Alyssa dances on the rail of the covered balcony, swinging widely around the ornate posts.  Music is playing in the bedroom and she sways to the beat. A wine glass sits on a table near her, a bottle of Zinfandel lay empty and a full one waits.

Her husband David enters the penthouse the two share and calls her name.

“Alyssa?”

He makes his way to the bedroom and is shocked by the sight of her on the rail.

“Alyssa, come down from there this moment!” David shouts in a panic.

“Yes sir Mon captain!” she salutes him and temporarily loses her grip on the post.

David rushes forward instinctively.

“Hold it right there buddy or I’ll jump.”

“What in the hell …”

“That would really screw up your plans, wouldn’t it Pooh Bear?” Suddenly Alyssa appears stone sober and very composed as she leans on the post.

“Answer me Pooh Bear!” She screams from the rail.

“Alyssa honey”

“Don’t honey me you jack ass! I know all about her, Pooh Bear!” For effect Alyssa swings wildly around the post and glares at David.  He is visibly shaken.  “Care to dance with me Pooh Bear?”

“Alyssa, I mean it, come down from there right this minute!”

“Why?” Am I making you a little nervous Pooh?” She dances another few unsteady steps on the rail. “Could it be because my new life insurance policy doesn’t pay for suicide?” She says this with that smirk on her face, she knows he detests, batting her eyelashes at him furiously.

She has hit home and she knows it, as she watches the color drain from David’s usually tan face.

“Let me fill you in here Pooh.  I have already written a suicide note, and secured it so if I was to, let’s say, suddenly perish” She swoons and puts her hand to her brow for effect. “No insurance policy would pay you a cent!”

The color has returned to David’s face at this point, not glowing tan now, but crimson red.

“You bitch! Fine! Have it your way, just fucking jump! I don’t need your god damned money!”

At this Alyssa breaks into laughter.  “Right, you can exist on your good looks, like you did before you married me! Oh and Pooh, don’t count on your girly friend either because she will be very, very mad at you! You naughty boy!”

Alyssa tries swinging around a pole to the music, giddy now that her plan has been set into action.

“How on earth do those dancers do that? Ouch!”

“What about Katherine!” screams David at the top of his lungs.

“Oh!  So now the bitch has a name! She won’t want a pauper! You will be homeless and pooh bearless, how sad.” Alyssa sticks her bottom lip out in an exaggerated pout.

David has had enough at this point, and pushing Alyssa to her death has, become the answer to his problems. Truth be known, he had had enough of her and her controlling ways, long before today.

 Yes there is someone else. Her name is Katherine. Perhaps he should be ashamed, but he isn’t. Katherine treats him like a man not just some inanimate object she had purchased on a whim and is inclined to pick up and play with if the mood strikes her.

Yes, he did increase the life insurance policy on Alyssa because truth be known, without the bitch’s money, he would be on the streets again.  So what? After what he had put up with for the last five years, he deserves to be paid!

David must have stood there fuming for longer than he cared to admit. When he looked up again, Alyssa was back to dancing merrily on the rail. Laughing, laughing at him, and he knew it.

His anger now in the driver’s seat, David lunged for Alyssa.

“I’ll kill you bitch!”

With all her might, Alyssa pushed away from the building, swinging out over the city on a guide wire affixed to a harness hidden under her clothes.

She knew David’s temper all too well and was afraid it would come to this.  She wanted to be prepared. She wanted to be safe.

 David’s hand brushed her foot as he dove after her, over the balcony rail. The terror on his face was too much for Alyssa to bear and she closed her eyes.