Jumper

“Hey Baby.” He said, answering his cell phone
“Hey.” she sounded out of breath.
“How’s it going?” he asked.
“Good , hold on -” she said something to one of the kids and then “How far are you?”
“DC.”
“Did you stop?” she asked, he could hear the kids in the background; it was bath time.
“Yeah, I needed to stretch a bit. I’ve been going since Durham.”
“Where?”
“On top of the Washington Monument.”
“What?” she asked, but without shock, rather it was just too loud for her to hear.
“You know the point isn’t as steep as it looks from the ground, it’s about the same angle as my mom’s roof and you really can see everything from up here.”
“You’re mom’s roof?” picking up clothes in their rooms.
“Yeah, when I clean her gutters; but it’s dark now so you can see only the lights. The buildings are low, not high rises like in New York, so light is low on the ground; like fog.” Then he said “The Whitehouse is to the left, Capital straight ahead Lincoln is behind me.”
“Oh, I bet the Whitehouse is looks pretty. Is it lit up?” folding, organizing.
“Every light is on in the house.”
“Is it cold?” she had stopped and waited this time for an answer.
“Yeah, the breeze is cold because I have shorts on, but I’ve got my sweatshirt so it’s not too bad and…” then she interrupted “What the hell are you doing?”
“Hmm, trying to discourage myself to the point where I’ll jump.”
“Jump?”
“Don’t worry, I can’t do it. Dammit. I’ve been at it since I left Charlotte six hours ago. I can say the words, but that’s it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The rest of my life will do me in; a slow death, like the lady whose husband said she wanted to starve and dehydrate to death.”
“I can’t talk like this now; the kids were horrible at the neighbor’s house and now we’re in the middle of baths.”
“I’m sorry.”
“When do you think you’ll be home?”
“I don’t know, around 11pm or so. I’m going up the back way, through DC to 895. It’s quieter that way.”
“Ok, don’t doddle.”