Category: The Bridge – Preview

 

As much as she hated a farm full of corn and chores, she loved her dad. She’d spent her summers helping him in the fields, in between rides on Winnie. Her dad was tall and muscular, and with Leah, he was a huge teddy bear. She loved to snuggle in his arms while they watched TV at night. Her dad made her feel safe; her dad was her hero. But since Essie had left, that changed too. She still tried to snuggle with her dad, but there was something different about him now, and she just wanted everything to go back to normal.

Leah looked over to her Mom’s huge garden–it had to be almost an acre. For some reason, Leah kind of enjoyed gardening, even though the garden was Essie and Georgie’s thing. Weeding the garden and picking tomatoes made Leah calm, so she tolerated her mother’s nitpicking so she could get her hands dirty every once and a while.

To say Leah’s Mom was obsessed with the garden would be an understatement. All winter long, Georgie drew diagrams of the garden, figuring out the best place to plant her “Crop” for the spring. She knew what parts of the garden were shady, which were sunny, and which were always raided by the rabbits. They’d been on the farm ten years now, and the garden seemed to be her best friend. Every day she tended the garden. Veggies were picked at the perfect state of ripeness, and there was always a fresh salad every night on the table with dinner. Georgie’s herbs were the envy of all the farmer’s wives, and so to make a little extra money she sold them when people came calling. The blueberry bushes along the back of the garden provided Georgie with a bumper crop every year for her famous blueberry jam.

Since Essie had left, the garden had been suffering. Without Essie around to garden with, Georgie had let weeds grow in, and had lost almost her entire lettuce crop to the rabbits. Georgie always joked that she made Essie help her so she could keep an eye on her, and keep her out of trouble. But, Essie and Georgie always had a good time working together. During the hot summer days, they were in the garden in matching big, floppy hats, garden gloves, and crocs, weeding and singing some old Motown or Broadway hit at the top of their lungs. The only time anyone really saw Georgie come to life was when she was gardening with Essie. Otherwise, she was a quiet, kind of stoic woman who didn’t talk much or get excited about anything.

Leah went back downstairs to the big living room. Georgie hadn’t moved, and Leah felt awkward and invisible. When Georgie was like this, Leah felt like she was intruding on an intensely private moment. Another breeze blew in and moved Georgie’s hair a bit. She looked a little less red now, and a little calmer. Her right hand was twisting her apron and her eyes were focused on the big grandfather clock. The old grandfather clock in the corner chimed eleven in its warped, out of tune chime.

It was like a trance was lifted on the eleventh chime. Georgie got up and smoothed out her apron and her hair. She looked around the room like she was seeing it for the first time. She stretched a little bit. Leah figured she must have been finally working in the garden this morning, and had been taking a break. Georgie moved around the living room, fluffing pillows and fixing the drapes. Like usual, she ignored Leah standing right in front of her.

Georgie walked with light steps into the kitchen, humming a song by Diana Ross and the Supremes. Leah thought all this was curious, and followed her Mom into the kitchen. Her Mom really never noticed her much, and certainly didn’t seem to want to acknowledge her now. She moved to the sink and started washing the dishes. When they were done, she mopped the floor and wiped the counter. Leah hadn’t seen her mother clean this much in a month. Finally, she sat at the dining room table with a cup of soup, and a roast beef sandwich. Leah stayed in the corner of the kitchen and just watched, and Georgie didn’t say a word the entire time.

A taste of THE BRIDGE (c) 2016

If you looked closely, you could see the uncomfortable summer haze hanging like a curtain in the air of the Gardner house this morning. It was thick, warm, and oppressive. Leah thought the summer haze matched the mood of her family. As she entered the living room, she saw her mother Georgie sitting on their tired old yellow couch. As Leah moved in front of her, she noticed her mother looked completely exhausted. Her face was red and she was sweating, and she appeared to be staring at the blank wall in front of her. She didn’t seem to notice Leah was there. A gentle breeze came through the open window that made the gauzy brown curtains flutter. Georgie turned to face it for a little relief. Her hands were shaking, and there was a lot of dirt trapped under her fingernails, like she had been digging without her gloves on. She ran her hands through her long, stringy brown hair.

Georgie’s exhaustion wasn’t new, since Leah’s sister Esther–or Essie, as they called her–had run away. The mood of the entire family had changed when her sister had left in the middle of the night, leaving a note saying Goodbye, don’t try to find me. Since Essie had left, Georgie had been in a perpetual state of emotional exhaustion and worry. She was on the constant lookout for Essie to walk in the front door, expecting her to be singing a new song she’d heard on the radio. Georgie stuck close to the house, and gardened all day, and she left the lights on in the house all night, in case Essie came home.

Leah went into the kitchen. The sink was filled with two days of dishes no one had bothered to wash. Next to the coffee maker, a bag sat open with a half-eaten loaf of bread in it, and had two flies crawling on it. When Leah moved into the kitchen they got up and started buzzing around, hovering over the bread, then circling around the faucet, and finally heading off into the darkened hallway of the house. Without anything to do, Leah followed them. She didn’t need the lights to find her way to the front door, and the staircase next to it. She knew the hallway, and everything in it by heart. She passed the front closet, with all the family’s shoes next to it, piled on the floor, and went up the long staircase and down the hall to her room. Her bed was neatly made, her clothes were hanging straight in her closet, and her riding boots were in the corner, waiting for her morning ride. Why aren’t I on my morning ride?

Leah looked out the window and saw the farm she simultaneously hated and loved. Leah looked out onto the cornfields. She hated planting, harvesting and shucking corn. She hated everything about corn, and wouldn’t even eat it. It was the bread and butter of her farm, and she resented all the time she had to take to harvest the fields when her friends were having fun doing other things, like watching movies or going shopping. She saw the barn, which held the horses, cows and their tractor. She spent a lot of time in that barn growing up. It was her job to milk the cows and clean up the stalls, and those jobs couldn’t wait; you couldn’t skip a day. But those chores were worth the time she spent on them when she got to ride her horse. Leah and Essie both felt like the farm was holding them back from starting an exciting life.