First Falls

A short story from the Song of the Willow

J E Frank

Elin stood just behind her friend and waited for his reaction. Johan stood at the edge and looked where Elin had pointed. Johan stood just a little shorter than his good friend Elin, she had already hit her growth spurt. Neither one of them could have been any older than just starting in their teens.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. I mean, I can jump like everyone else but what you’re talking about is just crazy. I don’t take that kind of risk. I might get hurt,” Johan was mostly arguing with himself. Elin didn’t care if he tried it or not. She was going to keep on going the way she did.

“OK, but Watch this.“ She sprinted out even further away from the base of the tree. The branches grew much smaller here. They were barely even wide enough for them to stand side-by-side. And then she did something even crazier. She forked off on one of the smallest branches.

Elin took about three steps and her weight bent the branch down a little. She flexed her knees and pushed off. The song willow branch sprang back and gave her an extra little bit of push though most of her momentum came from her jump. She curled her body forward and rolled into a flip that caused her to sail even further than she would have.

Johan felt his lower jaw dropping against his will as he watched his friend doing something that he now wish he could do. She landed in an awkward hands and knees position on a branch that was much too far for her to have normally jumped to. 

Elin stood back up and smiled and then she started running out on a small branch back toward the one Johan waited for her. Once she got to the point where it would spring her back up she pushed off. This time she didn’t curl into a roll. Elin let her body spin in a twist and flip end over end while she kept her torso stiff. Johan knew for certain his friend was going to fall but he didn’t know what he could do about it. If he jumped out to grab her, they would both fall and he might hurt her more.

Her feet came down past the branch and she continued to flip forward. Johan’s heartbeat paralyzed his feet. He knew she probably wasn’t even scared right now. She opened her hands and grabbed a hold of the branch that she had jumped off of originally. Her body changed directions but only slightly.

Elin let her feet swing forward and the rest of her body followed until she was near upside down on the branch and then she swung back. At the top of the back arc of the movement, she let go, flipped backward, and landed right next to Johan.

“I call it tree hopping. I know, it’s kind of stupid but it’s the only thing that really fits.”

“And today is the first time that you have tried this?” Johan didn’t believe her anymore.

“Well, I may have been practicing this for several weeks.” Elin smiled. “This is just the beginning. Just think of the possibilities. I’ve only been doing this for a couple of weeks and look at what I can do.”

That look of recognition passed across Johan’s face. He did know what the possibilities were, endless. Elin had him hooked. She opened her mouth, probably to suggest that Johan start where she had originally. Just a simple flip across a short distance. Too late, Johan already sprinted out on the small branch she had just flipped from

He made it out to the springy part of the branch and pushed off. Johan curled his body forward into a flip just as he had seen his friend. He felt the wind rush against his face as his world tumbled around him. He lost all sense of direction and control of his body. By the time he had completed the flip, Johan was rolling into the next one. 

Fairly certain that he had overshot the jump, he tried to straighten himself out to see where he was. Johan’s eyes focused for a brief second on the large tree branch in front of him before his face smacked into it. He flipped backward and fell twenty feet down to the forest floor. Elin raced down to help her friend.

“Johan, are you OK? Can you hear me?” she’s squatted down next to him to see if he made any signs of life. Johan lay flat on his back breathing with his eyes wide open.

“OK, it might take me a couple of tries before I get that down. I’m ready to go again,” Johan said and tried to sit up. Sharp pains stabbed through his back as he felt certain he had hurt something deep inside. He lay back down on his back and groaned.

“I was going to suggest that we try something a little simpler first to start with. Something that I started on,” Elin helped him to his feet and suggested that her grandmother might have something for his pains. Johan groaned as he smiled and looked back at the branches of the song willow. He’d fallen but he was hooked.