I'm touring in some foreign country, like Mexico. We're going to see some ruins, and we climb up this hill and over a vista where suddenly the view opens up, and it's just breathtaking. We are a couple hundred feet up above the beach, where an ancient palace was once built overlooking the sea. Now the ruins of terraced walls and towers still peek out from the overgrown hillside in a huge arc like an amphitheater, with the sea for a stage. An ancient wall still encircles part of the sea.

We enter on the left and walk along the rim of the hill to the right, where the curve brings us to the wall in the sea. It is flat on top and looks like we could walk out on it, but it is only a couple of feet wide, with nothing to hang on to, and a couple hundred feet drop into the sea. Plus, it's windy. Nope, not going out there.

But my brother Steve is braver than I, and he steps out onto the wall. He makes it only about 10 feet before he loses his balance and falls off, and I step forward to see where he lands, thinking that if the water is deep he will probably survive, but if it is shallow the fall will kill him.

He lands and doesn't submerge, so I fear the worst, but then he seems to be paddling around like he's ok, and then starts screaming in pain. I run down the embankment and over the terraces to get to him and try to help.