Jude Elliott was surprised to be here, straddling the railing of the twelfth-floor fire escape more than a hundred feet above the alley behind his apartment building.
Jude Elliott was surprised to be alive.
He had leaped from the fire escape. In the two and a half seconds that followed, he just had time to think, Oh, good, I’m going to miss the dumpster.
He didn’t remember hitting the ground. And yet he was pretty sure that he had hit the ground. How could he not?
Jude lifted his left leg over the railing. Holding on with both hands, he leaned forward and looked down to the empty alley.
He released his grip on the railing. Gravity pulled him forward and downward. In the two and a half seconds that followed, he just had time to think, Headline: Clumsy teen throws self at ground and misses.
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