A Must-Have Photo

Prompt 3 Write a story about a character who risks their life to take a photo

                                      A Must-have Photo

Charlie was always a bit of an adrenaline-junkie. He was a storm-chaser & a risk-taker, going after anything, just for kicks. But sometimes his risk-taking took him over the edge – literally.

Like so many of his generation, Charlie is attached, as if by super glue, to his mobile phone. He will never be seen without it in his hand, or in extreme situations, occasionally, in his pocket. He loves taking photos with it. Not endless selfies like some, but a record of anything that rouses his interest.

On this occasion, the weather forecast had said that a named storm was heading towards the south coast of the UK later in the day. There being nothing particularly urgent to do in his work-from-home self-employment, he decided, on the spur of the moment, to take time off to photograph the storm at the coast!

Jumping on his motor bike he set off for the nearest coastline, riding over the South Downs in search of the best clifftop vantage point. Leaving the bike in a car park further back, he walked the final approach to the clifftop. Full of anticipation, as he felt the wind already buffeting him, with gusts tending to pull him off course as he climbed, he followed the well-worn path towards the highest point.

He was not the only thrill-seeker in the area, he discovered. A few other excitement-lovers were there as well, each with their own, unstated reason for wanting to be there. Who knows what motivates such people to gravitate to such places, on such a stormy day as this was shaping up to be. There seemed to be people from all over the world, gathering to share a wild afternoon.                                                                                                                       The spot is a well-known viewpoint, and popular with international tourists, as well as sightseers from the UK, many of them wanting to take selfies on the edge of the cliff. However, that was usually in fine weather. Today’s weather attracted a different group from the usual tourist – soulmates of Charlie’s. They were more interested in simply observing and recording the power and beauty of nature in the raw.

But even they began to feel a bit daunted as the gusts of winds began to increase in strength, and the number of hardcore adventurers gradually grew fewer and fewer as the power of the wind rose. Charlie, however, was so engrossed in trying to get an interesting angle for a photograph that he scarcely noticed that he was practically the only person left on the clifftop.

He was particularly keen to get a good shot of the waves crashing on the cliffs further along from his vantage point. He had already passed and ignored the numerous signs, warning visitors of the risks of getting too close to the edge, due to the instability of the chalk beneath. “That’s aimed at children and passing, middle-aged tourists”, he told himself, with the brash confidence of youth, as he now took a step over the low fence which had been put up to deter people from going closer.

In the teeth of the rising gale, he did at least realise the risk of being blown over the edge so, out of respect for the power of the wind, he got down on the grass and crawled the last few feet towards the abyss. Lying down on his side, his head and arms already reaching over the edge, he sought out the most interesting angles to snap the waves crashing on the rocks below.

He had already taken numerous pictures, but he wanted to catch just one more, really big wave. He watched one rolling in, menacingly, exploding as it reached the base of the cliff, throwing spume far up the vertical face of the rock. Then, as he clicked the camera of his smart phone repeatedly, to capture the moment, he suddenly became aware of the ground beneath him moving and giving way until, in a split second, terra firma was no longer there!    

Trying desperately to spring to his feet and grasp at any tuft of grass as he began to fall, flailing his arms, his precious phone flying unnoticed from his grasp, he reached to try to grab anything that he passed in his descent, that he might be able to hang onto. In that moment, a prayer came to his lips, though prayer was a thing unknown to him since early childhood days, which even then he had scorned as empty words. “God help me”, were all the words he could summon, as he plummeted downwards.

Suddenly, with a painful thump he came to an abrupt stop on a narrow grass-covered ledge. Rolling onto his stomach, his scrabbling hands found a small weather-beaten tree, growing somehow out of the chalkface, which he grasped in desperation, and which, amazingly held firm, stopping him from slipping off the ledge into infinity once more. Clinging on, barely daring to move, he just lay there.

He stayed for several minutes, just lying there with closed eyes, catching his breath and saying a silent “Thank you”, to the One he had never, till now, believed existed. After a while, he began to assess his situation. Peeping over the edge of his perch, he could see that he was still a long way above the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. There was no sign of any people down there of course. Anyone who had been there would have been buried by the chalk rocks from the cliff-fall.

Looking up, he could also easily see that the precipice above him was too steep and high for him to attempt to climb back up, even if the rockface were stable, which it clearly wasn’t.

 “Had there been anyone else still up there on the top”, he asked himself, “who might have seen me fall & reported it to the coastguard or police?”

“Is anyone within earshot if I shout for help?” he wondered, doubtfully.  With nothing to lose, he started to shout, as loud as he could. “Help! Help! Help! Can anyone hear me?” He stopped to listen for any reply. Nothing!

It was then that he remembered his mobile phone – so useful for taking photographs, but now, so essential for calling for help. “Where did it go to?” he wondered.  Once more he peeped cautiously down from his saving ledge, in the vane hope of seeing it below him. But he could see no sign of it anywhere below him. It had disappeared into thin air, or most probably buried in the pile of chalk which lay on the beach below.

Feeling hopeless, he rolled onto his stomach once more. He closed his eyes, thinking there was nothing he could do. He was doomed to die here alone on this remote ledge. His body might never be found, even if anyone even came looking for him. He had told no-one he was coming here today, so even if he was eventually missed, no-one would have any idea where to start looking for him.

Overwhelmed by the hopelessness of his situation he started to weep silently. He thought back over his life, thinking about the moderately successful life he had led, building his own small IT business from scratch, to the point where he could at least make a living by it. But what had he achieved really? And why had God, if there is a God, answered his prayer by breaking his fall, for him to just die here on this ledge, all alone?

Charlie even began to wish his fall hadn’t been broken. Wouldn’t it have been better to have just fallen all the way, to be killed by the fall? He even began to think about whether, if he threw himself off the ledge, the remaining fall would finish him off. Or would it just leave him barely alive, but severely disabled. “No,” he reasoned. “Better just to die here.”

He decided to just lie there, trying to sleep until the end came, as it surely must, eventually. After a while, he did manage to drop off to sleep, for who knows how long, only to be woken by the sound of a helicopter overhead. Disbelieving, he cautiously rolled onto his back to look up. Slowly, a figure, suspended on a rope, emerged from the aircraft hovering above him.

The wind was still blowing quite hard, and the helicopter was finding it very difficult to hover in place & the suspended rescuer was swinging madly around, in constant danger of being smashed against the cliff. Amazingly the pilot and his dangling colleague did not withdraw to save themselves but persisted in their efforts to rescue Charlie.

The man drew level with Charlie’s place of safety, and after a few unsuccessful attempts, managed to pass a looped rope across to him. Charlie slipped it over his head and arms so that he could then be lifted away from the cliff face alongside his rescuer. They got him into the helicopter and took him safely, to land near to the local Accident and Emergency Hospital, to be checked over and cared for. His only injuries were some bad bruises!

Afterwards he discovered how his rescue came about. It happened that a middle-aged woman, who lived locally, had been walking her dog a short distance inland from the site of Charlie’s fall, close enough to witness the landslip and, having seen him on the clifftop beforehand, had realised that he had gone down with the cliff edge.

She had immediately notified the local coastguards who, after spotting him on the ledge from their boat, had quickly realised that there was no way anyone could reach him by climbing either up or down the unstable cliff face.  As a result, despite the weather conditions making such an operation exceedingly dangerous, they had decided that it had to be attempted before the trapped man died from hypothermia. They had therefore decided to go ahead with the rescue attempt.

Everyone was delighted by the success of their efforts, not least Charlie, who not only had a greatly increased admiration for the work of the coastguard services but also a new faith in the One who had answered his hasty prayer for help!