Another idea…

I’ve mentioned before how ideas for new stories pop into my head, sometimes inspired by an overheard few words from a passing stranger’s conversation, sometimes the expression on someone’s face when they think others are not looking, or an exchange of glances between two people you know haven’t met before… sometimes it is the words on a poster, or in a graffito, sometimes an innocuous thing, a flower growing between paving stones, a scent from an open window,the shiver of wind through trees can trigger a whole sequence of scenes and characters.

I have a recurring scene, which comes unbidden at unexpected moments. Someone, maybe me, maybe a younger woman, but definitely a woman, walking crossing a high bridge over a motorway at night. Maybe it is open to the elements, maybe it is a covered walk-way with glass panels looking to the racing traffic below. She is just walking, carefree and thinking of perfectly normal things in her perfectly normal life when she becomes aware of someone, probably a man, who is going to throw himself off the bridge. Maybe he is climbing onto the barrier, maybe he is breaking a glass panel with a heavy metal tool he has taken from a bag at his feet… She runs without thought to try and stop him.

He pauses and maybe she grabs his arm, maybe she just meets his gaze, but she is powerless to do anything and he launches himself and dives to the motorway below. She looks in horror at the carnage below, cars crashing, swerving, running into each other, the cacophony of metal screaming against metal, car horns, her own voice shrieking words she barely understands…

She is haunted by what has happened… she sees it in her dreams, is reminded of it by things on TV, by innocent conversation, by the sound of a car horn or screeching tyres. Why did he do it? Who was he? What did he say to her… because now she thinks he spoke before he jumped… there are answers from the inquest, but these  don’t answer her questions…

So this is another bit of a story which has no form, no proper characters, nothing but a couple of random scenes which have somehow arrived in my head!