Bridge of Mist and Fog (29 page)

Airy joined him twenty minutes later. “My phone is now officially dead,” she said. “But at least I had time to explain everything to Carla. She was kind of skeptical at first but I’m pretty sure she believed me.”

“Did you tell her about the future and the moonstone?”

Airy nodded. “And then I told her the second go-round and why we had to do it.”

Fehin pulled his eyebrows together. “I hope it wasn’t wrong to reveal this.”

“You mean like her knowing might mess up the time line continuum?”

Fehin chuckled. “You’ve seen too many sci-fi movies. No, I just meant it would be kind of weird to have someone tell you your future.”

“Her future won’t be the same. Everything’s different now.”

“You’re right.” He poured ground coffee into a small saucepan of water and placed it on a rack over the fire. “Coffee will be ready soon, M’lady.”

Airy turned, exasperated. “Will you stop that?”

Fehin grinned. “I don’t know where it’s coming from. It’s like I’m channeling someone.”

“I hope you’re not the reincarnated king of somewhere, like my dad.” Her gaze went into the distance, thinking about her own visions. “Does it feel like medieval times?”

Fehin looked down. “Yeah, kind of. Maybe it’s coming from one of the books I read while I was in rehab about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.”

“Camelot? I love that story!”

“It’s not just a story—it’s true.”

“How do you know?”

Fehin shrugged. “I just do. It’s part of my magic.”

Airy looked down at her ring. “If it’s true we could go there.”

Fehin laughed. “One thing at a time, Airy. First we have to save
this
world.” He poured hot coffee into the collapsible metal mug and handed it to her.

“When should we head up the mountain?” Airy asked, taking a sip.

“Tomorrow is April Fool’s day. Today we eat, hike and scout things out. I’m glad we have another full day to let this place soak in.”

“Do you want to go up there and check things out?”

Fehin shook his head. “It makes more sense to me to come upon it for the first time on the first of April. What do you think?”

“I agree. Otherwise we’ll start making plans and having all sorts of expectations.”

52

“It’s time to go,” Fehin whispered, shaking Airy’s shoulder.

Airy opened her eyes. “How long did we sleep?’

“Five hours or so. I thought dawn would be the best time. We can watch the sunrise from up there and there won’t be any people.”

“Dawn has good energy,” Airy agreed, looking for her clothes. She put on jeans, a shirt and a sweater and then pulled on her thick socks and hiking boots. When she opened the tent flap it was pitch black. “How can we find the trail?”

“I scoped it out yesterday when you were napping.”

“Do we need to bring anything?”

Fehin shook his head. “You have your ring?”

“I never take it off. Why?”

“I don’t know—it just came to me that it might be part of all this.”

“I’m excited,” Airy said, following him out of the tent. “But it’s strange not having a plan.”

“That’s the best part,” Fehin said, turning to look at her. “We should go as quickly as possible. Who knows when the tourists will arrive?”

The silence was unnerving as they headed toward the trail that would take them up the mountain. There were tents scattered here and there but all the occupants were still sound asleep. Airy’s boots were wet with dew by the time they reached the Medicine Wheel trailhead.

By now the sky had turned a pale shade of gray and the tall pines loomed out of the darkness like sentinels. The stars that had been so bright an hour before were disappearing one by one. Airy stopped for a second and closed her eyes. “They like what we’re doing,” she said, but Fehin was too far ahead to hear her. She hurried after him.

Her breath was a cloud of white as they climbed. There were no more trees now, only rocks and scrub grass. Fehin didn’t look back as he moved steadily upward. They had not spoken for a good half hour. Her thoughts were muddled, wondering what they would find at the top and how they would decide what to do. When she looked down she noticed that her ring was beginning to glow, becoming brighter the further up she went. She wanted to tell Fehin, wanted his easy laugh and assurance that this was a good thing, but she didn’t have the breath or the energy to call out.

It seemed like hours before she could see where the ground leveled out. There were streaks of orange and rose in the sky now, mixed in with the gray. How long till dawn? They had to be up there and engaged in whatever they were doing before the sun rose. Adrenalin shot through her body giving her the stamina to catch up to Fehin. She grabbed his arm. “Are we almost there?”

Fehin turned. “You know as much as I do. What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“It’s almost dawn.”

“Yeah. So?”

“We have to do it before dawn.”

“Who says?”

“Well, I…I….” Airy stuttered.

Fehin took hold of her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. “We’re nearly there.”

They walked together the rest of the way, his warmth calming her as they climbed up the last rock-strewn ridge. And then they were standing on the top with a 360* view. Below them the valley stretched into mist filled distance, fog filling in the gaps between the lineup of smaller hills and ravines. The sky was a dome of pale blue-gray and at the eastern edge it looked as though a huge paintbrush had slashed across it, turning the clouds rose and the horizon deeper shades of orange and gold. “Holy crap!” Fehin said, his eyes going wide. “This is incredible!”

Airy rubbed her arms. “I have chills all over my body.” She pulled her gaze away from the horizon and stared at the enormous circle, taking in the vastness of it and the imbedded rocks that had been in the same place for hundreds of years. Those who had visited had left behind bits of cloth, feathers, plants, shells, and stones stacked into Cairns.

“Do you feel that?” Fehin asked, holding his arms out.

Airy felt energy bubble up inside her and she began to dance in a circle, grabbing Fehin’s hand as she skipped by. “I can see the web! It’s all around us!”

She pulled him into the circle, heading to the center. They began to twirl together, going faster and faster as the sky lightened around them. “I see colors,” Airy called out. “We’re caught in the web and it’s full of colors!”

Fehin glanced down at her hand. “Your ring, Airy—look at your ring!”

The moonstone hummed, sending out rays of brightness in every direction. “Take it off! Put it on the ground!” Fehin grabbed her finger and tugged.

Airy began to laugh hysterically. “I’ll do it.” She pulled the moonstone off and placed it where it wished to be and then stood back as colors of every hue began spiraling upward from its surface. Airy grabbed Fehin’s hands again, her eyes meeting his. “I love you,” she said, her gaze liquid. “I love you, I love you, I love you!” Her voice grew stronger with each utterance. And then Fehin began, his tone deep and resonant. “I love you, Airy. I love you, I love you!”

They began to spin together lost in the rainbow that came from her ring, and as they moved they lifted into the air, pulsing in rhythm to their continued chant. A web reached outward, into the heavens and beyond where their vision could go. Its intricate golden threads were woven together seamlessly.

“Can you see it?” she asked at one point. “Can you see the web?”

Fehin nodded, smiling as he briefly moved his eyes from hers. A second later he met her gaze again and it felt as though he
was
her, or was it the other way around? They had become a spinning ball of white light. “Look!” he yelled out.

Energy moved from them in waves and as it expanded, bridges grew within the pulsating colors. They were woven, gossamer, webs within webs, strong but delicate, and there were four of them, one for each of the four directions. The bridges of mist and fog moved outward in ever expanding distances until they narrowed into nothingness. Airy held tightly to Fehin’s hands as they spun and spun and spun. They had dissolved into a blur now, couldn’t even see each other anymore. But each one could feel the other as though they were one being. The sun slowly rose in the East, its rays joining the rainbows coming from the stone. And with the sun came a feeling of limitlessness. They felt it outside themselves and inside themselves—boundless, infinite, and never-ending possibility. Their minds were one now and so they reveled in each other, exploring and touching deeply.

Very slowly the stone took back its colors and Airy and Fehin returned to the earth. They stood facing one another, their eyes locked together and then they moved closer and closer until they were pressed as tightly as they could possibly get. Their hearts beat rhythmically as though they had one heart between them. They kissed then, and didn’t stop until it felt right to let go, which was several long moments of pure bliss.

When Airy and Fehin came out of their trance and pulled apart they heard applause. Around them were people, lots of them, and their smiling faces looked beatific in the morning light. They clapped and clapped and then they all locked arms and began to chant ‘I love you’, as though they were part of what had happened here. And they were.

53

When Airy and Fehin came down off the mountain nearly one hundred people followed them. Somehow the news had spread, bringing more and more hikers to the medicine wheel to participate in the ceremony. In the campsite they were treated like royalty, given gifts of food, jewelry and other trinkets. They refused these offerings, trying to explain what they hoped had happened as a result of what they’d all participated in.

“What do you feel?” Fehin asked them, standing on a stump.

“It’s like being reborn!” a woman yelled.

“It’s like the world has turned on its axis!” another one called out.

Airy took hold of his hand, looking up. “What I feel is so much love I can barely contain it.” Tears coursed down her cheeks.

“Me too,” someone agreed. “My chest feels about to burst.” And then there were a lot of tears and many hugs all around.

“Now we have to figure out how to keep it,” Fehin said, his eyes roaming the crowd.

A natural born speaker, Airy thought to herself watching him. “Just remember that it’s all about love,” she called out.

A cheer went up and then Fehin jumped down from the stump and took Airy in his arms. “God, I love you,” he whispered.

“Is that the old man in the sky god or do you mean one of our gods?”

“I mean all the energy of this vast universe—that’s the god I evoke. And ‘she’ sparkles inside each one of us. Maybe I should call her mother earth or Gaia.” Fehin placed his hands on either side of her face. “I saw you, Airy. I know you as well as I know myself.”

Airy smiled. “I saw you too, Fehin. Our relationship is infinite like the stars. We’ve been together many times before. You and I are the bridge between our two families. Brandubh was the dark part and Catriona the light.”

Fehin smiled. “I see the past like two lines of light fading into the distance. All our relatives moving along, and then the intersection that brought the two of us into being.” He grabbed her hand. “So what now, my goddess?”

“Now we eat and we sleep and then we travel to other parts of this country and see what’s happened.”

***

They stayed two days, partying with the people who had been on the mountain with them. It was a celebration that they all needed. But on the third day Airy woke Fehin, telling him it was time to go.

“My little voice is insistent,” she said. “I have to see what’s happened out there, find out if what we think happened really did.”

Fehin sat up and pulled on his shirt. “I could stay here forever basking in this energy we created, but I bow to your little voice.”

When they emerged from the tent and began dismantling things several people asked where they were headed. “Parts unknown,” Fehin answered, grinning.

“Can we come along?” a woman asked.

Fehin looked over at Airy and then shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”

And so they were at least seventy of them who ended up on the highway together. A few stuck their thumbs out and were immediately picked up. They had decided beforehand to head into the nearest big city, which was Lovell, Wyoming. After Lovell Fehin and Airy planned to travel in an easterly direction until they reached Milltown.

It was amazing how quickly they were all picked up, people climbing into the backs of pick-ups and cars, as well as larger delivery trucks and even semis. The truck driver who stopped for Airy and Fehin seemed almost giddy with happiness. He told them that something had changed but he didn’t know exactly how to put it into words. All he knew was that heaviness had lifted from his shoulders. His wife, who had left him a month earlier, had called to say she was coming back. He knew in his heart that his life was about to get a lot better.

But what had really happened? Were their lives better or was it a passing atmosphere that would drift away after a few days?

54

Airy scanned the streets of Lovell looking for their new friends. The entire town had a party atmosphere as though it was a holiday. People from the shops were on the streets drinking coffee and talking with friends. Even the homeless seemed happy. The April weather was warm and pleasant, the sun pleasing on her skin. She took off her jacket and tied it around her waist, holding her head back and arms out. “What a beautiful day!”

“What’s happened?” Fehin asked a man pushing a basket of belongings.

“I don’t really know except people have been stoppin’ me on the street and handin’ me money for the past few hours.” He pulled out several twenties from his pocket. “I haven’t seen this much all at once since 1992.”

“Are you a veteran?”

He pushed filthy fingers through his long hair. “I am but the government, such as it is, ain’t been helpin’. Maybe this is the start of somethin’ different.”

“I hope so,” Fehin said, his gaze going to Airy.

“The book said corporations are in charge,” Airy whispered. “How can what we did have an effect on that?”