Fear Factor

By Marcia Lee Laycock

My friend Lynn and I chatted as we strolled among groups of people heading for one of B.C’s main tourist attractions. I had glanced at the brochure Lynn showed me the day before and had a moment of hesitation when I saw the picture. Since falling on the cliffs on Lake Superior the year before, I had developed a fear of heights, but I listened as Lynn read the details in the brochure and was confident I would have no problem.

We rounded the bend in the path and there it was, The Capilano Suspension Bridge. I watched as a young boy ran out onto it and jumped up and down. The bridge bounced and swayed. I hesitated. Lynn stepped boldly out and was almost halfway across before she realized I wasn’t behind her. She waved me on. I took a deep breath and stepped onto the creaking boards.

I made it about two meters. Then that same young boy ran onto the bridge from the opposite end and jumped up and down again. The bridge swayed and buckled. I froze. My hands seemed glued to the steel cable, my feet would not move and my eyes would not focus on anything but the roaring Capilano River, two hundred and fifty feet below.

I didn’t know what was happening to me, but I knew I could barely breathe, and I could not move, neither forward nor back. I heard Lynn calling from the far side of the gorge, but I could not turn my head away from the river below.

Then I felt Lynn’s hand on mine. She urged me to look at her, and I finally pulled my eyes away from the gorge. I allowed her to remove one of my hands from the steel cable. When she pried the second one loose I thought I might faint. But he voice was calm and steady. “One step at a time,” she said. “Walk with me.” I shifted my feet. One, then the other, then another step until we were both standing on solid ground again.

It can destroy all sense of logic and reason. I knew the statistics about that bridge — that the cables were encased in thirteen tons of concrete at both ends. I knew that thousands of people had walked across it safely. But fear blocked all reason and left me paralyzed.

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