The pictures don’t do them justice. The falls are colossal. They don’t just stand, they loom. Their majesty can’t be confined to abstracts like measurements and words. She is giddy with delight. She runs ahead of her friends. No one else around but them.
Step by pounding step her hearing dissolves into the white wall of sound cast down by the crashing waters. She feels the spray on her skin. Sees the rainbows cast in the mist above the pool. Tastes the cold water as her mouth widens in panting joy. Already her hair is slick. She looks up at the arching rock face and the blue sky beyond.
Where are her friends? She turns to look. Further down the path they have stopped. They are standing, shouting at her, but over the deafening cascade she cannot hear what they are trying to say. They are pointing at the falls. At something behind the falls. She turns as the shadow descends upon her.
Paddy Dobson
24th August 2021