Spam Haiku Story

To Fly Try

Spread your wings,
Leave your past behind,
To fly, try.

"I don't know, man! I just don't think I can do it!" I said to the instructor, a death-grip on the edge of the door frame, looking out as the clouds rushed by.

"Hey, it's a no brainer! You're hooked to a static line, all you gotta do is jump! Once the 'chute opens, you'll remember the training, you'll be fine! You gotta make up your mind now, or we'll be past the zone..."

"OK, I'll do it! Three, Two, One, Geronimo!" I yelled, as I jumped from the plane.


"beep! beep! Beep! Beep! BEEP!"

I shut the alarm off and look at the clock: 5:45 AM. "Shit, another Monday," I grumble as I roll out of bed.

The start of another day of another week of another month of another year. At a job I tolerate in order to make money to pay the bills and keep a roof overhead and food on the table and cars in the driveway for myself and my wife and my son.

I sit in a cubicle in front of a screen for nine or ten hours a day, generating megabytes of meaningless reports and emailing them to people who most likely delete most of them within minutes after receiving them. (But the job pays well, and the benefits are good.) Thoughts that run through my head as I'm drinking my first cup of coffee...

Half an hour later I'm northbound on the 405, grinding my way through traffic to get to the office, gonna be late again...

I had a chance to make a change, a couple years ago... Coulda gone in a partnership with my brother back East, a whole new life. Risky venture, but it would've been fun. And as it turns out, profitable.

But I opted to stay put, play it safe, hang in there... Now, only four years and three hundred fifty eight days left to go until I can take early retirement...

Sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't have been better off if I'd jumped...