“Hey! We should do the swing!” Dad exclaimed. I couldn’t tell if he was serious or joking.  I had seen someone ride on a similar giant swing at Kings Dominion. The swing had lifted the man up at least five stories, then dropped him, sending him plunging to the asphalt, just to swing up at the last moment and repeat the fall in the other direction. The only thing that supported him was a system of cords about as thick as your wrist.

“Yeah, it will be fun!” I agreed, against my better judgement, unsure of where my boost of confidence had come from.

“No, no, I’m good,” my cousin Brianna stammered.

“Oh come on. You’ll love it!” my dad pushed a little harder. I could tell he was not going to let us chicken out of this.

“It will be just like riding a roller coaster!” I added, mostly trying to convince myself. A numb, buzzing feeling started to prickle in my stomach.

“Are we going to do this or not?” Tio Tommy said impatiently.

“We’re going to do it. Come on Brianna,” I dragged her into the empty line.

We weaved our way through the maze of metal barricades and reached the harness house, a small pavilion type shelter with a low ceiling. The buzzing feeling spread a little wider with every step. My uncle handed one of the men working at the pavilion the charge card. “I’m sorry sir, this card only works for go-carting and the other rides. You need to buy a different card for the bungee jumping and the giant swing,” the man explained.

“Okay,” Tio Tommy looked at the card and walked briskly back through the maze of barricades to the hut that sold the charge cards. When he returned, the guides swiped the card and ushered us into the pavilion. I inhaled and exhaled quickly before stepping into the harness house, knowing that doing so condemned me to the swing.

“Hold these,” one of the guides commanded, handing us each a heavy cloth that looked like it had been pulled off a stretcher. The guides then went through the complicated process of hooking us into the full body harnesses, during which I chatted nervously to Brianna and did a terrible job following instructions. The guides had to repeatedly snap to get my attention. After the guides finished, they handed us a bar connected by two straps to the harness.

“Who’s going first?” one of the guides asked.

“You and Tio Tommy can go first,” I said tentatively to Dad. There was no way that Brianna and I were going to be the guinea pigs.

“I thought I was going with you, and Brianna was going with her dad,” Dad said, confused.

“No. I want to go with Ana. If Ana and I don’t go together, then I’m not going,” Brianna said firmly. I suppressed a sigh of relief. I could feel some of the tension in my chest release, knowing that I still had a few minutes.

“Okay, let’s go,” the guides said as they herded Dad and Tio Tommy into the fenced-off area where the swing of death was positioned. As soon as they left, the numbness and buzzing returned, stronger and more pronounced than before. If I didn’t get control of my nervousness soon, it would completely overwhelm me and I would look like a fool. ‘This will be fun’ I told myself over and over again, attempting to tame the buzzing feeling.

I held my breath as I watched the guides hook my dad’s and uncle’s harnesses to a wire that connected them to the giant yellow arm. With a jolt, they were lifted off the ground and into the air. The mechanical arm came to a stop and the guide started counting down from three. At one, Dad and Tio Tommy dropped. For the first five seconds they fell like rag dolls, screaming like little kids. Then they swooped up and fell again, over and over until the ride was finished. I felt like I was going to collapse.

“Your turn,” one of the guides announced. I tried desperately to control my legs, which were more interested in succumbing to the buzzing than walking over to the cables. Brianna and I shuffled through the gate, passing Dad and Tio Tommy as they came back to the pavilion to get unharnessed.

“That was awesome!” they yelled. “You are going to have so much fun!”

‘Yeah, I’ll have fun if I don’t die first,’ my mind yelled back.

“Which one of you is going to pull the handle that drops you?” one of the guides asked.

“I will,” I quickly volunteered. If I was going to fall five stories, then I wanted to control when I fell. Not to mention, Brianna might not be able to pull the handle, and there was no way I would allow us to back out at the top.

“Drop the bars on the ground and step on them. Now we are going to pull you up in three, two, one.” Our feet wrenched out from under us. Some of the wind got knocked out of me with the impact of the harness.

“Have fun!” somebody yelled. Soon Brianna and I were ten feet above the ground, and rising.

“Oh my gosh. Ohhhhh my gosh. Ohhhhhhhhh my gosh!” I could hear Brianna freaking out beside me, but it sounded distant compared to my own fear. I fingered the flimsy plastic handle at my waist that would release us in a matter of seconds. It felt so harmless. I laughed to myself, knowing that it was anything but harmless. Our family, who was sitting in a small set of bleachers just outside the drop area, looked like ants from up here. I sucked in the humid Florida air and tried to ignore the feeling that had consumed the rest of my body. I looked down at the brick ground and my mind began to get fuzzy. Suddenly, the arm came to a stop.

The guide held up his hand and I grasped the handle. “Three!” The guide bellowed. “Two!” I took a deep breath. “ONE!” Without thinking, I pulled the handle and we plummeted down towards the brick screaming. Just as we were about to hit the ground, the cords tugged sharply on the harness and we pulled up. We reached maximum height and hovered there for a moment before plunging back down. The second time we rose up was not as sharp, and Brianna and I were soon yelling with joy.

“Whoo-hoooo! This is so much fun!” we screamed, laughing. “To infinity and beyond!” we yelled while holding out one arm. It now felt more like soaring than falling, and I didn’t want to stop.To our dismay, the swinging finally slowed and we were lowered down to the ground. I found my footing and struggled to stand. My legs felt like they had been left at the top of the swing. “That was awesome!” we yelled to our family in the bleachers. “We need to do that again!” We walked, wobbling, to the harness house and the guides tried to get our attention to take off our harnesses. My mind was still buzzing, but now with excitement instead of fear.

“Thank you!” we yelled to the guides as we walked through the exit gate. We sprinted to the bleachers, excited to tell everyone the story of our five story freefall.