“How could I have been so stupid,” John said aloud.
Hanging from the branch by his finger tips he looked down. He couldn’t see directly underneath him but he could hear his wife calling the fire service.
“I dont know how long he can hold on,” she was saying.
Looking down John could see ladder, it had snapped in the fall. He couldn’t see the branch, the stupid branch. His wife had nagged him for weeks to cut it. Why did I put the ladder on the wrong side of the cut? he asked himself .
His muscles were growing weary. Looking past his fingers he could see the clouds flowing gently across the sky. Focusing back on his fingers he could see their grip loosening, one by one. Suddenly he was falling. Bracing himself for the approaching impact he closed his eyes. He heard something crack, a leg?. When he opened his eyes he found himself embraced by the newly cut branch which had broken his fall. He waited for the pain to come but it didn’t. He felt fine.
“Silly man” his wife said “that was the wrong branch!”