The Noel Bridge

Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

A licia climbed into Leo’s purring vehicle, and they drove off to the middle-school play. The sun had dipped behind the mountains, leaving everything a pale blue outside.

“The snow hasn’t gone anywhere,” Leo said, maneuvering around a pile that hadn’t been plowed enough to clear the lane. The weekend traffic had picked up on Main Street, and with the snow, the street was jammed.

“I know,” she said as the cold slithered through her.

“I stopped by my house before coming to get you just to make sure Dad hadn’t shown up.” He steered around a turn, taking back roads to the school. “I wish it would warm up.”

She understood now what people must have felt when she told them about her grief. She wanted to help Leo, to say something positive that would make the situation with his dad better, but there was nothing to say. They could spend all night looking for him and freezing, but if the search teams had had no luck, chances were they wouldn’t either .

“Do you mind if we stop by my house again between the play and dinner? It probably won’t amount to anything, but checking would give me some peace of mind.”

“Of course.”

Leo pulled into the almost full parking lot at the middle school. They got out and walked inside. As they made their way to the auditorium, Alicia felt as if she had stepped back in time. The old glazed-brick walls covered in artwork whisked her back to the years when she and Evelyn had skipped arm in arm down that hallway on their way to the bus after the school bell.

Alicia pointed to the junction between the gym and the cafeteria. “I used to wait for Evelyn on this corner after school.”

Leo nodded, the brightness in his eyes letting her know that her nostalgia was catching.

“The teachers would call after us and tell us to slow down, but we’d go bounding to the bus most days, so happy to be together that we barely heard them.”

They continued walking down the hallway, passing the trophy case full of the school’s championship wins for cross-country, baseball, and lacrosse.

Alicia stopped at room 209 and peeked inside. “Oh, my goodness,” she said, scanning the rows of desks and the board at the front of the room full of math problems. “This was my math class. I almost got a C one year because I was head over heels for Matthew Ramos and couldn’t keep my mind on anything else.”

Leo chuckled, pulling her attention to him. “What does Matthew Ramos do now?”

“I have no idea,” she said with a laugh.

With every step they took, the memories flooded her and she gushed about it all to Leo.

“Over here is where I used to sit against the wall in the mornings, waiting for my friends. All the girls would collect in this spot and gossip before we went to class.”

“What kinds of things did you gossip about?” Leo asked.

Alicia scanned her old memories, searching for an answer. “Oh! One time, we were certain that the English teacher Miss Johnson was dating our science teacher Mr. Callahan. Brittany Cash swore she saw them getting out of the same car in the parking lot one morning.”

The corner of Leo’s mouth turned upward in amusement. “Did you ever confirm it?”

She shook her head. “Not officially, but they arrived at the school picnic at the same exact time a week later, and we figured it had to be true.”

They made it to the auditorium and went inside. About midway down the aisle, Leo gestured to two empty seats, and they sat down. The blue velvet curtain was still pulled shut on the stage with a single spotlight on the area where the two sides came together. The orchestra was setting up in rows of chairs near the stage, a couple of violins whining as their owners drew bows across the strings and eyed sheets of music in front of them. Evelyn paced across the stage and then disappeared behind the curtain.

“Was that your friend? She looked rushed.”

“Yes. She’s been here for two hours already. Hopefully everything is going okay.”

Soon the lights dimmed and the chatting crowd quieted as the curtains whisked open to reveal a single child, dressed in black tails, a bow tie, and a top hat.

“Hello!” he greeted the crowd. “Tonight I bring you a chance to leave your holiday packages at the door and follow me into the past, present, and future.”

Alicia settled into the story as the kids began entering the stage, delivering their lines effortlessly. She caught sight of Evelyn standing in the corner at the edge of the curtain holding a clipboard and fluffing costumes before the kids walked on. They rolled the large wooden backgrounds in and out, and Evelyn had been right—they were very well painted.

The kids were fantastic, and before Alicia knew it, she’d fallen under the play’s spell. For an hour and a half, she forgot where she was, immersed in the story. When the lights came on and the audience stood, cheering for the cast as they lined the stage, she and Leo followed suit. When everyone began to file out, they went into the hallway to wait for Evelyn.

The crowds dwindled, and her friend finally emerged. “What did you think?” she asked, beaming.

“It was adorable,” Alicia replied. “What a wonderful performance from everyone. Wow.”

“We only had one slight snafu when Kyle Bishop forgot his top hat. I had to run to the drama room and dig through the costume closet to find an alternative.”

“No one was the wiser,” Leo said.

“Thanks. But I’m afraid I need about forty-five minutes to finish up before dinner,” Evelyn said.

“That’s fine. Leo and I were going to run to his house really quickly. We can meet you.”

“Shall we go to the diner for dinner?” Evelyn suggested. “I hear it has the best management in town.” She winked at Leo.

He grinned. “Dinner’s on me then. I’ll text them to save us a table.”

“All right. I’ll meet you two there.” Evelyn hurried off, stopping to say goodbye to one of the students and his family.

“Thank you for inviting me tonight,” Leo said on their way to the car. “It was such a treat.”

“You’re welcome. It was good to have you here.”

He sent a quick text, then they got into his SUV, and he pulled out of the parking lot. The old country lanes to Main Street were pitch-black. Alicia rubbed her cold hands together, glad she hadn’t walked over. Leo switched on the radio, and Christmas carols filled the silence between them.

When the buzz of the play began to wear off, it occurred to her what their task was at this moment: they were on their way to check for Dean. And while she didn’t want to be pessimistic, she was nearly certain they wouldn’t find him safely inside. What would Christmas be like for Leo this year without his father? But, without Bo, she already knew. Her time in Noel had softened her grief, but she still wasn’t sure what Christmas would bring.

They pulled onto Main Street and then headed out of town, taking the left-hand fork in the road.

“Oh, I used to live out this way,” she said to make conversation.

“I bought a gorgeous piece of property about two miles down this road,” Leo said.

“Wow, that will be really close to where I lived. What a coincidence.”

As he continued driving, getting closer to her old home, she began to wonder. There weren’t so many options out this way. When he turned into her old driveway, she laughed.

“You’re not going to believe this,” she said, “but this was my house.”

Leo huffed his own laugh of disbelief as they got out. “Are you serious? ”

“Yes. I grew up here.” She pointed to the upstairs window. “That was my bedroom.”

“Well, come on in. I’ll show you around.”

They walked up to the front door and he unlocked it, letting her inside. He reached around her and clicked on the lamp, and she took in the space, all her family’s things replaced with his. It was as if she’d entered a new version of the gap, that gray space between now and never. Leather sofas sat where her parents’ recliners had been, and the old TV on a cabinet filled with books had been swapped for a thin flat screen, mounted on the wall with a new fireplace underneath. A small Christmas tree stood next to the window. The echoes of her life here lingered in her subconscious, but the reality had changed.

“I’ve been too busy to decorate much for the holiday,” Leo said.

She waved toward the tree. “It’s nice.”

“I didn’t even put up stockings or wrap the Christmas presents,” he said with a remorseful shake of his head. “I should have. For Dad.”

“Don’t beat yourself up.”

He shrugged.

She followed him down the dark hallway and he flipped on the light in the kitchen. The cabinets had been upgraded, and the sleek iron lighting was more masculine than Mama’s had been. Leo walked over to the kitchen window and peered out into the darkness.

“My dad liked this house because of the view,” he said. “That’s why we bought it. But now I fear it might have swallowed him.” He turned on the light outside, illuminating the backyard.

It was hard to imagine the woods she’d loved causing harm to someone. When she was growing up, the canopy of trees, the small streams meandering through the valleys, the way the summer sun filtered through the branches—it had all felt like her personal playground, as if it protected her from the world. Her memory of this wide expanse of woods seemed so big and almighty that it made whatever powers people thought the bridge had seem silly.

Leo opened the back door, letting in a rush of cold air. The barren tree line seemed to be expressing its sadness for the situation, the spindling limbs reaching out as if asking for a hug. Where is Dean? That question had rolled around in her subconscious since she’d heard he’d gone missing. It was the first thing in her mind each morning and the last thing before she fell asleep. She tried to force herself to hold on to hope the way Leo was, but life just didn’t seem that kind in her experience.

“He really likes watching the birds in that birdhouse out there.” Leo directed her attention to the cedar box nailed to the oak tree out back.

“I made that birdhouse,” she said, delighted it was still there. “My dad helped me nail it to the tree, and we kept it filled with birdseed to attract the birds.”

“They still show up. I should get some birdseed. That’s a great idea.”

“I used to watch them from the kitchen window in the mornings.”

He shut the door. “Want to see the rest of the house?”

“Yes,” she replied. Although the home was so different now that the four walls containing her room didn’t seem to matter so much anymore.

Leo led her around, showing her the dining area first.

“We used to have big Thanksgiving dinners here,” she said, stepping into the room. “Instead of a round table like you have, we had a huge rectangular table. We’d bring in all the chairs from the kitchen, and my aunts and uncles gathered around with us. We ate and Mama and my aunts cleared until dessert was done, and then we’d get out a deck of cards and play until the football games came on.”

Leo smiled. “Where do you all have Thanksgiving now?”

“We haven’t really gotten together with everyone much since we moved from Noel. My family is all spread out now.”

“It seems like a shame not to get together. I’ve always wanted a big family, but it’s just me and my dad for now.”

She swallowed. She was wasting precious time by not seeing her family more. She decided she’d make a point to see them after she got home. Maybe after they all came home from Florida they’d like to get together again when she could join them.

Leo took her around the rest of the house and then upstairs to her room, which was now half a study and half a guest room. “I haven’t done much with this one.”

She walked over to the closet door and ran her fingers over the holes in the grain. “I used to have a full-length mirror right here. I’d put on music and dance in front of it.”

“Did it help?”

She looked at him. “Help?”

“Did practicing in front of the mirror help you dance better? I’ve heard that it does.”

“I’m not sure,” she said with a laugh. “But I’d use the end of my jump rope as a microphone.” The memories flowed through her easily tonight. And the more she immersed herself in her old life, the more authentic that part of her felt.

Leo laughed. “Well, I guess we should head on to dinner,” he said .

“Yeah, we probably should.”

They went downstairs and Leo made sure the back door was unlocked before they left. “Just in case,” he said, leaving the light on out back.

Then they got back into his SUV and drove toward town.