THROWBACK FRIDAY: MASTERPIECE #2033 (9/6/18)

/// Geoff brought Emma to The Trysting Place,
where a couple could court face-to-face.
From that small wooden bridge
on a desolate ridge,
Emma vanished, not leaving a trace.

/// The bridge crosses a wee waterfall
which flows fast, though the drop’s very small.
Downstream, other falls, steep,
drop to ponds, dark and deep,
which nobody is likely to trawl.

/// Her dog, Fido, stood watch as she “dated.”
It was clear Geoff’s a man the hound hated.
Alone, wet and confused,
it limped home, badly bruised.
But returned to that bridge— where it waited.

/// When “goodbye,” Emma’s mother, she’d kissed,
Emma spoke not a word of her tryst,
lest town gossips start talking.
With her dog, she went walking.
Many hours passed before she was missed.

/// She’d agreed to meet Geoff on a whim,
being somewhat enamored of him.
He was handsome, polite,
and seemed good and upright,
‘til he asked if she’d care for a swim.

/// Emma told him, “Most certainly not!”
Then Geoff’s courteous ways he forgot.
Emma saw she’d been brought
to a desolate spot.
His hands grappled, she gave them a swat.

/// That’s when Fido lived up to his name.
Leaping, with his teeth bared the dog came.
Wildly, Geoff swung his stick,
then gave Fido a kick.
To knock him off the bridge was Geoff’s aim.

/// Her faithful dog, kicked in the head,
floated swiftly downstream wreathed in red.
Perhaps Emma then fled.
If so, Geoff never said.
She was never found, living or dead.

/// Will we learn Emma’s ultimate fate?
What did Geoff do when spurned and irate?
When a madman’s involved
things resist getting solved,
but enough time may bring an update.