"The Leap" is a short story by Louise Erdrich in which the narrator moves in with her now-blind mother, Anna, to whom she feels indebted. The narrator begins by describing her mother, one half of a former blindfolded trapeze act called the Flying Avalons. Though her mother, Anna, is now blind and never even talks about her days working for the circus with her first husband, Harold Avalon, she retains much of the grace she must have possessed then. The narrator says that she owes her mother her existence three times over. First, during Anna's act one day long ago, a huge thunderstorm formed, and lightning struck the main tent pole at the circus. The trapeze Harry (her husband) was swinging on fell down, and he plummeted into the crowd and died, along with two others. Anna might have been able to grasp his ankle, potentially following him down, but she made a split-second decision to save herself and her unborn child (she was seven months pregnant). Despite her efforts, however, the child was stillborn a month or two later.
