The Bridge

As I stood there on the bridge, for hopefully the last time, I was waiting for my whole life to flash before my eyes like it did in the movies. The edge was quite flailed, unlike the last time I was there. Ah, the last time. I remember coming to the exact same spot about three years ago ready to jump. I remember looking down on the cold merciless water, thrashing on the rocks as I dangled one of my feet across the edge, ready to make the leap, when, “Oi!”, yelled a voice from across the bridge. “You looking to jump too?”, the voice asked. I planted my feet back on the bridge, lest I fall, and looked over to identify the voice. It was a man dressed in all black, standing on the edge. He looked like he was in the same position I was. Not the edge of the bridge, but broken in life. He stood across looking over at me, while I did the same. “Yeah!”, I yelled back. “What about you?” “Yeah, I’m gonna jump too”, he replied.
A feeling of disappointment rushed through my head. Here he was, a young man with all the things he could live for in the world, deciding to end it. “You don’t have to do it”, I said. “There’s much to live for. There can’t possibly be anything worse than death. You don’t have to jump.” “Well one could say the same about you, you hypocrite”, he replied, in a very judgemental tone. And to that, I replied, “I have lost everyone and everything in life, and I literally have nothing to live for. I have no career, no hopes, no dreams, no wishes. I’m a blank canvas of a human being. Death is the only way.” “Well, you know what? Me too. My only dream was to finish college. Well not anymore. Now all I want is to jump off this bridge, so get off my back”, he yelled back at me. “Well then, it looks like there’s nothing more I can say to you that could possibly change your mind. But I have to say, I do work at a university full of misfits and outcasts. A university that takes in people from all facets of life and moulds them into upstanding professionals in their field. I could help you get in and have you finish whatever degree you were working on.” “Really?” he asked with a glimmer of hope in his eye. But it quickly vanished, and he said to me, “Well I don’t trust you. I don’t trust anyone. You just sound like my last admissions officer.” A fire that was starting to douse seemed to have found a new found catalyst, as he looked down at the bed of rocks right underneath him on the bridge. “Whatever you say, mate.. Go on then, jump!” I said to the young man. “No, you jump”, he replied. “I’ll come right after” “No, go on. You jump”. This ridiculous banter continued for another solid ten minutes before someone overlooking the bridge called the cops and had us both arrested. Aah, that last time. After that, I helped him get admitted to my university. After that, I helped him every step of the way to have a successful education at the university. I helped him through everything. Me and my alma matter successfully pulled a young individual from the brink of suicide and instilled something in his life that he lacked. Magic. Till he finally graduated and moved to the United States. That was when I realized, now is when I no longer has anything to look forward to or have anything to work towards. Which brings us to today, where I once again am standing at the very edge dangling my feet over the water. For one last time, I prepare myself to jump when I hear a strange voice call out to me, “Hey! You looking to jump too?”
