The Burning Bridge

“Five people against one, that's not fair,” he cried to his angry family.

“We know the truth,” Judy the outspoken of the five cried, “and you know we do.”

“And what exactly is “the truth” you're going with this time?” James cried out.

“You know you did it,” Judy made James back up onto the old wooden bridge.

The bridge was creaky and old with a wetness that had a sweet, yet pungent smell.

“And what was it that I did? How can I deny it when I don't know what “it” is?”

That was when Judy came out with the most outlandish unbelievable story.

What made it worse, was that the other four backed her up in unison.

“Where do you get your facts,” James backed further onto the bridge.

“I got my facts from her,” one of the four pointed to another of the four.

“Who got his facts from her, who got his facts..., round and around we go.”

The five looked at James like he was crazy, mocking their round robin.

“OK, who first started presenting these “facts”? I already know.”

“Well, so-n-so said that he thought he saw someone that looked like you...” said Judy.

“Really? You're basing your facts on that, and you don't even know if it was me?”

“Wait,” one of the four said, “you spoke as if it were the truth. But... it's not!”

“Too little too late,” James was halfway across the bridge, as the five stayed put.

“What the hell are you doing?” One of the four saw James pull out a box of matches.

“I'm getting tired of this, every time we meet it's something new,” James struck a match.

“Please James,” Judy watched the match light up, “stop! You are my brother!”

“You should have thought of that before you started making stuff up about me.”

The match fell from James' hand and onto a puddle of gasoline, a wall of fire jumped up between them.

“I'm sorry it won't happen again,” Judy backed away from the wall of flame.

“You said that last time and 15 times before that,” James watched the flames crawl down the sides of the bridge, “you can't help doing what you do. So we're through. Dear sister.”

“So you're going to stand in the middle of a burning bridge?”

“I have a path through the fire,” James watched as the fire jumped to a tree near Judy, “in a minute you won't!”

“Come on,” pleaded the four as they pulled Judy away from the bridge, “he's dead to us.”

“If I'm dead to you then there should be no more stories about me,” James followed the path through the fire safely to the other side just as the bridge was fully engulfed in flame, “right?”