The man and his camera were attached, like peanut butter and jelly, Jack’s grandmother used to say. This was true, Jack was an entrepreneur, twenty-six, tall, had dark hair and was quite handsome, and he made his living on his camera. He made videos about the natural world: the Grand Canyon, the Redwoods, waterfalls, coral reefs, the great plains; anything that captured the beauty of nature was captured by Jack and his camera.
One year, Jack ventured to a waterfall in southern California called Time Falls. The waterfall itself was close to 200 feet high. The swimming hole below was deep and outlined in smooth rocks. The area that was opened up to tourists had a sandy entrance, which fed into the sandy beach that wrapped around one side of the swimming hole.
Jack, however, always took the road less travelled, and he always filmed it. He hiked from two miles upstream, and upon arrival, recognized the glistening crystal falls and the deathly drop that was quite possible if he slipped off its edge. Jack stood on the rock beside the rushing water, he leaned over its edge to get a shot of the water as it rushed beside him and flew off into the swimming hole below.
He saved the video. He then looked up with his eyes and noticed there was a mob of tourists taking pictures on the sandy beach far across from him. Why so many? He thought. He then looked to the other side of the pond -- it was a camera crew. Jack noticed the man acting in front of the camera -- it was Han Tanks -- action hero from the renowned movies, Battle for Earth and Operation Zero. Everyone was taking pictures and hoping to meet him after their day of filming was over.
Jack recognized that this would cause his nature video to become much more popular than he had anticipated. He then hooked another camera of his to a drone, he then flew it out across over the Time Falls to get a shot of the movie setup across from him on the rocks.
The camera crew then asked the tourists to leave; men with headsets and life vests shooed them away aggressively. Jack brought his drone back so as not to be noticed. He then set his camera up for the final shot for his video that would make his subscribers share his video with their friends: the epic dive.
Jack had seen other nature vloggers dive off this very falls, so he knew it was fairly safe -- that is, if you knew how to brace yourself for the impact with the water. Jack set his camera to his head, secured his bag with his tent and his drone, breathed in deeply, pressed record, and jumped off the falls. Gravity overtook him. He went faster and faster. He felt like he was falling for ten minutes. The wind slung his hair back violently. By the end of his fall, he quickly turned and dove into the water creating only a tiny splash. The water was ice cold but welcomed by his body as he had been hot from the blazing sun and from hiking. His adrenaline was pumping; he felt like he could conquer the world, perhaps even audition for the Han Tanks movie being filmed across from him.
He looked up to where he had jumped from above -- it looked much higher from where he now swam. A woman was standing where he had jumped from, in a two-piece, blue bikini. The sun from behind her made it difficult to determine what she looked like, all he could tell was that she had tan skin and black hair. She waved at him. Before he could think to wave back, she was gone. He put his hand on his forehead to block out the sun -- the woman leaped off the falls from a running start -- she was coming right for his head. He swam away -- THUMP -- she landed right where he had been suspended in the water.
Nearly a minute passed before she returned to the surface. Her face was beautiful: sharp features; American Indian, slim, fit, soft reassuring eyes. She ran her hands over her face to remove the water. She opened her eyes -- the look of one who loved adventure, something that made her incredibly attractive to Jack.
Before he could say a word, the water levels in the massive swimming hole began to rise. Jack and the young woman looked over at the movie production team -- they were filming a scene where the water rises, and Han Tanks would save the woman from floating over the dam to her doom.
Jack turned back around to the woman; she gave him a cunning look before she began swimming back towards the waterfall. He secured his bag and his camera and followed her. She came to the rocky ledge that fed all the way up to the top of the falls. She started to climb upwards by grabbing onto each protrusion in the rock wall. Jack followed her every step. Cold water hit rocks within the falls and splashed onto them as they climbed beside it. The woman kept looking down at him to see if he was able to follow her as they went higher and higher.
Jack tried to start up a conversation. “I see you have a camera. Do you vlog?”
She turned around and simply smiled.
Does she speak English? he thought.
She was incredibly athletic and flexible. She made each new step look easy. Jack was struggling to keep up, he hadn’t planned on going back the way he came in. The sun was drying them off as they now were over 100 feet into the air. The rising water in the swimming hole had now leveled off far below them.
Jack looked back as they reached the last few moves that would get them to the top of the falls -- nearly 200 feet high. He looked back towards her. The rocky ledge at the top came outwards over their heads. It would be nearly impossible to climb over the ledge without falling, unless one could grab the rocky protrusions and sling themselves over it in one swift front flip. Falling backwards would most likely result in death.
Jack felt that perhaps he wouldn’t be able to follow her over. “What’s your name?” he asked in desperation -- he wanted something to help him find her on social media later.
The woman looked down towards him, “Charm.” she said with a smile. She then hopped up and backwards to grab where the rocky ledge came out over them. She was hanging by a thread. She used her momentum to sling herself over the top in a flipping motion.
Jack was blown away. He thought for a moment before he attempted the move. He wanted so desperately to follow her. He felt in his heart that he loved her already. Just before he jumped, his heart sank in his chest as if it would be the last thing he ever did. He gritted his teeth in disappointment and climbed back down the falls.
He found himself on the sandy shore checking his footage of the woman. He looked on his phone for her on all the social media sites he knew of. She was nowhere to be found. There were very few people named Charm, and even fewer who filmed nature videos. He thought that perhaps she was from another country, and he almost gave up.
He then came to a sickening realization: if the woman was a nature vlogger, then she would be likely to return to this very spot. After all, Time Falls was one of the hottest spots for nature vloggers to visit and make videos about. So, Jack decided he would camp out on the rocky ledges above in the forests, and wait for Charm to return to him.
Hours turned to nightfall, nightfall turned to morning, and days later he had grown a full beard and was living off canned goods he had brought in his bag. When he ran out of canned foods, he started living off the land. He hunted squirrels, ate fruits and berries, and killed deer in the Winter -- which lasted him quite some time.
As the seasons turned over and over, the years began to pass by, and Jack’s obsession with the woman he had met that day when he was only twenty-six had not subsided -- it had only grown greater and deeper. He had imagined a life with her and had lived a life with her in his own mind. They had two kids, a white picket fence, and made nature vlogs together.
On Jack’s fortieth birthday, he walked out on the rocky ledge of the falls and looked out at the arriving tourists like he did every day of his new life. His beard hung down to his belt; it contained a few grey hairs. His face was wrinkled, living off the land had been a hard life, and the stress of looking for the woman had caused him to age faster than normal.
He wanted to scream “Charm” at the top of his lungs.
He decided it would be good for him to walk down to the sandy shore and look for rocks, like he often did to give himself something to do -- after all, he had given up making nature videos fourteen years ago.
While walking around on the sand barefoot, he noticed a new group of tourists were coming through the walking trail to the sandy shore of the swimming hole. With each new group of tourists, he always looked for Charm in the crowd: those adventurous eyes, that dark hair, the figure of a goddess.
As the group walked past his dirty self, one by one, he analyzed their eyes. One tan-skinned, dark-haired and fat woman made eye contact with him. She didn’t look significant, her complexion was wrinkled like someone who tanned and smoked for years, so he ignored her and kept looking at the passing tourists. He noticed in his peripheral vision that the woman hadn’t moved past him. He looked back at her in annoyance. She had a camera slung around her neck -- an old model, like the one he used to have -- where he had religiously studied the few images he had of the woman he loved. She looked at him with the soft reassuring eyes of someone who loved adventure.
Could this be her? he thought. Had the woman I knew been transformed into… this -- an out-of-shape and wrinkled person who had come here on a bus? Not barefoot, in sync with nature, carrying a tent and ready to explore anything. This woman couldn’t climb the waterfall. This woman probably didn’t even want to.
They stared at each other. The woman clearly recognized him. She opened her mouth, “It’s me! Charm! Last time I was here we climbed that waterfall.” She paused for a minute. Jack didn’t reply, he was in shock. “Remember?”
Jack remembered; it was all he thought of for the past fourteen years. But now, seeing her in her new form, she didn’t possess the qualities that captured him before. Jack didn’t say a word. A look came over his face of complete and utter regret. Fear arose in his heart; what had he done for the past fourteen years? Had he been waiting for… this? He became angry that he had given this woman the past fourteen years of his life, and she had no idea. She wouldn’t appreciate it. She wouldn’t care. He didn’t care anymore, because he was no longer attracted to her.
Jack walked away from the woman. The woman looked a little surprised, but quickly turned around and started taking pictures of the falls as the sun glistened over the falling, crystal-clear water.
One year, Jack ventured to a waterfall in southern California called Time Falls. The waterfall itself was close to 200 feet high. The swimming hole below was deep and outlined in smooth rocks. The area that was opened up to tourists had a sandy entrance, which fed into the sandy beach that wrapped around one side of the swimming hole.
Jack, however, always took the road less travelled, and he always filmed it. He hiked from two miles upstream, and upon arrival, recognized the glistening crystal falls and the deathly drop that was quite possible if he slipped off its edge. Jack stood on the rock beside the rushing water, he leaned over its edge to get a shot of the water as it rushed beside him and flew off into the swimming hole below.
He saved the video. He then looked up with his eyes and noticed there was a mob of tourists taking pictures on the sandy beach far across from him. Why so many? He thought. He then looked to the other side of the pond -- it was a camera crew. Jack noticed the man acting in front of the camera -- it was Han Tanks -- action hero from the renowned movies, Battle for Earth and Operation Zero. Everyone was taking pictures and hoping to meet him after their day of filming was over.
Jack recognized that this would cause his nature video to become much more popular than he had anticipated. He then hooked another camera of his to a drone, he then flew it out across over the Time Falls to get a shot of the movie setup across from him on the rocks.
The camera crew then asked the tourists to leave; men with headsets and life vests shooed them away aggressively. Jack brought his drone back so as not to be noticed. He then set his camera up for the final shot for his video that would make his subscribers share his video with their friends: the epic dive.
Jack had seen other nature vloggers dive off this very falls, so he knew it was fairly safe -- that is, if you knew how to brace yourself for the impact with the water. Jack set his camera to his head, secured his bag with his tent and his drone, breathed in deeply, pressed record, and jumped off the falls. Gravity overtook him. He went faster and faster. He felt like he was falling for ten minutes. The wind slung his hair back violently. By the end of his fall, he quickly turned and dove into the water creating only a tiny splash. The water was ice cold but welcomed by his body as he had been hot from the blazing sun and from hiking. His adrenaline was pumping; he felt like he could conquer the world, perhaps even audition for the Han Tanks movie being filmed across from him.
He looked up to where he had jumped from above -- it looked much higher from where he now swam. A woman was standing where he had jumped from, in a two-piece, blue bikini. The sun from behind her made it difficult to determine what she looked like, all he could tell was that she had tan skin and black hair. She waved at him. Before he could think to wave back, she was gone. He put his hand on his forehead to block out the sun -- the woman leaped off the falls from a running start -- she was coming right for his head. He swam away -- THUMP -- she landed right where he had been suspended in the water.
Nearly a minute passed before she returned to the surface. Her face was beautiful: sharp features; American Indian, slim, fit, soft reassuring eyes. She ran her hands over her face to remove the water. She opened her eyes -- the look of one who loved adventure, something that made her incredibly attractive to Jack.
Before he could say a word, the water levels in the massive swimming hole began to rise. Jack and the young woman looked over at the movie production team -- they were filming a scene where the water rises, and Han Tanks would save the woman from floating over the dam to her doom.
Jack turned back around to the woman; she gave him a cunning look before she began swimming back towards the waterfall. He secured his bag and his camera and followed her. She came to the rocky ledge that fed all the way up to the top of the falls. She started to climb upwards by grabbing onto each protrusion in the rock wall. Jack followed her every step. Cold water hit rocks within the falls and splashed onto them as they climbed beside it. The woman kept looking down at him to see if he was able to follow her as they went higher and higher.
Jack tried to start up a conversation. “I see you have a camera. Do you vlog?”
She turned around and simply smiled.
Does she speak English? he thought.
She was incredibly athletic and flexible. She made each new step look easy. Jack was struggling to keep up, he hadn’t planned on going back the way he came in. The sun was drying them off as they now were over 100 feet into the air. The rising water in the swimming hole had now leveled off far below them.
Jack looked back as they reached the last few moves that would get them to the top of the falls -- nearly 200 feet high. He looked back towards her. The rocky ledge at the top came outwards over their heads. It would be nearly impossible to climb over the ledge without falling, unless one could grab the rocky protrusions and sling themselves over it in one swift front flip. Falling backwards would most likely result in death.
Jack felt that perhaps he wouldn’t be able to follow her over. “What’s your name?” he asked in desperation -- he wanted something to help him find her on social media later.
The woman looked down towards him, “Charm.” she said with a smile. She then hopped up and backwards to grab where the rocky ledge came out over them. She was hanging by a thread. She used her momentum to sling herself over the top in a flipping motion.
Jack was blown away. He thought for a moment before he attempted the move. He wanted so desperately to follow her. He felt in his heart that he loved her already. Just before he jumped, his heart sank in his chest as if it would be the last thing he ever did. He gritted his teeth in disappointment and climbed back down the falls.
He found himself on the sandy shore checking his footage of the woman. He looked on his phone for her on all the social media sites he knew of. She was nowhere to be found. There were very few people named Charm, and even fewer who filmed nature videos. He thought that perhaps she was from another country, and he almost gave up.
He then came to a sickening realization: if the woman was a nature vlogger, then she would be likely to return to this very spot. After all, Time Falls was one of the hottest spots for nature vloggers to visit and make videos about. So, Jack decided he would camp out on the rocky ledges above in the forests, and wait for Charm to return to him.
Hours turned to nightfall, nightfall turned to morning, and days later he had grown a full beard and was living off canned goods he had brought in his bag. When he ran out of canned foods, he started living off the land. He hunted squirrels, ate fruits and berries, and killed deer in the Winter -- which lasted him quite some time.
As the seasons turned over and over, the years began to pass by, and Jack’s obsession with the woman he had met that day when he was only twenty-six had not subsided -- it had only grown greater and deeper. He had imagined a life with her and had lived a life with her in his own mind. They had two kids, a white picket fence, and made nature vlogs together.
On Jack’s fortieth birthday, he walked out on the rocky ledge of the falls and looked out at the arriving tourists like he did every day of his new life. His beard hung down to his belt; it contained a few grey hairs. His face was wrinkled, living off the land had been a hard life, and the stress of looking for the woman had caused him to age faster than normal.
He wanted to scream “Charm” at the top of his lungs.
He decided it would be good for him to walk down to the sandy shore and look for rocks, like he often did to give himself something to do -- after all, he had given up making nature videos fourteen years ago.
While walking around on the sand barefoot, he noticed a new group of tourists were coming through the walking trail to the sandy shore of the swimming hole. With each new group of tourists, he always looked for Charm in the crowd: those adventurous eyes, that dark hair, the figure of a goddess.
As the group walked past his dirty self, one by one, he analyzed their eyes. One tan-skinned, dark-haired and fat woman made eye contact with him. She didn’t look significant, her complexion was wrinkled like someone who tanned and smoked for years, so he ignored her and kept looking at the passing tourists. He noticed in his peripheral vision that the woman hadn’t moved past him. He looked back at her in annoyance. She had a camera slung around her neck -- an old model, like the one he used to have -- where he had religiously studied the few images he had of the woman he loved. She looked at him with the soft reassuring eyes of someone who loved adventure.
Could this be her? he thought. Had the woman I knew been transformed into… this -- an out-of-shape and wrinkled person who had come here on a bus? Not barefoot, in sync with nature, carrying a tent and ready to explore anything. This woman couldn’t climb the waterfall. This woman probably didn’t even want to.
They stared at each other. The woman clearly recognized him. She opened her mouth, “It’s me! Charm! Last time I was here we climbed that waterfall.” She paused for a minute. Jack didn’t reply, he was in shock. “Remember?”
Jack remembered; it was all he thought of for the past fourteen years. But now, seeing her in her new form, she didn’t possess the qualities that captured him before. Jack didn’t say a word. A look came over his face of complete and utter regret. Fear arose in his heart; what had he done for the past fourteen years? Had he been waiting for… this? He became angry that he had given this woman the past fourteen years of his life, and she had no idea. She wouldn’t appreciate it. She wouldn’t care. He didn’t care anymore, because he was no longer attracted to her.
Jack walked away from the woman. The woman looked a little surprised, but quickly turned around and started taking pictures of the falls as the sun glistened over the falling, crystal-clear water.
