The Bridge Part Two

The road was lifted up by a bit of a slope, but nothing third-gear-floored couldn’t handle, and with gaining speed, Jake quickly neared the top of the hill. At about 100 metres from the top, he took his foot off the gas, hit the clutch, then shifted into neutral, and coasted up the remainder of the hill.

This led to the perfect speed when he got to the top because there was a small little area on the right hand side of the road that for about 10 meters made an extra lane just when the hill started to drop in elevation as it headed down the other side, and the road resumed its tight squeeze at the shoulders.

Shifting into second, he let the gentle murmur of his transmission whine for a second or two, allowing his speed to drop further, before bringing her to first; neutral; break; stop; engine off; back into first; relax.

Taking out a cigarette from the centre console, he flipped it in his mouth, lit it, hit the button on his seatbelt, reached for his cell-phone, and dialed a number.

With full-bar service, the phone connected right away, and the hopeful buzz of a ringing phone greeted his ear.

One ring. Two ring. Three rings. Four.

Answering machine.

"We're sorry, but the mailbox belonging to..." the female generic telephone voice started to say as he clicked the end call button.

His friend was at home. He knew this. He knew he would be up too. Likely has something better to watch on TV.

'Fuck,' he thought, as he scrolled through his contact list.

There was no one on his list he wanted to talk to, but maybe....

Scrolling down to the name of an ex-girlfriend, he breathed out softly as he hit the call button.

The phone rang for not even a second before a sing-song voice answered with an exaggerated out-of-breath, "hello!?!"

  

"Jars!" he said with a happy and booming voice, "how the hell are you."

"I'm having sex," said the voice, deliberately sounding annoyed, "you know the thing you don't want to do with me anymore."

"Damn it Jars, I'm just lonely and wanted to talk, I don't give a fuck about your love-life."

There was a silence on the other end of the line, where seconds before heavy breathing dominated, now silence reigned supreme."

"Jake," the voice responded with a school-teacher lecturing tone, "you lost access to that part of me when you rejected me for that bullshit job of yours!"

"I was leaving for four months!" A mortified Jake replied. "You said you didn't want to wait. I broke up with you so you could have your freedom. Never mind, forget about it."

"Jake! I didn't mean tha..." the voice went silent as soon as he hit the end call button.

'Bitch,' he thought as he let his body fall backwards, slamming into his seat with a solid thump.

He was so bored, so lonely, and so far away from anyone and everything he cared about.

Grabbing the keys, he opened his door, stepped out, slammed the door and instinctively hit the the button on his key chain to set the alarm. Thrusting his hands in his pockets, he started down the hill. 

The bridge was maybe half a click down the hill, and there were flowers in the area that smelled very sweet at night, so he decided to walk.

Tall trees lined the stretch of road to his right that seemed to pop higher as the hill dropped at a steeper and steeper angle.

There was a stretch of darkness hidden in the shadows that caught his eye as he walked down towards The Bridge.

A rustle could be heard, and a short time later, shapes could be made out moving in the panicked pattern of two bodies going from rest to a standing and then moving position.

"Who the hell is there!"A voice cried from the dark...


CJFR 14 Aug 12