Walk Away II

Neither of us was in a joking mood. I lived close to down town. On the way, we had to cross over Pegram’s Creek. Most of the time it was a little muddy ditch. But when it rained, it's dull personality changed for the worst. It was now a dark swirling boiling mass just below the height of the bridge. The storm, the radio and the car's engine were not enough to drowned out its furious roar. Way too loud for something you never thought about before! The storm still raged.

            "Ben, you better hurry your ass home after you drop me! We’ll drink the rest of the beer later!" I had to shout at him over the storm.

"Cool.”, he replied.­

            I knew he was nervous about the ride home alone. Anybody not scared in that situation is too dumb to breathe. I offered him the couch, but he said he would be fine. I guess he didn't want anyone to think he was a wimp. Hell, I’d done the same thing for the same reason. In an instant, the storm swallowed him up and he disappeared from my sight. I called Charlotte just before the phone died. There were no lights. I wanted to call Ben. I saw him the next day and he was not the same. The dark swirling water just below the bridge was the first thing I thought of when I woke the next morning. I wasn't worried about Ben. After all he always made it home. Until I got the call from his mom, I figured we would be drinking and having a blast, like every other Saturday night. She said Ben was okay now, but he almost lost his life on Pegram's Creek Bridge after he left my house. He wanted to see me. Right away, I left to go see him. The muddy water had receded below the bridge leaving behind branches and a lot of dried mud covering the road. The water was almost at its usual level. I knew I would never look at it the same again. Ben's house, a proud old southern mansion, looked as it always did. The difference was inside. Ben's mother, who thought of herself as a southern lady first, warned me Ben was not in his right mind. Her large brown eyes filled up with hope when I told her it was probably nothing a little time wouldn't take care of.  That was all I could think to say at the time. She hurried me up to his room, and I thought it was a little strange when I realized Ben was still in bed. No one had said a word about him being hurt. I knew something was wrong the moment I looked into his eyes. Were they full of pain? 

  

"Hey man, understand yer lucky to be alive after last night." I said.

"Yeah... Maybe not." He replied in a slow somber voice.

            "You dragged yourself out of the car before the water swept it away and pulled your self to safety and yeah maybe not is all you can say?"

            "No Jimmy... That's not what happened at all. The reason I wanted to see you... is... well you're the only one who will hear the truth about what happened. They hear... But they don't listen.”

“Listen to what, hear what?” I was confused.

"I... I didn't drag myself out of the car on my own, or make it to the water's edge on my own. No, no listen to me! Mom was not there! Mr. Shoe, he saved my life." his voice was cracking.

I listened dumbfounded. His mom had a different version. After a few minutes, he got his emotions under control and went on.

“I was too scared to move when the car stalled on the bridge. I froze, like a scared rabbit. How long I don't know. Couldn't have been too long. Then, from out of nowhere, I heard his voice, he said "Hang on boy, I'll get ya outta there!!”

"I don’t know how he even made it to the car through that rushing water and the driving rain. That old man was the most beautiful thing I ever saw. I was still too scared to move. Finally, he coaxed me into letting him help me get out of the car. There was no way to open the door in all of that water. When I felt how strong the pull of the current was, I was even more frightened. But... He wouldn't give up. He kept coaxing me along.

"Come on boy, we is gonna make it. C’mon, ain’t that far now!" After a long pause, he went on. “We almost did make it. When we left the car, the water was waist high. We got to where the water was down around our knees. I thought we had done it... Then, I slipped! I’d been carried away right then had Mr. Shoe not grabbed me. He fell to. He had to be real tired by that time. We held on to each other. The current dragged us slowly, edging us closer to going around the guardrail. Being swept away with everything else, we would be done for.”

"Boy,” he said. "I don’t think the both of us is gonna make it! You let go o’ me an make a jump for the high ground n may be one o’ us ‘will make it!"

            "NO, we both can make it!!” I answered in vain. The cold water was getting the best of us. Pulling Mr. Shoe any closer to the water's edge was out of the question. We were a few moments from being swept off the bridge. The current got the upper hand and I lost my grip on him. Instinctively, I lunged for the edge of the water. I knew I could make then. I looked back toward Mr. Shoe, just in time to see him disappear around the edge. I think he even smiled at me, but he was gone so fast, I'm not sure.”

Silence settled across Ben’s large room. Ben didn't have to explain what the problem was. I knew. People are not good or evil, they're both at the same time. Place and time have a lot to do with the mix. Ben's parents couldn’t accept the truth as it was. Their whole value system would collapse if they did. It was not possible for a poor old worthless black man like Mr. Shoe to ever do anyone any good, much less save their son! Really, the blacks looked out for blacks and whites looked out for whites. A poor old piece of human garbage save their son? Out of the question! To their way of thinking, that was not possible. If it was, all they have ever learned about people was wrong. This gets harder and harder to accept with age. Instead of accepting the truth about what happened, they invented a story in their minds about their brave son and it became fact for them. If Ben had been a few years older, he too would know how to lie to himself. Mr. Shoe saved more than Ben's life that night, he saved his soul. At my young age, I somehow knew all of this. Ben and I spoke little more that day, there was little else to be said.

Part II in a few days.