The Bridge

I ran across the street, cars honking at me. I was being reckless, but I didn’t have much time. I had to make it. I was panting and my hair was probably everywhere, flying around my head, but I didn’t care. I would probably be a sweaty mess by the time I got there. A tear sprang to my eye, and I brushed it away and almost ran into a man pushing a cart. “Sorry!” I called over my shoulder.

Matt had called me, out of the blue. He was in town for a meeting and said he wanted to talk to me. He said he missed me. He said he only had a small window of time before he had to go to the airport. We decided to meet halfway, at a bridge we used to walk at night. My heart had started pounding while we talked, this was the phone call I had been waiting for, longing for, praying for.

I was getting closer, and I began to calm down a little, feeling confident that I could be there in time. I saw a mother across the street with a toddler and an infant in a stroller. That could be me someday, I thought. Waiting for the light to change, I watched as the mother leaned over the baby and the toddler pulled away from her hand and headed into the street. It all happened so fast. The mother wasn’t even aware yet that her child was walking straight into traffic. I screamed and started running, I saw the car and heard the brakes squealing but I knew it was all over for that child. Everything happened in slow motion. Somehow I got to the toddler first, and I shoved the child back away from traffic, back into safety. I hoped the little one would be okay, because he was going to hit his head on the sidewalk, there was no other way to save him. Then I felt the impact of the car and everything went black.

When I came to, I heard sirens and people yelling. I saw the mother sobbing and holding her toddler, who had some blood running down the side of his head. I realized I was rising up into the air, and I was looking down on myself. What a sad looking sight, my body was. It was bleeding and its leg was twisted in an unnatural way. I didn’t feel any love for that body. In fact, it kind of revulsed me. I saw some men start working on my body. Then I remembered Matt and the bridge. I wasn’t going to make it! Would he think I didn’t care?

With that thought, I felt a jerk on my stomach and I was flying through the air, sailing over the city and the people and the cars. I marveled at how free I was. When I got to the bridge, Matt was already gone. There was a single rose lying on the wooden slates of the bridge, and I knew Matt had brought it for me, and had left it in disappointment when I never came. I felt such sadness that he would never know that he was love of my life and that I would do anything to build a life together with him. Why had I been so proud? How could I have let him go?

Now, another tremendous pull on my stomach and everything went by in a blur. When it all stopped, I was in a hospital room, hovering over my body. There were lines going into the body, and a tube going down its throat. I looked around and I saw my grandma Betty standing in the corner. She smiled up at me. I wanted to talk and I went down to her.

“Grandma Betty, oh its so good to see you,” I said and she hugged me.

“I’ve come to take you to the other side. There are so many people waiting there for you. Its going to be like a family reunion, I swear. Oh, I have missed you so much,” Grandma Betty said.

“The other side? So, am I going to die?” I asked, but I felt no fear at all.

“Well, it sure looks that way. That’s why I’m here.”

“But I have something I still have to do, Grandma. I have to tell Matt I love him. I never got the chance,” and to my surprise, real tears were running down my face.

Suddenly, there was a man there, impossibly tall and shimmering like light on water. He spoke to my grandma, but no words were said. He took a step back from us.

“If you want, you can stay,” Grandma Betty said, “but you’re going to have to go back into that,” and she motioned to my body. “He said its going to be a long and difficult road and you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, Baby. He said it’s your choice.”

“I have to try, Grandma. I have to. Will you please tell everyone I love them? I love you, too.”

“Well, mercy, alright then. I will tell them, don’t you worry. And we will still all be there when the time is right. I love you, Baby.” Grandma hugged me and then everything dissolved.

I heard voices. ‘…broken leg…broken clavicle, injured liver…bleeding on the brain…may not wake up.’ And I heard soft crying. I opened my eyes, but the light was so bright and my head hurt very badly.

“She’s awake!” I heard my mother scream. I was gagging against the tube in my throat, I wanted to say something but I couldn’t remember what.

A face came into view. Matt. He smiled at me. I fell back asleep and I knew everything was going to be alright.

The image depicts a single red rose that has begun wilting lying on the walkway of a wooden bridge. Everything except the rose is out of focus.

Melissa’s Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge #334