The Noel Bridge

Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

W hen Alicia and Leo met Evelyn at the diner, every table was bustling with families, groups of people immersed in jovial conversation, and waitstaff rushing to the kitchen and back.

“Busy night,” Evelyn said, ducking under Leo’s arm as he held the door open for them.

“The bridge visitors start trickling in on Thursday evening, and by Friday night, it’s standing room only at the old counter-turned-bar, with every table occupied.” He nodded to the frazzled hostess who offered him an exhausted smile. “Not to worry, they saved us a table in the back.”

The hostess gathered three menus and took them to the corner of the dining area, where sat what looked to be the last empty booth, and they slid onto the benches, the women on one side with Leo on the other.

“Hanging in there, Tiff?” Leo asked the hostess.

“Yes, sir. Katelyn’s got this table tonight, so she’ll be over in a second.”

After she left, Leo leaned in toward Alicia and Evelyn. “ It’s not much of an incentive, but I let the staff take home a dish of their choice after we close on Fridays. The crowds are running them ragged, and I need to hire more servers, but I’ve been spending all my free time looking for my dad.”

“No news when you got home?” Evelyn asked.

Leo shook his head.

“You’ll never believe where he and his father live,” Alicia said.

Evelyn offered a questioning frown.

“My old house—316 Radnor Lane.”

“Leo owns your house?” Evelyn asked with a gasp.

Alicia nodded. “And he said his dad likes the birdhouse I made out back.”

“Oh, gosh, I’d forgotten about that. We used to add birdseed to it after school.”

The waitress arrived and took their drink orders. She asked if they were ready to put in their dinner choices, but Leo asked for a few more minutes.

“Evelyn and I spent every day after school in the woods behind my house,” Alicia said once the waitress had gone. “My parents were worried we’d get lost.”

“Rightfully so,” Leo said.

Alicia nodded solemnly. “Yeah, we know now. But as kids, we had no idea what could happen to us. When I was in the woods, I felt free.”

“Me too,” Evelyn said. “Remember how we followed the brook that ran through the valley? It opened up into a wider stream, and we’d take off our shoes so we could walk on the mossy rocks. We pretended it was carpet.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right.”

“It sounds like you two had fun out there.”

“We did,” Evelyn said with a nostalgic look in her eye.

“It’s such a vast forest. You never got lost?” Leo asked .

Alicia shook her head, but Evelyn held up a finger.

“No, once we got lost. Remember?” Evelyn put her elbows on the table and her brows pulled together as if she was trying to retrieve the memory. “That one time when we were out after dark… We walked along the stream for hours that day, winding through the mountains. Oh, and we discovered that old shack! We got so excited we didn’t start back home until sundown.”

The memory slowly materialized for Alicia. “Ooh, yeah. I had completely forgotten we found that. It had dirty old pots and pans and things, right? We stayed all day and pretended it was our house.”

Evelyn’s smile widened. “Yes! We made brooms from sticks and evergreens and swept the floors. We tried to clean the pots and utensils in the water outside, and we even tried to make a fire in the old stone fireplace. Thank God we didn’t actually make one or we might have burned down the entire mountain.”

“There was a fireplace?” Leo asked.

“Yes,” Evelyn replied. “And a basin for washing. It was next to a spot where the brook widened into a rushing current. It was so pretty.”

“Wait,” Alicia said, stopping them both. “It was behind my old house—your house. And an outdoorsman would know how to build a fire to keep warm.” She peered into Leo’s wide eyes, that tiny spark of hope flickering.

“How far is it?” he asked.

“It’s hard to remember… so much time has passed, and we were kids taking our time… What do you think, Evelyn? Maybe a little over an hour’s walk if we hurried?”

“Maybe,” Evelyn replied.

Leo’s shoulders rose. “Do you think you’d remember how to get there? ”

Alicia folded her arms on the table and scanned her memory, trying to recall the exact path. “I’m not sure… We followed the brook. It was some time ago, but as long as the water hasn’t dried up or gotten covered in snow, we could probably find it again.”

“I’ll go tonight,” he said, moving to stand up.

But Alicia caught his arm. “Leo, you can’t go in the dark.” She shook her head. “It would be dangerous, and the temperatures are too low.”

“I can manage.”

Alicia pulled on his arm to get him to sit and he complied. “The mountain terrain is so unsteady, and with nothing more than a flashlight to guide you, you’d get lost yourself and freeze to death. I’ll go with you first thing in the morning.”

“I’ll come too, if you want,” Evelyn said. “Between the two of us, we could probably find it.”

For the rest of the dinner, they made plans for the hiking trip the next morning.

“I’ll let the staff know I won’t be in tomorrow. We could start at six,” Leo said. “That would get us out there around sunrise.”

“We’ll need to dress warm,” Alicia worried aloud. “I’m not sure I have what I’ll need.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Evelyn cut in. “I go skiing every year. We’re about the same size, and I have a couple pairs of ski pants.”

“That’s wonderful,” Alicia said with relief. “How about you, Leo?”

“I’m from Chicago—very cold winters. I’ve got what I need. I also have warmers we can put in our gloves and socks. They last about ten hours.”

Alicia was hopeful and reached out to Bo. She hadn’t done that since she’d left Savannah, but she sent up a silent prayer.

Bo, if you have any pull with the big guy upstairs—I don’t even know if you can hear me—but I’m gonna need the biggest miracle you can manage. Please help us find Dean .

Bo would certainly be better help than that old bridge.

Suddenly, she gasped when a thought popped into her mind.

“What is it?” Evelyn asked.

Leo looked on.

A cold wave slithered through Alicia’s body. She shook her head, not wanting to believe what was going through her mind. “Nothing.” She grabbed the salt. “I almost knocked this over with my elbow.”

What she didn’t want to mention was that they’d asked to find Dean at the bridge today. And in the bookstore she’d created the sentence: After enduring The Bridges of Madison County , she took The Road Less Traveled to The Shack . Could her sentence actually mean something? There was only one way to find out.

Alicia thought about the message the whole way back to Evelyn’s apartment. And when they got home after dinner, Evelyn was still abuzz from their dinner planning. Her friend grabbed the plate of cookies they’d made and they sat down on the sofa together.

“I have to tell you something that occurred to me,” Alicia finally said. “I didn’t want to get Leo’s hopes up, but it’s been on my mind since dinner.”

Evelyn offered her a cookie. “What?”

As she took one of the sweet confections, the tingle of optimism swelled. “Remember our sentences when we played The Stacks in the bookshop? ”

“Yeah.” Evelyn broke a piece of cookie and popped it into her mouth.

“I linked the wish at the bridge to the sentence I’d made.” She repeated it and Evelyn threw her hand over her mouth, eyes wide.

“What if the bridge’s magic actually works?” Evelyn asked.

“It doesn’t work until we find Dean.”

The old man had gone too many days without food, and she wasn’t sure how he’d be equipped to camp for so long. He’d only left to go on a walk, as far as they were aware. Her enthusiasm gave way to the dread of the disappointment they’d all have if they didn’t recover Leo’s father. And they still had to find the shack. It had been years. Would they remember how to get there? And if they did manage to locate it, was the structure even still standing?

Their conversation dwindled as they sank into their thoughts. Soon Alicia went to bed, her sentence from the bookstore dancing in her mind.