Small Cruel Party

Bridge

Weak sunlight streamed through mid autumn clouds scudding low overhead. A girl in a black dress was walking hand in hand with a boy wearing black jeans and a t-shirt. Through a dead and fallow field away from the two lane country road they'd parked the car off the boy led the way, pointing out nettles and patches of soft ground. The girl, who wore a pair of lace up boots with a modest heel, took care to avoid that which would tear her dress or cause her to stumble. When the boy looked at the girl from behind clear gray eyes his heart felt a little bit lighter, his mind a little bit less clouded. He crossed a rickety bridge crafted from fallen trees and rusted nails first. When the boy looked down, as boys will when they feel themselves to be challenging nature, he could see tiny pebbles moving apart in the current of the stream. When the boy reached the other side of the stream, he turned and put one hand lightly on the fallen tree branch that now served as a makeshift railing for the little bridge. He looked across the bridge, across the stream, and once he had picked out the girl's dark eyes underneath her long, dark hair, he smiled and beckoned to her. The girl smiled back at the boy, and took a cautious step onto the old bridge. High above them, the clouds broke and a golden ray of sunlight fell to the clearing, onto the little running stream that stood between the boy and the girl. The golden light moved from where it had hit the middle of the stream first slowly to the girl's side, sliding quickly off her black hair before it disappeared behind one of the gray clouds.

-Jason