Donald looked at the balcony ledge, smiled and stepped on to it. It was wider than he thought. The balcony was higher than he thought and standing on the ledge, which was a little wall, boosted him higher by about 3 feet, so he really was farther from the ground. It wasn’t ground in the sense of earth, dirt, soil. It was concrete and tar and a low garden wall of brick directly below, forty feet below.

He walked the edge, holding his arms out like wings because he knew that was how you did it. He didn’t need to balance because the top of the wall was comfortably wide. And having just passed his tenth birthday one week ago, he felt older, wiser and braver.

It was thrilling to feel the lack of nearby ground on the right and the comfort of the balcony floor on his left. That sense of emptiness so close to his right side made him feel free and not at all insecure because the balcony floor was like a safety net, if he fell to the left.

Looking down made him dizzy but without any chance of losing his balance since he could still see his feet. He remembered a high wire act he saw on television and wondered if he could walk across this ledge with his eyes closed.

He decided to try it and gingerly felt his way along with his feet, sensing the edge. He could not do it for more than two steps, and as he leaned right then left and toppled onto the safety of the balcony, he concluded that he needed more practice.

Back on top of the wall and this time he decided to look up into the blue sky. He knew that mad him dizzy also, but was not sure exactly why it did so. Reaching upward was certain to unbalance him as he soon found to be true.

Don walked along, looking down then suddenly looked up into the featureless, blue sky. He raised his arms as if to embrace the day and the sky, as if to reach for them.

He fell. He lost his balance and fell. He remembered at that precise moment that it felt like someone, some force, had grabbed and pulled him. His terror was as complete as his surprise for he knew that he would never die. Things like that never happen to you when you are one week beyond your tenth birthday.

********************

Donald’s father heard the thump and went quietly, knowing what he would find and how best to deal with this. It did not take him long to reach the balcony and he slipped quietly to the platform as Donald was preparing to reach up. His hand pulled hard on Don’s wrist with the result that the boy fell onto the balcony and fainted from the surprise of the sudden loss of control.