Copyright 2008 by A. Wanker.
Snow crunched under the tires as Bill pulled his SUV off the plowed road and onto an expanse of dirty snow under a gray sky. He parked near the end of the empty lot, as he often did, facing the river. After a moment, Bill turned off the ignition and put down the window. He sat absent-mindedly listening to the stillness of a mid-winter afternoon.
Except for the infrequent passing car, which he could hear for almost a minute before and after it passed, the whole world seemed muffled, dead, frozen. He wished he hadn't given up smoking. A cigarette would be good right now.
He looked out at the broken ice floating slowly down the gray river, and thought about his muffled, dull office, with its gray plastic laminate desks, gray cubicles, gray tack boards, gray carpet, and fluorescent lights. Having just left that somnolent cave, he was on his way home to another. He thought about his once white, but now slightly gray house, with its gray shingle roof, and his gray dog.
He turned on the radio. Jimmy Buffet. Not in the mood for that, he turned it off again.
He ran his fingers through his graying hair and sighed. Melanie was probably shoveling a tray of brownies into her face, while waiting for him to come home and listen to her complain about one thing or another.
Bill put the window back up, and started the engine, but then paused with his hand on the shifter. Going home didn't sound very enticing. He could stop at Ted's Bar and have a drink, but that was getting old. Maybe some fresh air would do him some good. He turned the car off again and pocketed the key. He slammed the door, turned up the collar on his gray coat, and trudged off through the ankle-deep snow. The overlaying crust broke with a crack and a dull thud at each step. The air felt heavy. Snow fell in large wet flakes.
Reaching the bridge, he glanced back at his gray SUV, already dusted with snow, and then started across. At least the walk had been cleared by one of the city's small sidewalk plows. The damned things always wrecked a big piece of his front lawn every winter.
Above, the streetlights hummed. Every now and then one would blink out, and then relight a moment later. In the gray murk, whether it was on or off seemed to make little difference.
At the middle of the bridge, Bill stopped and rested his hands on the railing. The sound of tires on wet pavement occasionally intruded on the stillness, and then faded away into the distance, to be replaced again by the lonely hum of the streetlights.
After standing there mindlessly for some time, he realized that the pale daylight was nearly gone. He could see almost nothing as he peered downriver through the gloom. Soon it would be pitch black.
He leaned over the railing and looked down into the dark water. Large chunks of ice drifted out from under the bridge and swirled away on the dark surface. A couple of weeks ago a fellow jumped here, on a night much like this. It was front page news for several days. Thinking about it, Bill shivered. What a miserable way to go! The bridge wasn't high enough that you would die in the fall. It would be either drowning or hypothermia, or both, that did you in. It was horrible to contemplate.
If Bill were going to commit suicide he would use a pistol. Having been in the army, he knew how to use one. His son Jake was in the service now, serving in Iraq. Bill was proud if his son and the troops and the job they were doing, in spite of ...
Bill was jerked out of this rehashing of old things in his mind by a young female voice behind him. "Dude!"
Startled, Bill jumped and spun around to see a metallic red BMW stopped at the curb. The owner of the voice was smiling at him from the passenger-side window, her face framed in a bright red scarf and a pure white knit hat. Her blue eyes looked intently into his. He looked back just as intently, studying her.
She looked to be about 22, with a passing resemblance, maybe, to Audrey Hepburn in her day. Wisps of dark hair were just visible under the hat. Silver pendant earrings sparkled against her pale white skin. Her lips were pink, and glossy. Just lip gloss though, probably. It didn't look like she was wearing lipstick.
"What are you doing out here on a night like this?" She asked. Bill stared at her soft, glossy pink lips as they moved.
"Nothing," he said. "Just thinking," he added. The snow had changed to sleet.
"Not thinking about jumping, I wouldn't suppose." She said it as if it were a statement, rather than a question.
"No, I was thinking about ... it's none of your business."
She opened the door and stepped out, or more correctly, she stepped up, onto the sidewalk. She wore a long white cashmere coat, and black leather platform boots that allowed her to almost, but not quite, stand eye-to-eye with Bill. Otherwise, she was probably about five foot three. Red mittens matched her red scarf.
She stepped forward until her face filled his entire field of view. Standing with her hands at her sides, she studied his eyes. "Uh huh," she said, "none of my business." She leaned so her face was even closer. Bill stared back into her blue eyes, uncomfortably.
"You know someone jumped off this bridge two weeks ago', she said.
"Yeah, I know," Bill responded sullenly. He didn't really want to discuss it. But she was so pretty he wouldn't mind talking to her for a while. She was cuter than cute. "I didn't know him," Bill said, trying to muster a smile.
"Where is your car?" she asked, taking two steps back.
Bill relaxed a little. As much as he liked this girl in close up, he was glad to have a little more space. He gestured down the bridge, toward the lot. The sleet, mixed with freezing rain, was coming down harder now.
"Hop in, we'll give you ride" she said, gesturing with her red mitten at the door she had left open.
"That's ok."
"What's ok? Come on! We'd like to give you a ride"
Bill bent down to look into the car. If this girl's boyfriend was some big Guido he was not getting in. He blinked and looked again. The driver was not only another woman, but dressed exactly the same. Weird!
"What are you, in some kind of singing group or something?" he asked.
"Something like that," she said impatiently. "Now please get in! It's too shitty out here!" Bill shrugged and plunked himself onto the seat. What's the worst thing that could happen?
The girl closed the door behind him and got in the back seat.
The lady in the driver's seat smiled at him and chirped "Hi, I'm Eileen!"
Bill thought he was seeing things. He twisted his body around to look behind him. "You're twins!"
"Yes," replied the girl in the back seat. "I'm Irene".
"Cute! You're parents had fun with that, didn't they?"
"Fun is what we're all about", said Eileen. She put the car in gear and let out the clutch.
Irene laughed. "Last year, visiting in Japan, we were both Irene." She playfully pushed the back of his head. "What's your name?"
Bill pointed up ahead. "My car is in this lot on the right!"
"That's not your name." said Eileen.
"What?" said Bill. "Hey this is it! Turn here!"
Eileen drove by without slowing down. "I can't stop. The road's too icy. No braking action." She laughed, and then said seriously, "Irene said we'd give you a ride."
"But I didn't say a ride to your car." Irene said.
"Well it wasn't an unreasonable assumption," said Bill, twisting around to look at his car. Soon it was out of sight.
"We are kidnapping you," said Irene, matter-of-factly.
"It's for your own good," said Eileen, bringing the BMW to a slow stop at an intersection.
"Dude! Why don't you tell us your name?" said Irene.
Bill didn't think he liked being called dude. "It's Bill," he said." "Please call me Bill. Now let me ... "
Bill yanked at the door handle to open it, but nothing happened.
"Child locks", said Eileen.
"You aren't joking are you?" asked Bill.
"Nope" said Irene. When the light turned green she accelerated through a left turn and drove up an entrance ramp to the freeway.
Eileen looked over at him. Her expression was suddenly serious. "We couldn't let you jump off that bridge, Bill"