19930216
Got a few minutes? I'd like to show you something... Close your eyes. Wait
for a sec, let me grab my paint brushes... Okay, here we go.
Imagine yourself standing on a stone slab, just to the left of a river of
smooth, clear water. The temperature is warm and comfortable with a light
tropical scent carried by a soft breeze. Within thirty feet of either bank
of the river lies a thick, jungle variety growth, lots of tall trees that
fan out their leaves on top spreading like a thick purple canopy. Noticing
this oddity, your sight also registers that the sky has a rose colored hue
and a huge setting crimson sun fills the western sky with bright sapphire
and violet streaks.
Walking barefoot on water-worn, smooth stone, you set out downriver, traveling
west with the sunset filling your vision. You notice that sixty yards away
the forest and river drop away out of sight.
The closer you come to the drop the more apparent it is actually a cliff.
Rising steadily, a soft thunder becomes an enormous roar as the sounds of
the waterfall pounds your hearing. You now stand at the edge of the cliff.
Staring down, your mind grows numb in awe and you fumble for words to express
the panoramic view.
The cliff face is sheer and measures a fall of at least one thousand meters,
the land below lies shrouded by dense jungle foliage and low mists that flow
outward from the cascading water. But it is the mists clinging to the fall
itself that transfix the eye, for by some trick of light, the lowering red
giant lights the mists in a spectacular fashion.
Directly beneath you, stretches downward a huge section of mist tinted like
a rainbow. The entire spectrum revealed with a back drop of a majestic waterfall
and cliff. You long to see first hand what this must look like from the bottom,
from inside the mists...
With no conscious thought of danger, after all, reality is only an eyelid
away, you jump from the cliff?top into a graceful swan dive, body parallel
to the ground, you enter the red colored mists, feeling the rushing wind in
your ears, the surging adrenaline speeding your heart, the moisture dampening
your clothes and body. Your entire view is shaded in scarlet and slowly shifting
to orange. Millions of water molecules refracting the light, giving you the
impression of falling through an orange fog, now shifting to a vibrant yellow,
now tinted green, the speed and wind tear at your clothes as wave after wave
of exhilaration flows over your body. Feeling so alive, almost as if your
flying.
The world darkens as you fall into blue space that soon becomes a dimmer
shade of indigo. You realize the ride is nearing an end and slowly you allow
your body to tilt forward, now face down with hands locked above your head
as you enter violet. In complete wonderment and yet still calm you gather
air into your lungs as the churning pool below rushes to meet you. Holding
your breath and... Now!
Cleanly, your body knives into the warm water, taking you quickly down twenty?
five meters before you twist and struggle to find the surface. Through crystal
waters you kick strongly upward as the air begins to burn in your lungs, your
ears ring. Almost there...
You break the surface with a ragged gasp that fills your lungs, pushing
back the darkness in your sight. You made it! Your mind screams now at the
risk passed, but you actually made it!
Looking upward, again you are entranced by the sight, doubly so, now that
it is combined with the indescribable sensations.
Quite a trip, huh? You can open your eyes now. It's an amateur's drawing,
and kind of rushed, but I hope you like it. It's called Purgatory Falls, Xodarap.
[© 1993 Joseph Wheeler, all rights reserved]