My heart settled into a dead calm as I stood on the bridge staring at the gray water below. The sharp little waves were dusted with snow…like white roses lying atop a coffin. My trench coat was blowing in the howling wind, and my scarf had long since been snatched away by the frigid gusts that chilled both my body and soul.

If ignorance is bliss, I should be laughing about now. Instead, the warm tears rolling down my cheeks are turning to ice in a matter of seconds. How can a man be so caught up in his own little world that everything else eludes him? How did life come crashing down around me so fast? All the signs were there, I simply missed them…oh, what a clueless fool!

I stared into the abyss below me, my hands now frozen to the steel rail. It was hard to keep my footing; the snow had covered the bridge and become a solid sheet of ice. The water murmured below me, beckoning. I slid one leg over the rail, took a final breath, and prepared to jump.

Suddenly, I heard a blood-curdling scream for help. A woman’s voice, but from where? My eyes scanned the darkness, but the snow was cascading in circles around me. I could see nothing. I slid from the rail back onto the bridge and frantically called out, “Where are you?”

“Here,” she screamed, “my baby…in the water. Please help!”

The voice was coming from the river’s bank below the bridge. Remembering the cell phone in my coat pocket, I dialed 911, then without thinking jumped over the rail into the murky water below. When I went under, I lost my breath for a few seconds, then my numb body surfaced. From the bank, someone was focusing a flashlight on a floating basket near me. I heard the shrill cry of an infant, and following the rays from the light, I managed to maneuver the basket to shore. A woman stood there sobbing. I heard her mutter the words, “God bless you”, and then I lost consciousness.

I awoke to the antiseptic smell of a hospital emergency room. A doctor was mumbling, “I don’t know why we bother with these jumpers. Evidently, they have a death wish anyway.”

“The baby…how is the baby?” I was shocked at the frailty of my own voice.

“He must be delusional”, said the nurse…“something about a baby. Was there any mention of a child?”

“No”, muttered another strange voice. “When he dialed the police, he just yelled ‘need help…hurry! I’m going in…Stones River Bridge.’ ”

“Well”, said the doctor, “probably just a subconscious cry for help. I guess he didn’t want to die after all.”

Copyright © 2007 Barbara Cagle Ray