Brighter
— Excuse-me, I’m tryin’ to find the bridge Saint Peter.
He stopped pulling the baggage out of the car, raised up his head and looked behind him, seeking the owner of that sweet voice. His eyes faced a strange woman. She was wearin’ black jeans and a gray t-shirt, the same color of the sky above ‘em.
She looked sad, but yet, incredibly beautiful, with deep blue eyes and provocative lips.
— I’m sorry, I don’t know how to get there. – He answered. – I’m kinda new around here. I just arrived from Sidney, long drive, you know… But, I can ask my brother about the bridge. He’s at work now, but I can call.
He didn’t know why all this emergency in helping that unknown girl. Maybe the sorrow hidden between her words and movements.
— Ah, it would be so nice of you. But I don’t want you to bother your brother, I can ask someone else.
— No, please, let me help you. – He said almost immediately, pulling the cell phone from inside his pocket, opening the flip and pressing the buttons.
She was nervous. And that was very clear because her hands didn’t stop shaking since she got there and asked for directions. And also, she seems to be sweating, and that was really odd, ‘cause the time was so damn cold that even the breath could freeze inside the lungs.
— Hey, Martin! It’s Nick! Listen to me, there’s a friend of mine here who wants to know how to get to the Saint Peter Bridge… Yeah, we’re in front of your house, I just got here and… Sure, sure, I’m all right, sorry I didn’t call earlier and… Yeah, I know, I’m gonna feed the damn fishes, now answer me, how can her get to that bridge?
And he listened carefully to the instructions, but his attention was so strong, that he didn’t realized that the woman was already walking away from him, looking for something in the air around her..
— Hey, lady, where are you goin’?? – He was runnin’ after her.
She stopped and thought that he was too nice to know what she was about to do. So, the girl only smiled at him, made a signal with her hands that no more directions was needed, and continued to walk along the street.
He was confuse, and kind of desperate to help her. He knew somethin’ was very wrong about everything that happened in the last minutes, but who was him? No one to her! He didn’t want to admit but he was obsessed by a woman he not even knew the name!
— Why do you wanna go there? To that bridge… It’s a bad day, with all those clouds in the sky… A storm is comin’… – He was walkin besides her, without lookin’ at her face.
— I’m tryin’ to find my own peace of mind.
— And what the bridge has to do with that? Can’t you just meditate alone inside a warm room at you house? Do you really need to find peace of mind in the middle of a comin’ storm?
She laughed, and at that exactly moment, he felt like she was the brightest girl he ever know. Shining just like a star. Somethin’ about all that mystery was caughtin’ him like a spell. She got him completely under her magical skills.
— On the bridge I can feel like I got wings… – She said while her eyes stared nowhere.
— And why that?
— I’m gonna fly away… To some new fantasy world where I can be myself, where no masks are needed, where no one needs to hide inside ‘em what they really think and feel… I’m gonna fly away to my own little piece of liberty…
And then he realized why all that sorrow hidden so well.
— But… You can’t… I mean… You can’t do that, you… You have so much to live! – The last sentence sounded empty, but he didn’t know what to talk, he never faced a suicide before. And he was walking her to the bridge without noticing it.
Only when the great pillars of concrete appeared on the horizon, revealing the beginning of that old bridge, he stopped himself and grabbed her hand with violence.
— I won’t let you do it.
— Why not? You don’t even know me! Let me go, now! Or I’ll scream you’re assaulting me!
— And so what? Call the cops? Come on, do it! I dare you!
She not even opened her mouth. They both knew that if the cops were noticed about an attempt of suicide, a whole circus would be born there, with journalists, firemans and a bunch of curious.
He let her hands smoothly, feeling a little guilty about it. But he needed to do something more invasive, that girl wanted to kill herself!
— Gimme just one good reason to live, and I’ll go to my home right now. – She said. – Now it’s my time to dare you.
He swallowed in dry. What can you say to make someone believe that was better living than dying?
— Look, the world is fucked up, okay? And I know that, but you can’t just end it all like that! Don’t give up, girl, there’s a lot of things to be discovered out there! You look so young, and you’re so beautiful!
— Oh, please, don’t come with that bullshit about beauty, poetry and how good the world could be if we learn how to look from another point of view. I’ve been hearin’ it for all my life, and I just think that all these little reasons are too fragile. Well, surprise! Now they’re all broken, and nothin’ can fix that! So just get the hell out of here, and let me jump from this bridged, because in the last moments of my freakin’ life I wanna feel like nothin’ else exists around me, not even you or this pointless conversation.
He never felt so weak. What else he could say? He just stepped back, showing agreement.
He didn’t stand there to watch anything. Not even to hear the sound of her body crashing down there, into the ocean, and all her bones and dreams breakin’ together…
But in his mind, she never got really drowned. She only made what she wanted. Got to the bridge, opened her angel wings, and flew away to another world… Somewhere better than this, somewhere brighter, like her smile on that cloudy day…
