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Her name is Alice. She stands on the edge. For three years she has worked for the Dalyn-Steward Corporation, but now she stands on the edge.
The sounds from below, of cars and people, are muffled through the distance. The sounds of aircraft overhead are deafening without the protective soundproof glass to protect her. Here on the edge.
She thinks back to him, the only thing that kept her in this job. Alex was her angel, the man who took her from her shitty life and elevated her above the dross of the street. Her silver eyes water as she remembers the first time they met. He was running from a mugger and she helped him. She pulled him into a doorway and the mugger ran past. He had thanked her and a month later they had found love in each other's arms. But he had been an executive at Dalyn-Steward's. He couldn't have the scandal of her as a wife. She saw it and refused his proposal, telling him it was better if they didn't, no-one paid attention to your lovers, but your wife's history was a career killer.
And so they had made a pact to keep it as it was. But he wanted her near at all times and got her a job working for the company. She had enjoyed the job, but enjoyed more being able to see him every day. She got promoted though, and saw him less and less. He was moved to another branch and it got to them only meeting at weekends in hotels and restaurants. She always laughed when he would book them in the name 'Mr Smith'.
It had been a fortnight ago he had told her he was going to have the surgery, it was to improve his standing and ability. And when he could afford it, she could take the surgery too, and then they would marry and screw the world. But that wouldn't happen now.
She had seen the report on the news about the man killed by an un-named assassin and not even given them a cursory glance; the chip she was using had made sure of that. But when she had overheard Mr Steward talking about the death of an executive she had felt an odd feeling. The feeling had not gone an hour later so she pulled Alex's file. Then her worst dreams had been told. Alex had been removed from the pay roll due to death. It took her another hour to break the code cover on the rest of the file to find out how and where. This was when it really sank in that he wasn't coming back. She had lost him. This had put her on the edge.
The wind tugs at her dress and chills her legs. She looks down but a cloud obscures the view down. She tilts her head back, steeling herself for what she is about to do.
Then with purpose she does it. Stepping forward off the ledge she falls, the whistling past her ears deafening her to any other noise.
It is several minutes before she lands, but in that moment of impact all the pain she felt flows away and she is free. She steps away to a place where the pain of loss is no longer a bother.
Paul Taylor, 10/11/00
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