Standing at the edge of the cliff, his heart kept beating faster as he kept getting closer to the moment when he would jump. Instead of enjoying that pristine scenery, his mind was clouded with the events that brought him here and the only thing they did was made his belief stronger that it was the right step. His father suddenly patted from behind and handed the knife over to him. It was like an unreal joke that made him laugh at a time where he was about to attempt a jump that would be the last one of his life. It was that out of the box imagination that was coming true, and a person who was responsible for his existence in this world was now helping him end it.
While he kept thinking about his final moments, his father who was assisting his son in his suicide was dying inside every moment and he was cursing his tongue for being so ruthless and heartless that it agreed to such a thing. At this moment the only thing that could prove he was alive was his beating heart which had lost emotions and his body that could do nothing but kept moving mechanically. He wanted to pause time and sit on a chair by the cliff and think about what were the reasons he couldâve agreed to this or to put it correctly have proposed it. An answer that was coming from the only alive parts of his body was hopelessness. The events that led up to this point all pointed out to the same answer. However, that answer was pinching him and cutting his heart apart. How in life could he be so hopeless to help his son commit suicide? He could only believe it to be a nightmare that would soon end and that someone would wake him up. But unfortunately, as fate would have had it, it was a reality. He wanted to go up to his son and hold him back and protect him but there was a certain ego that popped in and weighed so heavy that he couldnât move. It was like father like son. Not any one of them would break that wall and show themselves weak. His father had taught him to be by his words and so was he following it, only that his father was following what he taught too.
Only a few arrangements were left in order for the jump to begin. But, like son like father, his fatherâs mind was now being populated with the events that lead up to this disastrous and unbearable nightmare. What came to his mind were some visuals of a fierce argument that happened between him and his son over the results of that career determining test in which his son could not make the cut. He was reminded of how he humiliated him in front of their close ones and neighbors. He could distinctly remember how he had slapped him hard for not being able to get through. But, he never let his son know how much that slap had hurt him internally and how he felt like he had committed a crime.
The next he could remember was the first time his son had tried to commit a suicide when he and his wife were not home by hanging himself. He remembered how he and his wife were just in time and could bring down. In desperation, they tried everything to get him back and pull him out of death. He could clearly remember how that one breath of his son mattered to him so much at that time and when he started breathing again both he and his wife kissed him all over. But, on reaching the hospital when he saw his son back in his senses he humiliated him all over again and slapped him for this act of his, and this was all cause of the love he had for his son. He remembered how in his suicide note his son mentioned about how unwanted he felt and how humiliating that slap was for him. So much so that living felt suffocating. He tried explaining his son about his mental state as a father but their frequencies didnât seem to match and his son couldnât make sense of his pain. All his son could feel was the heat of all the humiliation he had gone through and it all was burning him inside and spreading like a forest fire.
What happened next was what turned him hopeless as a father. His son had yet again tried to commit suicide by consuming a bottle of sleeping pills in the night but a surprise visit to his bathroom got them another chance to save their son. It just seemed as if their hearts had been so disconnected that there was nothing to bridge their differences. Even his wife couldnât make sense of things. It just seemed as if the son was going far away from his parents and he had passed a point beyond return.The hopelessness had now turned a fatherâs heart feeble and he almost felt like he could lose his son any day. He was scared yet certain that his son wouldnât be alive one day when he would be back from work. With all this, there was some frustration building inside him and it was affecting his delicate ego so much that he didnât want his son to just die off without him being there. It was awkward yet there came a thought from the unreasonable mind that he had seen his birth and if his son wanted to commit a suicide he wanted to witness it too since he had been so emotionally and financially involved with his son.This business mind of his proposed a method for the suicide to make it all possible for him to witness it. It would involve him handing over a knife to his son and some time into the jump his son would use the knife to cut the ropes and thatâs how he would die falling off from such a height onto the ground. The plan seemed seamless.
In that moment, he went and proposed his son this as a method of dying and it stirred up his ego and he said yes to the plan as if it was a joke. His wife was all palpitated and unconscious witnessing this horrific agreement. They both shook hands as if it was a business deal, and there was some unusual laughter that followed from both of them. His son had been to the bungee jumping earlier but this was going to be abnormal and an experience of death very certainly. None of the two had seemed weak about this agreement and it seemed that their hearts were now dancing with joy.
However, as the day to fulfill the agreement had arrived both of them seemed to be rethinking of what they had done and if they really wanted this.Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. The father was almost done with the arrangements but there seemed to be tiredness that was growing within him as he was getting closer to the approval of the jump. On the other hand, the son for the first time was into double minds about this plan, but his ego overpowered everything and made sure that his decision stayed the same regardless.
After making the last arrangement, the father came with a bag and asked his son to wear it. These moments were being captured in long silences and there seemed to be no talking. The father was going about the arrangements as if his son was going to come back and not going to commit a suicide. It was all finally ready and the son was just waiting for the signal from his father. The signal was a thumbs up which his father had been showing him all these years before every important exam of his life. Everything that was happening there at that moment touched their memories and brought them up to their eyes. These last moments had taught them more about their love for each other than the rest of their lives.
However, his father went ahead and gave the signal for the jump.
His son jumped off the cliff and as he got into the air, his mind switched to the rewind mode. He couldnât have any control over it. His mind played clips from his childhood. He could remember how he and his father were the best of the buddies. He could remember his fatherâs smile that he had on seeing him, once he returned from work. He could remember riding on his back and climbing on his shoulders. He remembered how his mother helped him bathe when he was a kid and how she would play with him and kiss him all over. He could remember sleeping in between his mom and dad at night, while both would hug him tight and give him a good night kiss. He could remember those bed time stories his dad would read, while he would be putting his head on his motherâs lap and she would caress his hair trying to get him to sleep. He could remember his mother cooking his favorite dishes for his lunch and his dad dropping him to school and giving him some extra money for ice cream hiding away from his mother. He could remember how his mom would teach him gardening and then give him chocolates when they were done. He remembered his parents getting tensed about any health issues he had and getting the royal treatment when he was ill and at home. He remembered learning about shaving and going on dates from his dad, where he would get money from his dad to buy his date gifts. He could distinctly remember how happy his parents were on the cloud nine on his excellent results to get into the high school, and how they had invited almost the entire town for his success party. He remembered his mom being awake at night just so that he didnât sleep. He remembered his dadâs after midnight coffees, encouraging him and showing confidence in him. He could remember how everything was just picture perfect and there was immense love, care, and warmth existing in his family.Â
During this period he felt that he was not going to go through this step and it was just all okay and it would all be fine. He had barely traveled any distance yet. Suddenly, like an outburst there came those memories of humiliation. This had hurt his ego and what he called self-respect. There was concern disguised in the humiliation which he did not have an eye for and neither did he realize that his father was completely baffled and didnât know what was the way further for his sonâs career and that made him all the more frustrated with himself and not his son. But, the ego was still preceding every emotion and sensibility. Almost after traveling a quarter of the distance he finally cut the rope with his knife. He shouted with a high intensity at this point as he cut the rope.
His shout had suddenly alerted his father. It was that very moment that he had seen his son that had now begun to fall freely towards the ground. He could feel his ego break and he shrieked out with a loud voice, âI love you, Ron!!â, and his son had heard it as fate would have it. Something inside him had also broken down and he realized that his father had never stopped loving him and the pain of that humiliation had suddenly just vaporized and his ego had been shattered. In the next moment, he heard his father shout, âParachute, Ron!â, and he realized that his father had given him that bag to wear and he pulled out the parachute as soon as he could.Â
With the parachute out, he was now at least going to be alive but surprisingly he knew how to go about using it which he had learned without his father knowing it and he could well land uninjured. As he was coming down with his parachute, so was his father running to get on the ground. His father had reached the ground as he anxiously waited for his son to land. As his sonâs parachute neared the ground his father kept following it and was running for it like it was money being thrown from the sky. As he was still about to land, his father extended his arms and caught his son before he could land. It led to both of them falling together on the ground. They both had been hurt but none of them cared about it. They were busy hugging each other tightly. It was like a father-son love story ending.
