Bridge Over Troubled Water

Early Wednesday evening, August 1st, 2007.

The two boys stood on the bank of the Mississippi River that flowed through the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

They could see that evening traffic rush hour had begun on the Minneapolis Bridge.

"Did you know," Henry said to Jimmy, "that some mysterious phantom pirate figure has been killing people around the world the past couple of weeks?"

"You're making that up," Jimmy said.

"No, I'm not," Henry protested, "various blogging sites around the world have noted it. This pirate first killed a couple of fishermen off the coast of Maine. Then he killed a whole bunch of US Coast Guard officers off the coast of South Carolina. And only yesterday he killed a CIA agent on the Nile River not far from Cairo."

"How's he able to get his pirate ship around the world so fast?" Jimmy demanded to know.

"I don't know," Henry shrugged his shoulders, "it's obviously a supernatural pirate ship. It seems to come out of nowhere."

"Both you and those bloggers you read are crazy," Jimmy laughed.

"Are not," Henry's face turned red.

"Are too," Jimmy stuck his tongue out at him.

"Oh my gosh, look, there it is," Henry pointed at the tall vast pirate ship with the huge mast that he saw.

"There what is?" Jimmy looked in the direction Henry was pointing but could see nothing.

"You see it don't you?" Henry looked at Jimmy curiously, "that tall black ship with the pirates' flag on its sails and that huge black mast? And that huge blood red lettering on the front of the ship? LEVIATHAN?".

"You're making that up," Jimmy screamed at Henry.

It dawned on Henry that Jimmy couldn't see the ship.

Maybe Jimmy was right.

Maybe he was crazy.

"Look... look... Jimmy," Henry pointed again, "there it is. It's headed right for the bridge. And its huge mast is going to clip that bridge."

"I'm going to clip your nose, pal," Jimmy raised his fist.

Then he stopped as both boys heard a cracking sound.

They both turned to look and in a space of only 4 seconds, the Minneapolis Bridge collapsed and came down like a house of cards.

Both boys looked in horror.

Henry even more so.

For further down stream, a pirate captain figure stood on the back of the ship smiling at the collapsed bridge.

The pirate captain had the head of a crocodile and the tongue of a snake.

And in his arm that was made of flesh (and not metallic like his other arm), he held a living cobra.

The pirate threw the cobra into the waters of the Mississippi where it seemed to swim in the direction of the motor vehicles that were now in the water.

To be continued.