The Bridge

A bridge to nowhere

He was looking out over the lake when he spotted a lonely looking soul staring down at the water from the edge of the bridge.

The bridge in this case had once been a gleam in some land developer’s eye but, became a joke around these parts as it remained standing there 1/3 of the way finished and perpetually waiting for the attention to make it useful and complete.

The barricades that had been constructed to keep people (mostly kids) off it had been pushed over and crammed down on the edges so that they really served purpose but, to indicate that the bridge was not supposed to be traversed.

She stood there long enough that he thought she might have been staring at something specific that she could see from the unique perspective of her position on the structure.

The sun began peeking over the horizon and would soon (probably about 15 minutes or so) have risen completely to begin to burn off some of the fog on the lake.

He didn’t believe that she was in any real danger initially but, the longer she stood motionless on the edge of that bridge the more concern began to creep into his consciousness.

He had been out flying that morning. It was cool and crisp and he liked the feeling of being up there when no one was around or doing any of the usual activities that lakefront towns, and village were apt to be doing during normal waking hours.

Now his trusty experimental plan was sitting idly on the edge of the beach while he sipped coffee and watched this curious young woman.

He decided that he should probably reach out to her to at least let her know that someone was there and watching. Perhaps that might jar her out of her reverie.

“He..Hey…” He stammered. “I mean, good morning!”

There was a little response. He thought he saw some degree of recognition in her body language reacting to the sound of his voice.

“How’s it going?”

She never lifted her face nor did she appear to waver in her attentive stare into the calm blue waters of the lake. The last I saw her, she seemed to have a sly smile on her face. She slowly toppled and fell... a moment later I heard the splash.