Page 124 of Shine: Sins of the Father
Everything about her standing there is setting off alarm bells in my head.
She’s going to jump. She’s trying to get the nerve up.
I pull to the side, and dismount, yanking my helmet and throwing it to the side before jogging back to her. I slow as I approach, not wanting to scare her.
“Miss, are you okay? You need help?” I glance around. Where did she come from? I don’t spot a vehicle. And then I see it. An old bicycle leaned against the rail ten yards back.
“Go away.”
“Can’t do that. I’d never forgive myself if I rode away and left you standing here.”
“Please. I don’t want you here. I just want to be alone.”
“Honey, there’s nothing in this world worth taking that jump.”
“Yes, there is.” Her voice is as shaky as her legs.
I hold my hand out toward her and inch closer. “Just… let’s talk. Just for a minute.”
“No. Please just go.”
“Just for a minute.”
“It won’t matter.”
“Can I tell you about my day?”
She doesn’t reply.
I move closer. “Started out pretty crummy. I lost my girl, got an eviction notice in the mailbox, then my boss tells me he doesn’t need me anymore. Has to cut back. So in the space of a day, I lost my girl, my home and my job. Hell, I’d be on that rail with you, but you know what happened?”
“What?” she whispers.
“I said, fuck it. I’ll just leave, go somewhere else, start over. What’s that saying? The first day of the rest of your life? So I decided I’d shake all that shit off. Cause God apparently has other plans for me. Sometimes he takes away everything to make room for some even better stuff.”
“Like what?”
“Like I stopped to help this guy fix his flat tire, and he ends up offering me a job at his garage makin’ twice what I was makin’, and you know what else?”
“What?”
“It comes with a free place to live above the garage as long as I watch out for the place, you know, make sure he doesn’t get robbed.”
“That’s good,” she says, but she’s still starin’ at that water.
“But that’s not all. I stop to get gas and say fuck it, so I buy me a scratcher ticket. I never buy lottery tickets, but somethin’ made me look up at them. So I give five bucks and scratch it right there on the counter. Won fifteen grand.”
“You’re telling me a story. You didn’t really win, did you?”
I pull the thing out of my pocket. That gets her head to swivel.
“Come on. I’ll buy you a meal, and you can help me decide how to spend it. How about that? You want to jump off a bridge… there’s always tomorrow, right?”
A truck rumbles past and lays on its horn. That’s when I make a lunge for her and grab her around the waist, hauling her back. I drop to my ass, taking her down with me, and lean against the rail.
The truck hits its brakes and comes to a stop. The guy is out with a tire iron in his hand, running toward us.
“Get your hands off that gal, you hear me, asshole? I crack your skull open, I swear to God.”
