If Gabi had been able to see the ground rear up at her, it would have been much worse. As it was, she was blissfully unaware of the force of her trajectory until she crashed through the puny resistance of the sheet and hit hard. The fabric slowed but didn’t stop her, giving away at one edge and sending her thudding painfully onto her side. Her right arm and shoulder took the brunt of it. Gabi rolled over and lay frozen on her back, the air knocked completely out of her. Used to the feeling of suffocation, she shrugged her shoulder and wriggled her fingers, testing her injuries. They hurt, but movement was possible, so at least she wasn’t paralyzed. She opened her eyes. Luke, Ursula, and Troy were bent over her like scientists over a rare specimen. Luke was sweating, though it couldn’t have been more than fifty degrees in the glade.
“There she is,” he said, straightening and clapping his hands, the nervous tension in his face dissolving. “Well done, Gabi, though a little ‘On your mark, get set, go!’ would have been nice. Old Troy here was wiping his nose when you dove. God had your back, though. Praise his name!”
“Amen!” Ursula sang, leaning forward to place her hands on her knees so her cleavage almost overspilled her low-zipped fleece. “Good thing you’re such a featherweight, Gabi.” She added this last with a playful wriggle of her bottom.
Luke hauled Gabi to her feet and wrapped her in a hug. The embrace triggered a sharp pain along her right side, but she forced herself to return it with as much enthusiasm as her bruised body would allow. When Luke finally released her, she assumed an awed expression.
“Wow. That was amazing, you guys! It was like I heard God say, ‘It’s okay, Gabi. I’ve got you,’ and I didn’t have to worry about it anymore. Faith makes everything so easy!”
Luke squeezed Gabi into his side. Clearly mistaking her tears of pain as an upwelling of emotion, he brought his face close to hers. “That’s exactly it, Gabi. You heard his voice calling you, and tomorrow morning, you will give your answer. This next part is going to be so easy for you now.”
Gabi swallowed hard. Despite her training with Mathew, her muscles were still underdeveloped for a girl her age. Her right arm and shoulder pressed in pulsing agony against Luke—why wouldn’t he let her go?—reminding her that whatever strength she had was compromised. She’d be lucky to keep a grip on the sheet with her right hand even before Troy’s body came thudding into it.
“I’m sorry, Gabi,” Troy sputtered, swiping at his runny nose. “I didn’t know you were going to go when you did.”
“It’s okay,” Gabi reassured him, taking the opportunity to step away from Luke. “I’m fine, really.” But Troy saw her wince as Luke handed her a corner of the sheet. No one could fall that hard and not get hurt. If Luke hadn’t joined Gabi on her side of the sheet, leaving the sturdy Ursula to manage the other side, Gabi doubted Troy would have consented to mount the rock at all.
“Come on, buddy,” Luke urged.
“Yeah, you can do it!” Gabi called, feeling like a traitor. She should be telling Troy he didn’t have to do it, that he should come right back down where it was safe so they could eat the decadent late lunch the counselors promised them, after which they would fast until after the Consecration Ceremony the next morning. Luke and Ursula shot Gabi sideways looks, and she wondered which of them was the secret recruiter. There had to be one in every group, or else how could they be sure who was Witness material? The trust fall was a test for the one being caught and the catcher, and Gabi was determined to pass with flying colors.
“God is with you, Troy!” she shouted, trying to match the passion of Ruth’s impromptu sermons. “I can feel him. I can hear God telling me that he will give us the strength to catch you, if you just have faith. Trust is the only way!”
Troy presented his stooped back to them and looked over his shoulder at Gabi, his eyes glued to hers as he said, “On your mark, get set….” Gabi knotted her fists deep into the fabric, twisting it so that it wrapped around her wrists. If Troy was going down, she was going down with him. “Go!” Troy shouted, then turned his face away, spread his arms wide, and plunged toward the ground. Gabi leaned back against Ursula’s counterweight as Troy’s body landed on the sheet. Her arms and shoulders screamed as he made contact, and the agony in her right side caused her vision to go black for an instant. The friction of the sheet burned her skin, but she didn’t let go. Luke and Ursula had lifted one end of the sheet as Troy fell so that the heaviest part of his body, his torso and head, hit the ground last. Troy landed with a light thunk, the backs of his heels and legs hitting first, before Luke and Ursula lowered his upper body down between them. Troy’s eyes were glazed as he patted his body down with shaking hands.
“I’m… I’m fine!” he said, his nose running unchecked. “I made it!”
“You did indeed, my man,” Luke affirmed, helping Troy to sit up and enveloping him in a hug. “That kind of faith can move mountains, bro, and don’t ever forget it!” Gabi shared Troy’s relief.
