Chapter 43 #3
“I was never embarrassed of you. I was embarrassed by me. But I’m not anymore. And I know what I want.”
“No, you don’t,” he said.
Without another word, he walked across the silo and his hands felt around on the wall for something.
A second later, the hatch door popped open, a slightly darker oval of blue light appeared.
The music poured into the silo. Auggie stepped through the opening and back out into the barn.
I stood in the silo, wondering what to do before the interior barn lights came on again seconds later.
Without another thought, determined to not talk myself out of what I knew to be true, I dashed across the silo and bounded through the hatch door.
A roll of thunder cracked overhead.
Auggie was at his worktable, his back to me. He had turned the radio off and his hands were gripping the edge of the table.
“Fine,” I said, emotionless. “If that’s how you feel.”
“It is,” Auggie said.
“I can’t force you to believe me that I know who I am. That I think you’re brilliant.”
Auggie didn’t respond.
“There’s only one thing left to do,” I said with a shrug.
Auggie tensed at the table, his hands slowly sliding from its edge. He turned to me, a concerned frown on his face. Another crack of thunder sounded overhead and lightning flashed through the skylight.
“What?” he whispered.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I won’t bother you anymore.”
“Jordan—”
Lightning and thunder joined forces in the sky once again.
Then rain began to pour through the skylight into the barn.
Auggie jumped with surprise and ran for the controls to close the skylight.
I could’ve stayed and helped him, but it was a one-man operation.
Instead, I turned, gave a resolved sigh, and raced for the barn doors.
As I approached the barn doors and gripped the handles to throw them open, Auggie screamed from behind me.
“Jordan! Wait!”
I ignored him and threw the doors open. When I raced outside, the rain greeted me, slapping against me, soaking me to the skin immediately.
I didn’t stop running. Pumping my arms, unconcerned with watching my steps, I ran away from the barn, headed south.
I crossed Liberty Lane, nearly slipping on the wet pavement as I tried to put distance between Auggie and me.
Across the tram tracks I fled, then across the patch of grass and trees that separated Starbucks and the post office. When lightning flashed overhead, my eyes landed on Lovelorn Pass Bridge. I continued to run, racing to the wooden bridge, concerned with nothing except one thing.
“Jordan! STOP!”
Auggie’s screams from behind me were barely audible over the rain and rolling thunder, but I knew he was racing after me when I heard him.
My feet slapped along the pavement as I turned on the road to make my way to the bridge.
Resounding hollow “thunks” met my ears as I ran onto the bridge.
At the center, I stopped and turned to the railing, my hands reaching out and gripping it tightly.
I looked up to the sky, rain dropping into my eyes, my hair plastered against my forehead and skull as I watched the lightning dance through the sky. There was only one thing to do.
Auggie’s feet were clomping hurriedly on the bridge when I lifted my foot to the first rail so that I could climb.
“Jordan!” Auggie bellowed as I raised myself up. “Stop it right now!”
Ignoring his pleas, I climbed the railing, being careful to not lose my footing and ruin the ritual. After a few false stars and near slips, I found myself standing on the railing, my back to Susurrus Creek. Precariously, I wobbled on the railing as Auggie ran up, sliding to a stop in front of me.
“Jordan!” he cried out over the thunder.
“It has to be done,” I said with an emotionless shrug. “I don’t want to obsess over you like Amos was with Lilly. That’s not fair.”
“You…you’ve obsessed over me?” he looked up at me, a shocked look illuminated by the lightning.
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” I said, the rain slapping against my back.
“Jordan!” Auggie shook his head. “This is dumb.”
“Then why do you not want me to do it?” I asked, looking down at him.
Auggie screamed over the thunder and rain.
“It’s just an old wives’ tale, Jordan!” he demanded. “It’s not real!”
I snorted with amusement, though I was certain he couldn’t hear.
“You really have to find something to believe in, Auggie,” I said.
He glowered up at me, though a hint of a smile played at the corner of his mouth. I threw my arms out wide.
“AUG—”
I didn’t have time to finish my exclamation.
Auggie’s arms were suddenly reaching up and wrapping around me.
His actions caught me off guard and I startled.
And one foot slipped from the rail like I’d stepped on a banana peel.
A blink of the eye later, I was falling backwards from the bridge.
I had just enough sense about me to realize that Auggie was spilling over to the creek below with me, dragged over the railing by my weight.
I’ve never jumped from a bridge before. For any reason.
I’d never jumped from anything if I wasn’t certain there was something there to keep me from certain doom.
So, it was curious to me that the short fall from the bridge to the creek below seemed to last forever.
As if I was falling in slow motion, my arms and legs flailing wildly as I waited for the impact with the water.
To see if, like everyone else before me, the creek would safely catch me.
When I felt my back connect with the water’s surface, and then the creek gushed up around me in a tidal wave of water kept warm by the summer sun, my breath was ejected from my body.
If I’d known when to expect the impact, I might have held my breath in better.
The suddenness and shock of it all sent me under the water with no safety net.
No way to make sure that I would be able to kick to the surface before I was gasping in lungfuls of water, sealing my doom.
Surprisingly—though it shouldn’t have been—I popped to the surface seconds later.
The fall, though it felt infinite, wasn’t nearly far enough to push me too deep under the surface.
Then again, I’d landed on my back—like a reverse belly flop—that had probably helped, even if it had stung.
Immediately, I began spinning in the water, searching out Auggie.
Lightning ripped through the sky and the thunder purred like a cat, illuminating the creek around me.
Auggie was bobbing in the water a few yards away, glowering at me.
I couldn’t help it. I began to laugh. Uproarious, uninhibited laughter poured forth as I bobbed up and down in the creek, treading water with my swirling arms and legs.
It took him a second to find the humor in it, but Auggie’s laughter finally pealed through the air.
Once again, lightning flashed, bright, but weaker than before, and the thunder sounded—though it seemed to be coming from much further away.
Auggie and I continued treading water and laughing until our eyes met again, and a silent agreement passed between us.
Simultaneously, we spun in the water and began paddling towards the western bank of Susurrus Creek as the rain eased up, turning into a light sprinkle as we made our way to the shore.