The Bridge

                                                                            THE BRIDGE


                I was ten again and I was trotting towards the oversized wooden gate in the back yard. Leaves crunched under my feet and my chest seized with excitement. I grabbed the cold and rusted handle and pulled the heavy gate open. It swung in silently and I smiled to myself. Well how ‘bout that,  WD-40 really does work. Tommy was on the other side of the gate, waiting, just as I asked him to be. He wasn’t alone though, he brought his freckles with him as usual. God, I hated those things.
         “Hey Tommy, did you bring the stuff?”
         “Yeah. You just wanted a few snacks right?” Oh Loyal Tommy, ever the dog, never the master. I guess I could look past the freckles.
         “Yup. You didn’t tell your parents where you were going did you?”
“No.”
“Well alright then, let’s go.”
         We jogged across the meadow, following the invisible hands of wind sweeping through the grass. Our packs bounced on our backs and quickly fell into a rhythm with our feet. When we reached the edge of the forest we turned and followed the tree line North for about a third of a mile. We stopped when we reached the stream. It was time for a breather.
         “Do you…want…a snack now?” asked Tommy, who was doubled over.
         “Actually yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” I wasn’t out of breath, or maybe I was simply too excited to notice.
         “So what was the plan again?” Tommy asked.
         “I don’t know I don’t really have a plan, but there’s this really cool place I came across a little while back that I want to show you.”
         “Is it a long ways in there? I don’t know if my mom will be happy if I’m gone for very long.”
         I chuckled to myself and answered,” We’re probably about half-way there, don’t worry about it. It’s straight down the stream. It’s probably easiest to get there if we just walk in it. The bushes and trees are so thick up there it’s not worth it.”
         “Ok. Sounds good enough to me.”
         It was always so easy to get Tommy to do whatever I wanted. He was a puppet and I tugged his strings.
Tommy pulled cheese sandwiches out of his bag and a couple of sodas. We plopped down on the fluffy grass and wolfed down our sandwiches in a deep silence. Each of us was in our own world, dreaming of different fantasylands, with the same theme: Independence and freedom of all rules.
         After we had both finished our sodas I stood up and broke the mood. It was time to push forward again. Into the wild we marched. We splashed through the stream, laughing and skipping rocks the whole way. I became annoyed by our happiness and was about ready to snap at Tommy to hurry up, until I saw the old dilapidated bridge up ahead.
Upon seeing the bridge, an icy excitement extracted goose bumps from all over my body. It had been overgrown by foliage and an assortment of weeds. Grassy clearings on either side of the bridge indicated the road that had at one time been in service as well as the bridge.
         “We’re almost there.”
         “Oh. Well what’s so cool about where we’re going?” He could obviously hear an edge of excitement in my voice.
         “Oh I’m not really sure, I just know that it seemed special to me when I found it, and I noticed a couple trails as I was leaving. I thought it seemed like something worth exploring.”
         “Awesome!”
         We were coming up on the bridge now and you could see the cracks in the concrete. They were filled with dirt and there was grass growing from it. The grass made the bridge seem almost like a live entity, ready to swallow us both with one big gulp.
         Underneath the bridge there was a slanted concrete bank with a level top that created a small, sheltered, cave-like area underneath one side of the bridge.  We climbed up the concrete slope and onto the level shelter.
         “Wow! This really does seem pretty cool man!”
         “I thought you might like it. Do you want to drop our packs here and explore a bit? Maybe round up some dry sticks for a small camp fire up here or something?”
         Tommy was a little hesitant to answer. “Are you sure that we should do that? Like, we’re not gonna get hurt or get in trouble are we?”
         I giggled a little bit and said, “No way man, we’re up here on this rock. Besides, there’s more than enough water right there to put out a tiny campfire.”
         “Ok, I guess you’re right.” His forehead wrinkled, “Wait a sec what’s all this?” he asked as he pointed towards the deepest most central part of the shelter.
         On the ground there were all sorts of little skulls and animal bones lined up in a nice and neat order. There was everything from tiny mouse skulls to one as big as a football and every size in between. There had to be at least fifty of them.
         “Oh all those bones? Yeah I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want to ruin it. I have been collecting these for a long time and I finally found a place I can keep them!”
         “Oh dang! That’s cool! Where did you get all of these? I mean Snickers brings, well, uh Snickers used to bring mice back once in awhile, but those were the only bones I would ever have gotten. And what the heck is that big one?”
         “Yeah I don’t know really, I guess I just have an eye for them. I usually only find them when I’m out here exploring, but that big one? It’s from a goat. It’s definitely too small to be a cow skull.”
         “Wow.” Tommy truly did look astonished.
         Satisfied with Tommy’s reaction thus far I led us up and out to go find some sticks. We gathered tons of sticks, dried leaves and needles for the fire quickly due to the season. Every stick we picked was crisp and ready to crackle.
         After dropping our last load on the pile in the shelter, we teepee’d some small logs and threw some dried needles and leaves inside. I brought some matches in my pack and we struck the fire up. One match was all we needed to start the picture perfect fire. We swelled with pride, hardly able to fit both of our heads inside the shelter.
         “Hey I’m gonna run up and grab myself a good stick, but I’ll be right back.” I said to Tommy.
         I wanted to find a stick about as thick as my arm and about three feet long, basically a good walking stick. I settled for two and a half feet and headed back towards the bridge. My heart was racing faster than ever now. When I got back to the shelter I looked at the fire and it had all but diminished.
         “What happened to the fire?”
         “Oh, nothing I just didn’t want to add much to it because I didn’t want it to get out of control if you weren’t here.” Tommy answered.
         “Oh. I see.”
         I stepped towards Tommy, swung my stick like a baseball bat and hit a homerun across his face. My bat shattered.
         Tommy started bleeding, but not before he fell to the ground, crumpled in a pile. I leaned down to see if he was breathing. I had to focus to hear him, but he was alive alright. It was hard for me to hear over the sound of my own pulse in my ears. I was absolutely livid. My eyes bled with tears of anger and I could only think of Tommy’s freckles and how much I wanted to hit him with the stick again. How good it felt to feel the stick crack across Tommy’s pristine army of brown, the release of anger when I saw him crumple. But it wasn’t enough.
         I was in machine mode now, pushing past the urge to crush the life out of him with one of my already lifeless skulls. I grabbed my bag and got the twine. I wrapped his legs and knotted it. I hoped it was tight enough to cut off his circulation. I rolled him over and pulled his hands behind his back and tied them as tight as I was physically capable. I rolled him back to his back and stood up to examine my handy work.
         There seemed to be something missing.
I hawked and spit on his face.
That’s better, I thought to myself. It was time to go check my traps.
         I had set six rodent traps and three bunny and squirrel traps to check. Unfortunately I did not catch any mice or rats, but I struck gold on a rabbit trap. This was going better than I could have hoped for. I needed this rabbit, it had been too long since I had visited the bridge and been fulfilled. I deserved this. I grabbed the rabbit by the scruff of its neck. Its heartbeat racing even faster than mine, it kicked and squirmed but I only gripped tighter. This was going to be a good one.
         “Calm down buddy. I’m not going to hurt you, at least not for very long.” I said to the rabbit as I shoved him into my book bag and zipped it up. I was more than happy and a bit surprised, to have a live one, for I brought a dead mouse in case I went dry with my traps.          When I got back to the bridge, Tommy was stirring. I couldn’t have had better timing.
         I straddled Tommy, sat on his belly and watched his eyes flutter and twitch. I lightly slapped him in the face to help bring him around. I did it again, but a little bit harder this time.
         His eyes opened and he had a faraway glaze in his stare. He was glossy and confused. When I spit in his face again he seemed to remember quickly what had just happened.
         Tommy tried to move but found himself tied.
         “What in the Heck ar—“
         I smacked him across the face and pulled the dead mouse from my shirt pocket. “Now you better shut your mouth before I gag you with this. Y’hear?”
         “Y—“
         I smacked him again. “Nodding will be more than enough.”
His eyes were huge yet filled with both tears and confusion. This boy had to be scared out of his wits.
         I unzipped my front pouch on my back and took out a pocket knife. I was trembling with rage and excitement and I smirked at Tommy. “Are you ready to be enlightened?”
         He shook his head.
         I opened the knife
         “I SAID! Are you READY to be enlightened?”
         This time he nodded without hesitation.
         “Good Boy.”
         “Do ya wanna know where your good kitty Snickers ran off too last year?”
         Slight pause and a hesitant but obedient nod from my good puppet Tommy.
         “Here he is.”
I grabbed a skull the size of my fist and slammed it on his left elbow as hard as I could,  pinning his barely protruding elbow between bone and rock. Bone fragments from the skull cracked away.
         He yelped. His arm was bleeding now. Tommy was crying now. His chest was heaving and I had trouble keeping my balance. A surge of rage blew through my body and I was suddenly burning. I had to rip off my shirt. Sweat dripped off my hair and I hit him in his other elbow.
         He squealed like a pig this time.
         “Do you want to know how I did it?”
         He shook his head.
         The rage of Satan himself was unleashed inside me by this rebellion. He was my puppet, nothing more, nothing less. He must obey me.
         I took the mouse out of my pocket and shoved it into his mouth.
         I stepped of to the side, grabbed a larger skull, reared back and smashed it between his legs. It resounded in a dull and hollow thump followed by his eyes rolling into the back of his head. I wasn’t letting him pass out again. I grabbed the tail of the mouse and removed it so he wouldn’t choke to death. I straddled him once more and softly slapped him. I want him awake to experience all of it. I wouldn’t be satisfied if I couldn’t watch him suffer. I slapped him again. And again.
         He finally came around. I asked him once more, “Do you want to KNOW how I did it?”
         He nodded this time. His tears were no longer streaming. I got my book bag and grabbed the bunny by his hind legs. I held the bunny upside down and grabbed my pocket knife once more.
         “Picture snickers Tommy!”
         I held the rabbit over Tommy’s face with one hand, and with the other I plunged my knife into the belly of the bunny. I sliced towards his head feeling his abdomen tighten as my knife moved. The warm blood ran onto my fingers and into my hand. It dripped onto Tommy’s face. The bunny squealed.
         I dropped the knife and plunged my fingers of each hand into the hole I made. I tore in opposite directions over Tommy’s face until I could tear no further. Blood was everywhere. Entrails hanging from the bunny’s corpse. The bunny went limp and Tommy hurled everywhere.
         “What’s wrong Tommy? Can’t handle it?”
         I smeared to rabbit in his face making sure to leave no flesh untouched by the rabbits insides. Tommy hurled again. He almost wiggled away, but I squeezed tight with my knees.
         “Now where do you think you’re going mister? Well lookie here!, I don’t have to look at your god-forsaken freckles any longer!”
         “Why are you doing thi—“ Tommy hurled once more.
         “I’ll tell you why, it’s because I can, that’s why! And you know what else? You should be happy Tommy. You should feel honored. You’re my first, Tommy!” I laughed uncontrollably. I was giddy with adrenaline, “You are my first of what will become many!” I sat down next to him and laughed. I rolled over and over until my sides ached.
         I stood up, looked up in the sky and saw that dusk was coming in quickly.
         “Heck I better get moving if I’m going to make it home in time for supper. Hey Tommy, by the way you’re staying at my house tonight! I’m going to have to tell your parents myself, though, I’m afraid.”
         “Well Tommy,” I said, standing now,  as I grabbed the biggest skull I had acquired up to this point, “I really had planned on dropping you off the bridge today too, but it looks as though I have run out of time! Until tomorrow then I suppose!” and I chuckled to myself again.
         I was walking around in circles now, “Low is 47 degrees tonight Tommy, you should be fine. I made sure to check before we took off. The only problem IS, that I wouldn’t want you running off anywhere in the middle of the night now would I?”
         As I finished the sentence I put the large skull above my head with both hands and slammed it as hard as I could into his right knee. Tommy screamed out in pain and as fast as I could I did the same to his left.
         He was rolling from side to side in agony, screaming out in pain, but I wasn’t quite sure if I was finished yet. I wielded a blow to each ankle as well.  Tommy was on the brink of losing consciousness once more. I was more euphoric than I’ve ever been before.
         “Until tomorrow Tommy my friend!” I said with a grin, as I skipped towards the stream to make the walk home.