The Climber

The Climber

One step and my left foot was on the solid ledge; another, and the ledge turned rotten. My weight had swung too far out, and there sprang into my chest the great panic of the climber who knows that he is about to fall, and that no matter how much he scrambles and screams and prays he will continue to fall, tumbling and bumping and bouncing down the mountainside to smash to death in some dark crevasse below…