BRIDGE OF TERROR

BOT

I hope I am not being too morbid but I wonder how much time I have left? I just wonder. Everyday I travel to work on train I travel up this street and I cross this bridge over the interstate. I rarely travel on the sidewalks. It’s too hard to ride the walks, the sidewalks are not uniform, some are old and broken and others are newer but you have to go up and down the small ramps at each intersection. I just find it much easier just to travel along the side of the street. This, for the most part, is not so bad, especially at the hour I travel to the train at 6:15 even 6: 30 a.m. the traffic is light and I can travel down the center of the street if I like. I try to keep a constant vigil of the road behind me. This is OK—I’m willing to take the risk and the responsibility. Really, the only place where I get nervous is the Bridge of Terror. This is an Interstate over pass. There is a narrow pedestrian walk way on the side of the bridge, a passage blocked off from the main bridge by a small concrete wall. It is narrow enough for two people to pass each other-just barely and there would not be room to let me in my power wheelchair and an oncoming pedestrian pass. I have used the walkway a couple of times but it is spooky in a chair the size of mine. So, most of the time I just cruise down the side of the side of the bridge, hugging the wall as lose as I can. Many times when I am traveling the bridge, I can hear the roar of a truck or car roar up behind me and zoom past. I try not to think about then vehicle but my dark side makes me wonder what would happen if the vehicle just nudged me. I would just go flying- I would be dead or worst: the next Terrie Schivo. I have had two friends, who used wheelchairs for mobility, die from being hit by traffic. I wonder if you feel it or are you just gone. I remember some of the guys from Viet Nam saying “You never here the shot that kills you.” Still, it must be the rush of rushes when you suddenly you are airborne even for a fraction of a second before you black out…forever.