II
Tod watched the tree fall and miss the bridge. He really hoped that Kurtz would do it this time. The poor guy tried so hard and just couldn’t make the thing go away. Tod knew how to do it. To kill the bridge. To save the town. Tod knew how to do it. Tod had destroyed things before. He thought he had destroyed Kurtz. That was why he stopped destroying things. He promised he would stop and he stopped. He promised never to break his promise and he would not break it. Destroying the bridge, even to help Kurtz, would break his promise. He couldn’t even tell Kurtz about how to do it. He did not regret his promise, though. Life was better this way. But Tod still protected the man as he could.After Gil and the old couple left the bridge, Tod drove his truck down to the fallen tree and hooked it up to his winch. He thought that later he might come back and blow out the stump.