Back from Rainbow Bridge

Author: DreamDancer

What meaning had life? None that I could see. Not only alone in the physical sense, but lonely in spirit as well all the time. Is that how we were meant to be? So it seemed to me. Year in and year out, all these decades of my life.

I tried to have faith, I tried to believe what I’d read, tried to see what other people had and believe that it would someday come to me, but it never did. The few times I thought that I’d become close to someone, fate or whatever it was would intrude and they’d leave me right when I started to believe. And then, the time came when I could believe no more.

I was alone all this time, and things would never change. The hurt and emptiness were my only companions through life. Nothing could change this fact, no one it seemed could affect my lot in life. No one that is, but me.

And so it was that one day it became all too much, I couldn’t stand to greet even one more day in my solitude, never knowing love, never knowing life. I layed down for the night, with some assistance flowing through my veins to make it the night that would never end for me. A gentle passing, for I’d had enough pain in my life without that being the final sensation I experienced.

And so it was that I was very suprised and highly upset with things when I found myself awakening to a bright and sunny new day.

The sunlight through my lids hurt my eyes, but even more so than that, the fact that I’d failed in yet one more thing, what should have been the final thing I did, was much too much to bear.I wanted the sun to go away, to have the darkness return to me, for all time

After laying there a while, I knew it was time to get up, time to suffer through another day, time to think and figure how I could have screwed up even this, my final goal in life.

Nothing left to do but get it over with, I opened my eyes to meet this new day, and felt my breath catch in my throat, for I was not, as I had thought, waking up in my same bed for yet another morning on earth, yet another day to try to find a way to make it through. Instead, I found myself laying on a patch of grass beneath some trees, and next to a straight dirt road.

I must of course have been dreaming, that’s what i thought, though I can usually tell when I’m in the dream state. this did not have the feel of that, not the feel of a dream, it felt real to me, real as the strands of grass that I then registered feeling underneath my hands.

For some reason, this didn’t scare me, waking in those strange surroundings. Maybe it was because I was dead to life and didn’t much care, maybe I’d lost my mind and my connection with reality, which wouldn’t have been such a bad thing at all. It could have been many things, but at the time, it really mattered not to me at all.

And so I rose, looked to the road, and just picked a direction at random and set off. Maybe I’d find something out about this place in which I’d found myself, and maybe not, but then it really didn’t matter, did it?

I walked and walked, minutes or hours I cannot say, for I really didn’t note the passage of time nor distance. I walked as if in a daze, not noting if I went over hills or around bends, just walking, walking.

I walked, until I came to an abrupt halt when before me something registered in my sight, something so out of the norm that it snatched me from my mindless state. There before me was something , the likes of which I’d never seen before, the likes of which I’d never even imagined.

It was a bridge I saw there before me, a bridge like no other I’d ever seen or dreamed of. A bridge that, it seemed, was formed of a rainbow. Solid looking as i gazed upon it, yet also looking to be insubstantial at the same time.

I walked up to where the bridge began, and looked across to the other side, but somehow I couldn’t quite focus. I could see the other side, but for some reason I couldn’t tell what was there. Should I try to cross this bridge I wondered? Should I try and see what awaits on the other side, so strangely hidden from my sight? Would I even make it, or would the insubstantial bridge not hold me, and simply let me plunge on through it?

What did I have to lose though? If I walked across, all well and good. If I fell through, even to my death, what would it really matter? And so I took my first step, and then another and another. Soon I found myself not plunging through, but at the halfway point of the bridge, though I still could not clearly see the other side, close as I now was to it.

As I put my foot forward for yet another step, I was brought up short, for bounding across the bridge at me now was a big, scruffy looking brown haired dog, barking like there was no tomorrow. I felt a touch of nostalgia in me, he looked so much like the last dog I ever had., so many years ago. Reefer, my closest companion through my high school years. Silly name, I know, but as a teen I thought it was kind of cool. Silly name or not though, he was the best frriend I’d ever had, and I never got myself another dog after he had passed away from old age. I guess I should say that this looked like a young Reefer, from the time before old age wouldn’t let him play, from a time before his arthritus made it so he couldn’t run and could barely even walk.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t notice how close he was until he blew into me and bowled me off my feet. Tail shaking so hard it looked like his body was suffering a fit, he sprawled on top of me, licking my face and mewling in pleasure, just like he always used to do when I’d been away from him for a long while.

Just like he’d always done when I’d been away from him for a long while? It WAS Reefer!! Alive again.Young again. I pulled his big furry body close to me, hugging him and stroking his head, rolling back and forth with each other. I didn’t know how this had come to be, but I didn’t really care. I was with my only friend once again.

Great as it was to be down on the ground and rolling around with him, all too soon it came time to stop, to get up on my feet once more. I looked again at the far side of the bridge, and while I still couldn’t see what awaited me there, it was starting to grow clearer in my eyes. How good it felt to know it was coming clearer. and to know that I would be able to go and see it with my best friend by my side. I beckoned him along and took a step toward the far side of the bridge.

Reefer did something strange at this point. Rather than bound to my side as he always had, he moved toward the side of the bridge I’d started from, turned and looked back at me, and started barking once more. Not the excited, happy to see me bark as before, but a bark to draw my attention to him. I didn’t know what he wanted, but I was not in the mood to play his game. I took a couple steps toward the far side of the bridge, and then looked back at him once more.

Reefer didn’t come. In fact, he bounded another several paces away from me, turn back and started to bark at me, even more furiously than before.

I stood and looked at him for a time, thinking to go back to him and see what was wong, but I felt the call of the far side of the bridge, and just had to see what was there. Even without my only friend if he chose not to come, the feeling was growing that strong.

I called him to my side one more time, but he wouldn’t budge, resolutely stood his ground.

With one last sad glance at him, I turned to be off to the far side of the bridge.

“You really should listen to him you know. He’s never steered you wrong”. I almost stumbled in surpise, hearing a girls voice address me so, when Reefer and I had been alone on the bridge. I turned around to see, standing before me a young girl and a man. Two people I’d know before, two people I’d know who had passed away in years gone by. Margie, the prettiest girl in school, who had died in a car wreck the week after graduation, and John from work who had died of cancer three years ago. I’d had a crush on Margie all through high school, and was devestated when she’d passed.

“Well, I guess I succeded after all if you two are here. I’m dead and have reached the afterlife. Is this Heaven then, or someplace else?”

Margie smiled at me then. “No, this is not Heaven. This, my friend, is what they call the Rainbow Bridge. When the time comes, you cross this way, cross this bridge, to reach Heaven, the Summerlands, Paradise, or whatever you believe it to be called. The people who loved you in life will meet you here and guide you across, make you welcome and unafraid as you venture into the afterlife”.

I wasn’t understanding at this point. I’d had a crush on Margie, as I’ve said, but aside from talking to her and helping her with schoolwork, we never had much to do with each other, and nothing in the romantic sort of way. This I pointed out to her.

“Well, I had a crush on you during high school too, but you never thought to ask me out. I wondered why then, but I know now. You were too shy and didn’t have a high regard for yourself at the time, so you thought I’d never be interested. I would have, but I also loved you because you didn’t only want to be around me for my looks. You talked to me and helped me as a person. That made you very special in my life”.

But what about John then? I only knew him from work, we occassionally passed the time of day, but never socialized, never had much of a ralationship besides passing the time of day.

“When I was so sick the last few years I knew you, you were the only one I knew who would take time to come by and just talk, not to give me pity. The only one who would always smile at me in passing, the only one that treated me as a person who was sick, not treated me as the sickness itself. It may sound silly to you, but I loved you for those little things”.

Margie stepped up to me then and hugged me close. She then pulled back a little ways and looked me deep in the eyes.

“You have to turn around and go back now” she said. “I told you Reefer was a smart dog and he’d never steer you wrong. This is the place where those who loved you in life will meet you when you pass over, and where you will meet those that you’ve loved in life as well”.