Never to have been...

Together on a high mountain. Below, a river, a city. I descended from on high, jumped into the river, waded across, made it to the city. I took the cable car. Inside I tried to use the intercom to talk to her back on the mountain. We were to meet again. I had something for her, something to deliver. It was a small defenseless creature that I had managed to snatch from danger against all hope. I knew she would be overjoyed to see it again, assumed disappeared, destroyed, devoured, gone. The intercom was not working. The conductor told me to suck on the wall, to release the pressure lock.

I contacted her, we set up the appointment. It was to be a grand moment, one of those rare moments in life when you succeed against all odds, an emotional reunion, boundless joy at your good fortune, a sense of deservedness. In anticipation of arrival, the conductor opened the doors as we glided above the world. Below it was dark, the lights of the city. The kitten danced along the edge of the doorsill, tanatalized by the view below. I sensed danger, could she fall? No, I thought, an animal has a survival instinct. Still, there could be an accident. She darted from one open door to the other, slipped, fell out, shot like a meteor into the darkness, disappeared. The moment was over, finished, never to have been. I saw seagulls plying the dark sky, would they see her, catch her up? But no. Gone.