Jack often sat on the roof of the apartment building, watching the people pass by below, the tall red buses roaring around the corners, the taxis honking… it was a pastime for her, and a pleasant one at that. She would climb up the tree on the side of her friend's house (which neighbored the structure) to get above the building and then crawl out onto the branch that overhung the roof before dropping down. Sure, she could use her own apartment building for her sight-seeing, but it wasn't as high as the one her friend lived next to (only three stories to the five of this building), and there was no tree to help her to the top.
She ate her lunch quickly, eager to get there, eager to see the lunchtime rush of pedestrians and cars. Scurrying up the tree, holding back her grin, she swung herself onto the roof and took her usual spot near the edge, legs hanging over and dangling the five stories above the ground.
She sighed and settled down, eyes scanning the tiny people below, traveling along the rows of cars, watching doors open and shut and people come and go. She glanced up and down the street, following some people's paths longer than others.
After a while she glanced over the roof tops, hoping to see a workman repairing something, and that was when she saw him.
There was a man about four buildings over, across the street, standing on the edge of a roof, talking into his cell phone. He was tall and slim, his skin pale against the dark clothes he wore. She couldn't make out much detail of his face, but the way he was slightly hunched made her heart speed up. She had seen something like this before, on the news, when someone had managed to film a jumper. That person was hunched over slightly, too.
She sucked in a breath and pulled herself back from the edge of her roof, slowly getting to her feet. She couldn't take her eyes off the man, who was now tossing his cell phone back onto the ground behind him.
Everything slowed down as she saw him raise his arms out…
…lean forward…
…and fall.
He fell quickly and without noise, kicking at the air, his long coat flapping in the rush of wind.
She couldn't move, she couldn't scream, she couldn't breathe as her eyes watched the man's descent down to the pavement below. He hit the ground and lay still before he was swallowed up in a crowd of people.
She stood there, not breathing, her heart beating a rabbit-like pitter patter in her chest as she blinked slowly, watching the crowd grow around the man, watching the ambulance pull up and the crowd shift, watching the car then tearing away, sirens wailing and lights flashing, not wanting to believe what she had just seen but knowing that it had happened. Her throat and chest were starting to feel funny, as though they were being squeezed, and her mouth was dry.
It took her several minutes to come out of her trance, and when she did she dropped to her knees and pulled at her hair with her hands, rocking slightly and moaning quietly, her mind racing. Her eyes were darting back and fourth, looking at the pebbly, tan roof but seeing the man's falling form hit the ground over and over again. Her breathing ragged, she hunched over and hugged herself, tears falling quietly before she began sobbing loudly for the man she had just seen die.
She didn't go back to her roof after that.