“We’re going up,” the wrangler said. “Ordinarily we’d start from the ground, but the salvage crane only lowers so far.”
“And anyways this is a better angle for Howie,” Lula said. “He’ll get to film you coming and going.”
The crane swung out a little, the cage rose, and the rest of us stood on the catwalk gobsmacked at the height of the jump.
“Holy frijoles!” Lula said, head tipped back, watching the cage swinging high above us. “You gotta be nuts to do this.”
The scarf floated down, the cage door opened, and I could see Briggs look out. Next thing he was in the air.
“Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!”
Briggs fell like a rock past us, the cord stretched to its limit, and for a nanosecond Briggs stopped in midair. The cord recoiled, and Briggs shot up past us.
“Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”
“Did he look like he was having fun?” Lula a
sked.
“He looked like he was peeing hisself,” the clacker ’ho said.
He dropped past us again and bounced around for a while until he was just hanging there by his ankles.
“This here’s not a complimentary angle for a naked man,” Lula said, looking down at him.
Joey waved at the crane operator. “Swing it around here!” he yelled. He turned to Lula. “You’re up next. As soon as we get him onto the catwalk we’ll bring the basket down and you can get in.”
“What are you, crazy? I’m not doing that,” Lula said. “I’ll rupture something. You’d have to be an idiot to do that. Out of my way. I’m going down. Which way’s the elevator?”
The crane was slowly bringing Briggs up, and he was full-blown rabid dog. His eyes were bugged out, and he was clawing at the air with his hands. He was making wild animal sounds, and I think he might have been foaming at the mouth.
“I’ll go down with you,” I said to Lula.
We left Joey on the catwalk to reel Briggs in, and the rest of us crammed into the elevator. We got to ground level and looked up as Briggs was hauled off the platform.
“He looks okay,” Lula said. “That had to be some experience. I bet it was exhilarating.”
“He don’t look exhilarated,” the make-up ’ho said. “He’s a ways up there, but he looks gonzo nuts.”
We stepped a safe distance from the elevator and waited for Briggs to come down. We heard the car descend. The door opened. Briggs walked out. He didn’t have the benefit of his robe, and his winkie was stiff as a stick. His eyes were totally dilated. He looked around at us and licked his lips. His attention focused on Howie.
“Did you get it?” he asked Howie, his voice unnaturally shrill. “Was it good?”
“It was epic,” Howie said, “but it happened so fast I didn’t catch it. Could you do it again?”
Briggs launched himself at Howie and took him down to the ground. It was like a wild animal attacking prey. We all rushed over and pried Briggs off Howie.
“He bit me,” Howie said. “I need a shot or something.”
“This was a dumb idea,” Lula said. “Who’s idea was this anyway?”
We all stared at her.
“Well, it looked good on the Travel Channel,” Lula said. “Fortunately I still got my zip-lining idea.”
Briggs’s eyes got squinty, and he growled at Lula.
“He’s unstable,” Lula said. “Someone needs to take charge of him.”