Under the Bridge

Under the Bridge

By: Sean Brennan

“BOOM! C-C-CRACK, BOOM!”

The bellows of the thundering storm echo overhead. The rain increases in tempo until it is beating down upon the ground below. The drops of water falling with such force they sting the skin. 

The young man pulls his jacket tighter as he hurries to find cover. The barely audible squishing sound of his already soaked shoes squeaks lowly in his ears. Rounding a corner, he spots a dreary looking bridge made of stone. A normally small creek, now growing in size, flowed underneath. On the edges of the creek was just a handful of feet of dry sandy shore. Enough to be able to hopefully hide and wait out the onslaught of rain, thunder, and lightning. 

Scurrying underneath, the young man breathed a sigh of relief when at last he was out of the blistering rain. He took of his soaking wet jacket, and removed his drenched shoes and laid them to the side. Doubtful they would dry in the slightest, but it felt better with the extra dampness off of his skin. 

Ezekiel, was his name. Barely older than a child, just the age of 12; his small stature and wiry frame were indicative of his hard active lifestyle. His brown almond eyes, always seemed to be asking questions, trying to discover and figure out every secret there was to life. 

His mother was going to be furious he knew. Home late with soaking wet clothes was a shoe in for a beating. He pushed that thought from his mind, better not to think of it until it was happening. His thoughts turned to the chilling wind that was being funneled under the bridge. He pulled his knees to his chest, and pressed his back up against the cold stone, staring out into the swirling madness that was the thunderstorm.

“This better stop soon, otherwise I’m going to be forced to move again.” He muttered to himself, obviously not enjoying the prospect of having to leave the shelter of the bridge. 

A large “Plop!” from the creek startled him from his pondering. He jumped and turned to face the moving water, thinking to see a frog or small fish.  Just rain drops pitter pattering into the creek. 

“Hmm, must’ve been just a big rain drop”, Ezekiel whispered to himself. He turned his attention back to the rain outside. It seemed to be getting a bit lighter, which was a good sign he thought. Almost as if he had angered the storm itself, a loud crash of thunder reignited its fury, causing the rain to spit down angrily, as if upset they could not reach him underneath the protection of the bridge. 

“Plop!”

He heard it again! His head spun around to catch the culprit but same as before, nothing but ripples on the surface of the slow-moving water. Ezekiel wondered if his mind was playing tricks on him, maybe the storm was making him crazy he thought. Shaking his head, he convinced himself that couldn’t be true. He decided to focus on the water, scanning the surface in front of him, looking beneath it to see if anything was moving below. Minutes went by, or was it just seconds? Ezekiel felt himself lose track of the time as he gazed into the rippling waters. 

There it was! He thought, he saw a shadow flit across the bottom, almost too fast for the eyes, but he managed to catch a glimpse of it! No sounds or surface disturbance yet though. He continued to watch, scanning and scanning, his knees began to ache and he needed to stretch, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away. Where was it? It had just been there, and now it had disappeared. Just as his concentration was about to break, out of the corner of his eye he saw movement. A tail shot up out of the water, and slapped the surface, “Plop!”. 

Ezekiel jumped to his feet, shocked and excited all together. The ache left his body, the cold melted from his fingertips and his heart beat faster. He inched closer to the area he had seen the tail, and then he spoke to himself, “A tail?”. It wasn’t a tail like that of a fish, it looked more like the tail of a cat, long and slender. Confused and intrigued he focused again upon the water. 

Tick, tock, tick, tock, the clock sounds played through his brain as the creek flowed past him. The water had risen even more with the continuing rain, further reducing the dry space he had to shelter on; but he was determined to catch whatever it was that was lurking about under this same bridge. 

To the right! Movement again! Ezekiel spun around, hands up as if he could catch whatever creature it was. Just as he finished rotating his body, he stopped, frozen, his mouth agape. He couldn’t begin to understand the, thing, animal, monster, whatever it was that was staring back at him.  

The first thing that captivated Ezekiel were the eyes. Large oval eyes that almost seemed to sparkle and reflect the waters of the creek below. They resonated a deep almost turquoise blue color and seemed to stare into his very being. Ezekiel felt small under the gaze of this most interesting being. The face, seemed almost human like, but with feline features, a pointed nose and small angular ears. Eyes locked with each other the strange creature slowly lifted itself out of the water to reveal small human like arms, but they were wider, almost like flippers, with three webbed clawed fingers at each end. The legs were similar with 3 webbed clawed toes, the skin was not scaley or furred, but smooth, like that of an eel. Then there was the tail, waving back and forth slowly behind the mysterious animal. 

Ezekiel stood, mesmerized by what was in front of him. He couldn’t comprehend it; it was almost too much to take in! He wanted to just turn and run away, but he could not, he wanted to shout and jump, but his mouth and legs refused to work. Stuck he could only watch as the creature slowly moved towards him, crouching down in front of him and slowly turning around. When the creature had fully turned around Ezekiel noticed what appeared to be 3 large shards of glass protruding from its back. 

The animal looked back at him, with large sad eyes, and gave a soft squeak and a flick of its tail. Tentatively Ezekiel reached his hand up, his arm shaking ever so slightly he felt the first piece with his fingertips. The glass looked to be from a bottle, but he could not be sure. He wrapped his fingers around the first shard and gave a slight tug, which elicited a small whimper from the creature. He paused, not wanting to further hurt him, but then continued, thinking it better to rip it out like a Band-Aid. With a strong pull he plucked the shard out. Blood lurched out at him and then slowed down to a trickle, as it oozed down the creatures back. Ezekiel looked at the clear green shard, it seemed small in his hand, but the edges were obviously sharp. He dropped it to the ground beneath him and focused on the second. With less hesitation than the first he grabbed and pulled, releasing the piece from the creature’s skin. It wasn’t as deep as the first, but blood still trickled down. He dropped the piece this time without examining, focused on this task at hand. The last shard, seemed to be the largest, and most deeply embedded. He pinched it with his fingers and began to pull. A sharp, shrill cry from the creature made him pause. It whimpered and glanced back at him, as if in apology but asking to continue. He pinched again, and gave a pull, the shard stuck, not wanting to freely give up its hold inside the animal. He pulled harder, and again heard the creature squeal and felt his muscles twitching. With a final tug the shard slipped free, and with a yelp the creature jumped forward, away from Ezekiel. 

He stood in shock, coming to realization everything that just had happened. The mysterious animal turned and eyed him curiously. Empathy painted its face, and then what appeared to be a smile, creased the mouth of the creature, showing small pointed teeth. 

His heart skipped a beat, he hadn’t expected the sharp canines. 

He hadn’t realized he was holding his breath either and a long heavy exhale escaped his lips. He stared at the creature, wondering what was to happen next. Without any warning the animal dove back into the flowing creek, disappearing under the water. He appeared again a few feet downstream, poking his head up at Ezekiel, almost offering thanks. Something hidden in the creatures’ mannerisms and gaze told Ezekiel to follow, but he was stuck. Unable to move forward, he just continued to stare.  Again, it ducked under the flowing waters. Surfacing a few more feet downstream, looking back at Ezekiel with a pensive look on its face. 

Against his better judgment, Ezekiel stepped forward. He felt the rain again. He had completely forgotten about the storm, astounded by the events unraveling in front of him. This time, he wasn’t bothered, he almost didn’t even feel it, a new found initiative took hold of him. A new sense of adventure compelled his senses to ignore the weather he could not control. He took a few more steps forward, and the creature ducked down again, slapping its tail on the surface as it dove below. Ezekiel walked forward along the bank, waiting for the animal to surface, waiting for more directions. He wasn’t sure if this was even all of his own doing or if he was spellbound by some sort of magic. 

What appeared to be twenty or thirty feet downstream he saw the water break. The creature looking back as if beckoning him to continue. He followed. They continued this game of search and find for what seemed like forever. The city faded behind him as he delved further into the wooded area where the creek flowed. He had to think that maybe it was a much deeper body of water than he ever imagined, since when the creature ducked below, he could not always seem to follow. 

A sharp right turn and a fork in the creek made him pause. He couldn’t see the animal; it had been underwater for a few minutes as of now and he was not sure where to go. As he stood on the bank wondering where to follow, he saw a shape appear further ahead. However, it was down the fork on the opposite side of the bank he was on. The creek was just barely too large for him to jump, and there were no stones or logs for him to use in the crossing. 

“Well, I’m already soaking wet,” he mused. And without a second thought he splashed into the body of water. Almost immediately he felt the pull of the water, stronger than he expected. It was tugging him down the wrong fork! He struggled to maintain his footing, the water up to near his chest. 

“Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot,” he chanted under his breath. Pressing against the pull of the creek he slowly moved towards the opposite bank. He hadn’t even realized it but he had completely forgotten about the creature with his new found battle. All of the sudden he slipped, his shoulders falling into the water, fighting to balance on his single leg. A battle he was quickly losing. Just as he was about to lose his last grip a large push threw him forward within reach of the opposite embankment. Bewildered he quickly spun around, only to see nothing. He turned back and crawled up the rocky side, collapsing to catch his breath. He was surprised at how much strength it had taken to cross just this small creek. 

Movement to his side shook him from his daze, it was the creature. Standing motionless in the water, almost smiling at him. The realization hit him like a punch, that had been the push he needed! 

“I help you; you help me I guess huh?” he spoke aloud. At the same time wondering why he had ever even left the bridge; he still couldn’t quite figure out what had compelled him to follow this miraculous being. Shaking himself off like a wet dog he found his footing. He had a strange feeling this journey was reaching its destination. The two beings continued their game of cat and mouse, almost a twisted game of leap frog if you will down the new fork of the creek. 

The woods were growing thicker, the branches reached out and snagged at his clothes, but Ezekiel pushed forward. They came to another slight bend in the creek and up ahead Ezekiel could make out a tangled mess of thorn branches and vegetation. Something just wasn’t quite right though, but he could not put his finger on it just yet. The creature splashed up just in front of the tangled jumble of branches and let out a few sharp yelps. Sounds Ezekiel hadn’t heard him make before. 

That is when he noticed, amongst the brambles, was something, a blueish hue, motionless at first, but then he heard a soft whimper, almost as if a reply to the creature’s shouts. As he moved closer the figure became animated. Shaking and snarling. He jumped back a few feet, unsure of what was in front of him. He examined the scene before him, he began to make out plastic bags wrapped and tangled amongst the vegetation, and tangled inside of those was, another creature! This one slightly smaller in stature, a little slenderer. Feminine, yet he couldn’t determine how. As he moved back in the creature struggled against its bindings, yelping and snarling. Ezekiel paused a few feet from the animal. He noticed the first creature, gently cooing from the side. It looked at Ezekiel with pleading eyes, the same eyes as when he had pulled the glass from its back. 

It hit him all at once. This must be his mate! She was trapped! The creature’s main goal was not to have the glass removed but to check if he was safe enough to be lead here, to offer greater help!

As he moved closer the second creature quieted, obviously scared, but the calming sounds coming from the one who had led him here seemed to calm her down. He examined the thorn branches, they were scratching her vigorously, and the plastic he had seen he could tell was a simple plastic bag, but ensnared on the thorns and with her struggling it had become wrapped around her neck and left arm. The bag itself had started to bite into her flesh, who only knows how long she had been stuck, how many hours they had fought to free herself. 

It was then Ezekiel remembered his pocket knife, the one his father had given him before he had disappeared. Without thinking he pulled it from his pocket and flipped it open. 

The sight of the knife made both of the creature’s snarl.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, don’t worry!” Ezekiel cooed. As he moved within inches of the trapped animal. He knelt down and pulled on the bag gently, looking at where he could start his work. He took the knife and started to slice at the outer edges of the plastic, breaking some of the branches and moving them out of the way as he worked. 

He needed to slide the knife between the bag and the creatures skin, but he was scared to do so, he didn’t want to hurt her. He couldn’t waste time and be scared. He had to act, and so without offering any indication to what he was about to do he grabbed the bag, stuck the knife flat against her throat and twisted the blade towards him, and began to saw against the material. Little by little the grip of the bag loosened, until the knife finally broke through the opposite side. 

She shook violently, he thought he had hurt her! But no, it was the shakes of the first freedom felt in maybe days. The bag had left clear bruises around her neck, the thorns had scratched all over. But she was still stuck, her left arm entwined in the thorns and plastic. 

The first creature kept calling out sweetly, trying to soothe his partner, as Ezekiel bit his tongue and continued to work. Sliding the knife between the arm and the last loops of plastic he slowly cut. He was glad he always carried this with him, that it had stayed sharp all these years. 

After what seemed like hours, but was really only minutes, the last of the plastic had been sliced. He broke the final few branches and with a bellowing yell the second creature leaped free of the cruel mismatched trap. 

Down into the water they both went splashing. Ezekiel could see them holding and twisting amongst each other. Surfacing a few feet in front of him, they both stared. Those sparkling eyes, mesmerizing, gazing deep inside of his very being. He could feel the empathy emanating from them, the soft smiles offering thanks. 

With a small sigh from Ezekiel and a soft squeak from the creatures, they dove back beneath the moving waters. 

“I guess, that’s goodbye,” Ezekiel softly spoke. But he was happy, he felt fulfilled, like he had accomplished something. 

He looked around, unsure of where he was, but that didn’t matter, the rain didn’t matter, being wet and coming home late didn’t matter. He was happy, he felt blessed.

Now he just had a much, much longer walk, back home.