She told me that she had five years to live after her diagnosis. The doctor said she had a kind of advanced lung disease. I remember asking her what she was going to do during the next five years because I didn’t know what else to say. I mean, what the hell do you say to a friend who’s going to die?
Well, she smiled at me and said she was going to live the years she had left the way she wanted to. She told me she wanted to feel alive and so the very next day, we went cliff diving.
*
I drove the two of us to the lake and I never admitted it to her, but I was terrified. I kept quiet even when we were standing on the edge of that damn cliff. She had turned to look at me and when I met her eyes she flashed a childish grin in my direction.
That day, I believe I saw a woman transcending the limitations of gravity. God, she flew like a baby bird that realized it had wings and could actually use them. I ended up jumping in after her and we sank into darkness for a moment. I remember panicking, but she found me...