Why do you think Anna Avalon did not reach out for her husband while he was falling in "The Leap"?

Anna Avalon chose life rather than death as she fell through the air.

Anna always contended that a person can think of many things as he/ she is in the act of falling. As lightning strikes the big top, Anna Avalon realizes she cannot save her tumbling husband. Instead, she turns in the air and twists her body toward the heavily braided wire, saving herself and her unborn child.

Unfortunately, Anna hemorrhages after her fall from the trapeze, and her baby is stillborn. She does regain her health, though, and her broken arm heals well, thanks to the attentive care of her physician, who falls in love with her. They marry, and their only child is the narrator, who declares that her mother's words about being able to think during the brief time that one is falling are absolutely veracious.

Louise Eldrich's narrative soars on its own as the protagonist leaps from one daring act of love to the next, proving the strength and agility of the human spirit that fortifies its existence with the love necessary to make the leap to the next challenge. For, whenever one is in the air "there is always time to think." And, with the impetus of love, there is always time to change the course of one's life.