DEATH IS COMING
Jeff
and Josh decided that they would visit their triplet brother, since he had to
work on their birthday. They rode down
the long road to his bridge operator house, and went in to drink coffee with
John, and enjoy some time together. They
laughed as they retold and relived, in their minds, childhood exploits. The three brothers had been little
fire-brands. They still loved to laugh
and lived life fully.
Through
his window, Jeff saw smoke blowing, with embers sparkling in the wind, from
across the bridge that crossed the river chasm in the distance. They ran outside to see hundreds of people
scrambling on to the RR tracks from everywhere, running toward them, trying
desperately to escape the forest fire blazing behind them. Some were already at the bridge, screaming to
John to let down the bridge.
Jeff
and Josh watched as John repeatedly pushed the button that let down the bridge. But, the switch was not working. Josh, an electrician quickly located the
cause of the malfunction – rats had chewed apart the power cord, outside,
leading to the bridge trestle motor.
With a ladder, Josh could almost pull together the two separated cable
ends.
Then, Jeff’s
face got ashen and asked if they could hear in the distance the whistle of a
long, black train, barreling toward the RR bridge control light. They looked at each other, and whispered, in
unison, “death is coming.” John knew
that if he let down the bridge, the red light up the track would go off. Josh knew he did not have time to splice the
cable. Jeff took off running up the
track, hoping to stop the train before it got past the point of no-return. He yelled wildly and waved his hands.
Josh
looked sternly at John, through the window of the control room, and mouthed the
words, “you have to do it” as he barehanded grabbed the two cable ends,
completing the circuit. John, with tears
filling his eyes, pushed the button to lower the bridge. Josh lit up the sky!
The
bridge creaked downward, and the people, with bewildered looks, ran across to
safety. Some collapsed, in exhaustion,
with their little ones in their arms. With
smoke filled lungs, many of the people ran up the tracks to warn the train they
heard approaching in the distance. Many
jumped to safety. Others just laughed
and raised their drinks in a toast to the joke, as the train sped on around the
curve.
But, it
was no joke. And, many began to ask who
lit the fire? Others wanted to know why
John put down the bridge and let the train barrel ahead! But, John just stared at the top of the
ladder.
