The sea battered the rocks far below, spewing a spray of
water that reached Claire high up on the cliff face. She’d been standing there, staring at the
rocks and spume-covered water for half an hour, unaware that her clothes were
growing progressively damper.
Voices from the past flooded her mind. She was a happy child but when she was eleven she'd overheard one of her
parents’ late-night conversations. “I
guess Claire might eventually get a job as a secretary, maybe a stewardess or teacher’s
assistant. What else will she do? She’s
not nearly as smart or talented as her sisters or brother.”
That was the year things had taken a downward turn. On her report card, her teacher had so aptly
put it, “It’s as though Claire has given up.
She doesn’t seem happy and she doesn’t try anymore.”
Why should she have tried?
No one seemed to think she could succeed. Better to get by. Better to accept her lot in life. She scraped through high-school and when she
graduated she took a secretarial job.
She’d settled. She’d always
settled.
Claire went over and over it as she stood there on that cliff.
She’d gone over and over it for the past three months with her psychiatrist and
she finally understood why she’d been overlooked all her life---until now.
Until now!
No longer would she sit back passively, smiling and congratulating
others. Passivity: her nemesis. Looking back at the countless opportunities
she’d let slip by because she didn’t believe she was good enough, attractive enough,
intelligent enough, she resolved that things were going to change.
She had some innovative ideas that she was going to present to
her boss; ideas that would make the company much more productive. She’d talked to her councillor about
them. He thought they were brilliant and
pressed her to talk to upper management.
Because of his help and his belief in her abilities, her confidence had
increased. To that end, she’d made the
appointment and today at 5:00 o’clock, after work, she would take a chance for
the first time in her life! She was
determined to show what she had, what she could do. For the first time in many, many years, she felt truly happy.
She greeted the handsome, young couple with a warm smile as they
approached her with their two rambunctious dogs. Her heart overflowing with hope, optimistic and joyful, she reached down to
pet the dogs. The larger one bumped his nose
into her midsection- just a love bump, really.
Her terrified scream echoed across the water as she stumbled backward and fell to her death, on the rocks below.
