Lenny broke out of the lazy orbit he had been doing, high above the bridge, divebombing towards the asshole."If it ain’t one goddamn thing, it’s another!!"
"MOVE IT!!"
"Look, you asshole – if I miss this meeting because of you – I’ll throw you off this damn bridge myself!!!"
"Jesus Christ, just go ahead and do it!!"
Lenny surveyed the scene below carefully. This one – this one was gonna get real ugly real quick. Not exactly what he was trained to do, but he could handle it. He ran the situation through his mind again as he approached, barely able to think beneath all the car horns blaring and screaming motorists in his mind and on the bridge below.
What an asshole, he thought. Picking five o’clock traffic to climb over the edge of the Edmond Penn Bridge? For somebody screaming that there was nothing to live for any more, he sure wanted to go out with a bang.
He glanced to the west, where the Jefferson Falls PD was stuck in the same traffic mess this asshole was causing. They weren’t gonna get here any time soon. And from the look on the asshole’s face, he wasn’t jumping any time soon, either. He checked the time again. 4:51. Things were only going to get worse from here.
"A-Central, I’m going in," he signaled.
"Copy that, A-2."
Lenny broke out of the lazy orbit he had been doing, high above the bridge, divebombing towards the asshole.
"Look! Up in the sky!"
"It’s The American!"
Lenny loved that shit. It was the best part of the job, as far as he was concerned. Made him feel like a rock star, or the center fielder for the Yankees, the Dallas Cowboy quarterback. Here I come to save the day, he sang softly to himself as he descended.
Lenny landed softly on the bridge, on the other side of the steel guide wires from the jumper asshole. He was pleased with himself; the flying had been easy, from the get-go almost, but he had had trouble with the landing. It’d been almost three full years now, and he was just now starting to get the hang of it.
He thought the cape had something to do with it. It was a little heavy, he thought, and somehow threw him off balance when he landed. He had tried to get rid of it, but the PR assholes made that a no-go, and it was right back on the next day. Some bullshit about Q ratings, and Gallup polls, and whatever. . .
Lenny adjusted his mask, gave a little wave to the cheering commuters who had now climbed out of their cars for a better look, thankfully laying off the horns to let him work.
"Don’t come any closer! I’m gonna jump!"
Here we go, Lenny thought. Let’s hear all about it.
"Sir," he said loudly, just in case there were any media present, just like he’d been trained to do. "Sir. You don’t want to do that, sir. Why would you do that?"
Lenny took a careful step towards the man, who flinched, but was otherwise still. "She can’t – She can’t do this to me! Her and her lawyers! They’re my kids, too, dammit!!"
Fuck, Lenny said. At least now I’ve got an angle to play. "Sir," he said, taking a step over the guide wire, not worried about anything, the guy, now that he was close enough to actually read him, obviously too much of a chickenshit to actually do it. "If you do this, your kids. . .you’ll never see them grow old. Never see them graduate from law school – "
Fuck! Shoulda said medical school! The guy said he hated lawyers! "Never see them get married." Softly, now, right beside the man. "Never see your grandkids."
The guy’s eyes were still wild, but Lenny knew he had the situation under control. He spoke very softly now, the media too far away to hear anything now. "Listen to me, asshole," he said. "You got a shit deal in life? Fuck you. These people here on this bridge – they’re trying to get home, take care of their own shit deals. And you’re messing all that up."
Lenny was rolling now, getting through. "I don’t give two shits one way or the other – Jump or don’t. I. Don’t. Care. Just get the fuck off this bridge, so we can get on with our lives."
The guy didn’t move, didn’t speak, stunned by Lenny’s spiel. Lenny reached out a hand to the man, and in a moment that would replayed on every front page and every six o’clock broadcast in America, the man took it.
And then the man jumped.
You fucker, Lenny thought, his genetically altered body easily supporting the weight of his body and the shock of his fall.
I can’t believe this. The man flailed, wiggling, trying to get free, Lenny making no effort to pull him back up. As far back as the media was, it probably looked to the world like he was doing everything he could to hold on.
And then Lenny let go.
The man plummeted, and Lenny made a good show of reaching for him, throwing himself onto the deck of the bridge in effort. He flew after him just a hair too late, and followed him down just a hair too slow, and was just a hair’s width away from grabbing the man before he splattered into a wet mess on the concrete and steel base of the bridge’s support pillar, and bounced off, down into the river below.
Lenny turned around and headed back for the bridge. He landed softly – another nice one, he thought – and made another good show, this time staring longingly towards the water, head bowed in apparent disbelief, thanking God he had the mask today, to cover up the big grin on his face.
Fuck it, he said. Traffic problem solved.
Bio: "Previously, I have published Sunvolt at www.scifi-zine.com, and my story Ridealong will be included in the upcoming issue of Unwarranted Confessions. During the day, I am a mild-mannered retail manager. But by night. . ."
E-mail: frankburns@hotmail.com
URL: with http://www.geocities.com/frank_byrns/superstories
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