The Bridge (5 page)

Chapter
11

Shannon loaded the mower and the grass clippers in the back of their pickup and they headed for the cemetery. For as long as Shannon could remember, his grandfather, James, had been going to the cemetery at least once a year to clean up their family’s gravesites and plant wild flowers around them. Today was the first time he had asked Shannon to come along.

“Why do you keep doing this, Grandpa? No one else does.” The other graves were covered with plastic flowers.

“That’s my wife and little girls who are buried here,” he said, pointing to the graves. “And your father
, too. I do it because I love them.”

“But they’re dead, Grandpa. They’re dead and gone. They don’t know what’s going on here.”

“Don’t be disrespectful. I’ve told you what it says in the Bible.”

“I know: One day when God comes back, everybody will jump up out of their grave and be just like they were before they died. I just don’t believe that. What if they were sick or crippled or something? Maybe they don’t want to come back.”

“Now you’re being blasphemous.”

“I’ve been reading this book telling me how to control my own life. Did you know there are dark shadows everywhere that can control you if you let them? I think people die and then move on to another life. Not necessarily somewhere else, like heaven, but right here on earth, one life after another. It just makes sense.”

“That’s not what the Bible says.”

“But the Bible says we were created in God’s image and everybody knows God is a spirit.”

James knew he couldn’t win the argument so he changed the subject.

“Your mom and dad died right here. Did you know that?”

“They died in the cemetery?”

“I know I never showed you. I guess I thought you were too young to know. It’s right over there.” He nodded toward the entrance of the cemetery. “Over there where we came in.” He finished planting the flowers, got up off his knees and started walking toward the highway using his hoe like a cane.

“My knees sure aren’t what they used to be. Come on, I’ll show you where it happened.”

The cemetery was old. Some of the markers dated back to the eighteenth century. They walked past the little chapel in the center of the cemetery and out to the entrance.

“They turned their car around right here because the snow was so bad. You were coming to our house for Thanksgiving. Your dad pulled out onto the road and that’s when the semi hit him. They didn’t even have on their seat belts. You remember that when you start to drive. Always wear your seat belt. You were strapped in the back seat in one of those baby car seats, only six months old, but it saved your life. Anyway, the semi hit the car head-on and shoved it back here into the cemetery.”

He walked over to a big
granite monument and pointed to its base.

“The truck pushed the car all the way back here and smashed it into this monument. Can you believe that? This monument is where my other daughter and her husband are buried. You can still see the scratches on the granite. They never knew what hit ’em.”

Shannon looked down at the scratches. “I was strapped in the back seat?”

“You sure were and there wasn’t a scratch on you. The sheriff called right after it happened and we came right over. You were crying, but when your grandma took you in her arms, you stopped.”

Shannon got cold chills as he looked at the names carved into the monument: “Axil and Heidi Wakefield” and, above Heidi’s name, a butterfly was engraved. Shannon had seen the huge headstone many times when they drove past the cemetery. His grandfather had always placed flowers on it, but Shannon had never asked who was buried there.

“
Heidi and her husband died the year before. They were on their way to town, probably to the doctor’s office. She was pregnant and laying in the back seat. They were killed by…”

“A mud slide,” said Shannon.

“That’s right. How d’you know that?”

“I don’t know, I just guessed.” Shannon didn’t tell his grandfather about his dreams or how his mind was starting to open up
recently and he was seeing and doing things he had never done before.

“When they found the van,” said James, “there she was in the back seat, the door was open. She had given birth, but the baby was gone. Must have been carried off by a bear or something.”

“Did you hear that?” said Shannon.

“What?”

“The crackling. The snappers are swarming.”

They looked toward the forest and saw the giant, black swarm moving toward them.

The snappers were spear-nosed bats genetically altered by the outsiders to attack and eat the Huldufolk. There were thousands of them swarming like a huge, black cloud.

“Don’t worry,” said James. “They won’t bother us.”

With her mind’s eye, Nia watched as Shannon and his grandfather walked toward the entrance of the cemet
ery. She knew they were going to the gravesite.
I’ve got to be there with him when he finds out.

“If they catch you outside, they will kill you,” she remembered her mother saying. “They will either shoot you, which would be the fastest death, or they will set their dogs on you or their most powerful weapon, the snappers
, and you have to look out for the drones.”

Nia grabbed an old coat Connor had found at the dump. She threw it over her shoulders, pulled the hood over her head and tried to think in the future as she ran down an old logging road toward the cemetery. She had been practicing for this her whole life, but had never known if it actually worked.

“If your intention is strong enough,” her mother had told her, “you will be in another time (the future) and invisible to those in the time of the outsiders.” It sounded good, now, if she could only do it. She could do it better when she was still and could put her full attention on it, but now, moving through the forest trying to save the one she loved, her attention was scattered. She wondered if she was invisible at all.

As the snappers swarmed, their wings made a crackling noise and when they attacked, there was a loud snap.” It sounds electrical,” Connor had told her.

The odor of the outsiders repelled the snappers, but The Hidden People had no such protection. Her only hope was that the odor of the outsider’s coat would protect her.

She felt something breeze by her face then hit a tree, cutting a ridge in the bark as an outsider fired a shot at her. She moved even faster.
So much for being invisible. Maybe I’m invisible, but the coat isn’t.

She ran faster than she had ever thought possible. This time her feet hardly touched the ground. She could see the cemetery in the distance and then the unmistakable crackling sound of a swarm of snappers.

When Nia got there, Shannon had already been attacked and was laying on the ground in front of the marble monument. His grandfather was waving his coat and hoe over Shannon, trying to keep the snappers away from his grandson. Nia went straight to Shannon and laid on top of him, covering him the best she could while his grandfather fought off the bats until the swarm moved away. She whispered in Shannon’s ear: “The cleansing must have worked on you, my love. The bats only attack the Huldufolk.”

Shannon opened his eyes, but, delirious from the pain, his vision was blurred. He seemed to be above her, not beneath her. He could hear her voice, but it seemed far away. She looked at his face and arms and could see the black cell masses gathering at the bite marks. Using her will, she pulled the black masses out of his body and watched as wounds healed and the dark shadows crumbled into dust and disappeared, but then to her surprise
, more cells appeared.

“You’re the one, aren’t you?” said James. “Shannon has told me about someone in the forest who brings him baskets of food. I’m his grandfather. You’re one of them, aren’t you?
The Hidden People.” Nia looked at him, surprised that he didn’t recognize her as his daughter.

As Nia tried to wipe away the injuries from the snappers
, Shannon continually worsened.

“I’ve got to get back now,” she said. “I need to find someone who can help him.
Take him home before the snappers come back.” She took off the coat and wrapped it around him, then leaned down and kissed Shannon on his lips. “I love you, my darling. I’ll see you at the bridge.”

As fast as she had come, she disappeared.

James drove the truck over to Shannon and helped him inside.

“What happened to me, Grandpa? Did the snappers get me? Was there someone else here?”

“I think so. I’m not really sure myself. It happened so fast. A girl about your age. I think she was one of The Hidden People. She kissed you.”

Shannon managed a smile. “Butterfly,” he said and then he laid his head back and fell
unconscious.

Shannon’s grandfather
, James, was really Agnar and, as Agnar, he knew he could save Shannon, but he had other plans for Shannon. He turned the truck toward the forest in search of Nia.

Nia had left her only protection with Shannon
. Without thinking of herself, she had wrapped the outsider’s coat around him. Her only chance was to run through the forest and hope she didn’t fall in a bear pit. She could hear the bats swarming, getting closer to her when suddenly an arm reached out from the trees and grabbed her.

Nia had never had to fight for anything before and her attacker had caught her totally off guard. She swung her fist at the man and screamed, but the man put his hand over her mouth and pulled her, kicking and jerking, into him and held her
so tightly she could barely breath.

“You’ve got to be quiet, Nia, or the outsiders will hear you. I’ve come to save you from them. I’ll loosen my grip, but if you scream out
, they will hear you.”

“Who are you?”

“My name is Agnar. I’m a Huldufolk just like you, but I live on the outside. Have you ever heard of me?”

“I’ve heard of you. Everyone has heard of you. You were one of the original founders of Alfheim.”

“You’re as beautiful as your grandmother.”

He still held her tight so that she could not see his face.

“You know my name?”

“Of course
, I know your name. You’re Hannah’s daughter.”

She was able to twist around until she could see his face. It was James
, Shannon’s grandfather and the father of Bonnie. She pushed away from him surprised at who he was and started to run.

“It won’t do you any good to run,
” he said as he started after her. “If the outsiders don’t get you, the snappers will. You’d better come with me. He reached out for her and just as he grabbed her hand, an arrow flew by Nia and buried deep in his chest. Nia spun around and saw a man standing in the shadows, stringing another arrow in his bow. He stepped forward slowly so as not to scare her. He had grown a full beard and looked older, but Nia thought she recognized him from her childhood.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Dór.”

“I remember you from when I was a little girl. I thought you’d been killed by the outsiders.”

“I would have been if not for your father. The outsiders left me to die in a bear pit, but Connor came before the bats had a chance to eat me alive. He carried me back to Alfheim where I was cleaned and given another chance, but I still wanted to be married, so I left again. I live among the outsiders now. They have no idea I’m the same man they left to die. I have a wife and daughter, too. We live in a cabin up the river a ways.”

“Now you’ve saved my life.”

“You better get on back across the bridge now. I’ll take care of this.

The instant the arrow killed James
, he went directly to the truck and settled down in Shannon’s body. It wasn’t exactly what he had planned. He was going to use Shannon’s life to bargain with Nia, but now that Dór had intervened and Shannon’s spirit had gone elsewhere, it was going to work out better. He cleaned the dark shadows from Shannon’s body and the wounds instantly healed, then he got behind the wheel and drove the truck to the cabin.

Dór walked over to where James had fallen
, but there was nothing left but a pile of dust and an arrow.

Chapter 13

Hannah helped Nia pack her basket with fruits and vegetables that would help cleanse Shannon’s body. She always added a bottle of their pure glacier water. “This is what the people of Iceland drink. Today, they live longer than most other outsiders.”

After Nia had slipped several baskets into the outside and nothing had happened, she was becoming impatient. She knew Shannon was alive, she could see his body.

“Every day I wait at the bridge and he doesn’t come.”

“This has never been done before,” said Hannah. “You’re the only outsider who has ever come to
Alfheim and stayed. You were so young, your body hadn’t become contaminated and you were easy to clean. He’s still an outsider. He may never come back.”

“I may not be coming back today, Mo
mma. If he doesn’t come to me, I’m going to him. I may live a shorter life, but, at least, I’ll be happy.”

“You’re not happy?”

“I don’t want to live my life without him.”

“Maybe you should give him a little more time. You’re both still so young. You’ve got to remember you were the first ou
tsider to ever be cleansed and you were just a newborn. Shannon’s sixteen years old and even though you’ve been trying to cleanse him and have changed him considerably, he’s still an outsider.

“
Your father and I had two sons. Both of them left and one of them was Shannon’s father.”

“
His father was Huldufolk?”

“Yes, but his mother was an outsider.”

“But the snappers attacked him,” said Nia. “They never attack the outsiders.”

“He’s changing, but I think you should give him a little more time.”

Nia took the basket and ran to the bridge. She had looked outside with her mind’s eye and Shannon was there.

Nia slipped the basket through the mist and watched as Shannon slept. She waited
, knowing he would have his dreams, then wake and see the basket. He had always taken the basket, not knowing where it came from or who had left it, but today was going to be different. When he reached for the basket, Nia was going to reach out through the mist and take him by the hand, then pull him through the mist and into her arms. She trembled as she thought about it.

It won’t be like disobeying my father.
I did it before and came back. It’s not like I’ll be crossing over. It’ll just be my hand.
He’s worth the risk.

Shannon’s grandfather had given him
Heidi’s manuscript and other papers he’d found in Hank’s safe after the accident.

“
You know, your mother was an author and your dad used to go out into the forest and write things down, too. He said it helped him remember. I read all this stuff. It’s just a book she was working on and his notes, like he was writing down everything he could remember. Some of it doesn’t make sense, but there are some notes about a place called Alfheim which was invisible or something. It was supposedly inhabited by a strange race of people from Iceland called The Hidden People. Looks like fantasy to me, maybe he was writing a fairy tale, elves and such. Anyway, I kept it for you. I wanted to wait until you’d grown up a little so maybe you could understand what he was trying to say. I sure couldn’t. It’s just a bunch of gibberish to me. Your pa was one of the strangest men I’ve ever known. For a while, I thought he might’ve been one of those Hidden People. I’m a little confused about this whole thing. I’m not sure I didn’t just dream it all up.”

He didn’t want to tell Shannon what he really knew about
The Hidden People, how he had actually been one of them and then hunted them when he was younger.

Now Shannon took the papers and went to his favorite place in the forest. He sat down and leaned back against the huge fir tree and started to read
his notes:
The war that never happened.

Alfheim is just a community in the Colorado mountains, but it is invisible to the outsiders. The Huldufolk originated in the country of Iceland, but they had different ideas about freedom and the restraints of government. The outsiders’ religious beliefs were something the Huldufolk could not understand or tolerate. A war was waged against the people of Alfheim, but when the outsiders went to destroy it, they found it and its people had disappeared. They were called The Hidden People. The Huldufolk village in Colorado was built by descendants of those from Iceland.

The Bridge.

I remember there was a covered bridge. It had an eye carved into the gables on each end.

I have learned that by coming to this same tree, my memory is much better. The entrance to the bridge must be around here somewhere, but try as I may, I cannot find it.

Don’t go across the bridge,” my mother told me. I think her name was Hannah. The mist, there was something about the mist. The mist started at the river’s edge and went for miles up the river, something that made the bridge invisible to outsiders. It’s so hard to remember. She said when they tried to search out the elders who built Alfheim, they found they didn’t wish to be discovered. All we could see was a cloud, a mist that covered them, just like our Huldufolk. They had put themselves into a different future time. I guess everyone has a right to privacy. It wasn’t that they hated us or didn’t care about us anymore. It was that they knew we would learn from this and take our place as the new elders. In a way, the mist can become a prison if you let it. You must never go outside physically, but you shouldn’t be afraid to expand outside with your mind.

To my son or whoever reads this: If you ever make it across the bridge into
Alfheim, don’t ever leave.

“
He didn’t remember one hell of a lot,” said Agnar, as he continued to clean the body of Shannon.