in smoking ruins.
It ends in suspicion of things not done, and in the certainty of
things done and remembered. It ends with selfishness and carelessness,
and words, always words.
It ends with pain and gteyness, and it leaves scar tissue and damage
that will never heal.
Or it ends without fuss and fury. It just crumbles and blows away like
dust on the wind. But there is still the agony of loss.
Both these endings I know well, for I have loved twice, and now I
love again.
Perhaps this time it does not have to be that way.
Perhaps this time it will last. Nothing is for ever, he thought.
Nothing is for ever, not even life, and perhaps this time if I cherish
it and tend it carefully it will last that long, as long as life.
'We are nearly at the bridge,' said Shermaine beside him, and
Bruce started. The miles had dropped unseen behind them and now the
forest was thickening. It crouched closer to the earth, greener and
darker along the river.
Bruce slowed the Ford and the forest became dense bush around them, the
road tunnel through it. They came round one last bend in the track and
out of the tunnel of green vegetation into the clearing where the road
met the railway line and ran beside it on to the heavy timber platform
of the bridge.
Bruce stopped the Ranchero, switched off the engine and they all sat
silently, staring out at the solid jungle on the far bank with its
screen of creepers and monkey-ropes hanging down, trailing the surface
of the deep green swiftflowing river. They stared at the stumps of the
bridge thrusting out from each bank towards each other like the arms of
parted lovers; at the wide gap between with the timbers still
smouldering and the smoke drifting away downstream over the green water.
'It's gone,' said Shermaine. 'It's been burnt.'
'Oh, no,' groaned
Bruce.' Oh, God, no!' With an effort he pulled his eyes from the charred
remains of the bridge and turned them on to the jungle about them, a
hundred feet away, ringing them in. Hostile, silent. 'Don't get out of
the car,' he snapped as Shermaine reached for the door handle.
'Roll your window up, quickly.' She obeyed.
'They're waiting in there.' He pointed at the edge of the jungle.
Behind them the first of the convoy came round the bend into the
clearing. Bruce jumped from the Ford and ran back towards the leading
truck.
'Don't get out, stay inside,' he shouted and ran on down the line,
repeating the instruction to each of them as he passed.
When he reached Ruffy's cab he jumped on to the running board, jerked
the door open, slipped in on to the seat and slammed the door.
'They've burnt the bridge.'
'What's happened to the boys we left to guard it?'
'I don't know but we'll find out. Pull up alongside the others so that I
can talk to them.' Through the half-open window he issued his orders to
each of the drivers and within ten minutes all the vehicles had been
