The Bridge (Para-Earth Series) (16 page)

one legend… two versions

             
Alex parked his car near the groundskeeper’s cottage and got out.  It was very peaceful and quiet here, and the smell of trees and flowers filled his nostrils.  From where he stood he could see the stone bridge not too far in the distance.  Just beyond it, at the top of a gentle slope, stood the great mansion. 

             
Jason appeared in the doorway of the cottage and greeted him warmly saying, “This is your first time down here isn’t it?”

             
“How did you know?”

             
“I know everyone who’s come here,” the man smiled. “Couples like to park near the stream and ‘hook up’.  Since its part of my job to keep an eye on the property, I watch over the kids as well.  I don’t spy on them you understand?  I just make sure there’s no trouble.  Break up fights, help some of them get home when they’re too wasted to drive.”

             
“That’s awfully good of you,” Alex told him.

             
“Well, I do it for her sake as well as theirs.  She doesn’t like bad things happening near her bridge.”

             
Alex frowned, “What do you mean her bridge?  I thought Mr. Graham was unmarried.”

             
“That’s right,” Cloudfoot nodded. “He owned the property, but the bridge was built for ‘The White Lady’.”

             
“Who’s she then?”

             
“You’ve never heard of her!” exclaimed his host in surprise. “Well, come inside and I’ll tell you her story.  I’m sure you’ll find it very interesting.”

              Back in Roy’s office Pam took a chair in front of his desk saying, “Now I heard this from Mr. Graham himself when I was little.  My mother was one of his cleaning ladies.  He had a number of them, since the mansion was kind of big.”

             
Roy nodded, “Yeah, I noticed.  Who’d want such a gigantic place?”

             
“Well the Graham family was huge way back in the late 1600’s,” his subordinate explained. “They usually had several generations living under one roof at the same time.  Now Cyrus told me he was the last of the original family line, and that it would come to an end when he died.”

             
“What happened to the rest of them?”

             
Pam shrugged, “Illness, bad genes, war, while others moved away and were never heard from again.” 

             
“Okay so what about the White Lady?  What’s her story?” asked Roy sitting back in his chair.

             
“Well in the early 1700’s, there was a young girl about 14 years old who was the apple…”

              “…of her father’s eye?” asked Alex.

             
“She was,” Jason nodded. “But, he was a very religious man, preaching blood and thunder at every meal.  He insisted that everyone in his household, including the staff remained humble and pure.  Especially the women, they were to maintain their purity above all.”

             
“But, there was a young man who fancied the girl, am I right?”

              “No one really knew the name of her suitor,” Pam continued, “But there was an Elliott living nearby at the time.  He moved away shortly after the events of the story took place.”

             
“Elliott?” Roy mused, “As in the shipping and hotel magnates?”

             
“The very same,” she nodded. “Anyway, long story short, the girl wound up pregnant.  Now the servants adored her and helped keep her condition a secret throughout the whole nine months.”

             
“What about the birth? How’d they manage to hide that?” Roy asked curiously.

             
“There were a lot of servants living there during those days.  And more than one gave birth inside those walls, so the sound of someone in labor wasn’t unusual.”

             
“That makes sense,” Roy nodded.  “So what happened?”

              Jason sighed, “Unfortunately, the servants failed to get their stories straight about who had given birth.  Also the girl’s prolonged ‘illness’ in the last few weeks before the birth had made her father suspicious.”

              Roy shook his head, “So Daddy found out his little girl had given birth and then what happened?  Did he go after the boyfriend?”

             
“Mr. Elliott had left town, long before the birth took place, so the only people he could deal with were his daughter and her bastard child,” Pam pursed her lips, “And that’s what he set out to do.  He chased her out of the house and into the night.  A storm was raging and she knew he’d catch her on the road because it would be so muddy.  So she headed towards the bridge, hoping to get to the other side and disappear into the woods.”

              “I’m assuming that since the girl haunts the bridge, her father threw the baby from it,” Alex interrupted.

             
Jason shook his head. “The bridge hadn’t been built yet. But its construction was a direct result of what happened that night.  You see, the father did set out to deal a severe punishment on his daughter and her child, only to find they were gone.  Her grandfather had warned her of what was to come.  So she grabbed her baby and ran out into the night.  A terrible storm was raging at the time and she’d hoped it would wash away her footsteps making her flight impossible to follow.”

             
Alex was so engrossed by the tale, that he almost forgot about his cup of tea and took another sip.  His host had said it was a homemade recipe that had been in his family for generations.  It had a very interesting taste.

             
“The girl had not gotten far, when her Father came out of the mansion and spotted her,” Jason continued.  “Immediately, she ran towards the stream hoping to cross it before he could reach her.  She was so frightened, that she wasn’t thinking clearly.  Otherwise she might have realized that the water was running high, and that the current was very strong.”

              Roy leaned forward eagerly, “What happened next?” he asked.

             
“The girl managed to get about halfway across the bridge and slipped.  Now the railing hadn’t existed at that time so there was nothing to stop her from going over.  But she managed to grab the edge with one hand, still clutching her baby with the other.”

             
“So she was just hanging there?  Please tell me her father tried to rescue her.”

             
Pam smiled and nodded, “He got to her, just as she was about to lose her grip and tried to pull her up.  But with her using only one arm it was difficult.  Finally, some of the servants arrived and tried to help.  Unfortunately, she got jostled as they pulled her up and she lost her grip on the baby and it fell in the water.  Her father dove right in to save it, but the current was strong and they both disappeared.  A few days later they found his body crushed between some rocks downstream.  They never found the baby.  After that, the girl would go down to the bridge every night, hoping to find her child. Then, on the third anniversary of the baby’s disappearance, there was another storm.  In the middle of dinner she stood up, shouting that she could hear her baby’s cry.  And every person in that room heard it too, the distant wail of an infant calling for its mother.”

             
“Holy shit,” muttered Roy breathing heavily. 

             
“Before anyone could move, the girl raced out into the storm heading for the bridge.  For that was where the sound was coming from.  Her brothers went after her but when they got there, she was gone.  All they found was a piece of her dress caught between two stones of the bridge.  They assumed that she fell into the water when it got caught.  After that, they put the railing on the bridge to prevent anyone else from falling in.”

             
“Did they ever find her body?”

             
Shaking her head sadly Pam replied, “To this day neither mother nor child have ever been found.  People say she never managed to reach her child and that’s why she haunts the bridge to this day, but especially on stormy nights.” 

             
“That makes sense,” Roy nodded.

             
“But there’s more,” Pam insisted, “There are some who say that if you stand next to the slab in the center of the bridge, you can hear the baby crying for its mother.  Then there are others who say that if you stand on the bridge near the center and look down into the water, you’ll see your reflections.  But if you’re meant to be together forever, you’ll see yourselves holding a baby.”

              “Now,” the old groundskeeper continued, “when her father saw that she was about to cross the stream, he forgot his fury.  Desperately, he tried shouting to the girl, telling her that all was forgiven and to come away from the water’s edge.  But he was too far away and the storm was raging.  All the girl could see was her father bellowing at her.  So she stepped into the fast-moving waters.”

             
Alex quietly prepared himself for the worst.

             
“How she managed not to be swept away was a miracle in itself,” Jason continued. “But she wasn’t making much progress either.  By then a number of servants had followed their master and saw him racing toward the stream.  He turned and yelled at them to get a rope or make a human chain, while he rushed into the waters to save his daughter and grandchild.”

             
“And did he?”

             
“Yes,” Jason nodded proudly, “The girl had gotten only halfway across when he reached her.  She struggled at first and the baby fell out of her hands, only her father caught it just in time.  Then he kissed the babe and handed it back to her, so she would know that everything was all right between them.”

             
Alex smiled, thinking of his own father and all their ups and downs over the years. “So what went wrong?  How did she come to be haunting a bridge that didn’t even exist at the time?”

             
“They were making their way back to the shore, when the girl slipped on a large slab of stone that lay in the water.  It was an ornate stone with a peculiar design on it, which had lain in the stream long before the family ever arrived.”

             
“And she lost the baby when she tripped?”

             
Jason nodded sadly, “She tried to go after it but her father handed her off to the servants and tried rescue the child himself.  He failed and nearly lost his own life in the process.  His sons had to save him in the end, but the baby was gone.”

             
“The girl must’ve been devastated.”

             
“She was,” replied Cloudfoot heavily. “Day after day, night after night she kept wandering along the shore hoping to find her child.  Then one day she tried going back into the water, trying to get back to the exact spot in the stream where she’d lost the baby.” He paused and looked pointedly at his guest, “You see she was convinced the baby was still alive...”

             
Alex suddenly found himself passing swiftly down the corridor leading to the double doors of the Morgue which suddenly opened of their own accord.  Now he was in the room itself.  There were rows of doors along one wall and a table in the center of the room.  There was something on it.  Something that should have been dead… yet was still moving.

             
Suddenly the room was filled with that unearthly cry…

             
“Are you all right?”

             
Alex shook his head and looked around.  He was still inside Jason’s cottage, sitting at the table. “I… I think so.  There was a cry…”

             
“Exactly!” his companion beamed. “The girl claimed that she could hear her child calling to her, which was why she was sure it was still alive.  Her parents became terrified that she would be lost to the waters and were at their wits end, when the grandfather suggested they build a stone bridge right next to the spot where the child was lost.  Then the girl could look for the child, to her heart’s content, without actually going into the water.”

             
As the remnants of the vision passed, Alex relaxed once more. “So that’s how the bridge came into being?”

             
“Yes,” his host nodded, “It seemed like a sensible thing to do. So they built the bridge right next to the slab in the water.  Then, when it was just about finished, they raised the slab out of the water and put in the center of the structure.  This way the daughter could be assured of being in the right spot to look for her baby.”