The Bridge

The Bridge

Barbara stood looking over the rail of the bridge. The body of the young man who had been so full of life before now bobbed face down in the water below. She watched as the body began to drift down stream. Barbara stared at Mark as he drifted away, the tears still flowing from her eyes from earlier rolled off her cheeks and fell into the muddy water below. He looked like a rag doll that had been discarded by some child who no longer wanted it.

When Barbara had walked up on to the bridge a while ago Mark had been fishing on the other side of the river and looked up and waved at her. He had always been nice to her and had even kept other kids at school from picking on her. She had been in love with Mark for a long time but had been afraid to tell him. When she had broken her leg last year Mark had come by to check on her and even brought her flowers, well he had brought her a rose. That had to mean he felt something for her didn’t it? Today she decided to tell him she was in love with him. Surely he would see that he was in love with her as well.

She had gone over and poured out her heart to him. She told him how she felt and what he meant to her. The response she gotten was not what she expected.

Mark had at first simply stared at her then he did the worst thing he could have, he laughed at her. She had been crushed. The tears had burned trails down her cheeks. How could she have been so wrong about him? How could he hurt her this way? She felt her heart shatter in a million pieces in that moment. More than the pain Barbara felt pure anger and in a way she had never felt it before.

Barbara started running back toward the bridge. She heard Mark calling her name as if in a panic. He was chasing her trying to stop her, he must have thought she was going to jump.

The rage she felt had swelled up and now wanted to be unleashed. Barbara stopped suddenly in the middle of the bridge and turned quickly. As Mark came running toward her she put up her arms and pushed him as hard as she could toward the side of the bridge. Mark was taken by surprise and stumbled backwards. He was close enough to the side of the bridge that the railing caught him just below the middle of his back and he lost his balance and went over the side.

Barbara stepped over quickly to the side and looked over in time to see Mark hit a rock protruding from the surface of the water below then sink down below the murky water before bobbing up. She wondered why if she had loved this boy she didn’t feel it now. All she was feeling was elated in fact. She would never tell what happened today. It was too embarrassing, besides why should she go to jail because Mark had been mean?

Also Barbara felt something else she had never felt before. She felt like she finally had a purpose in her life. She knew what she had to do now. She would make all the people who had ever been mean to her pay and she would enjoy it. She knew who she would start with as well. That stuck up bitch Linda who spent every minute she could picking on Barbara. Now all she had to do was think of how she was going to get little Miss Popular on the bridge or maybe she should just find another way to do that one. After all she didn’t want to get caught before she finished her task.

Barbara straightened up and turned back in the same direction she had come with a huge maniacal grin on her face.