The Noel Bridge

Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

T hat evening, under the glow of the Christmas lights, Alicia briefed Evelyn on her date with Leo and what had transpired just outside Evelyn’s window when he dropped her off.

“Everything inside me is saying I should stay in Noel, but I don’t know how to make it work,” Alicia admitted to her friend.

Evelyn handed her a glass of wine. “The thing about life is that you can do whatever you want to do.” Her friend sat on the sofa next to her. “If you wanted to move to Barbados and start a whole new life, there would be nothing stopping you, really. It’s up to you.”

“I think you might be simplifying the decision.” Alicia swirled her golden wine in the glass, peering into it but not really focused on it.

“Why? I feel like we make all these rules around ourselves. But, really, it’s all our choice.”

“The Fergusons offered me a nurse’s position…”

Evelyn brightened. “Shouldn’t that have helped you make the decision to stay? What are you waiting for? ”

“I have the opportunity to be director of nursing at the hospital in Savannah. And I’ve taken on all of Bo’s hospital bills from the accident. Even though we had medical insurance, the co-pays for his extended hospital stay, emergency surgeries, and life support were astronomical.” The prick of tears stopped her explanation.

Evelyn’s shoulders fell, and her face filled with empathy. She put her arm around Alicia. “I didn’t realize. I’m sorry.”

“I need the salary from the director position.” Alicia wiped a runaway tear.

“I would love for you to stay,” Evelyn said.

Alicia sipped her wine, hoping it would calm her, but it wasn’t helping.

“Why don’t we go to the bridge and ask for a resolution?” Evelyn offered.

Alicia looked up from her wine. “Do you really think it would work?”

Evelyn shrugged. “It couldn’t hurt, could it? And it has seemed to work on a lot of other things we’ve asked for.”

Alicia didn’t respond. The one thing she knew for certain about the bridge was that it hadn’t granted her wish to stay when she was sixteen. She’d begged whatever powers the bridge had to stay in Noel and received only silence in return. While it was a childhood wish then, it wasn’t now. She didn’t want to wrap her hopes up in fake folklore, no matter how real it seemed. The last thing she wanted was to think the bridge had some bearing on her life only to be let down again.

“I don’t think it will help, but thanks,” she finally said. She swallowed the lump in her throat and took in a steadying breath .

Evelyn set her wine down and leaned into Alicia. “You haven’t told me why.”

“Let’s be honest. The bridge isn’t God. It has seemed to bring us luck in some things, but in this particular case, we’d be setting our expectations too high.”

“These expectations are higher than finding a missing man in the middle of a blizzard?”

Feeling utterly helpless, Alicia set her wine on the table and twisted around to face Evelyn. “What’s the bridge going to do, magically find me a job? Drop money from the ceiling so I can pay off my bills?”

“Maybe,” Evelyn said, ever the optimist. She squinted at Alicia. “You’ve been waffling over whether the bridge really has any magic. So give it the biggest test you can. Like I always say, what’s one wish going to hurt? Especially if you go into it with no expectations.”

“True…” Going in with no expectations was a good idea. But she’d have to force herself not to hope. “We’ll just go in there and ask the bridge for what we want and see what happens.”

“If we’re gonna do it, let’s do it now, before I finish my wine so I can drive.” Evelyn got up from the sofa and took Alicia’s hands, pulling her up. “Get your coat.”

Alicia had anticipated feeling a sense of excitement or a tingle of magic after sending her wish off at the bridge, but she arrived back at the apartment feeling no different than she had when they left.

Not having a sign of any kind was a good thing, she decided, because it meant she’d done exactly what she’d gone there to do and that was to send up her wish without any expectations. But still, she knew why she didn’t feel anything. She’d given the bridge an unsolvable conundrum, and staying in Noel and having her bills paid off was too much to ask for.

She folded up her clothes and got everything packed into her suitcase for the next morning while Evelyn waited for the dinner delivery they’d ordered.

Once the dinner arrived, Alicia went into the kitchen to dish out their bowls of Chinese food. They set two spots at the bar and sat side by side, ready to dig in, when Alicia’s phone rang.

She checked the number. “It’s the hospital. The Fergusons might have a question about VeraPro. Can you give me a quick second?”

“Of course,” Evelyn replied.

Alicia answered the phone.

“I’m sorry to call you at dinnertime,” Dr. Mitchell said, “but I wanted to catch you before you fly home tomorrow.”

“No problem, Dr. Mitchell.”

“Toby was incredibly impressed with your training, and Tabitha spoke up about you as well, telling us you’d come by earlier, even though you were on vacation. It’s clear you have the heart for the work.”

“Yes…” she said, wondering what this was about.

“You swept into my office and organized it in a flash. Your efficiency is incredible.”

Evelyn caught her gaze and gave her a questioning gesture. Alicia shrugged, having no idea why Dr. Mitchell was telling her this.

“I haven’t retired,” he continued, “because there wasn’t anyone to take my place. Rose and I have been talking, and we don’t want to let talent like yours go. So we wondered if you might accept a hospital director position. Rose would stay on to facilitate the transition, and I would be able to step down, knowing the management would be taken care of.”

Surely he didn’t mean a hospital director. Even at a small location like St. Francis West, a hospital director’s salary would be considerably more than what she was getting from her promotion in Savannah.

“Back home, I’m a director of nursing , Dr. Mitchell,” she clarified. “Not the hospital director.”

“I understand, but we’d like to make you Director of St. Francis West.”

She cupped her hand over her mouth, speechless. Evelyn leaned into her view, clearly curious, but Alicia couldn’t respond.

“Would you be interested at all?” Dr. Mitchell asked.

Had the bridge that brought Alicia to Noel just granted the biggest wish of her lifetime? The stories couldn’t really be true, could they?

“I understand if Noel isn’t where you want to be,” Dr. Mitchell said when she didn’t respond.

That was when she realized she hadn’t answered him. “Actually, Noel is exactly where I want to be. I’d love to hear more about the position.”

An audible breath of excitement came through the line.

“I’ll call the airline and postpone my flight so we can talk tomorrow.”

“Oh, that would be wonderful. Rose will be over the moon.”

“How about if I come by at nine in the morning?”

“That would be perfect.”

Alicia got off the phone and stared blankly at her friend, still trying to process what had just happened.

“So?” Evelyn asked .

When Alicia told her what Dr. Mitchell had offered, Evelyn grabbed her by the arms and squealed with delight. Then her friend sobered.

“Do you realize what this means?” she said.

“What?” Alicia asked.

“The bridge’s magic is real !”

Alicia thought back to her original wish on the bridge all those years ago. “I don’t want to leave Noel,” she’d sobbed, tears streaming down her teenage face. “I want to live in Noel forever with the people I love.”

The bridge had answered all her wishes. How could she deny Evelyn’s assumption any longer?