By a canal, several friends ride their bikes. Upstream, the dam opens.
While their friends ride on, Mike Buckley and Rick Haggerty race to the bridge. They admire the sudden gush of water in the stream below. Ricky leans on a faulty railing... which breaks. He sways. Just in time, Mike grabs him. As Ricky hangs over the rushing stream, their grasp slips...
Five years later, Mike wakes in the night with a desperate yell.
At the breakfast table, his father, Leonard, notes Mike’s drowsiness. His mother, Ruth, presses the point. Younger brother Ben reports Mike to have had another nightmare. Leonard sternly urges Mike to stop blaming himself for Ricky’s death.
Approaching school with a friend, Mike sees, parked by the school, an eerily familiar red bike. He recalls Ricky's bike falling into the raging river.
In class, as Mrs Westwood recounts the moon landing. As she talks, Mike hears a deathly low voice call his name. In the open doorway, he sees Ricky, dressed as on the day he died; bedraggled, and deathly pale. The apparition raises an entreating arm. Mike stands and backs away, toppling his desk. His classmates stare in shock...
While examining Mike, the school nurse asks if the bereavement still troubles him. Mike relates his recurring nightmare, in which he repeatedly tries and fails to act in a way that might have saved his friend's life. The nurse stresses that even if Mike dreams a better scenario, his friend will still be gone.
As she speaks, Mike again hears the deathly murmur of his dead friend. He walks to the window, and outside, sees the ashen, faintly luminous Ricky, standing with his bike. Astounded, Mike turns to the nurse...to see, in her place, Ricky.
Driven home by his father, Mike laments having to miss the first day of fishing season. Leonard sternly maintains the doctor’s prescription of bed rest. Mike, on seeing from behind, a figure in a pale grey hoodie riding a red bike, urges his father to follow. Leonard wearily complies. When the car stops, Mike runs out, and touches the figure’s shoulder. It whirls around...revealing the face of a very much alive young girl.
Ben regrets Mike’s prevention from going fishing. Mike then decides to sneak out while their parents go shopping on Saturday, and secretly go fishing with Ben.
Late that night, as Ben sleeps, Mike suddenly wakes. The bedroom door swings open, and a soft white light breaches the darkness. In the glow, Mike sees a figure inch towards the open door. Mike squints, and sees the visitor not to be Ben, but Ricky. Lit by an unearthly white glow, the dead boy shambles forward, reaches for Mike, and whispers his name... Mike wakes with a start.
On Saturday, Ben, caught sneaking upstairs by his dad, explains a need to get his tackle box, which, Leonard reminds him, is in the garage. He then insists on giving Ben a lift to the river. In the driveway, Ben flings pebbles at the bedroom window, but Mike has slept in. The car pulls up, and Ben gets in.
Mike wakes to see his bedside table rattling. He once more hears the voice of Ricky - only this time, its deathly hush, now less subdued, seems to be coming from outside. Mike checks the lawn, but sees no one. He turns away, and hears it again. This time, the ashen apparition of Ricky materialises on the grass, red bicycle in tow. Angrily spurred to face whatever spectral vengeance awaits his grief and guilt, Mike dresses and sets out.
At the river, Ben and friends pass the canal where Ricky died...
On the lawn, the voice of Ricky, no longer hushed, calmly greets Mike from behind. Suddenly vexed, Mike demands to know what Ricky wants, grabs his shoulder, and recoils from the cold...
By the river, Ben accidentally knocks over his friend’s drink can. In retaliation, the friend throws Ben’s weighted fish hook into the shallows. With a sigh, Ben goes to get it...
To the calm ghost, Mike angrily admits the burden of having failed to save his life. Ricky affirms Mike as the best friend who tried to save his life. He's here not to avenge, but to warn: Ben is in danger. He’s at the bridge: Ricky's bridge...
Beneath the stone bridge, where the canal flows down into the river, Ben wades into the shallows. His foot catches beneath a heavy stone...
With a murmur of thanks, Mike accepts the use of Ricky’s bike, and affirms to miss his lost friend. Ricky replies in kind, and urges Mike on - Ben isn't due on the other side just yet. With a last look, Mike rides off...
Stuck in the river, Ben calls in vain for help. Further along, the dam is opened, and, in the distance, a torrent of water roars forth. Near the bridge, Mike's memories of Ricky's yells are disrupted by the living yells of his brother.
Mike hurries down to the bank, and lifts the rock from his brother’s foot, and, seconds shy of the raging torrent, the two leap to safety on the bank. Apart from what may be a sprained or broken foot, Ben is unharmed. Mike lends Ben his jacket, and hugs him in relief. Nearby, lying on the grass where he left the shiny red bicycle, he sees it to be warped and rusted.
The next day, closes David, a man, while fishing, found the remains of Ricky Haggerty. It took so long to find the body, Mike maintained, because Ricky wasn’t even down there - until he returned a favor to a friend. Gary closes the meeting, douses the fire, and the friends make their way home.
This episode provides examples of:
- Anger Born of Worry: Leonard becomes somewhat vexed by what he believes to be Mike’s guilt-ridden delusion.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Averted; Mike and Ben have a jolly rapport.
- Big Brother Mentor: On the annual fishing trip, Ben cherishes Mike’s guidance.
- Came Back Wrong: Downplayed. Ricky’s deathly hush and disorientated lull are frightening, but as he more closely reaches Mike, these inhibitions fade.
- Death of a Child: A young boy falls from a bridge to his death.
- Ghostly Goals: Ricky refuses to rest in peace until he repays Mike for trying to save his life.
- History Repeats: Five years after Ricky’s death, similar circumstances threaten a similar fate for Ben.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Mike struggles painfully with the notion of his failure to save Ricky.
- It Is Not Your Time: Implied by Ricky of Ben.
- Plagued by Nightmares: Mike has recurrent nightmares of his friend's death.
- Supernatural Light: Ricky appears in a faint white glow.
- Undeathly Pallor: Ricky’s face is bleached ashen white.
- Vengeful Ghost: Inverted. While Mike fears Ricky may be haunting him in vengeance for failing to save him, Ricky lauds the attempt to save his life, and in fact appreciates the act so much that his spirit refuses to move on until he repays him. He's appeared because he aims to save his friend from a similar tragedy.
- With Friends Like These...: Ben's friends aren't as bad as they could be, but they could be better. For one, they make it a point to ask Ben if that bridge is where "his brother's dead friend" died. Ben is not impressed. Later, when Ben has his foot stuck and calls for help before the river floods, his buddies ignore him.
