Around August, a very sportive colleague of mine, the kind of people who would do better if born gorilla rather than human, told me that he and a few other friends all from Saskatoon, are going for one of their annual wild all male camping. He asked me if me and Daniel (my son 6 years old) would like to join them. The camping site was in a crown park north of Quebec, a lake with many little tiny islands, We had to walk and portage the canoe and our stuff for about 3 hours and then paddle for another 2 hours to get to one of the available islands. Imagine me a guy who might die if too far from home and afraid of all living things, what should I say? I said yes, just because of Danial who believes Travis is either Superman himself or some sort of god, and that was a big dream of his to go on a camping trip with Travis.
Anyways finally we arrived in one of the rocky islands and set up the camp...
The following day we went for exploring the area and other islands. There was a beautiful scene out there, a very big rock about 15 to 20 meters high so vertical and sharp at the edge of a tiny island. I noticed Travis is paddling that way, I asked what he was cooking and he said he wanted to jump off that cliff, I looked at him and asked if he had lost his mind, "Of course not that is fun!". We got the ca to the shore so he got off and started to climb the cliff, meanwhile me and Danial paddled off the shore below the cliff to see the jump as close as possible. He got edge and then with a wild and excited scream he jumped off, I admit that was great, reminded me of when I was the same age (under 30 years old) and the crazy stuff we used to do.
Danial turned to me, I was still clapping and cheering for Travis' bravery, as soon as I looked into Danial's eyes I knew what he was going to say,
Dad now it is your turn,
I just froze and I did not want to tell him that I was a scardy cat, that I was afraid of jumping off, that I am not a good swimmer and I am 40 years old and ...
His look was begging me to go up and jump,
I got to the shore, and started to climb the cliff, Travis and Danial paddled to the middle to see me jump, I got there, Oh my God, I even could not look down!!
I started to shake and to back off, but Danial started to sing: Go Daddy, Go Daddy,
It was easy to back off because he was so tiny from up there that I could not see his eyes and easy to refuse his will.
But I am a man of my words, a crappy one, but still ...
It took me 10 minutes out there before I knew I was jumping, it felt less than a moment before it was over,
My body jumped while my mind was still struggling, I screamed all way down and so scared that I was looking into water when I touched down,
Danial was crazy and excited, he could not believe his eyes, he showed me Bilakh (thumbs up!) and said he was proud of me,
Travis told me that it was a silent jump! I told him I was screaming all way down, but he said he heard nothing!
Since I got into the water with my face down, my gum got injured and my mouth was bleeding, With the slap I got in the face (from water) I got black eyes as well, But all that was worth, If it was not for that jump, how the hell on earth I could possibly have got Danial to tell me that he was proud of me?