i 'm not sure why this is , because it 's merely decades of rain piled up between walls of granite and fed and freshened by underground springs , but the moment the scent found my nostrils , i was sixteen again and i could feel the plunge in my chest as i jumped over the edge of heaven 's peak , a seventy-foot cliff in swingle 's quarry , saw the light-green water yawn open below me like a waiting hand , felt weightless and bodiless and pure spirit hanging in the empty , awesome air around me .