Series Of Short Stories

THE BRIDGE

Word count : 2403

Unedited

All my life I've always dreamed of the legend of THE BRIDGE, the legend that had everyone who have heard the story in PAKUA, a small village I've lived in my whole life in, hide under their covers.

The legend was about a faraway place, another world that was completely beautiful and gave you whatever you desired, the place was described picturesquely, that the people of Pakua and everyone who has heard of it call it heaven. The only problem was that to reach the heaven, you had to travel through a very thick forest filled with wild animals, then if you make it out of the forest, you come face to face with the bridge, this bridge, as the legend says, is so long that it reaches the sky, you can see clouds around it but the problem is, the bridge has never allowed anyone reach heaven, it prevents people from even walking to the middle of it by attacking them. They say the air around it was different, you could hear voices of the people, either of the ones that died on the bridge or the ones the bridge wants you to hear, it's said that bridge could turn itself over when one is walking true it, I've also heard of the one whereby the bridge turns one blind and then cuts a rope to trip and kill you. They were different stories on the bridge, even more than heaven and to me all of them were unrealistic.

As a woman who knows the world is beyond this small village and has travelled out of Pakua to other villages, I never believed any of the legends told by our forefathers. I wasn't so loved in Pakua, because for a woman, I was interested in Carpentry work, when I was supposed to look pretty, look for a husband, stay home and birth children for him. All the talks and trouble I had to go through didn't bother me, I got some men who allowed me to join their team and together we built huts, houses and gizmos to help everyone, that at least made people respect me.

I was 23 when I first travelled out of Pakua to a neighboring village, I stayed there for a while because I had to sell some of our Gizmos to them and during my stay I met my late husband, Jadu, we worked together and gradually fell in love. We loved each other to no bounds, but to me, he loved me more as he even left his village to come and stay with me, he left his life behind for me.

When we returned to Pakua as married couples, the villagers were shocked, they never thought I'd ever get married and that too have the man follow me instead of the other way round as it wasn't common, but Jadu and I didn't care about all that. We lived together and had two beautiful kids. A boy and a girl, Magru and Banul.

Two years ago, on a stormy night, a flood happened that killed half of the villagers including my family, my husband and children passed away in that flood, I don't how i survived it but I did. They were only few fortunate people that survived when it happened. The rest of us that were left held and supported each other to grow the village back and whatever we lost. We buried our loved ones and made Pakua great again, but it wasn't as jovial anymore. The ones that lost their family married each other to make sure Pakua had another generation to look forward too. No one talked about folktales or even the legend to the bridge to heaven anymore, no one except me.

The only thing on my mind for the past two years was the legend, I've never believed any of the stories concerning it but now there was nothing I yearned more than that, I wanted to got there and see if I could get what I desired, if I could bring my family back, I didn't care if I died on the way, at least I tried to get my husband and children back, so I started thinking about how to do all this, I started thinking about how I'll get pass the thick dense forest and the bridge.

Some months later, I decided to build a gizmo where it can be used as a means of transportation. I formulated everything in secret until i saw that it was perfect enough to try and manufacture it.