As her arm stretched out in front of her to brace the fall, she turned to find something or someone to hold onto
But there was nobody there. Not a person in sight
No taxi driver. No one walking their labradoodle
No library, no coffee store
She was alone in this moment of falling
The silence was overwhelming
She waited for the impact of the concrete but it never came
Instead she found herself immersed in jello, soaked from head to toe and unable to breathe
When she tried to fight her way to the surface it felt as though she was sinking deeper and deeper
She realised she must have fallen into the recipe book on page thirty one
She was stuck inside the photograph
This must be Step Three in the recipe because the jello was still warm and only half set
A faint light shone through the red goo above her, and she kicked her feet to swim towards it
Her hands collided with a slippery layer of hardened gelatin, and she pierced a hole in it with a desperate fist, finding relief at the cold fresh air above her
She pressed her face against the small window she had created and inhaled lungfuls of frosty cold air
How wonderful to breathe, despite everything else
This day was turning out much differently than she had intended
But perhaps she could still make her flight on time
Breathe. Just breathe
It was dark but not pitch black
The light above her was weak but enough to illuminate the objects around her
With sticky hands she carved a bigger hole the width of her shoulders
and gathered all the strength she could find to pull her soggy self
up through the pierced jello and onto the semi-set surface
Cold frigid air above her, warm sticky ooze beneath her
Within an hour or two this bowl of red liquid would be completely solid
She was grateful to narrowly avoid becoming someone’s dessert