The Way It Felt to Be Falling is part of Kim Edward's collection of short stories entitled Secrets of a Fire King. The story takes place the summer that the narrator turns 19. When Kate's best friend Emmy leaves to follow the Grateful Dead tour for the summer, Kate stays home, where she is surrounded by mental illness and depression. Kate is alone with her mother after her father has a breakdown and ends up in the hospital.

Kate's only friend this summer is Stephen, the older brother of Kate's best friend. Stephen is a mentally unstable man who pops Valium constantly and spends all day at a bar shooting pool instead of working.

In the opening of the story, Kate describes watching planes fly overhead from her backyard. She longs to leave her small town as she watches the planes fly to other destinations. Like...