The Bully versus Covid-19

Jovis Hanley was a bully.

 

Born to privilege, his parents saw to it that he wanted for no material thing. In his formative years, he was given every toy he could put a name to. Servants of every stripe tended to his every need. When he came of age, his parents sent him to the finest schools Toronto and its vicinity had to offer.

 

Jovis was a beautiful baby who grew into a handsome young man.

 

Throughout his early years at the Collegiate he attended, Jovis excelled at sports and had an aptitude for mathematics and the sciences. He was also fluent in French and Latin. He was considered by his teachers to be a well-rounded student with a great future ahead of him. He was equally well-regarded by his many friends.

 

One might be led to believe that scholastic excellence would cause his parents to be proud of Jovis. His mother, Anna, was proud of her son. His father, Steven, only seemed to be proud of Jovis while talking about him to others. At other times, Steven pushed and pushed Jovis to do better by way of a near daily barrage of criticism. It seemed to Jovis that nothing he did was ever good enough for his father.

 

Deep down inside Jovis, festered a hatred, like a sullied wound. His was a hatred that he would show no one not even to his closest friends. Hatred of his father for being as unbending as he was. Hatred of his mother for allowing his father’s behaviour to continue. Hatred most of all for himself that he could see no way out of his dilemma. Such was the depth of his hatred, that by the time he turned 17, he was a powder keg waiting to explode.

 

Sports was a good outlet and it did help a little, but even that did not quite reach the itch that plagued him.

 

It was early one sunny autumn day a little over a week into the semester that Jovis entered Grade 12. The students were still hyper after what had been a hot summer filled with fun activities. For the most part, the students had not quite become accustomed to being back in school for another year. Jovis was no exception

 

Home room was in the process of assembling for the day when Principal du Bois brought a new student to class. That he was a new student only just transferred from outside of Ontario was enough for most of his peers. It was that this new student was also an awkward-looking young man that really planted a target of his back.

 

With one hand on the lad’s shoulder, Principal du Bois announced to Jovis’ home room class, “This is Gregory Cloverfield. I’m sure you will all make him feel welcome.”

 

At first, Jovis barely noticed Gregory. It was his friend, Ted, who said in a sarcastic tone of voice and well out of the hearing of Principal du Bois, “Absolutely.” He then cackled with laughter.

 

Those other students around Ted who heard the remark, also laughed.

 

Seconds after Gregory was seated, their homeroom teacher, Arthur Thompson, entered the classroom.

 

“Alright, alright. That’s enough. Take your seats please,” Arthur said. Seeing Gregory sitting in a seat at the centre of the classroom, Arthur then said, “I see we have a new face in class today.”

 

A new ugly face, Ted texted to the entire class. He then added the poop emoji.

 

The class erupted in laughter. When Arthur looked up from his spreadsheet of names to see what was funny, the class fell silent.

 

Although Gregory did not receive the text, he gathered by context that it must have something to do with him. It was the same thing all over again, he decided. He was hated again before he’d had a chance to utter a single word.

 

Throughout that first morning, Gregory kept his head down in a vain attempt to stay under the bullies’ collective radar. At each of the classes he attended that morning, however, his teachers made a point of having the entire class welcome him. Gregory felt embarrassed by the attention. Embarrassed and a little fearful. He knew that there would be consequences for gleaning such attention and he wasn’t looking forward to that.

 

As hungry as he was, Gregory also did not look forward to lunch that day. He suspected that was when those consequences would come to the fore.

 

He walked into the cafeteria and felt everyone’s eyes bore into him judging everything about him. The way he walked, the way he carried his lunch, the way he dressed and mostly the way he looked.

 

In a way, Gregory could hardly blame his judges. A recent growth spurt had meant that his jeans were just a little too short in the legs and his shirt just didn’t properly fit him. His hair had outgrown his style by enough to be noticeable.

 

When Gregory had complained about these things and warned his mother that there would be consequences for his showing up to school looking the way he did, his mother Jennifer had promised to buy him new clothes and have his hair cut when they reached Ontario. With all the chores she was forced to do in addition to working, it had slipped her mind.

 

So, here he was. In a new school wearing old clothes and sporting an outgrown hair style. Gregory knew that there was no explaining to his judges how he looked. He knew that would only bring more criticism from his judges.

 

Feeling very self-conscious, Gregory walked through the cafeteria with his lunch bag and took a seat by himself. He was fully aware as he did so of the stares, whispers and of the laughter at his expense.

 

That was why, when Ted and Jovis approached him ostensibly out of friendship, he was amazed. Given his history at the other schools he’d attended and considering the attention he’d received that day, he could not help but also be somewhat suspicious.

 

Each of Ted and Jovis put an arm around Gregory’s shoulders while from behind him, Trevor said, “Let us show you around.”

 

A fourth student, Richie, also stood behind Gregory and did his best to maintain a straight face.

 

“I have a map,” Gregory said and held up the paper provided to him by Principal du Bois.

 

Ted took the map while Jovis said, “Who needs a map when you have a whole team of guides to show you around?”

 

After a little cajoling on the subject, Gregory decided to go on the tour of the school. Gregory decided that if they were on the up-and-up and were really interested in being his friend, then he was off to a better start than that for which he ever could have hoped. If, on the other hand, they did not have his best interests at heart, he would endure whatever abuse they chose to level against him and then do what he could to avoid them in the future.

 

The tour started off well enough. The four boys showed Gregory where his classes were on the upper floors of the school.

 

“So where are you from, Greg, old man?” Jovis asked as they were walking down the staircase to the school’s main level.

 

“Alberta, originally,” Gregory replied. He thought to add that he preferred to be called Gregory, but decided that for the sake of keeping things friendly he would not.

 

“Alberta? Is your father an oil man?” Jovis asked. Before Gregory could answer, however, as Jovis pointed to a nearby exit door, Jovis said, “Let’s go outside.”

 

Gregory was concerned about the choice of locale, but let himself be led outside as he said, “No. He’s a doctor.”

 

Gregory expected that they would shove him outside and then lock the door behind him. When they did not, he began to visibly relax.

 

The five boys walked outside and his four tour guides showed Gregory the baseball diamond and football field. Neither of these places was of any interest to Gregory. To keep up the good humour of the moment, however, he feigned interest.

 

When Jovis said, “And we have a kick-ass pool too. You should see it,” that Gregory began to feel himself tensing up once again.

 

“Do we have time?” Ted asked checking his watch.

 

Looking at Ted, Jovis said, “It won’t take long.” Looking at Gregory with a smile he then said, “Besides, it’s something he really should see.”

 

“I guess I’ll see it during gym class,” Gregory said becoming nervous. He then said, “We really should be getting to class.”

 

“Relax. There’s plenty of time,” Ted said.

 

“Yes, but really—” was all Gregory was able to say before Jovis, looking deflated, cut him off saying, “You don’t trust us.”

 

Shocked by Jovis’ reaction, Gregory stammered, “I-I-I.”

 

“Should see the pool? Yes, you should,” Jovis said and with one arm around Gregory’s shoulder steered him in the direction of the pool building.

 

Gregory felt a tightening in his throat that made it difficult to swallow, but let himself be led to the pool building. Inside, he prepared himself for what he was certain was to come.

 

The pool building was empty at that time of day which only increased Gregory’s level of suspicion and fear.

 

As they led Gregory inside Ted said, “I bet they didn’t have anything like this in your old school.”

 

Gregory said nothing but decided that if they planned to push him in the pool, he would take as many of them as he could with him.

 

“You look hot, Greggie,” Jovis said with a slight smile on his face.

 

And that was all the provocation Gregory needed. He pivoted and punched Ted in the nose.

 

“You bastard,” Jovis shrieked and pushed Gregory into the pool.

 

What Jovis didn’t know was that Gregory was grasping a fistful of his shirt. In the process of falling into the pool, Gregory pulled in Jovis and, flailing, Jovis knocked Ted into the pool as well.

 

As they were getting out of the pool, Ted uttered a phrase that would stick with Gregory for the rest of his life. “Nice work, Greggie Clusterfuck. Now we’ll all be late for class.”

 

“You got what you deserved,” Gregory shouted as he climbed out of the pool.

 

“We were just here to show you the pool, not to take a swim,” Ted shouted in return as he swam toward the side of the pool.

 

“We all know why you brought me here,” Gregory shouted. As he sloshed across the pool side towards the change rooms, he shouted, “At least I didn’t get pushed in alone.”

 

Gregory didn’t get far before the other four boys caught up to him and began pushing him around. A couple of times they almost pushed him back into the pool.

 

Shouting at each other and pushing Gregory around was how Arthur found them.

 

“Hey, what are you boys doing in here?” Arthur shouted from the other end of the pool area.

 

“Nothing, Sir. We were just showing old Greg here around and had a slight accident,” Ted explained.

 

As he approached the five boys, Arthur said, “Is that so.” Then with note of surprise in his voice, Arthur said, “Jovis. I’m a little surprised to see you pulling such a stunt.”

 

“No stunt, Sir. Just showing the new guy around is all,” Jovis said, but he could not quite look Arthur in the eye as he spoke.

 

Looking at Ted, Arthur frowned and said, “Ted, nothing you do could surprise me.” Then, becoming alarmed, he asked, “Wait, are you bleeding?” Taking a handkerchief from his pocket and holding it up to Ted’s nose, he added, “You’d better let the nurse take a look at that.”

 

“Yes, Sir. I’d like to dry off first, if that’s ok,” Ted said glaring at Gregory.

 

“Well, I guess there’s nothing for it now,” Arthur said. As he watched the boys leaving, he said, “Get dried off and then get to class.”

 

The rest of the day was little better. The whole of the school seemed to know his new nickname and took infinite joy in addressing him as such. Adding to his feelings of embarrassment, his mother picked him up from school instead of letting him find his own way home. Not that there was anything fundamentally wrong with her picking him up. Many of his classmates received rides home. The problem was almost everyone who saw him waiting had something to say about it.

 

For instance, Ted brushed by him in the process nearly knocking him into the school drive and with a sneer asked him, “Waiting for your Mommy?”

 

By the time Gregory’s mother showed up at the school, Gregory had been forced to endure abuse from most of his classmates. Others looked at him with an expression of pity on their faces which Gregory found to be even worse.

 

His mother, Jennifer, unlocked the door for Gregory and when he climbed inside the car, smiling she asked, “How was your first day?”

 

“About what you might expect,” was Gregory’s answer. Throughout the short trip home, he was sullen and silent. Not that it mattered at all as Jennifer spent the entire trip arguing with his father about him working late that night.

 

“You want nice things, don’t you?” Jeffrey shouted through the phone.

 

“Well, yes. But with all this talk about a new virus, you can’t blame me for being concerned,” Jennifer said trying her best to remain calm.

 

“I’ve got to work,” Jeffrey bellowed.

 

Once they got to their home near Lawrence East in North York, Jennifer was still arguing with her husband when Gregory exploded from the car. He spent the remainder of the day in his room.

 

When questioned through his bedroom door, Gregory shouted, “Go away! I’m studying.”

 

“What about dinner?” Jennifer asked with her ear to Gregory’s door.

 

“I had more than enough to eat at lunch. I’m not hungry,” Gregory replied once again through his bedroom door. It was a lie. In actuality, he’d been able to eat very little of his lunch before Jovis and his friends set upon him.

 

“I’ll leave a plate in the fridge should you change your mind,” Jennifer said, trying not to cry.

 

Gregory mumbled something she couldn’t quite hear, but Jennifer felt she knew what he’d said and rather than pester him further, she left him to his studies.

 

For Jovis, the evening was very different. He sat down to a dinner that had all the pleasantness of a cold war. Very little was said around the table which suited Jovis just fine. If Steven, his father, was quiet then there would be no reproach for him that night.

 

Later that night, he snuck out of the house via his bedroom window. Once on the ground, he ran down the street to a park he and Ted liked to frequent. As he entered the park, he saw Ted standing with two girls from school that he knew only by their reputation. To be more precise, their bad reputation.

 

One girl was a redhead the other a bleached blonde. Jovis took the blonde leaving the redhead for his friend.

 

For a long time, all the young couple did was lie back and look at the sky. That was until she kissed Jovis’ ear. Then lower, then opened his pants and took his swollen member into her mouth. All the pornographic movies Jovis had watched and everything Jovis had read dictated what happened next.

 

To say that his first ever attempt at penetration was clumsy would be too kind. Once he’d entered her, however, nature took over and filled in for him where inexperience made him lacking. Within moments they were at it like two rutting animals.

 

Jovis cared nothing for the young lady’s experience; an attitude that would later come back to haunt him. When he was done, he stood up and, with his jeans puddled around his feet, he wagged his mighty love hammer from side to side over her and howled at the moon.

 

Jovis did not see the young lady home. He departed the park as he had arrived, alone. With one difference. He felt that itch of his had abated if only just a little. As he made his way home, he decided that if a little sex could alleviate a little of that itch, much more sex might just make it disappear altogether.

 

Over the next few months, Gregory proved to be as able a student as was Jovis. In some ways, in fact, he exceeded Jovis’ scholastic prowess. Gregory was not athletic, but he excelled in other ways.

 

In his entire scholastic career, Jovis never had any substantial challenge to his accomplishments at school. The more notoriety Gregory received, the more Jovis began to hate him. That’s when he convinced his friends to escalate the abuse they were heaping on Gregory.

 

It was not long before Jovis discovered he liked making Gregory’s life a misery as much as he enjoyed fucking girls. In fact, in some ways he enjoyed tormenting Gregory just a little bit more. These two things and his athletic accomplishments were just the thing to scratch that itch. They became like a drug to Jovis that made his father’s criticism of him almost bearable. The more his father criticized him, the harder he tried in sports; the harder and more often he fucked girls and the more he heaped upon Gregory abuse.

 

In March of 2020, two things happened.

 

The first thing was a text containing a video of Gregory in the shower after gym class was circulated amongst the students at Gregory’s school with the caption ‘pencil dick.’

 

The second thing was that all schools in Ontario were closed due to a new virus, the Novel Corona Virus, identified as Covid-19.

 

At first, Jovis stuck to the house rules; in bed early and homeschooling throughout the day. As he had been told to do, he frequently washed his hands and kept his hands away from his face. On those rare occasions when Jovis did go out, it was with his mother and they took the proper precautions, including physical distancing.

 

It did not take long, however, for the restrictions to wear on Jovis to the point of being excruciating. He missed his forays to the park with Ted. He missed being at school. His one outlet was texting Gregory.

 

Feeling that he’d earned and very much needed to blow off some steam, one night after his parents were asleep, he snuck out of his house to meet Ted and two girls at the park they liked to frequent before the pandemic. Once again, they were girls that Jovis knew only by bad reputation.

 

It was May and the weather that day had been hot and hazy to the point that many thought Summer had found them early that year. The weatherman had indicated there would be a thunderstorm that would take away some of the heat, but Jovis intended to be home long before it started to rain and if not, what of it.

 

When he arrived at the park, Ted was already necking with his date and the other girl was looking around like she didn’t know where she should be.

 

Jovis took the young woman in his arms and danced her around in a small circle.

 

“So, you wanna?” he said and raised his eyebrows.

 

The young woman in his arms smiled up at him and said, “That’s why I’m here.”

 

They found a place in the bushes as far away from Ted and his date as was possible while remaining in the park.

 

Over the months since Jovis’ first time, he’d had many an opportunity to improve. While his approach showed improvement, his lack of attention to the young lady’s experience remained unchanged. To his surprise, as he waved his love stick back and forth, the young lady proceeded to take care of pleasuring herself. Awed by this, Jovis knelt between her legs and watched as her fingers moved to bring her to climax.

 

When she was done, she yelled, “Creep,” then spat in his face. She then pulled down her skirt and gained her feet leaving Jovis to stare at her gap-mouthed as he wiped his face on his sleeve.

 

As she stormed back to where Ted and his date were still coupling, Jovis watched her and then shouted, “Lezbo!”

 

When he got back to where Ted and his date were at the park, he opened his backpack and said, “I brought a little something to celebrate.”

 

“What are we celebrating?” Ted said around a mouth full of his partner’s breast while he gently massaged between her legs.

 

In answer, Jovis held up a roll of toilet paper.

 

“You’ve got to be kidding. That stuff is hard to find these days,” Ted said.

 

“No. It will be great,” Jovis said and threw the paper roll into a nearby tree.

 

Looking up at Jovis, Ted said, “You do that. I’ll do her.” He then moved between her legs and thrust himself inside her.

 

Looking down at the two, Jovis became aroused and said, “Mind if I join you?”

 

Ted stopped thrusting and said, “Yes I do.”

 

“I don’t,” the young woman said. As she scratched her long nails upon and down Ted’s back she moaned and said, “I’ve never had a threesome.”

 

This took Ted by surprise and he looked to the side and said, “All right, but you get sloppy seconds.”

 

It was exactly five days after that night that Jovis woke feeling like he’d been hit by a large truck.

 

At the breakfast table, Steven was already eating and ignoring his family in favour of reading texts and emails on his phone.

 

As Jovis made to sit, his father stood up and said, “Gotta run.”

 

Anna absently kissed at the air as she texted a quick message to a friend.

 

After the message was sent, Anna looked up at her son and said, “Wow, you look terrible.” With a frown she cocked her head to one side and said, “Didn’t you sleep last night?”

 

In response, Jovis coughed into the sleeve of his pajamas.

 

Anna felt Jovis’ forehead with her forearm and said, “You are burning up. Back to bed, young man.”

 

“I’m just a little tired,” Jovis said. He looked at his bowl of cornflakes and turned visibly green.

 

“That’s it. Cornflakes are your fav. I’m calling the doctor and you are going to see him. Today,” Anna said and proceeded to place a call to the family physician.

 

At the doctor’s office, Jovis and Anna, covered in masks and gloves, stayed the required 6’ away from the other patients in the waiting room. Before seeing the doctor, however, they were instructed to go to a testing centre right away.

 

While on their way to the testing centre, Jovis took the time to send two messages. One to Ted to warn him about his illness and what it was suspected it might be, and one to Gregory to lay upon him as much abuse as he could.

 

The call confirming Anna’s worst nightmare came a few days later. She was instructed that if Jovis worsened and was unable to breathe, she was to take him to the nearest hospital. By that time, however, the severity of his illness caused the doctors at the hospital to put him on a ventilator.

 

Ted sent Jovis a text indicating that Kelly, the young woman who had spat on Jovis, had died the previous day from Covid-19. It was a text that Jovis never saw.

 

Doctors and nurses at the hospital worked around the clock to save young Jovis and others. For months beforehand, personal protective equipment, or PPE, had been in short supply. The surge in cases was such that it threatened to overwhelm the services available at the time.

 

Canadians would not let the virus defeat them.

 

The government worked around the clock to see that doctors, nurses and others had the equipment they needed to keep them safe. Across the country, people banded together to create masks and other protective equipment to help the situation. The people of each province, apart from a few, followed the guidelines set out by each Provincial government and stayed home as much as they could. There were some lapses in judgement, but for the most part the people stayed away from public places and gathered in groups of less than five people. The normal celebrations of life took place at a distance or through windows.

 

Medical professionals were not the only heralded heroes of the pandemic. People who were considered ‘frontline’ or ‘essential’ workers were also heroes. They stuck to their jobs and saw to it that Canadians had everything they needed to remain for the most part in isolation.

 

It took months of effort on the part of medical professionals, cleaning staff, and many others, as well as the population at large, but the virus eventually showed signs of slowing and that curve that so many newscasters and others had mentioned was starting to flatten. Through the diligent and tireless efforts of the medical and other hospital staff many thousands of Canadians were saved. In fact, more people survived the virus than succumbed to it. There was even talk about the government loosening the restrictions on the public.

 

By the time Jovis was in the hospital, the chances were good that he would survive his illness. He showed none of the complications that so many others had suffered. Nevertheless, he showed a steady decline in health and despite their best efforts, the medical staff at the hospital seemed powerless to stop it. Although he was a strong, young man, Covid-19 took him three days after he was admitted to hospital.

 

The day he died, Jovis drifted into a dream. Breathing was difficult for him even with the ventilator. In his dream, Kelly, the young woman who’d spat on him, stood at the foot of his bed with a self-satisfied look on her face.

 

“Good,” she said then she vanished into thin air.

 

For a split second, less than a heartbeat really, he felt as though he was standing in the middle of light itself as all around him was bright white light. He felt compelled to walk in one direction and he eventually came to a simple wooden bridge. It was a covered bridge like those Jovis had heard of that were, for the most part, found in Pennsylvania. The bridge crossed a roiling river. From the other side of the bridge, Jovis could hear people laughing and apparently at play. Jovis wanted very much to cross that bridge and join in the fun.

 

As Jovis approached the bridge, however, he saw a man dressed in a simple black suit with a white shirt and black tie. Jovis smiled at the man as he walked by him but he was unable to set foot on the bridge.

 

“Before you cross this bridge, there is something you must do,” the man said.

 

Jovis judged the man to be average in every way a man can be average. Not tall. Not short. Not slender or stout. His closely-cut brown hair framed an angular face. What Jovis noticed most of all were the man’s piercing blue eyes. The man seemed to hold love in those blue eyes.

 

Turning away from the bridge, Jovis asked, “What is it you would have me do?”

 

“You must spend a single day with someone,” the man said.

 

“You are sending me back?” Jovis asked.

 

“In a manner of speaking, yes,” the man replied.

 

“In a manner of speaking?” a very confused Jovis asked. Jovis then stood up a little straighter and said, “You must be sending me back. I can’t spend a day with someone when I’m dead.”

 

“Oh, you will still be dead. Nothing can change that now. The person you will spend a day with will not know you are there. You will not be able to talk to them or interact with them in any way,” the man said.

 

“Then what’s the point?” Jovis asked.

 

“You are not a bad person. But you have made some bad choices. Your reasons are your own, of course, but your choices preclude your admittance here,” the simple man said.

 

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Jovis sneered.

 

“I have come on your behalf. It would be best that you do nothing to change my mind about helping you,” the simple man said.

 

“I’m sorry but I don’t understand,” Jovis said.

 

“The point is, you want to cross the bridge,” the man said.

 

“Yes, I want to join in the fun,” Jovis said looking first at the bridge, then the river, then at the curtain of dense fog that seemed to cling to the other side of the river. He was anxious to cross that bridge. Over there was a place that he felt radiated with love. Jovis didn’t like this man. He had a feeling that, like his father, the man wanted too much from him.

 

“Then you must walk a day with a man you have no reason to hate but to whom you have done much harm,” the man said.

 

“But why?” Jovis said.

 

“Because if you don’t, you can’t cross the bridge,” the simple man explained.

 

As darkness overcame him, Jovis cried, “Wait. I don’t understand.”

 

But it was too late.

 

As Jovis became accustomed to this lack of light, he saw that he was in a bedroom. The room was messy, but clean. On one of two brown nightstands on either side of the only bed in that room, a cell phone buzzed to life.

 

A figure turned over in the bed to look at the cell phone. In the light shed by the cell phone, Jovis could see that the figure was none other than Greggie Clusterfuck himself.

 

“Oh man, not this guy,” Jovis moaned.

 

“Oh man, not this again,” Gregory moaned. “I thought when you died, this would die with you.” Gregory put the phone back in its place on the nightstand and rolled over to go back to sleep.

 

Fear struck at Jovis’ heart. He knows I’m here, Jovis thought.

 

Seeking to leave the room before being discovered there, Jovis made for the door to the bedroom only to find that he could not leave. Some force had bound him to Gregory and Jovis could not walk farther than a few metres away from him.

 

The phone buzzed again and although he was terrified of being discovered, Jovis turned to look at the phone.

 

At the same time, Gregory rolled over and picked up his phone. At the same time, they said a name, “Ted.”

 

Ted took the time to text to Gregory to tell him what a worthless piece of shit he was and instead of Jovis it should have been Gregory who’d died.

 

It made Jovis smile. Good ole Teddy, he thought.

 

At the same time, it sent a spear of pain through Gregory’s soul. A spear of pain that Jovis too felt. Jovis felt just like he did every time his father disapproved of him. Miserable. He thought to go to the park then remembered that doing so was impossible unless Gregory went too and there was nothing he could say or do to convince Gregory to do that. As a reflex, he searched his jeans for his phone then remembered he didn’t have a phone any more.

 

Gregory sat on the side of the bed and cried.

 

Jovis could not believe what he was seeing.

 

“You big jerk, Ted was just joking,” he shouted, but Gregory could not hear him. He then chided, “You can be taking him seriously.”

 

From somewhere in the house, Jovis heard raised voices trying to be quiet.

 

“It’s too early for you to start in on me. I’ve got to go to work. They have decided that because of this pandemic, all doctors are essential workers. You are lucky you can work from home. I don’t have that luxury,” Jeffrey said.

 

“What if you bring this thing home with you?” Jennifer Cloverfield rasped.

 

“I’ll be careful,” Jeffrey promised.

 

“From what I’ve heard, careful isn’t enough. The Hanley boy died yesterday. He was a schoolmate of Gregory’s and just a boy. This disease can take anyone. You are not immune and neither are we,” Jennifer said.

 

Their arguing escalated to a shouting match.

 

“I wish they’d shut up,” both Gregory and Jovis said at the same time.

 

Their joint statement made Jovis smile thinking that he and Gregory had both thought the same thing at the same time.

 

For Gregory, however, there was no joint statement. No solace in a shared experienced that a friend also found distasteful. His parents’ fighting just made him cry a little harder.

 

Seeing this, Jovis said, “You’ve got to show some steel, man. You can’t let this get you down.” Then Jovis realized that whether Gregory should let it get him down, it did get him down and the jokes sent to him at all hours by his tormentors only made things worse.

 

Jeffrey left the house for work and slammed the door behind him on his way to his car.

 

For a moment all was blissfully quiet. That was until another door, closer this time, also slammed shut and Gregory and Jovis could hear Jennifer crying in the bedroom she shared with Jeffrey.

 

Throughout the day that day, Jennifer tried to be brave while she worked from home and Gregory tried to be invisible while he worked on his lessons. Through it all, the text messages never stopped. One after another and always the same.

 

“You’re worthless.”

 

“Why don’t you end it all and do us all a favour.”

 

“You’ll never be anything.”

 

Through it all, Jovis watched a boy he had no reason to hate sink deeper and deeper into despair. And he could do nothing about it. He thought about all the times he’d texted offensive remarks to Gregory. Remember and regretted.

 

When Jeffrey eventually came home, they ate dinner in near silence. Any attempts at conversation were quickly quashed by his father.

 

After dinner, Jeffrey went to his study. Jennifer went to her bedroom and cried herself to sleep. Gregory went to his room to think about what he planned to do next and Jovis could do nothing but go with Gregory and watch—helpless.

 

At five minutes to 11 that night, Jeffrey was fast asleep on the couch in his den while the television blared. Jennifer was fast asleep in the bed she shared with Jeffrey. And Gregory put his father’s revolver in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

 

The shot woke both his parents. By the time they got to his room, however, Gregory’s soul was standing with Jovis’ soul at that wooden bridge before a simple man that neither of them recognized.

 

“Why did you do that?” Jovis shouted at Gregory.

 

“I don’t have to answer to you,” Gregory shot back.

 

“You had everything to live for,” Jovis shouted.

 

“Ha. That’s funny coming from you,” Gregory shouted in return.

 

“What do you mean?” Jovis said as he studied Gregory’s face.

 

“You had everything to live for. You had the looks, the brains and, when it comes to it, the girls too. You WERE everything. And what did you do? You did something stupid. Instead of listening to the all the warnings coming from everywhere, you let yourself get sick and you could have made your entire family and everyone who knew you sick too. And why?” Gregory shouted.

 

“You don’t know everything,” Jovis said.

 

“I know enough. From what I hear, it’s you who doesn’t know everything,” Gregory stated.

 

“I watched you for a whole day,” Jovis explained.

 

“One whole day? One day and you think you know everything there is to know about me,” Gregory shouted.

 

“I know that me and the other guys were hard on you, but we were only joking around,” Jovis said.

 

Poking Jovis in the chest with his index finger for emphasis as he spoke, Gregory shouted, “Well, I didn’t think it was funny.”

 

Poking Gregory in the chest in the same manner, Jovis shouted, “You should learn to take a joke.”

 

Taking Jovis by the shirt, Gregory stated, “Oh, I don’t know about that. I laughed pretty hard the day you died. We all did.” He then released Jovis and turned on his heel to walk towards the bridge.

 

Mouth agape, Jovis watched as Gregory crossed the bridge and vanished into the fog on the other side of the river. When Jovis tried to follow, he was prevented by that same mysterious force.

 

“I did what you asked. I spent a day with him. I couldn’t stop him from killing himself. I didn’t know how,” Jovis said becoming frightened.

 

“Of course not. You were spirit only. There was nothing you could have done to stop him,” the simple man stated.

 

“Then why did you make me spend a day with that creep?” Jovis shrieked, and at the same time hooking his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the bridge.

 

You weren’t sent to save him. You were sent to save yourself,” the simple man replied.

 

Incredulous, Jovis asked, “How did that save me?”

 

“Did you learn nothing from being with him?” the simple man replied with a question.

 

“His parents are assholes,” Jovis said.

 

The simple man looked down. That was not the answer for which he had been hoping.

 

Seeing the expression on the simple man’s face, Jovis said, “He sure had a lot going on, poor guy.”

 

“Is that all you see?” the simple man asked.

 

“He’s not so different from me,” Jovis admitted.

 

“Then you may cross the bridge,” the simple man said and the energy field preventing his crossing was gone.

 

Overjoyed, Jovis turned but before he could step onto the bridge, he turned back to the simple man and said, “Wait. With all the horrible things I’ve done, why have you done this for me?”

 

“I did for you this day what many years ago I did for all mankind,” the simple man said with a weak smile.

 

“Jovis,” a voice called from the other side of the bridge.

 

“Jo-vis,” came another voice which was more familiar to him.

 

Jovis smiled at the simple man and said, “Thank you.”