GLENN RICE - AUTHOR

The eighty thousand walkers streamed across the bridge non-stop that connected Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas.  The sixty-fifth annual Labor day bridge walk greeted walkers with a picture perfect day for their five-mile hike across the Straights of Macinaw.  The Macinaw Bridge, coined the Mighty Mac, was built in the fifties and was the longest suspension bridge in the world.  The northern tips of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan are joined by a five-mile wide stretch of connecting waterway, the Straights of Macinaw, creating a dichotomy of water through the state.  The completion of the bridge in 1957 brought the two halves together for the first time since statehood in 1837. The center span of the bridge hung nearly two-hundred feet above the fast moving and cold straights, and today the bright sunshine and clear air transformed the waters to a brilliant navy-sapphire hue.  The breeze was light, the temperature perfect, and love was in the air. 

A small crowd gathered and erupted into applause, whistles and shouts as the minister pronounced the young couple husband and wife.  The couple turned to the railing and faced the waters some two-hundred feet below them.  Together, they recited a short verse wishing peace and harmony for the world, and quietly wished for good fortune and blessings as they began their own journey through life as husband and wife.  Symbolically, Teri released her flower bouquet over the railing and together they watched it silently fall to the water.  The deep waters majestically accepted her offer with open arms, and quickly the swift current whisked the bouquet silently out to sea.  Chet turned and faced Teri and smiled.  She smiled in return.  He took her in his arms and lovingly kissed his new bride.  The crowd erupted again causing them to break the kiss and begin laughing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The early January thunderstorm rocked the New Mexico high desert into a cauldron of furor.  Gale force winds and torrential downpours made hiking the nature trails difficult, as many became impassable.  Chet and Teri pitched camp behind a small precipice sheltering them from the worst of the storm’s fury.  The temperatures were slowly dropping, and nightfall was less then an hour away.  Together they cuddled in the tent exchanging body warmth by sharing the same sleeping bag.  “We might need our phone and food supplies to make it through the night,” Teri offered.  The sounds of thunder rumbled non-stop across the high desert, and the echoes added an eerie entourage effect. 
Chet held her tightly, “The car is a mile back.  If we double-time it, we can make the car easily before nightfall.  Maybe it would be best to sleep in the car for the night.”
She gave a teasing glance, then said, “Not on your life.  These are the adventures we came for.  I say we ride it out until morning.”  Her bedroom eyes glittered and she gave him a devilish smile, “This is a romantic and great night for some lovin’ cowboy.  ‘Til the day we die we’ll talk about the night we made love in this storm.  I’m staying.  You run much faster then I do.  I’ll keep the bed warm and wait right here.”
Chet’s smile and energy could have lit a one hundred-watt light bulb, “Very well then.”  He leaned forward and they locked in a sensuous kiss.  It took all the will power he had to break the kiss.  “Give me thirty and I’ll be back, and punkin’… don’t be surprised if I already have my clothes off when I return,” he said laughing and reached for the zippered door.
“Hey cowboy?” 
“Hey what?”
“Don’t keep me waiting too long, or you’ll really have to pay the price tonight.”  He looked at her with love and admiration, and then he locked her priceless smile into a permanent memory file.  A file that would never be far from recall for the next seventy years of his life.

He zipped the tent door shut and shot off through the heavy rain, and down the winding trail like a cheetah.  As he rounded the first bend, two hundred feet from the tent, he smelled it first.  Ion.  The hairs on his arms and neck stood on end, and then his skin glowed like St. Elmo’s fire, all in the span of less than a second.  The blinding flash of lightning and deafening crack of thunder came next and sent him sprawling across the rocky ground like a human bowling ball.  His face ground into the rocky trail with such force that blood ran from his nose and facial lacerations instantly.  His momentum came to an abrupt halt after slamming into several large rocks.  He heard the crack, and then felt his right wrist snap in two along with his middle two fingers.    “Teri!” he shouted at the top of his lungs as he scrambled to his feet.  He ran the path back and rounded the bend, but horror and disbelief struck him like being hit by a semi-truck when he saw the smoldering tent.  “No, no please not her, please.”

Under normal circumstances, a broken wrist would disable even the gustiest person and pummel them from excruciating pain, but the adrenaline coursing through Chet’s body blocked the pain from his mind.  He reached the tent and ripped through the sides like a human chainsaw.  He dragged Teri from the tent and began one-handed CPR…