Short Stories : Under the Bridge

Short Stories : Under the Bridge

Many things in this world happen for a reason. All of us here, who have drawn the accidental luckless to live in the first world, do everything - and I really mean everything, just because there is a reason. Only very rarely do our actions have no deeper meaning or purpose, whereby we are often not clear about their meaning.

We get up every morning. On the one hand, there are biological reasons for this, on the other hand, it is due to social constraints. The boss calls; or the children have to go to school. If we don't get up, we also have reasons - because we are free or sick.

 

The decision between coffee or tea follows a little later. Be honest and admit that coffee is simply the better doping agent for early morning hours. But you can hardly do without the black gold now. You didn't want to drink that much anymore, remember? Whether you take the filter out of the package or turn on the kettle is a decision for which you have reasons.

 

People need reasons. You need them so that they can give a meaningful disguise to your actions. You need them so that your everyday life is structured and life, with its unexpected twists and turns, still retains its common thread that everyone has to struggle with. Exceptions are undesirable. But just because there is a need for order and structure does not mean that this desire is heard by our environment or even the universe. That in turn is utter nonsense.

We speak of a construct, a concept. An assumption that there is a deeper meaning in all of our actions. It is in our human nature to do things that harm us - sometimes even kill us. Today we break our legs when getting out of the car, tomorrow a malignant cell lump develops in our organs and eats us up from the inside. Where is the deeper meaning?

Such unexpected events can force us to break out of our structure. We are forced to do things that may have no purpose or simply speak against our nature. Sometimes these irrational, groundless acts can be just right to prevent the worst; on the other hand, they can end in death as well ...

The morning had been great, they had only played spanking games and later imitated the associated “moves” on the trampoline in the garden. With his thicker stature, as mom puts it, Tom had sweated a lot more than his buddy Oscar, but he didn't care. Still, it was fun and no one had cracked any slogans about fat. Oscar wasn't like that.

But now there are three of them. And the saying counter is already counting the four. They all hang out in the garden together - He, Oscar and this Eric. They play the quartet that Eric brought from home. It's about insects. Tom thinks it's disgusting, but Eric likes insects. If he doesn't say anything about Tom's overweight, then he talks to the little crawlers.

"Ey, the critters can survive an atomic bomb!", Or "boy, they only have a queen who lays a thousand eggs! How crass is that ?! ”, he hears him babble.

Oscar has also calmed down a bit. Tom wondered if he might have forgotten to meet Eric. At school he had at least not mentioned any of this three-way constellation. He also doesn't seem to like the quartet of insects.

Oscar's mother comes out and brings them drinks. Tom knows that there is also a sugar-free lemonade in the kitchen. He wants you most, but doesn't dare to ask. He remembers that Oscar mentioned something about a diabetic sister at school. He doesn't know how sick she really is and doesn't dare at all. Instead, he takes a coke.

In addition to delicious drinks, spanking games from the age of 16 and a trampoline in the garden, there was really nothing he lacked at Oscar. He was really glad that he had met someone so quickly in the new class. “It is not easy for a boy with his stature; Children, especially at his age, can be so cruel. ”- All those sayings that he had picked up in the heated conversations between mom and dad had not come true. Oscar had just become a good friend who didn't care about weight.

"Finally tell me how many legs you have?", Is probably not Eric's first question when he brings Tom back into the now. He points to Tom's last card with his finger.

"Then over with it!"

He is happy to hand over his last card, so he no longer has to play. Oscar gives him a "you lucky" look and Tom can't hide his grin.

"What's going on?" Eric asks immediately. "Is there a problem or something? Did you cheat !? ”

"Nobody cheats here," Oscar answers calmly. "But playing cards in the weather is kind of boring, isn't it Tom?"

"Yeah, a little bit," Tom is uncomfortable admitting that to Eric. Although he doesn't like the guy, he still doesn't want to upset him. On the other hand, he is glad that Oscar said something and quickly adds a supportive “We could go to the kiosk at the school?” added.

"I think that's good, what do you mean?" Oscar's question is addressed to Eric.

He looks baffled at his many cards, which he wrested from the two during the game. He looks a bit like a sulking toddler, but finally he puts his quartet back in the small plastic box and leans back in the garden chair.

"As you like," it comes back dry. "But I don't have any coal with me."

"It doesn't matter, we're throwing together!", And Oscar gives the starting signal to leave.

The three boys pack their things, including a bit of money, a few small bottles of lemonade, and Oscar even takes a scout book and equipment with him - in case they should go exploring later. Tom notices that he still has his remote-controlled monster truck with the flame tongues on it. If they later pass the skating rink, he could land a real blast with the boys again. Eric, on the other hand, makes no move, he still grieves after his insects.

After the supplies and the most important equipment for a new adventure are packed, the boys set off. The expedition is stopped again at the level of the garden gate.

"Oscar Kolesnikow, didn't you forget something?"

They look back and see Oscar's mother standing on the terrace. Next to her is a little girl who is holding her hand. Oscar immediately starts rolling his eyes and leaning back.

“Oh come on mom! Not today!"

"How not today?" his mother is outraged. "Not yesterday, and all last week you have ..."

"Yeah, that's fine!" Oscar interrupts. It is now almost as red as Tom's face. He turns around and takes his sister by the hand. He lets his mother feel an evil eye again and then comes back.

 

"You don't have to look like that, young man!" Comes after them as they walk through the garden gate. Had Ms. K. known that these were her last words to her son, she would have chosen others.

 

A short time later, the boys and the little girl named Anna are on the sidewalk towards the kiosk. There they want to stock up on further supplies. Tom's previous anticipation has now flattened out, he is quietly following Oscar and his sister. Eric strolls not far behind him. When the group reaches the kiosk, right next to the closed school, they buy a few snacks and then go over to the benches next to the sports hall, where they immediately open the first bag of the bought chips.

“So what do you do? It's extremely boring here! ”Comes out of Eric, who didn't say a word all the way there.

"We can't do much, I have this ankle bracelet on my ass now," Oscar points to his sister to his left.

"Ass is a bad word!" "Mom says you can't say ass!"

"Mom says a lot." Oscar sighs and puts his hands in his face.

"If it goes on like this, I'll go home," Eric begins to threaten. "A little action would be cool. I also have a great suggestion! ” Tom secretly hopes that he will simply carry out his threat instead of talking again.

“There's this fat drain pipe, under the bridge by the stream. Recently you removed the gate and you can crawl in now. ”

Tom knows what drain pipe he means; it is on his way to school. You can easily climb down the side of the old wooden bridge into the embankment and then you were already down there. It was really a good hiding place and a perfect base for further exploration. What was new to him, however, was that the grille on the pipe had been removed. He could only remember the completely overgrown, shut-off pipe. And in general the idea was not to crawl into it - he was overweight and afraid of rats. What if he got stuck or bit?

"You can forget, mom will kill me if we go there with Anna," Oscar now waves.

"I don't tell mom if I can say ass!" Anna suggests while tugging on her brother's sleeve. “Please, Oscar! I promise! Indi word of honor ”

"That means Indians," says Oscar, checking his boys' looks.

They look at each other and weigh silently. Actually only he and Oscar - for Eric it's already a done deal. Tom doesn't really know what to make of the idea. It really sounds like an adventure, he doesn't want to look like a coward and finally nods. “Yes, because of me. Sounds cool. ”

 

"Do you really swear?" Oscar asks his sister again. "I don't want to see crossed fingers!"

 

“Indian Honor!”

 

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Asks a much more cheerful Eric, who apparently has taken the lead. Who had actually made him a determiner?

 

Each of them takes a crumbly hand chip, after which Eric throws the bag on the floor. Tom picks them up and puts them in the trash can, then he catches up with them and they go on together. On the way, they imagine how they will discover a body there, solve the case and be declared heroes of the city.

The old wooden bridge can be seen from afar. It stands between a small sports field and a path that leads directly along the field. Tom doesn't like this path, he has to go to school every morning. However, they come from as if he was out of school; that makes it better.

When they arrive at the bridge, they unfasten their backpacks and climb over the small, musty wooden fence next to it. Oscar has to help his sister climb over, but after that they almost made it. Through the thickly vegetated embankment, we now go down the side of the bridge to the stream bed. There is a lot of rubbish and scrap around under the bridge. The said drain pipe, next to the embankment, actually has no grille. Fixed iron bars are attached directly under the bridge for stabilization. Tom remembers how he used to walk under the poles - when he was even thinner. Something excites him to try it again. But when he jumps up to hold on to the first beam, he immediately slips off and lands hard on the butt.

Loud laughter breaks out of Eric, he pats his knee and then points to Tom, who is still sitting in the dirt. "Haha! N’s a few pounds too fat, right? ”

At that moment, Tom wanted to go straight home. He didn't like Eric - maybe he even hated him.

"You're just an asshole, Eric," he hears out of anger and pain. Eric did not expect such an answer and looks at him with wide eyes. Now he has to add more quickly, otherwise he would be intimidated again. “If you think you can do better, try it! Big sayings all the time, but nothing behind it. ”

"Soso," says Eric, rolling his arms up. "The fat one wants a test of courage, he can have it."

Eric stands in front of Tom and looks at the beams under the bridge. Oscar and Anna are still a little further away and look at the competition with discontent. Tom is already tired of arguing, but it is too late for a retreat. Why had he tried it at all? Eric starts, takes a run, jumps past Tom with a pinch. He gets hold of a pole, dangles back and forth violently a few times, but at some point he rocks only slightly - and gets stuck. Then he sucks in the air loudly and ventures to the next bar, then to the next bar, then to the next. He is now over the stream bed and a fall would mean wet clothes. Tom catches his fingers crossed for this scenario. Then that idiot would have to go home and they would be rid of him.

To his regret, Eric puts in a real feat and finally manages to reach the other side dry. When he lets go, he lands on his feet and claps his hands a few times.

“You see, fat bag? No problem for me."

"Then that's cleared up," throws in Oscar, who now goes to Tom, who is still sitting in the dirt.

He gives him a hand and Tom tries to get up without falling again. He wonders why Oscar can only have such an idiot as a friend when he is such a really nice guy himself.

“Nothing clarified! He called me an asshole and challenged me! ”Eric protests on the other side. "Now it's his turn!"

"You already saw that I can't do that," says Tom, who really doesn't feel like anger anymore.

“Then climb down the drain or something. That’s where it belongs anyway. ”

Tom had feared that he would say that now. He looks at the pipe that protrudes from the ground a few meters away from the stream. No ten dogs would get him in there, Eric should mess around as he wants. Then he notices something.

"Where's Anna?" He asks more about himself than about the others. He looks at Oscar, who also turns and looks at the empty embankment.

"It was just there a moment ago," says Eric annoyed from the other side.

"But not now, you Tarzan idiot!", Oscar blurted out, he would want to say something that he had to keep to himself for a long time.

Oscar, quickly goes back to the embankment and climbs up again. "Anna ?! Anna ?! ”, the two silent boys hear him call under the bridge. They look into each other's eyes briefly and decide to end their competition.

Some time later he comes skidding back down. Panic is written on his face. Is he crying a bit?

"Where is she ?!" he demands from them. "Tom, you must have seen something!"

He can only think well where Anna has gone. And he believes that Oscar knows it too, just doesn't want to admit it yet.

"She ..- She was right next to the pipe," he says hoarsely. Oscar now loses all color from his face and Tom feels terrible.

"Anna ?!" he shouts again, his voice under the bridge sounding like a large room. But Anna doesn't answer. Only the river and the wind in the bushes can be heard. A cyclist drives over the bridge and lets it wiggle briefly from below, then he is gone again.

"Oh shit, oh damn shit!" Oscar cries.

Tom wants to take a step towards his friend, but he immediately turns and goes to the pipe.

“Anna! Anna! Hello ?! ”, he shouts into the pipe, Tom stands behind him.

Eric is now climbing on the other side to join them. Obviously, he too has lost the desire for acrobatic tests of courage. When he dares to look into the pipe himself, fear grips him. It is like a black hole that devours all light after a few meters or a tunnel into nothing.

"Wh-what do we do now?" He asks.

 

“I'm going in there now. Anna needs her insulin. Somebody should go home and call mom. ”Oscar answers in a strangely calm tone. He seems to have already made a plan, but Tom is not sure.

"Maybe we should go straight to your mom?"

"No time.", Comes back in response, then Oscar begins to crawl into the pipe.

"Ey, wait a minute!", Tom wants to stop him somehow, but he doesn't know how.

"No time.", It echoes again from the pipe, seeing Oscar now crawling deeper and deeper. It doesn't take long for Anna's brother to disappear into the dark.

There he squats and looks into the incredible darkness, from which he can always hear his friend's moaning and crawling. He feels so helpless and useless - on top of that guilty of this whole story. Without his stupid argument, Anna would never have gone unnoticed. Why is she doing this at all? Now he would have preferred an insect quartet a thousand times. For my sake, all afternoon - all weekend, the main thing is not this.

"What am I doing here?" He thinks and realizes that he may be wasting valuable time. “And where is Eric? He should be back with us a long time ago. ”

He turns away from the pipe and looks around. After Eric climbed the embankment on the other side, he didn't come back. Is he still on the go? Is he already getting help? A dark but perfectly probable premonition creeps up on him.

"I'll be right back!" He calls into the reverberating pipe and then climbs up to the wooden fence where they have parked their backpacks. He sees his and he sees Oscar's backpack, also a small purple handbag for girls - but not a fourth backpack.

“You stupid asshole! You stupid, stupid-asshole! ”He calls, hoping that Eric can hear him.

Tom grabs the remaining backpacks and the handbag and slides down again. He has the feeling that the situation is increasingly coming out of his now cold, sweaty hands. Next he leans back to the pipe and calls in:

"Everything OK? Did you find her?"

Silence. Nothing. He doesn't get an answer.

"Oscar ?!" he repeated shakily.

Tom is listening to the pipe. There was no more crawling or moaning. There was only darkness and silence. He climbs in about a meter now and calls again. “Oscar! Anna! ”But he doesn't get an answer.

Then he climbs out again. Something has happened to them in the pipe and they need help, but he is alone. What to do How much time did he have before something really bad happened? Has it already happened? Should he go for help or stay with them? He can think of a thousand good reasons for every decision, but he has to choose a path. At that moment Tom wants his own mom or dad - the main thing is someone who knows what to do. Then, finally, his brain starts rattling and looking for ways.

He takes off his backpack and takes out the remote-controlled monster truck. For a brief moment, he prays that the batteries in the remote control are still functional, but the truck responds easily to his inputs. He parked the vehicle in front of the pipe, then a second thought occurred to him.

He searches his friend's backpack and finds all kinds of exciting things that could have filled a wonderful afternoon for two. There would have been something even for stupid Eric. However, no flashlight. Finally, he has to make do with a few glow sticks from the side pocket that he immediately begins to snap. Then he tries to attach it to the truck somehow, which turns out to be more shaky than expected. But does he really have a choice? "It just has to work now."

He picks up the remote control and his exploration vehicle and sits in front of the pipe. Then he actuates the joystick and his glowing monster truck begins to advance. At first, Tom thinks the glow sticks are of no help, but as soon as the truck is a little deeper he can see a little something. It is not much, but the small glowing vehicle remains in sight in the dark. For a brief moment, Tom imagines Oscar sitting next to him and they explore the tunnel with their special vehicle, but he quickly rejects the thought. Oscar was in there and he was out here.

 

The truck penetrates the slippery tube about a good twenty meters, then one of the glow sticks on the way is lost, suddenly the entire plug-in structure comes loose and the lights remain on the floor while the vehicle continues to drive into the dark. "Nei-in!" It echoes into the pipe. Nevertheless, he decides to continue the mission.

At some point Tom hears a noise: spinning toy tires. He knows the sound well, because it happens to him that the monster truck gets stuck somewhere. He tries to navigate his truck a little around the place, which turns out to be extremely difficult if you don't see the vehicle. Perhaps it is something big that cannot be avoided. Suddenly it runs cold down his back. Maybe it's Oscar or Anna.

But that should mean they should have heard his calls all the time. And if it really was, then ...

“... then I stare at her corpses all the time without being able to see them. Maybe they look back all the time without realizing it. ”

 

At this moment, the fuses are finally turning over. Tom gets up and looks around for the last time - no one in sight. He is alone. No one will come to the rescue so quickly. Then he goes on all fours and crawls into the pipe, which previously also devoured his new, best friend and his sister. Soon he too will be eaten by the dark. There is still a slight crawling and sobbing from outside. Then there is silence again under the bridge.

Author : Marlon Fischer