"The Glimpse"
By: Imogene Amherst
Fade-in to a man, namely, Claude Forbes, walking down a city sidewalk. He's on his way to the office. However, he won't get around to work today.
He looks ahead. A crowd is gathered. They are looking up to a building in front of them. As he walks, he can hear a woman yelling. He gets to the crowd, looks up and there she is…
"What's going on?" he asks another man watching.
"The woman keeps yelling that she's going to jump and nobody can stop her," he the man answers.
The woman on the ledge is Susan Martin. She is on the edge of death by the doing of those she loves but do not love her in return. This man, Claude Forbes, a stranger to her, is going to try to save her. She is going to try to convince him that she is not worth saving. These two are soon to find that the choice that seems obvious at the time is rarely, if ever, the right choice. This point will be confirmed by Susan's belated glimpse… into the Twilight Zone.
"Has anyone tried talking to her?"
"No," the man answers, "Nobody's gone up there. She said that even if they did, it wouldn't matter. Why? Do you know her?"
"No," Claude answers, "I don't know her."
There's a kind of pause as Claude stands with a dazed look on his face.
"Do you think that I could go up there and talk to her?"
The man looks at Claude and shrugs his shoulders…
"I guess so," he answers, "But make sure you don't put too much pressure on her. Tell her she has every reason to live. Things like that, you know. Her apartment is number 42."
"Thank you," Claude says.
We see Claude walk to the entrance of this 6 story building. Miss Martin is on the ledge of the 6th floor. We follow Claude to the elevator. When inside the elevator, he pushes the button to the 6th floor. The doors open and he's now walking down the hall in search for apartment 42…
Claude finds the apartment; he opens the door and he's in.
The place is tidy.
He's in search of the room that will lead him to the window she's outside of.
After opening a few wrong doors, he opens the door to her bedroom.
He enters and sees the open window.
He walks about 10 steps over to it peers out to the right where he sees her…
"Who are you?" the woman demands with a snap.
"My- my name is Claude. Claude Forbes."
"You can't save me. But then again, why would you want to?"
"Well," Claude answers this distressed woman, "I don't want to see any woman die. Especially one as pretty as you."
She laughs in a taunting manner. "You don't mean it. What? Do you think you can save me with your meaningless words?" She asks.
"They aren't meaningless. I want to help you" Claude pleads.
"I'm so sick and tired of you people!" She yells at him, "Go away and leave me alone!"
Claude leans on the windowsill. He's the kind of guy that doesn't give up, and so, he persists…
"What's your name?" Claude continues.
There's a pause and for a moment, Claude feels as if that alone is going to be the one question that pushes her over the edge.
Then, to Claude's relief, she answers…
"My name is Susan."
Claude looks at her…
"Now listen, Susan" he pleads, "Please stop this and come inside. You have every reason to live."
She laughs again. "So, you want me to live, do you?"
"Yes," Claude quickly responds.
"And why?" Susan snaps back, "So everyone can just continue to ridicule me; all my family, even the man who used to be my fiancé? I can't live knowing that no one loves me and that I'm useless. They always said I was useless. They're right. I serve no purpose, Mr. Forbes. I have to jump."
Now, Claude didn't think she was going to jump. He realized now that she just wanted to talk. Claude knew he couldn't give up now…
"Please tell me why you want to jump, Susan."
"They never loved me," Susan said with a weakened voice; the kind of voice that lets the sound of a broken heart bleed through. "They all look at me like I'm some kind of a monster. They constantly mock me. There's no love in their hearts for me. There never was. My parents always loved my sisters and hated me. They always bought them pretty things and babied them until they were full grown adults. They never showed me love or even kindness. They told me I was useless and ugly and selfish. When we were children, my sisters taunted me saying that mother and father loved them more than me. Even to this day, they still throw it up in my face. They hate me." Susan began to cry. "They hate me!" She yelled. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed. "I can't live, Mr. Forbes. No one can live without love."
As Miss Martin sobbed, face in hands, Claude lowered his head. He couldn't believe what he heard. He couldn't believe that a person couldn't be loved at all, by anyone. He refused to believe it.
He lifted his head and stared ahead…
"There must be someone who loves you," he said to her, his own voice weakened by the words he had heard.
Susan lifted her head and looked ahead with wet, glassy eyes…
"No one, Mr. Forbes, no one at all," she said, shaking her head. "So, do you see why I need to put this pathetic existence of mine to an end?"
Claude, looking at Susan, and shook his head…
"No, I don't. I think you still have every reason to live. Why, you're not ugly or useless and you certainly don't seem selfish. Please, come in and don't do this. You have a chance to be happy. Life is a chance to be happy! You will find someone who loves you! You will! Please, come in."
Susan stared at him blankly…
"Someone who loves me? Well, that's what I thought I found when Richard came along! Poor old Richard, the con-artist. Took me for every penny I was worth. He'd always say, 'I love you, baby. Come on, give me 20 dollars. We're going to be married, honey, it'll be my money anyway!' And I gave him money. All the money I had. We were engaged. He said he loved me. He only said it because he knew love was the thing I wanted more than anything else in the world. I gave him the money, and where does he go? Straight to Vegas and gambles it away! When he'd spent it all, he just came back and laughed in my face. All because I was naïve enough to think someone could really love me. No, Mr. Forbes, I won't find love."
A wind blew through Susan's hair and just then, Claude saw how beautiful she was, outside, yes, but more on the inside. Claude knew then that Susan had a beautiful soul. He wanted her to know that more than anything…
"Susan, please listen to me. Don't jump. I think you're wonderful. A woman like you has got to be able to find someone. In fact, I know for sure that there's someone out there for you."
Susan glared at him coldly…
"That's cruel! How dare you practically make me a promise that heaven knows you can't keep! Someone out there! That's a laugh. I don't even want to hear it. I've looked long enough. No one could love me. I'm pitiful. I'm jumping, Mr. Forbes. Don't you even try to stop me."
Then Claude realized that she meant it. Then, he saw that she had reached the point where she had the nerve to jump and she thought for sure that she had the means. Claude's heart began to race as he realized she was bracing herself to jump.
"No!" Claude yelled as he lifted his leg to climb out the window.
There was nothing Claude could do to stop her. She had already jumped. All was in slow motion as he realized he was about to see a woman fall to her death. This was a woman, Claude realized, he could have loved very greatly. He realized that he could have truly given her what she wanted more than anything at all. This woman he thought he could have saved was falling to her demise, with no net below to save her and no one who could lend a helping hand. He looked down and there she was…
As Susan was falling, she had a glimpse of something beautiful…
There were flowers… lots of people… people smiling and clapping… piano music… wedding music… there was a man and a woman standing under a tree… a minister standing beyond them… the man and woman were kissing… they had just been married…when their kiss was over, she saw the woman's face… it was her face… then, she saw the man…it was Claude Forbes. That was what could have been…What would have been…then the glimpse ended…
The people in the crowd below let out a scream and ran as they saw Susan falling toward the ground.
Susan fell to the ground as a dove that had been shot. In a sense, hunted all of her life by a world full of people she wanted nothing more to than to live among and be accepted and loved. A dove shot down by a people who didn't know her true beauty.
Out of all these people, there is one man who truly loved her. He only knew her a short time, but in that time, he could see the beauty she possessed. Now, she lay on a sidewalk, while the newly broken man above her looks down at this fallen angel. He will torture himself with thoughts of regret because he didn't tell her he could be the one to love her. He will never come to accept the fact that there was nothing he could have done. Also, Susan will never live out the wonderful glimpse of what might have been. These two souls, a broken angel and a broken man, are forever wounded…in the Twilight Zone.