Jumper

 

The Calvin Coolidge Bridge over the mighty Connecticut River.

 

I was once institutionalized with a guy who told me he tried to commit suicide by jumping off the Calvin Coolidge Bridge. I don't remember the details of what sorta emotional tempest impelled him to attempt such a desperate deed. Something to do with a woman, I think. 

In any case, he ended up walking onto the bridge....

 

 

 ....and then hurling himself over the edge. 

 

 

The moment after he jumped, he felt a soul-wrenching wave of terrible regret sweep over him for what he had done. As he tumbled through space, all the way down he screamed, "NOOOOOOOOO.....

He hit the water with a mighty splash before plunging beneath the surface into the watery depths below. Down, down, down he sank, but never hit the river's bottom.  His descent slowed to a pause, then he began to rise at an accelerating speed, finally bobbing back up to the surface like a cork, floating in the water, completely unharmed. 

He swam toward land, where he then sat on the shore for a bit. Might as well live, he decided, and started to walk back home in his sopping wet clothes. 

That was around 2008. About a year ago I ran into him at the Haymarket. 

He looked great. 

 

 

Pretty good crowd this week at the Northampton farmer's market. 

 

 

View from a table in the food court at Tower Square/Baystate West. 

 

 

Have a good holiday weekend everybody!