28
William had a blinding thought. While the others comforted each other and tried to absorb his startling news, he slowly walked away toward the Natural Bridge. He was focused on the underside of the bridge. He could see droplets of water being released from the rock above. There was a missing piece to this puzzle! He felt compelled to find out what exactly caused the time transfer to occur at this very spot. He knew it was something to do with this place, this bridge, these droplets.
“The droplets!” William had blurted out loud.
“What is it, William?”
Thomas was holding Sarah’s hand and had turned in William’s direction. He realized something was amiss with William and commenced walking toward him.
“The droplets! They are responsible for the time transference phenomenon. I can feel it! They seem to be calling me. I must find out how this can be.”
William approached the center of the bridge, walking trance-like, ignoring the others. William’s eyes were locked in a frozen stare at the underside of the bridge. William was focusing on the droplets of water forming on the underside of the bridge and falling to the grass below. As Thomas came to within a few feet of William, he called to him. William did not respond.
Thomas turned to face the others. He noticed that they moved forward, but remained just behind him.
“I think there is something wrong with William!” Thomas whispered.
“Do you think it is safe to interfere?” Rachel whispered back. The others were not sure what she meant.
“Rachel, I am sure William will be okay. Let’s leave him to try to understand what happened here with Daniel.”
William now was focusing on the origin of the droplets bombarding his shoulders, hair, forehead, cheeks and chin. His eyes closed momentarily, and as a droplet hit the bridge of his nose, his left eye opened to see a droplet just leaving the underside of the bridge. His eye followed the individual droplet down, catching it head on. William let out a scream that was only heard for a split second. As the water droplet hit the surface of his open eye a second droplet directly behind it found his open mouth and entered the center of his throat.
Thomas was just turning back toward William and stepping closer to him. The others were also stepping behind Thomas, huddled as if they were walking through a haunted house.
A downpour of water met their feet. As the water splashed up onto their legs, Sarah was the first to scream. Thomas pulled back and stood up on his toes.
“Aaaa!”
Thomas’s hands were up in the air, as if he were standing at the very edge of a precipice, afraid of plunging to his death. Clarence was holding Sarah by the shoulders. His face cringed at the painful reminder that he had witnessed this occurrence before. Clarence, not wanting to see any more, turned his head down and away.
“No!”
Rachel did not react to Clarence’s scream; she did not turn in his direction; she did not say a word, she just looked in amazement as water slammed to the ground. The quantity of water now splashing on her clothing and that of the others as well as the grass around them, equaled in volume to what a grown man the size of William would displace if fully immersed in a tub filled to its rim. A puddle quickly soaking into the grassy ground now lay where William used to be standing.
Thomas looked up to the ceiling of the bridge. He was shaking like a leaf, his complexion white, and he appeared to be chilled solid. Thomas’s vision and hearing blurred as he fainted.