The Forsaken Bridge

High above the vast musky lake, an old unused train track served as a linkage between two towering cliffs. My younger six cousins and I preferred this short cut to the college football stadium rather than taking the long winding back roads from Uncle Jimmy's house. 

On this New Year's Eve night, I thought a game of football with my cousins would be accommodating to past the time before the historical ball dropped within two hours.

But, little Marvin was not enthusiastic about the subject of dropping. He had been holding the rest of us up for several minutes. I was losing my patience with this momma's boy. 

Here we teenagers were at the foot of the crossing; urging shivering eight-year-old Marvin on the opposite side, to muster enough courage to cross over and join us. This was the first time I allowed him to tag along and he was being so annoying. 

"This is it, Marvin," I called out. "We are about to leave you."

"Don't leave me, Calvin!" he pleaded. "The bridge didn't feel right when I tried to walk on it. It wobbles under me."

"Did you notice anyone of us having a problem with it? Of course not. Unlike you, we have no fear of heights. Just turn around and go back to Uncle Jimmy's house." 

Kane, the second oldest of our group, impatiently stepped forward, "Marvin, you whining speck of dirt, just go around the long way. You can meet up with is at the field." 

"No!" Marvin shouted. He braced himself and looked as if he was prepared to dart across the bridge like a sprinter. We waited and nothing happened. 

"You're not going to do it," I said.

Kane's little brother Ike shrugged. "I don't think it's a good idea we leave him here," said Ike. "Maybe one of us should go over to him and encourage him a little."   

"If he's scared, he'll do it," I insisted. "Marvin will be so terrified of being alone, eventually he’ll walkover. Come on. Let's go."

I lead the rest of the cousins away from Marvin. He cried and stomped his feet. It took us a moment to skirt the thickly wooded area before we arrived at the rear of the college football stadium. Swept with excitement, we found ourselves running and trespassing on the green soft platform. Teams of three versus three materialized and it was on!

At 6'3 in height and 235 pounds, I had the upper advantage over my shorter and inexperienced cousins. As the only member of the group on the high school football team as a quarterback, the psychological edge also belonged to me. 

All those who came at me crumpled. Those who were naive at rushing me, ricocheted off my beefy biceps like dead flies. I scored touchdown after touch down. I didn't even think nature's greatest waves could hurl themselves successfully against my storming charge. The football field was my territory. Always had been and always will be. 

We played for just over an hour before Kane's exhausted team whimpered with their butts on the ground. The shock of the last hour by my team forced them to forfeit. 

"I'm thirsty," said Tony from the pavement. "Let's go back to Uncle Jimmy's house and catch the fireworks. 

I looked around for Marvin. He was nowhere. If he had gone around and down the back roads to meet us at the stadium, it wouldn't have taken him any more than fifteen minutes. I assumed he turned around and went back to Uncle Jimmy's house. No one expressed concern and probably thought the same as I did. 

We had doubled back up the heavy oaken bridge when, far below, I spotted the cigar light in the lips of an old fisherman. He was sitting on a narrow peninsula of rock as he tossed his line out. He looked up at us and smiled.

"Maybe, I will finally get lucky before the New Year!" said the Fisherman.

I couldn't help but laugh. Nothing could live in that dirty filthy water. My cousins also smirked. 

"Keep dreaming," I told the fisherman. "Maybe you might find some old laundry in there." 

"Or urine." Kane joked quietly. 

The Fisherman's smile became a frown. His eyebrows raised, "These waters here would be fine if you kids stopped throwing junk down into it."

"What are you talking about, old man?" I asked. 

"Don't play me for a fool. Just as I was coming up from the woods a half-hour ago, I heard a big splashy sound. I hope you boys aren't using this lake as a dumping ground for unwanted stuff." 

My cousins and I stopped momentarily and found our sweeping eyes shifting at each other. We were concerned about Marvin. Briefly, this shock over me came and went.

"Old man has hallucinations," I joked. "Let's get back to Uncle Jimmies."

They followed my lead. Skirting the dense woods, Uncle Jimmy's country house came into view, perched at the end of a lonely trail. So many parked cars were neatly lined up bumper to bumper on both sides of the dirt road. 

"Calvin, I hope Marvin found his way back," said Ike softly.

"Don't worry about it," I said. "Marvin could've found his way back here with a blindfold on," I said. “Quit worrying.” 

Inside, while storming across the spacious living room packed with cheerful adults amidst loud music from the radio, I could still smell the lavished leftovers prepared by Aunt Julia consisting of turkey, mashed potatoes, meatloaf, corn, and her warm sweet potato pie to top it off. I promised myself to help myself to another plate before the year came to an end. 

My cousins followed me upstairs. The large guest room on the second room not only had a video game console, but it was a fantastic trophy room of stuff wild animals Jimmy hunted all over the world during the years after service in the Marines. There was a trophy of every conceivable type of animal hanging on the wall or standing about in the room. 

Kane and I were the first to push our way to the video game console. I inserted a football video game cartridge and eagerly waited for it to load while my other cousins stood around us like pitiful young children waiting their turn. 

"You boys got back here fast," said Uncle Jimmy as he walked in. "I hope you guys didn't take that dangerous short cut across that old bridge. I know all of you were told by your parents to never use those tracks." 

The startled cousins looked to me for confirmation and I just shook my head. "Uncle Jimmy, I agree. It's not worth losing a life." 

"Did any of you think you can just roll up in here without me knowing?" Uncle Jimmy asked. 

By this time, we all could catch a whiff of alcohol in Jimmy's breath. We just wanted him to get whatever it was off his chest and let us be. 

"Look all around you," he continued. "I'm quite the observer. No living thing can get past me without me knowing." 

We giggled like little girls while he ranted on during my gameplay with Kane.

"I can't think of anything I haven't captured in the farthest corners of the world.” He added. “I've climbed mountains to fire at cougars. I've ranged the seas for sailfish, tuna, and monstrous whales. I've crushed charging rhinos of India, cape buffalos, and even a Bengals tiger."

"What haven't you killed?" Kane asked. 

Uncle Jimmy shrugged. He took a sip of his beer can and continued. "Don't be surprised. This trait runs in our family. My father... your grandfather that is, had nerves like tempered steel. Like his father before him, he pitted his steady rifle against the mightiest of animals."

“Maybe one day we can go hunting with you," I said. 

Jimmy's wandering eyes panned the room. "Where did Marvin go off to?" 

It was then that I got the first sensation of anxiety to come. As drunk as Uncle Jimmy was, he was always capable of knowing if something was amiss. His mind was that sharp. The fact that Marvin never returned to the house terrified me. My cousins eagerly awaited my response.

"Oh, Marvin is outside chasing a frog," I answered. 

Uncle Jimmy stroke his chin thoughtfully. "I hope so. "Marvin's mother has to be at work in the morning. She said as soon as the clock strikes midnight for New Year, she's taking him and they're going home." 

Sweating, I looked at my watch. The time was 11:35 PM. There wasn't much time left. I started to sweat profusely. 

Jimmy staggered downstairs to join his siblings. Fear stricken, we looked at each other. 

I jumped up first. "We have just under 30 minutes to find Marvin," I said. 

"Maybe we should check out the landscape below the bridge," Kane insisted. "What if he got lost and fell down there and got seriously hurt?"

"If that happened, he's been dead for hours," said Ike. 

We shot Ike an eagle-like stare. 

"Sorry," Ike said embarrassingly. 

So, we quietly slipped out the back door and plunged into the forest. This was too nerve-wracking to digest. Marvin was last seen at the bridge. Was he dead or hurt somewhere? As the woods closed about us, I calmed down and took my bearings. As the leader of this group, I had to be calm. Every second counted with doing the right thing.  Then I recalled the Fisherman from earlier who said he heard a loud splash that sounded like something heavy dropping into the lake. Hitting the deep lake from high up from that distance would've been like landing on concrete. Even if he did survive the fall, Marvin was not a swimmer. Surely, he would've drowned. I cursed at myself silently for harboring grim thoughts again and reminded myself that I must lead my cousins by example.

We took a winding time-consuming trail that took us down a steep valley. Behind us, we left a path of broken blades of grass and twigs. When we arrived at the side of the huge lake above the high forsaken bridge, there was no sign of Marvin or the Fisherman I taunted. We called out for Marvin, but only the owl’s stirring tempo flourished in the darkness all around us. 

I pulled out a flashlight and panned it all around us. No one but I saw someone or something fluttering behind nearby thick bushes. I silently stalked it like a cobra about to strike. Yes, if this was Marvin playing around, he deserved a stomping for making this a New Year's hell. 

With one hand, I pulled the leaves back and straight at me, a colony of huge wasps shot out at me from a wasps nest. Instantly, I was hot all over the face. Screaming, I ran as fast as can to the lake. My frightened cousins scattered away like mice. When the water reached my knees, I dived into the filthy water. I kept myself submerged there as long as I could to avoid further attacks from the horrifying wasps. It took me several seconds to rise my head about the waters. Then, the night time sky was lit with a dazzling display of fireworks underway from downtown. The New Year was here. That meant I failed to find Marvin. By now, I believed his mother was in a state of panic because no one knew where he was. It was all my fault and I'm sure my cousins returned to Uncle Jimmies to break the terrible news. 

When I slowly came back upon land, my facial features were slightly puffy and swollen. But I didn't care. Marvin was gone and I missed him and wished I did things differently to ensure his safety. 

Head pitifully down, I did my best to find my way back to Uncle Jimmy's house through that forbidden forest of horror.

When I returned to the house everyone there in the living room was waiting for me. The serious-looking adults, my chuckling cousins, and even Marvin! Marvin was sitting next to his mother and laughing as well. 

"Marvin!" I cried. "You're alright!"

"Marvin, was here this whole time," said Uncle Jimmy. "We heard how you boys turned your backs on him at the bridge. That was dirty, Calvin. So, we came up with a plan to make it hell for all of you on New Year’s." 

"I'm so sorry, Marvin," I said.

"Marvin laughed. "I'm so sorry for you to be stung by wasps."

More giggles filled the room. 

"I hope this teaches all of you a lesson about kindness and responsibility," said Marvin’s mother. 

"Look at my swollen face," I joked. "Don't you think?"

“I think the Fisherman’s suggestion to Marvin to trick all of you was warranted.” she said.

My stomach felt numbed. It all was a conspiracy to teach me a lesson. The Fisherman knew Marvin went back home the whole time!

Jimmy stepped up and placed his hand on my shoulder. "Once again it looks like we’re going to have to talk about the dangers of crossing that bridge," said Jimmy.

"Oh, brother..." I choked. 

There was no mercy for me despite having my face torn up by lowly insects. The New Years' family party was over. I was tired and wanted to get home. I promised myself not to make the same mistake at the next New Year celebration. Never leave a cousin behind or else...

THE END