January 7, 2011
Emily stood near the water, stamping her feet to keep warm, her eyes on the cluster of state officials and workers who were down on the bridge, officiating its dismantling. Over to the side, arcing across the sky above them, was the new bridge, an impressive and expensive structure that had been open a few months. She looked over at the new bridge and back to the old one, catching Kyle’s eye and winking as she did. He winked back and turned to finish the conversation he was having.
Emily turned to the other ladies who had fought hard to save the bridge, making sure everything was on go for the old bridge to be salvaged. They had orchestrated a last-minute coup to save the structure, including the tender house, with big plans for it to be placed on a piece of land nearby. The idea was for the bridge to become a community gathering place. There was talk of future festivals and holiday celebrations for the residents and tourists. She had thrown herself into preserving the old bridge, working tirelessly to garner donations and solicit the needed help to physically move the structure to its new home when the state retired it today. It was good to honor the past, and Emily knew that.
Behind her she heard a cry that had become as familiar to her as her own voice. She turned around to find Claire carrying a crying child toward her. “There’s Mommy,” Claire was saying, pointing Emily out in the crowd. “There she is. See? I told you we’d find her.”
Claire handed the little girl to Emily, who snuggled her daughter and covered her little cheek with kisses, then ruffled her red hair, which was no longer in the little ponytails she’d spent time on this morning. She didn’t bother asking Claire what had happened.
“I swear,” Claire said, leaning against a railing. “This is taking forever. Don’t these guys know how cold it is out here? This child is cold. And so am I!”
Emily sighed and cast about for a solution. “Maybe you should just take her home with you and I could come get her later?”
“No way! You promised Amber a photo of her on that bridge.”
“Amber and her obsession with history. I’m so glad she’s majoring in it. Though who knows what she’ll do besides teach. Bless her heart.” She looked into her little girl’s emerald green eyes, who studied her silently and intensely. She was past due for a nap and Emily hoped this wouldn’t drag on much longer.
“Thanks again for being here today,” she commented to Claire. “Where are Rick and the kids? Did they have enough of the cold and decide to go home?”
Claire waved her arm, indicating the area behind them where people were milling around. “They’re around here somewhere. Trust me, they’ll surface soon.”
“Thanks so much for coming out.”
“That’s what friends are for. I knew you’d need my support. That big jerk down there is no help at all.” She pointed at Kyle and giggled. Claire had forgiven Kyle gradually once Emily told her the rest of the story, the part that Kyle had never been able to share with her. She still loved to tease him but it was all in jest. The truth was, Claire and Kyle had finally bonded over their mutual loss, each one looking to the other to help them remember the remarkable girl who once graced their lives.
Kyle saw them looking at him and gesturing and walked over to make sure things were okay. “Are you sure we shouldn’t get her out of this weather?” he asked, stooping down to kiss the little red-headed girl. “I’d hate for her to get sick.”
He scooped his daughter out of Emily’s arms. “Lily, Lily, Lily, you are Daddy’s girl, aren’t you?” he crooned, balancing her on his hip with the confidence and ease of an experienced dad. He put his arm around Emily and together they watched for a moment as the engineers scurried around, making the necessary notations and adjustments as they prepared to open the bridge one final time and then take it out of commission forever. Many of the former bridge tenders had gathered for one last ride, a sentimental occasion that had brought tears to more than one eye.
After that, the bridge would be pushed up the intracoastal by a barge and beached until the construction company they had hired could move it piece by piece to its new home. But as she watched, all Emily could think of was her late-night ride with this man who now stood by her side, this man she had fallen in love with, the man who had suggested they get married so Amber’s little girl could be adopted by a mother and a father. It had all been so fast, and yet not once did it feel wrong. As the three of them stood there together, it felt very right indeed.
“You want to get the picture for Amber now?” Kyle whispered, interrupting her thoughts. “We better do it soon or we might not get it at all.”
“Yeah,” Emily said, feeling weepy and sentimental. She summoned Claire over to snap the photo, wishing Marta and Phil could be there, but Marta was on bed rest for her first child, a child, she had said often in the last few weeks, who would most certainly be an only child.
“I’ve heard that just because it happens with one doesn’t mean it will happen again,” Emily offered the last time she visited her friend, bearing her chicken salad and stacks of mindless magazines.
“Look, just because the baby fairy showed up at your house and dropped a gorgeous child on your doorstep doesn’t mean you’re in any position to be doling out helpful advice, Missy,” Marta said, rolling over in bed. “We can’t all be so blessed,” she groaned as she positioned her girth.
Blessed. Once she had been blessed, then she wasn’t. Then for so long she felt anything but. And now when someone used that word to describe her life it took her breath away. Not because she was surprised, but because it was true.
She took her place beside Kyle on the bridge and together they coaxed Lily to look at the camera, waving their arms and acting silly to get her to smile, generally looking like fools, but happy fools. Fools who had taken a chance on love again and found more than they bargained for. Though they couldn’t have known what waited on the other side, they’d trusted the bridge to take them there.