over the edge like a weight in water.

“I think I'm going to do it mom.”

“Listen to me Anna, it's not too late for you. We'll finish this thing in court and start fresh. Don't even worry about the car. There's still time to make things right. You're young,” preached her mother.

Confusion crept into her mind even more so. Her decision split. She stepped out onto the balcony with certainty that she was going to jump for sure, but she was now second guessing like all the times prior. Her mother could always be counted on to tip the scale. Perhaps she could resume her life after sentencing.

“Do you really think I still have a chance?” Anna asked.

As she backed away from the ledge, instead of an answer, a shove to her lower backside sent her feet first over the edge and into the air.

Anna was overcome by fear at first, but only for a short second. Her rapid descent seemed to slow up some, almost stopping to observe her last moments midway through her fall. She must have played this a thousand times over in her mind. It was nothing like she had anticipated. In fact, it wasn't so bad.

She flipped herself so that her back was to the street, looking up at her balcony. Her mother's face wasn't to be seen. She probably couldn't bare the sight of what she had just done or the result upcoming. Anna wasn't upset, she didn't blame her. There was no question that her mother would claim that her daughter jumped. Perhaps some good would come of her death and bring some peace to her mother's life for the first time in a very long time.

A smile lined the young lady's face. The reality that her life was at an end presented her with a degree of closure as her body shattered upon the walkway.