He was quite young, probably twenty-something, gentle-looking and quite handsome. I only had a brief look at him while hanging around at the top of the mountain, watching professional paragliders took off, seeing them floating in the sky. The sunshines were so bright. Time after time, the breezes swept through me with a touch for freshness and coolness. I have alwasy loved how the wind fondles me. I could just sit silent watching the panorama in front of me, the breathtaking view of mountains and greenish fields below me, eyewitnessing such beauty while inhaling the freshness.
It was a crowded day. Apparently, lots of guests have booked the paragliding service so the professional paragliders were quite busy taking these guests off to the sky with them. It also seems that the weather of the day turned out to be unexpectedly good despite consecutive rainy days. Consequently, some independent paragliders showed up too, taking their liberty to fly on their own as long as there was enough space for their departure.
If you wonder why I started my story with a young boy’s description yet rambling on the paragliding and nature stuffs, please be assured that I am not going off the topic at all. Besides, as already mentioned, I have no direct contact with the boy whatsoever, we are strangers to each other in every sense of relationship definition. I don’t know who he is, other than the fact that he was one of the guests booking paragliding service. He waited with his friends/colleagues almost all day. Because there was not enough car service to take people and their big parachute bags up to the top of the mountain, it takes ages for paragliders to come up to the mountain again after landing on the rice fields. That’s why, in spite of losing the whole day for paragliding experience, each guest was only entitled to have one flight and sky-floating up to 30 minutes or less. However, if you are the last guest, there’s a high chance you could enjoy floating in the clouds longer, because that’s also the last time for your professional paraglider to enjoy this activity and hence, he would want to take time for himself too, not just for the sake of monetary service, for professional paragliders become who they are simply because of their very interest in paragliding themselves.
Am I rambling again? I wonder. As I dreaded to reach the end of what I am writing. That boy is the last guest. And I have got on the car before seeing him fly off to the sky with his professional paraglider. So honestly, nothing could make me talk at length about him. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know his story. I don’t know what he likes, his passion, hobbies or just what he is going to do next week...
When I was in a coffee house at the bottom of the mountain, I saw tension in some professional paragliders’ eyes and overheard their conversation about the professional paraglider who took off with the last guest. That professional paraglider made a call with other professional on the radio, mentioning an emergency situation and asking for emergency help. Someone called the ambulance and prepared first aid...
The last guest fell off while paragliding.
He was just twenty-something...
One’s life has ended abruptly and so unbelievably fast.
Not just me, but no one including his family would ever know what he could be doing next week.
