It was a bright, sunny day in the western United States. The warm wind blew through the lukewarm air in such a way that small whirlwinds of leaves grew and died in the middle of the endless ocean of broken-down rock. The hot, yellow sand glistened in the sunlight as the wind carried its tiny particles away. This was not an ordinary beautiful day in the desert, however. This was the first day of Rocky Stonehill's hard-earned vacation.
A sleek red sports car rolled smoothly along the lonely, forsaken road. Its armor shined as the sun's rays beat down upon its slowly-heating exterior. The driver's face gleamed with joy; his wife, daughter and son, respectively named Rochelle, Maylin and Clifford, were packed into the small vehicle, and they were on their way to Pitfall Cliff. Rocky Stonehill was a hard-working man; he began his job at the Post Office at four o'clock in the morning and came home at five in the afternoon, with a massive lunch break in the middle. This distributed work schedule frequently prevented Rocky from taking his family anywhere. Rochelle, however, worked on Saturdays and Sundays, successfully preventing any possibility of frequent family trips on weekends.
The Stonehills halted their shimmering machine thirty feet from the apparent edge of the world. An enormous grin coated each face as the family departed from their glimmering vehicle. The Stonehills' footsteps resounded in the dry, warm air while they gathered a short distance from the edge.
"God must be on vacation himself," said Rocky with a half-hearted laugh. "Some God he is if he avoids letting people enjoy themselves half the time. I'm just glad I finally got some vacation time."
Rochelle retorted, "God or not, we're all on vacation, and we're going to enjoy it. Go over there with Maylin and Clifford so I can take a picture."
Rocky quickly traveled to the cliff where his children stood silently awaiting his arrival. As he turned to face both his wife and the camera, the rough dirt beneath his feet began to crumble. Stunned, Rocky flailed his arms furiously in a valiant effort to retain his balance as he arched backward from the plateau that was previously believed to be safe and sound. All ambient resonance became inaudible beneath the shriek of Rocky's distraught spouse while he plunged backwards out of sight. Seeking to prevent her future desolation of lost love, she sprinted to the edge where he had previously stood so solidly, then dropped to her knees and peered into the dark, massive crevice. Rochelle was amazed and ecstatic to find that Rocky had not fallen a terribly large distance; he clung to a small ledge only fourteen feet below.
Rocky grasped the solid wall to the best of his ability; he noticed that the folds in the stone created rigid handles with which he might be able to climb back to safety. However, the ledge beneath him suddenly disintegrated, which left behind a huge, gaping mouth in its place, prepared to swiftly devour him in its assiduous darkness the very moment he slips. Taking a courageous move, he slowly, firmly grasped one rocky handle after another. As his hand neared his only recourse, a deceitful stone released its hold on the otherwise infallible plate of safety.
As Rocky fell, he kicked as hard as he could, making a desperate attempt to reach a larger ledge he saw on the opposite wall of the crevice; his slick shoes loosed some crumblike pebbles from the wall and jettisoned him in the direction he had chosen. He landed exactly as planned on the protrusion, but at a cost. His leg had snapped in two places; a solid white twig jutted from the center of his femur, and from his leg flowed a crimson fluid down the sloped projection. Rocky realized that the area was at more of a slant than he could now handle, and he began to slowly slide off.
Rocky, no longer having his family beside him, prudently peered over the brink into the perilous darkness that contained his demise. He finally understood the amount of peril he was in--it was not only that his life could end at the slip of a finger, but also that he would never again see his family. With that thought floating about in his mind, Rocky began to pray, saying, "If you really care, God, you'll let my family have a happy life without me, and I'll see them in heaven." He then situated himself on the ledge as well as he could and waited for something to happen, whether it be his death or his rescue.
Some time passed while Rocky continued to hold on, and a rope and a rescuer appeared from the sky in an aura of light...