Burning Bridges

Picture Copyright © 2012 Lindsey Buehrer

How long have I stared at that bridge and done nothing?  Years.  That's the answer, years.  Freedom just on the other side and yet I sit and wait for the moment to come when it's all over.  But, how is it possible to live like that?  That's what my dear sister used to ask me.  I suppose she is now my inspiration.  I now have to cross that bridge in her memory.

My sister was everything to me.  She was smart, funny, courageous, beautiful. A loving caring person as well as a fighter.  She knew what she believed in and she acted on it.  That's why they took her.  She had a way with the people; she could rally them with just a few well-placed whispers.

Before, I used to sit across on the banks and look at the fiery burning light of the Over Town.  All of their beautiful lights that glowed hazy and red across the river awed my soul and I couldn't get enough of the sight.  Sometimes my sister would sit with me and we would just peacefully watch the lights twinkling on the other side.  My sister dreamed to see the streets in person someday.

Now that is what I dream.  I dream it because it was her dream and they took her because she believed she had the right.  She, and all of us, should be free to go wherever we please and do whatever we like.  My sister said it didn't matter how we grew up or from where we came.  Some of the people believed her; a lot of people wanted deeply to.  

So, on the eve of a new year, I led a revolution in the name of my sister.  We cautiously moved through town on our side of the bridge until we got to the last sorry, leaning building in town.  We huddled behind it and planned our next move.  Eight of us would provide a distraction to lead the guards away from the bridge while the remaining ten would storm the entrance and muscle our way through to the other side.  What we did when we got there was still unplanned.

Quietly, with our breath steaming around us, we waited as the eight rebels swung back behind the crumbling building to create a distraction.  The wait was beginning to frighten me, it seemed like it had been too long.  But then, a great light erupted not too far from where we were hiding.  We watched the guards react in surprise and then they dashed off to investigate.  A large fire was burning from a warehouse that was challenging the light from across the river.  

Quickly the group I led rushed the bridge.  With no one to guard it, the job was an easy one.  We raced down the bridge feeling the cold air against our faces.  We held out our weapons in front of us, just in case of ambush.  At the midpoint of the bridge we paused to regroup.  I turned around to face our town.  The fire had spread down the waterfront.  All of the old and dying buildings that stood there sadly were in flames.  The trees below were burning and the fire wasn't yet finished.  I prayed that it didn't creep near the housing that lay just beyond the first block.

   

The last few of the rebellion caught us up and we, now having caught our breath, were moving again cautiously toward the far side of the river to Over Town.  We had been told stories of Over Town for our entire lives.  The elders used these stories to keep us occupied while our parents went to slave away in the factories that now burned at our backs.  These stories told of rich men and women dancing and feasting in glorious gowns under the ever burning lamps.  Lamps, the elders said, that could be turned on with a simple switch.  To young impressionable children, the concept was so far stretched.  

As we crept toward our freedom, a euphoria seemed to be seeping into our bones.  It was becoming more difficult to remain composed as the sight of freedom loomed right in front of us.  The beauty of the lamps that glowed so brightly captivated us.  If my sister were still alive, she'd have some calming words of wisdom to instill in the group.  We wouldn't be getting as worked up in the light of all the events around us.  My sister, who knew and inspired so many of the people I was leading, always knew the right thing to say.  

The end of the bridge was nearing and we tried to start staying in the shadows that the bridge created around us.  The light was our salvation.  We moved silently along the metal rungs of the bridge, practically holding our breath so as to not make a sound.  Then the alarm bell began tolling from the depths of the town behind us.  We could hear screams slicing through the air.  We had a choice: Turn back to help our own or march forward to freedom.  What would my sister have done?  I knew the answer, but we were so incredibly close to the other side now.

I tore back through the group, headed to help back in the town.  My sister would have helped her people.  Guilt rained down on me, I should have turned back to help when I saw the waterfront burning.  What would happen now?  All our places of work up in flames.  No prospects of food or money to buy food anywhere in our future.  But then I had an idea.  Something that no one could overlook. 

We raced back in to the town we had so desperately tried to leave.  Pandemonium was in the streets.  Our little group went around trying to calm everyone down, telling them to meet by the bridge in an hour with anything from home they could easily carry.  Spread the message, we told them.  We hurried through town to help; we rescued people from buildings and helped them to the bridge.  The whole town was soon to be on fire.  The fire had been too keenly kindled and the properties of our riverside were too desolate and old to withstand such trauma.  

An hour later, we headed back to the bridge to find over two hundred people standing shivering by the river.  We mounted the steps to the bridge and they looked up with fear and despair in their eyes.  Then I spoke, embodied by my sister's strength and spirit.

"My friends, we have every right to cross this bridge to safety.  We can overcome this tragedy if we move together as one people.  A people who have the right to work.  A people who have the right to live and be happy.  A people who have the right to have a warm bed and a full stomach.  We can leave all of this behind us if we leave now."

I had seen what it would be like if we stayed.  Bewitched by the lights, I knew that if we stayed we would all die much sooner rather than later.  This was the fate my sister had foreseen and now I saw it too.  We had our choice and the opportunity rose grandly in front of all of us now.  

The rebellion had begun.  We were now choosing to refuse to live in poverty where we had no lights, no heat, and hardly any food.  We were packing up our lives while our town burned behind us and we crossed the bridge in one grand display.  They cannot take what is rightfully ours!  On the far side of the bridge we came up to the guards.  They turned and looked at the mass crossing the bridge.  I could see a crowd of people already gathering on the other side of the guards, curious to see such a bright light coming from the dark side of the river.  

What a sight we must have been all covered in soot looking like we'd never bathed in our lives.  But, something in that appearance stirred compassion in the crowd below.  The guards were severely outnumbered by our townsfolk, a mere four to over two hundred.  Wives, husbands, children disturbed from their slumber in the dead of night all rallied together to freedom.  We were begrudgingly allowed to pass from the bridge into Over Town because the crowd was welcoming us.  The ladies, with no regard to their sparkling dresses, ushered us toward the center of town and helped us find food, water, and shelter.  We all stood in the gleaming lights and found it all to be wonderful.

How had we ever thought that Over Town was full of terrible people?  Even the rich have human hearts, my sister used to say, you just have to find a way into them. 


Burning Bridges © 2012 Katherine Kovanda

Stars of the Deep

I'm not easily fooled; I pride myself in that.  I may have travelled down as far as I could, and I may have seen some freaky stuff, but that doesn't prove a damn thing.   In the end it all comes down to what you allow yourself to believe.  But, I don't think telling you what I saw would convince anyone else.  It's something you have to see for yourself.  Real or hallucination, it's your choice.

They say the bottom of the ocean is the world's last mystery.  From there, it's off to the moon, outer space.  Lucky for me, we haven't figured out the ocean yet.  There are places yet untouched.  Personally, I hope we never discover ever secret the ocean holds.  Why do we need to know everything?  That would be boring.
 
But, fascination draws a person to the unknown and so I took a highly sophisticated, technological submarine down, further than a lot of scientist hope to go.  It was dark and, like the fog, it has a way of making a person feel extremely isolated.  It doesn't matter if you have people checking in with you every five minutes or if the radio is blaring.  Seeing nothing all pressing around you makes you feel alone.


If I was less of an adventurer I'd have been terrified.  The silence and the nothingness and the idea that the ocean could crunch you into a squished cube at any second are enough to freak anyone out.  But, my curiosity was strong, perhaps too strong and that made me a bit careless.  I allowed the sub to drift a bit off course and that's when it happened.

All of the lights went out.  I don't know why, but just the lights, everything else was still working until the craft drifted under the ridge.  Then communications were blocked.  Thankfully life support was still running, though I still don't understand how.  We'll call it a miracle.
In the dark a panic began rising in my chest.  I was trying to breathe normally reminding myself that no matter how panicked I became my situation was still the same.  I stared out into the darkness.  I don't know what I was looking for but it was better than staring at the dead controls in the ship.  I continued to stare out, hoping to see something, anything really.

At first I thought I must be hallucinating.  I wanted to see something so badly that I was imagining a slight glow coming from far back in the cave under the ridge.  But, as it got closer, it also got brighter.  My heart was beating fast in anticipation.  What had I discovered?  Was it dangerous?  I began fumbling again with the controls trying anything to get them going so I could get out from under the ridge.  Nothing worked still.
 
I could do nothing but wait and drift in my nonresponsive ship.  More lights became visible away from the craft.  I was getting nervous and a little cold.  I waited and watched the lights coming closer for five minutes.  The suspense was killing me.  Then it swam by.

It was a large creature, but it moved with a slow grace.  It almost floated through the water and it billowed like silk in the wind.  Lights grew out of its skin and it glowed like a star-filled sky.  The rest of the creatures approached where the ship was.  Their movements were slowly dragging the ship back toward the opening of the ridge, like somehow they could sense I needed their help.

Around swirled the creatures of the deep that looked like the night sky they had never seen.  The creatures looked delicate, but the depths they swam and lived at suggested otherwise.  I was in awe of their lighted beauty.  I wanted to capture the memory of them and keep it forever.  With a sinking feeling, I realized without photographic proof no one would believe me or understand how incredible these creatures were.

When I was finally pulled back out from under the ridge the creatures disappeared.  The lights came back on in the ship and the little engine powered back up.  As soon as everything was functional the crew's messages from the surface started buzzing in.  There was a panic up top; the little pod had been out of reach for fifteen minutes.  Fifteen glorious minutes alone with the stars of the deep.

I didn't tell anyone.  But I wanted to write it down so in case I die, at least someone will know.   I couldn't tell anyone, they'd think I was crazy.  That experience changed my life.  Sometimes it's hard to pick out the moments that really change you, but that was definitely one of those moments when you believe you have seen one of God's rare creations.  There is no chance it couldn't change your life, seeing something like that.



 Stars of the Deep © 2012 Katherine Kovanda