Alone and frightened, she looked at her interlocutor, trying to scan those eyes, cold and passionless. She was convinced of facing a puppet. She closed her eyes for a moment and felt sinking into the darkness of a starless night. She basked in that feeling of emptiness that surrounded her for a few interminable moments. She felt pervaded by the feeling of falling, knowing that it could not hurt. Imagination granted her the power to decide the place where she was: endless countryside spaced by small and large lakes. A place where men had not been able to make their own brutal crimes. She kept falling into a land that they would never reach. She could hear the wind fluttering around her, she could decide the intensity. She could decide which side to fall, toward the sky or toward the ground. In that tiny space in which she was relegated by her imagination, she could fully exploit her heritage as daughter of God. She opened her eyes and the world fell apart, gravity came back and she could clearly feel the ground beneath. The man replaced his face with a mask of indignation. His eyes were always impassive, betraying no emotion. She thought he probably asked her something during her trip, but at that moment she was too far away to hear. She smiled. She knew the consequences of her behavior. She stepped back, she heard wood creaking in its mild way. The expression of the person in front of her changed again. This time he wore a mask of resignation. She wanted to tear those eyes away from his face. She took another step back. Wood gave another faint sigh. She spun around and stopped to watch the clear sky and the mountains silhouetted on the horizon. She was there only a few moments before. It was safe. She recognized the landscape around her and wondered if he was still watching with his dead eyes. Another step forward. She reached the end of her brief tour. She looked down. Her bare feet even moved a few millimeters to find the ideal location. She breathed deeply and closed her eyes again. She was surrounded by emptiness and silence. Although it was not the right attitude, she knew that it made him upset. She felt the cold air of the morning tearing her lungs. She repeated the gesture several times, until the only thing she heard was her breathing. There was now no voice, no one was looking. There was only her. And emptiness.
Without opening her eyes, she forced her body to react to defined stimuli. Her muscles responded instantly, causing no problems. She felt light as a feather while the sharp wind became more intense around her. She was falling into the void again. She could imagine the ground beneath her. Eyes still closed, she wished that everything was as she had created in her mind. Time lost its meaning. She was just flying. The touch of cold water led her back to reality again. The sounds came back to invade her head, muffled. She came back to the surface and slowly opened her eyes. The sky was clear, the sun high and hot.
The springboard from which she had begun her flight seemed so far away... her father kept looking down with his eyes cold and detached. After all, she knew that he was actually hiding his real feelings. But faking that he had no feelings made her stronger. Satisfied by the actual mask, she understood she fulfilled his expectations. Her body was completely relaxed. She let it float on the water and stood still staring at the sky. She loved those feelings. They made her feel alive, able to fly even without wings, fully able to manage her own body. For a few moments, they made her feel in perfect harmony with the universe. She smiled thinking that next time thousands of people would view her. She only wished to be able to let at least half of them feel the wonderful feeling of jumping into the void.
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