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| Silver Bridge Before Collapse; Point Pleasant, W. Va. A&M 3914, Duez Collection Virginia and Regional History Collection, West Virginia University Libraries. |
Prompt - Unknown Town (500 words): Grab a map of the country you live in and look for the name of the town that you have never heard of before. Do some research on the town so that you build up a picture of the location and its history. Use this town within a story of 500 words or fewer.
***
James was working late, and his cell phone rang. He put his pencil down on the yellow pad where he was jotting some notes and poked the answer button. “James Mason, Point Pleasant Engineering.”
“Mr. Mason, this is Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.”
James felt his stomach clench. There was only one reason the governor of Minnesota would be calling an engineering firm in West Virginia, but he hoped he was wrong.
“We just had one of our big bridges collapse in the cities - the I-35 bridge over the Mississippi in Minneapolis. The NTSA recommended I get you up here.”
Damn it. James felt his arthritic knuckles complain and forced himself to relax his grip on the phone. “Ok, I’ll get on a plane this evening.”
Governor Pawlenty continued, his voice tense, “I’ll have my office buy you tickets, and we’ll put you up in a hotel for as long as you need. What’s your nearest airport?”
“Huntington Tri-state, but buy two tickets out of Port Columbus. I’ll drive the 80 miles. Don’t book anything earlier than 4 hours from now. I’m bringing my intern.”
“Done.” Pawlenty hung up.
Joan had heard James’ half of the conversation. “Hey Boss, what’s up?” she called from her desk.
James sighed, folded up his laptop, and started grabbing equipment from the shelf. “I-35 bridge in Minneapolis collapsed. You see anything on the news?”
“What??” Joan asked but was already looking at her brand-new cell phone. What was it called? IPhone? Smartphone? She could do web searches on it, though. “Oh my god. It looks bad, James.”
“Well, go home and pack. Get dinner. We’re getting on a plane in 4 hours and taking a red-eye to Minneapolis. I’ll pick you up in an hour or so.”
“Ok, will do.” She shut down her computer, gathered her things, and left.
James drove to his home on the other side of Point Pleasant, glancing at the Mothman statue on his way. His wife looked up from the papers she was grading and knew from his face what had happened. “Another bridge collapse?”
He nodded. “Likely neglected infrastructure. I’m flying out tonight from Columbus. I’m taking Joan.”
“Jamie, you’re getting too old for this.”
“I’ll be okay. I’m more worried about Joan. She’s been studying engineering disasters for a year, but I’d hoped that she’d complete her internship without having to see one live, but … I can help her through it this way.”
An hour later, James collected Joan and then drove across the Silver Memorial Bridge into Ohio, bound for the airport.
Joan gazed out the window. “Cantilever bridge. Replaced an eyebar chain suspension bridge that collapsed in … 1968?”
James kept his eyes on the road. “1967. I was 20. My dad was on the bridge when it collapsed. I switched my major from physics to engineering because of it.”
Joan’s eyes widened. “Jesus, James. That’s awful.”
James felt his eyes prickle and blinked the moisture away. “I’d hoped to prevent it from ever happening again. But there have been 36 bridge collapses in the US since then, 375 killed; 365 injured.”
He clenched the steering wheel. “This makes 37,” he said, trying to breathe out his rage and pain, and they sat in silence until they reached the airport.
--April 18, 2021
***
Notes:
- I asked Siri to pick a number from 1-50. I got 35. West Virginia was the 35th state to enter the union.
- I pulled up a list of towns in WV and found that there are 160. Siri gave me 31, and that was Point Pleasant.
- From there, I read about the Silver Bridge collapse in 1967, and that reminded me of when a much-closer-to-me bridge collapsed, the I-35 Bridge in Minneapolis, on August 1, 2007. And from that, this bit of flash fiction was born.
- I missed my word count - this is 547 words.
