Character Sketch - Acrophobic

6. Person afraid of heights (Acrophobic) who can fly. Note that this kicks in in midair, causing panic attacks, which cause him to plummet.

G., check me on this one. This may well end up being incredibly indulgent, as, well, to paraphrase the shoe brand, ADIDAF (All Day I Dream Of Flying).

Randy Whitestone was just visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Florida. He got on the plane, and the stewardesses helped strapped the little five-year old in. The plane took off from New York (JFK Airport), and flew for a few hours. Upon approach, the plane lost power, and the entire structure plummeted earthward. Imagine, if you will, being five, alone and surrounded by tall strangers, strapped into a seat, unable to move around, and all of a sudden, you start falling, even though you can see you aren't really falling. But you are. Even when the plane makes a proper landing when the power kicks back in, and you're sitting there in a puddle of your own urine, shaking, crying for Mom, ready to vomit up a hot dog, you don't believe them. And when it's time to get back on the return plane? Would you get back on? Randy didn't.

He tended towards hugging mother earth, never leaving a few feet from the ground, staying on the first floors of buildings. This caused problems in school, as he refused to go up to the second or third floors of his middle school. He would be engulfed in panic attack if anyone attempted to make him go that high. Gravity was his best friend, and his worst enemy.

When your fears drive you, it is amazing the steps you can take to avoid those fears, rather than deal with them. Live on the first floor, even at a markup in rent. Insist on taking the metro everywhere, just so you don't have to drive, and risk going over bridges suspended over water. Calculate the lowest points in the city, and make those your hangouts. Tell people you've never done a lot of the things in the city, such as the Empire State building, because it's too touristy. We all lie to function, and Randy just lied a little more than most.

You can only deny so much, before being forced to own up. Grandma had a heart attack, and when she hit the ground, had a stroke. He had to go down and see her, because he hadn't seen Grandma since that ill-fated trip. They couldn't wait for the drive, because she was in very unstable condition. So they went to the airport, paid ridiculous amounts of money, and got on a plane. Randy started huffing, nearly breaking the armrests in half by gripping so hard. The plane took off, and the world started to end for Randy.

Though no one saw it, while they were trapped at thirty-five thousand feet, and Randy shook and panted and started to wonder where he was, he felt that all-too-remembered falling sensation, but the plane was stable, and no one was panicking. Then, he realized he was levitating a few inches from the cushion. Had to be a trick of the mind, an illusion. He passed a hand beneath him, and realized that it wasn't a lie.

They made it on time, but Grandma still died on the operating table.

At two AM one night, Randy alit from his bedroom window in Grandpa's house. He soared through the skies, panicking the entire time, sobbing and laughing. A few times, he lost track of where he was, and started falling, but would eventually remember what he was capable of, and would find his way again. So it continued with these midnight excursions, always shocking him, but giving him a glimpse into the "What if?" No stranger to dissembling, Randy now had to make a new set of lies for why he was tired all the time.

Think of Randy as a bumblebee, a little too-pear shaped, a little too squat, a little too unable to fly according to the laws of physics, yet still defying gravity every night from two to two thirty. He's taken to cropping his hair short in order to keep it out of his eyes, and tends to wear clothing that is form fitting, but not tight, to keep from flapping every which way while in the sky. All of his clothing is in muted colors, to keep from being detected. He continues to lie to everyone around him to keep from having to get too high.