On the map it showed a bridge, but over the creek it was a pontoon swaying roughly atop the currents.  Ought he to take his shoes off for a better grip on the pontoon, or assume rather that he'll fall in?  Ought he not then to keep his shoes on to protect his feet from shards in the creek bed?  He stopped to consider other options just when two runners ran up from behind him, and past him, onto the pontoon and off onto the other side.  Had they even looked down when crossing the creek?  Upon their landing, he thought they had beckoned to him, which is why he then quickly followed in their steps.  But, they never stopped for him.  They kept on running, at their pace — so into themselves, he thought.  But, then, one waved again.  Another beckon?  It was a singular wave though, a "you're welcome."  Was he to have thanked them?   As usual, it was the question that framed the answer.  The two runners read the situation they had stepped into, showed him how to cross the divide, beckoned him on, and, without forethought, he had simply followed their example to…an overwhelming sensation of having so suddenly transitioned from a feeling of being held back to the breezier feeling of being pulled in.  This feeling had preceded even the full awareness of having made it to the other side of the creek.  How had it happened to quickly?  He never could work up an answer, but he did keep in mind an image of a person who was stopped, stuck in thought, and was yet able to move by just following the motion that had suddenly burst through.  

(This image carried him far, and it is why he will still, on any bridge in the world, look unwittingly for the two runners in hopes of offering them his very belated Thanks.)