I wanted to give a little background into my response to Prompt 381. The prompt was a challenge to create a detailed scene describing an uncomfortable situation. My response can be found here:

https://www.gayauthors.org/story/valkyrie71/2014promptresponses/38

The image that immediately came to mind when I read the challenge was of a person sitting on a stone bridge over a river, contemplating jumping in. I hadn't completely formulated the reason the person was so despondent when I started writing the prompt. I wrote the initial sequence, then my attention issues kicked in so I browsed Facebook for a little bit and saw a trending article about a transgendered teen who had committed suicide.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fix-society-transgender-teen-leelah-alcorn-posted-plea-suicide-n277666

The article broke my heart, especially the part where the parents posted about the death of their son. After reading the article, I knew I had found the reason my protagonist was so despondent.

Rory was patterned after a local bus driver who noticed a woman standing on a bridge and pulled his bus over to help her. He talked to her for hours before convincing her to come down.

So there are good people out there and positive outcomes to difficult situations. I just wish that that Leelah Alcorn had met a Rory before she stepped in front of that truck.