The Bridge by Lisa T. Bergren

Author:Lisa T. Bergren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lisa T. Bergren
Published: 2013-07-09T00:00:00+00:00

Jared ran home through the rain, thinking of Eden as he tucked the flower behind her ear—her eyes so surprised, so wary. Why had he done such a thing? He paused at the bridge and then turned onto the deer path that led to the place where he had discovered Eden praying. He reached it within minutes.

The river was dark and angry-looking as it reflected the clouds’ gray depths. He walked through the grove of cottonwoods to the stand of quaking aspens. The rain ceased to pelt him, the broad leaves of the trees above protecting him. He did not sit down, for the grasses were wet from the rain, but he gripped a white trunk in each hand, staring, staring at the roiling waters below him. “What is happening here?” he whispered, his words nearly drowned out by the sounds of the river. He looked up at the yellow-green leaves, up past them to the towering cottonwoods, beyond them to the gray skies. “What is happening to me?” he asked.

Eden had clearly been praying here, here in this sacred circle. Why couldn’t Jared feel what she had so clearly felt? How did she become so close to a distant God? Father Frank had always told the boys at Buckley that God was right beside them. “Knock and the door will open,” he often would repeat. But whenever Jared knocked, there was never an open door. Not that he had ever really been ready for it, he admitted to himself. And maybe he hadn’t knocked loudly enough…

Did Eden find answers here, direction?

Because suddenly he felt as if he were on a river skiff without a paddle.

He had come here for a new start on his relationship with Nick and a break from his life. For a quick real estate deal. But all he felt was more and more torn up inside, staring nose to nose at himself, a man he didn’t really care for. Increasingly drawn to the mother he had never known. Sorrow furrowed his brow. He looked upstream to the bridge, the “new” bridge, as old as he. Someone had told him the remains of the old one had been torn down soon after the accident.

What had it been like for her, for his mother? To know she would die, that she wouldn’t see her son grow up? His thoughts flew to Nicolaus, and his eyes misted over. What would it be like to hand Nick over to some old stranger, knowing he could do nothing to protect his son? He was lost in the image, the agony of powerlessness.

“I’ve tried to live a good life,” he said to the sky. To his mother, to Eden’s distant God. All he got in response was the empty, familiar rippling of the river. He paused, considering the letter again. His mother had loved it here, clearly thought of it with good memories. She must have loved the river. And as much as the river had taken her life, it had given Jared up, birthed him anew into a boy who would be shaped to be tough and strong and stalwart.

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