The Helpful Stranger

Gina was a normal girl; the youngest of two children, with loving parents and a good life in their dreary New York town. Gina was having a bad year though; she started at Watertown High School where her friends all left her, leaving her the main target for bullies, and her grades were dropping because of the stress from the bullying. It was so much different from Case Middle School, it was crueler, and the students knew how to make her cry.

Gina ran off the Watertown school bus, hearing taunts and jeers behind her, she ran to her home and slammed the door closed. It had been a bad day; Gina had admitted to her crush that she liked them, the problem was that her crush was a girl and she rejected Gina in front of the whole school. The entire day; Gina was teased, bullied, and tormented by the other students and it was spread throughout the school that Gina was a lesbian. A man had been watching this all day, a stranger in army fatigues, and he had followed the bus to Gina's house and he continued to watch her as she began to move in her house. People thought nothing of the man, they thought that he was from nearby Fort Drum.

Gina saw the white board by the stairs and her sister's writing on it. The family would leave messages on it; just to let the others know anything that was needed. The board was next to photos of their vacations to Niagara Falls and Corning, from when the family was happier and before Gina's sister had been kicked out of SUNY Oswego.

"Mom and Dad went out. At the mall with the girls. Left you a present on your bed. Haley." was on the white board.

Gina was wary as she walked up the stairs to her room, her door was open, she could see inside the room, her journal was lying open on her bed. Gina threw her backpack on the floor and ran to her journal. Tears started to fall as she read what had been added to her private confessions.

Gina looked through her dark bangs at her journal, tear drops falling on the page where her sister had written things, Gina's tears continued as she continued to read. Unaware that there was a man, a stranger, that was watching her as she sat on her bed, reading the cruel things that had been written.

"Fat piggy! Ugly! Useless! Dyke! Go away and die! Circus Freak! No one loves you! Mom and Dad hate you! JUST DIE!"

It was written all over the page, the page where Gina had written about her crush and her plan to ask her crush out. Gina knew that Haley did not like her but Gina never thought that she would go this far. Gina picked up a pen and began to write.

"Mom, Dad, I'm sorry and I love you. Haley, you drove me to this."

Gina wrote, her tears dotting the short letter, in depression and she left the book open on her bed. Gina went over to the white dresser in her room and she picked up the backpack that was on the floor in front of it. Gina did not have much time before her parents would be home, she had to hurry, she emptied the backpack. Pencils, notebooks, and school books spilling out at her feet.

Gina looked at the rocks on top of her dresser; clumps of sea glass, or "lightning rocks" as she called them because they were created when lightning hit the sand on a beach, there were several of them and they were heavy. Gina put one after another inside her backpack, the pack getting heavier and heavier, she finally stopped and she ran out of the house. She headed to the Pearl Street Bridge, it was only a couple blocks away, it was the easiest way and everyone knew that she did not like the bridge and tried to avoid it. Gina never saw the man that was following her, the same man that had been watching her from the street across from her room; he followed her to the bridge and waited patiently.

Gina stood at the edge of the Pearl Street Bridge, the sound of the Black River below pounded in her ears, the mist came up and blew in her face, and Gina took a deep breath. She was going to do this, the bag would weigh her down and she would drown in the river, but her feet would not move. Gina swallowed her fear and looked down, the dark water rushed against some rocks and turned white with the waves, this was a foolproof way to die.

"Are you going to do it?" asked a voice.

Gina gasped and she turned around. A man was next to her, tall and muscular, wearing army fatigues. His dark eyes, like the water rushing below them, were boring into her.

"Do what?" Gina asked, trying to play it cool but her voice was shaking.

"Jump." The stranger answered, he looked down at the water.

"A sure way to die." He continued.

"How did you know?"

"I was in the same spot, wanting to die, at the very edge, just like you are now. But I was in Canton, back when I was attending SUNY Potsdam."

"But you didn't kill yourself?"

"No, I found a better way."

"Really? So it will get better?" Gina asked, her spirits rising.

"Maybe." The stranger said before he looked at Gina again.

"Then I shouldn't jump? I should try to find a way to deal with it?" Gina asked, a smile on her lips.

"You could." The stranger said.

"Thank you for listening. How do you deal with it?" Gina asked.

He put a hand on her shoulder, a smile on his own face, a friendly gesture for a girl with no friends.

"Helping others like you." The man said.

He looked at her and his smile was suddenly creepy, it showed too many teeth, it made Gina uncomfortable. The stranger put his other hand on her shoulder, using all his strength and weight, he threw her over the bridge. Gina screamed as she plummeted down to the water and the rocks. She hit the water and sank, the rocks in her backpack did their job, she was dragged down into the current and she could not surface.

The stranger looked down at the water, a satisfied look on his face, and he let out a contented sigh. He watched as Gina's body disappeared under the rapids of the Black River: he knew that she would be found but that it would be too late to save her.

"Always feels good." He said while smiling.

The stranger walked away, whistling a happy and upbeat tune, he didn't act like he had just killed a girl. He was in the North Country and there were a lot of people that needed his help, they just needed that little push, and he would give it to them.