BAM-BAM-BAM, my heart slams against my rib cage. The blood drains from my head, leaving me paralysed with panic. A scream of fear is torn from my lips. Pushing myself forward, feet anchored around the small platform, I reach out, leaning forward as much I can. I manage to wrap my fingers around his ankle. Tuning out the collective gasp from the audience below, I hold onto Amit, my feet coiled around the steel ropes. Clasping them with the muscles of my toes, I pay no heed to the searing pain that cuts through my side, instead willing myself to stretch to my full height, my muscles shattering in protest. 

“Hang on!” I yell, as much for my own benefit as his, trying to hold onto him even as drops of sweat pooling at the base of my back slide forward like an upside down waterfall, before being absorbed by my scalp. Amit’s spectacles slip off and fall towards the crowd below. They part, allowing the glasses to smash on the concrete, before proceeding to gaze at them in fascination. The crowd below takes a deep inward breath—it’s as if they are not disparate souls anymore, but one joined-up, scared entity. They look up at me, some of them raising their hands as if trying to reach out to us. Their shock vibrates up to me. I sway, almost losing my footing, to another collective gasp from the audience below. Someone screams. Is it the girl I met earlier, or myself, or perhaps it is Amit? I cannot tell, focused as I am on just keeping my hold on him. For a few seconds, I swing there, his one leg grasped between both my hands. 

“There is little difference between promises … memories.” Snatches of words from his muttering reach me over the air-currents. 

“WHAT …?” I yell to make myself heard above the rising wind. 

“What are you SAYING?” I scream in blind panic, feeling the material of his jeans burn through my fingers as he slides down a few inches further. He raises his voice now, to match my octave. 

“Promises ... We break THEM!” The hysteria in his voice rises to fever pitch as he screeches, 

“MEMORIES … THEY BREAK US!” 

He plummets down. I follow him in horrific fascination as his body bounces once, unerringly hitting the parapet of the safety wall on the side of the bridge before arcing off, somersaulting once, twice, then, as if in graceful dance, diving headfirst into the Arabian Sea, cutting the surface of the waves with very little fuss. 

No way! So now, I have to dive in? Down far below into those waves, after him? My lightning tree, of course, is all excited, all lit up now. Many tiny lights quiver up the stem of the tree, setting the branches on fire. For the first time since the incident, the entire tree is aflame. The pressure building inside me shoots through. I have no option. 

I jump.