Take Me To The Bridge

The cymbal crash echoed across the sky and told me all I needed to know about my near future. It was cold enough as it was. The wind driving that cold into and through me. Pushing against me and finding its way through gaps and seams. I huddled up, feeling like a little washer woman. Humiliated by the persistent elemental force. 

Upping my step I bent further into that cruel wind and drove myself forward. A single player against the scrumming team, but making ground all the same. A crack of light illuminated the gloom and heralded the first of the rain. Rain driven like bullets by the gleeful wind.

I was running now. Running towards my objective. The lightening had highlighted shelter and I was in no doubt that I required that shelter. To remain out in the open would be to invite a relentless dousing that could end my life.  

The rain intensified as it saw what I was about. This was war and the blitzkrieg of water was intent on my annihilation. I was blinded by the force of the rain and had to trust my sense of direction and the determination that cast me forth. 

I could hear the staccato ricochets of the rain as it hit home. That sound did not change, but the thudding against my beleaguered hide did. But I kept going until the onslaught had ceased completely. Only then did I come to a halt and turn to watch my foe beating at the door. Besieging me in the confines of the short tunnel created by the bridge overhead. 

“I beat you!” I gasped at the driving rain.

As I caught my breath, I took stock. The cold had ravaged me and I was shivering still, but the bridge was taking most of the force of the wind and I already felt warmer. I was wet, there was no doubt of that, but I wasn’t as wet as I would have been if I were still out in the open. My outer garments were soaked, but they had held the majority of the rain at bay. As I stood watching the rain pelt down, I felt an icy rivulet run down from the nape of my neck. The invasion always began there. A small victory for the rain that left me discomfited. 

Still, it could have been worse. Once the rivulets began their incursions a strange sort of pain took hold. Wet feet were bad news as was any flood around the crotch. Water there would cause rubbing and chaffing that scratched and hissed at the very soul of a man. Against any logic, the soft skin would rent and tear and any progress after that would be hard won and with the spectre of infection loping close behind waiting to pick the afflicted off.

Yes, I would shelter here and rest a while. Me and this bridge were well met. The bridge was my friend, here for me at a time of need. I stood there and rested. Now that I was out of the rain, the sound of it soothed me. The occasional flash of brilliant light back lit the myriad streams and rendered them beautiful for a suspended moment. From the safety of my haven, the rain was almost seductive. Had I not known its true intent, I would have been drawn into its midst and succumbed to its siren call.

The calming allure of the rain held me fast and I never once attended to the hidden depths of the remainder of the tunnel that the bridge created. I trusted this safe have. Besides, I had my wits about me and my senses were working perfectly well. I would hear anything in the darkness behind me well before it was at my back. And I would sense it in any case. We all feel eyes upon us. The trick is to attend to that feeling and never to ignore it.

When the creature came lolloping past me I jumped out of my damp skin. The rain had held me in its thrall and I had not expected anything to head into the hellish curtain that shrouded the opening of the bridge’s tunnel. A beast seeking sanctuary, yes. But even then, the rain had set in and I doubted anything would be on the move in such bold weather.

Everything was wrong even before I set eyes upon the small traveller. Nothing in its right mind would go out into that weather, not unless there was something far worse behind it. The news of the potential of this dark pursuer took a moment to sink in and as a result, I almost missed a proper look at the small creature and what happened next.

My mind roiled and I shuddered at what this could all mean, but all the same I took in the sleek white flank as the hooves clattered on the cobbles under the bridge. This beast somehow managed to be magnificent even in its diminutive state. A fine equine specimen rendered even more splendid by the knurled and golden horn protruding from its forehead.

“Cripes!” I exclaimed as the mini unicorn clattered past me, quick as a butcher’s dog with a string of sausages in its mouth.

I stepped forth as I watched the little guy gallop out from under the protection of the bridge. I wanted to call after him. Warn him of the foolhardiness of his endeavour. But the ridiculousness of the situation prevented me from doing so and it was me who felt ridiculous. It was me who was wrong in that moment. And why not? The little unicorn was on a mission and I was a mere spectator to that.

I watched as the small, mythical beast broke out from our refuge and in that moment everything change. I have seen some remarkable weather fronts. I have stood dry before a wall of rain as though there were an invisible waterfall playing games with me, but this was something utterly different and beyond those experiences. 

As the unicorn broke free of the confines of the bridge the rain stopped. That in itself was an unutterable miraculous piece of timing. However, that was as nothing as the in the next moment the sun made an appearance at its very zenith, as though it had been up to no good with a mistress in another galaxy and turned up very late for work. 

Not content with disrupting the cosmic balance with its wayward antics, I could see two of the hungover sun’s co-conspirators hanging around in the background.

“This is not happening,” I muttered to myself as I loped out of the knowable shadows of the bridge into the completely unknown. 

My curiosity threw a lasso around that galloping anomaly and I was dragged forth into another life. These are the moments in a life when everything can change. There is an illusion of choice and many choices are not choices at all, we plod along the same path all the same, but once in a while there is a choice that propels us in a completely different direction and changes everything.

As I moved into the light of a new day in a new world I staggered sideways. There was a transition that I had not anticipated. Something similar to stepping naked into the freezing wall of rain, but invisible and unanticipated such that I went into momentary shock. 

Following the step over that strange threshold my senses elevated to a level that made me fizz. I was running before I knew what it was that I was doing and my focus was entirely on that magnificent white wonder. It did not escape me that I had the beast’s scent and I was a predatory hound locked onto my prey. I was committed now though and I could not countenance defeat. This was all there was and I would run this little creature to ground and defeat it entirely.

I am not proud of what I became in that moment and there was an awareness of the animalistic nature of my pursuit even at the time. I think I consoled myself with the thought that I would not kill this unicorn, but hot on the heels of my excuse was the certain knowledge of the extinction of this creature and that I was locked into a venture that was dedicated to its end.

The white hide of the galloping creature was my absolute focus. My size allowed me to keep up, but even then I was struggling for breath as I ran in its pursuit. It ran under the branches of the trees whereas I had to crash through them. Despite the remarkable changes in the weather and the skyline my dull mind clung to the sameness of the terrain I had traversed shortly before. I painted a familiar tableau with the trees and disregarded all else.

This was no longer the park I’d been loping through. This was no longer the world I had inhabited throughout my life. My blood was up though and there was little else beyond that. There was only the hunt and the bloody end of that hunt. Hunger and the satiation of that hunger.

We broke out from the treeline, my quarry paused, sniffed the air and then snorted. This was no whinny, the small animal sounded more like a pig and something about that sound felt like a dark joke. The tables had turned and it wasn’t the impossible creature that shouldn’t be here. It was me.

As this sank in my focus on the unicorn waned and my tunnel vision dissolved to afford me a view of my surroundings. Whilst within the confines of the trees I was insulated from the world I had entered, but now I was out in the open and my eyes hurt with the sight before them. This did not prevent them from sending this sight into the midst of my mind and once there I was in petty turmoil. 

I did not know what to think and I began to wonder whether I had lost the ability to think. I wanted to pinch myself but I worried that that simple act may beckon further chaos into my spiralling life. I barely paid attention as the unicorn, it’s job done, sauntered off to wherever suited it best.

The unicorn had its place in this world. I did not. I could tell you what lay before me, but you would not believe it. Some stories require the occasional suspension of disbelief in order for the engine to keep running. Right now, my engine had ground to a sudden halt, a piston crashing through its carcass and flying through the air before this comical tableau. 

Recounting the scene is not easy for me even now. Even after I have adjusted to this place. Some of that is the translation of the unreal. I have yet to decide whether this place is real and the world I left is unreal. 

The colours hit me first. Vivid and bright colours unsubdued by what I would have considered to be the real, practical world. Our world is beautiful in its blurred pastel shades. The green grasses of home sit upon an underlay of filthy earth. Here there was only the green and that green was impossibly vibrant as though it were backlit for maximum effect. Similarly, the sky was the brightest blue imaginable. 

Laid across that jewel of a sky was a rainbow. There was nothing translucent or temporary about that rainbow, it was a permanent tattoo in that sky. To my right was a lake of mirrored glass that I swore I could walk upon. To my left was a town unlike any I had ever seen in the world. 

I had seen plenty in picture books and on screen. This place was a fairy tale made real and in the midst of the town was a palace that no doubt had a princess with hair long enough to drop from the open window of a turret and strong enough for a prince to climb.

Forcing myself to move, I walked towards that town. Glancing back at the treeline I fancied I saw a house made of gingerbread studded with sweets. The delight of my surroundings pained me and frightened me in equal measure. As I approached the town a feeling of dread arose within me. From afar, the town had seemed to similar to any other town I had seen, barring its fantastical colours and architecture, but as I neared it, a terrible reality sunk in.

The unicorn was not the only small thing in this world. Everything was small. I slowed and stopped as the truth of it dawned upon me. I was big. I was too big for this world. Again, I glanced back at the tree line. The trees themselves were of a size that worked for one such as I. Here though, they were tall and old. Younger copses and woods would be no taller than a toy hedge. My feeling of not belonging and being out of place raised its voice and bellowed at me. The noise of it was overbearing and I could not think straight.

Before I could consider my next action, there was a cry and that cry was enjoined by further cries. 

“Giant!” 

“Tis a giant!”

“Fetch the militia!”

I’d glanced back at the treeline from whence I had come because I had reluctantly wanted to confirm my suspicions. There was no way back for me. Not now, probably not ever. The vibrant quality of light and colour surrounded me and I wondered whether my appearance contrasted with this world. My dull nature leaking forth and offending the gaze of those who even now panicked and milled about me.

I watched with detached interest as the mini people threw rope after rope around me. Everything happened as though it were far away. It wasn’t happening to me. I was somewhere deep within myself. On holiday. All there was were the vacant windows of my eyes and a muttered voice message.

I barely felt the force of hundreds of determined townsfolk pulling on those ropes and bringing me down. As I lay there, bound and helpless I saw the unicorn for one final time. It looked at me and then raised its head. Its mission completed, it trotted off home.

Never will I be able to explain why I remained silent. I merely watched and observed the townsfolk. I accepted my fate, whatever it was going to be. I’ll give it to these people. They were prepared and they were organised. They brought forth a large cart. To me it looked a little like a low-level wooden gurney. Hauling me onto it took some effort, but they were equal to the task and once loaded, they took the cart around the town to a large hole in the ground. 

Even the earth in this place was warm and inviting. Less so the pile of bones that lay in a corner of the hole they unceremoniously dropped me into. The pale white bones told their own story and they were outsized like I was. Bones to match my own. 

Then it was a case of waiting to see what would happen next, if anything would happen at all. Maybe it was a case of being left to rot. 

In a deep hole such as this, loneliness sets in and that loneliness is cold and damp. I feel it entering me and I am shivering. Shivering with the cold. Shivering with the heat of a fever. Occasionally I experience flashes of another place. A temporary haven from the cold and the wet. A place I gained access to just a little too late for it to make a difference to my tired and aching bones. 

Tired. 

So tired.

I wonder whether the unicorn will come and visit? 

I look up at the circle of impossibly blue sky and that sky tells me that no one is coming.

The circle is shrinking.

I feel like I’m supposed to go towards it somehow, but I’m fine where I am. The cold is numbing me and all I want to do is close my eyes and sleep a while…