Friday, April 14th 2017.
“ GHOST CLIFF ”
( . . . Come Away, With Me . . . )
It was about 7:00 P. M., October 14th 2007, … one bright sunny Autumn Evening, … as I entered SCARBOROUGH HEIGHTS GARDEN PLOTS, … just east of Rosetta McLain Park, … following along Fishleigh Drive from Kingston Road, … atop SCARBOROUGH BLUFFS. The sun, was just setting, … not quite.
Crossing acres of treed grassland, … alongside SCARBOROUGH PUMPING STATION, … I approached 5 little white-wooden posts, … interconnected by a heavy steel cable, … small wooden bench far side, facing LAKE ONTARIO.
Taking out a little camera, …
“What an opportunity, to snap some shots”, … enlightened the evening.”
Passing ‘SAFETY FENCE’, … steep wooded-slopes to the right, … seemed unstoppably to drop-off like ‘THE LOTSEE FACE’ into 80° certain death: tiny dog descending, … fleeing, … vanishing, … departing ‘MAIN PATH’, … targeting ‘A LOOKOUT’, … never to return:
“Where did he go? . . . He must have dropped!”
‘Twenty-One‘ I’d estimate, … ‘A JOGGER’, headband, tee-shirt and shorts, … trotting up from behind, … padding-past on the grass, … zipped-by on the path: FLUFFY ORANGE DOG at his heels.
THIS 2nd DOG, … was different from ‘THE FIRST’: a NEW dog!
“Where are they going, … DOG and MASTER?”
HELL?
There’s NO PLACE, LEFT TO GO!”
THIRTY FEET before me, … remained to CLIFF’s EDGE: DOG-2 and JOGGER, … in front of my face.
“Did I miss something?
WHERE’s the path, … the ground, UNDER HIS FEET?
Under his FACE, when he FALLS?
JUDAS ISCARIOT, or something?”
With my own eyes, … DEAD RATIONAL, … awake but played-out, …
What came next, … was IMPOSSIBLE!
This MAN, … this JOGGER, … in front of my eyes, … stepped right over CLIFF’s EDGE, … and 7 feet behind him, … the ORANGE DOG went over too.
But, …
there seemed to be ‘A STAIRCASE, INTO THIN AIR’, … hidden from view:
‘THE STAIRCASE, out of sight, … but STUCK to THE FACE OF THE CLIFF, … far side and below CLIFF’s EDGE, … STUCK to the FACE OF THE CLIFF, … below, … GRASS LEVEL of THE PLATEAU’.
I watched them both go down, … ONE STEP AT A TIME.
“That’s IMPOSSIBLE!
There CAN’T be ‘A STAIRCASE‘!
How did HE DO THAT?
That’s absolutely IMPOSSIBLE!
It’s IMPOSSIBLE!”
‘FEAR OF HEIGHTS’, … for me, … has always been, one of MANY LIFELONG GREATEST WEAKNESSES, …
but, …
I HAD to solve ‘THE MYSTERY’:
“HOW did he DO THAT?”
Turning-off all emotion, … I changed myself into ‘A ROBOT’, … and DROPPED-DEAD, … approaching ‘THE STAIRCASE‘.
I came so close, … but COULDN’T stop.
I KNEW, I was DEAD!
but, …
I wouldn’t stop. I felt my EQUILIBRIUM, giving-out on me. I was losing, my ‘SENSE OF BALANCE’.
“SAD, … isn’t it?”
I lay face-down, FLAT ON THE GROUND, … but, … frozen with fright, … COULDN’T TURN AROUND.
I COULDN’T MOVE.
I was 5 FEET, from ‘THE END’.
I was walking, … ‘THE CORNICE’.
No ground, ONLY EMPTY SPACE, was underfoot, … 3000 FEET, … above LAKE ONTARIO.
I didn’t ever realize, … I could DIE, THIS WAY, … before THAT day, … but learned:
“VAMPIRES, DO EXIST!
THAT, … was
THE DEVIL!!!
THE DEUCE!!!
THE DEVIL, … and HIS DOG!!!
THAT, … was
the REAL, … LIVE, …
SATAN THE DEVIL, … and HIS DOG!!!
( THIS, … is a 100% true story, … to the LETTER OF THE WORD! )
. . . by Errol Lee Shepherd
