The Changling Bridge

Chapter 3

3

I rest my hands on Liam’s shoulders a moment as I swing my leg over his bike. The warmth of his skin through his thin t-shirt clings to my palms.

“Thanks for the ride,” I say.

He cuts the engine. “I still don’t understand why you wanted to come up here.” He glances around the sparse woods surrounding the road on either side. I hand him my helmet, and he takes off his own. He straightens the spikes of his hair.

“You don’t need to stay,” I say.

His eyes widen. “What’re you goin’ to do up here by yourself?”

“I just need some fresh air.”

He studies the little backpack I’m carrying. “You can’t go wandering around alone, Callie.”

“I’ll be fine. I’ve hiked a lot with my dad.” I tug a baseball cap onto my head. I doubt that day hiking in Pennsylvania has actually qualified me to star in my own woodland survivor show, but I really don’t know what else to do.

“How will you get home? You’re as daft as a hen.” Liam swivels off the bike and looks down at me, a slight scowl on his face. “Which way do you want to go?”

“What?”

“Where are we goin’?” He drops his shoulders in frustration.

“Oh, honestly, you don’t have to worry about me. Really.” Maybe he thinks I asked him to give me a ride to spend time alone with him? My face burns like a slow sunset. I turn away as if I’m deciding the best way to go so he doesn’t see it.

“Fiona’ll have my hide if I leave you here. Come on, then, I think I see a trail over there.” He brushes past me and clomps into the woods.

Great. How am I supposed to explain to him that I’m up here hunting a fairy portal? I don’t even believe it myself. All I know is that the thing that stared me down this morning was not my brother.

I run to catch up to Liam, as he twists his way through the trees along a deer path.

“It’s startin’ to cloud up,” Liam says, glancing at the sky.

“The weather app said it’s not supposed to rain today.”

Liam scoffs. “You haven’t been here long enough if you believe the Irish weather app.” He lets out a deep breath and keeps forging forward. “Well, let me know when you’ve had enough fresh air.”

I stumble behind him and Liam turns and catches me at my waist. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, thanks.” I pull back from his grip. He slips his hand around mine. “Didn’t know youse were the clumsy type.”

I laugh, but my heart is pounding. Liam and I traipsing through the woods holding hands is not what I thought my day would be when I got up this morning. But then again, I also didn’t expect to believe my brother had been stolen by fairies when I woke up today.

I scan the landscape for anything that looks like it belongs in one of those ridiculous old songs, but it just seems like the same kinds of woods you see in eastern Pennsylvania. Less thick, for sure, but nothing remarkable. My hand is warm in Liam’s. At least this wild goose chase wasn’t completely worthless. Birds sing above us, flitting from tree to tree at our intrusion.

“We should probably turn back soon,” he says.

I look at the sky. There are still several hours until sunset. “A little further. Please?”

Liam nods and squeezes my hand. We keep walking. The thin woods start to get thicker and greener. The air grows crisp and smells of wood and wild bramble flowers.

“I didn’t realize how heavy the woods get up here,” he says. “It feels more like Switerland than Ireland.” I’m a little out of breath from keeping up with his long strides.

“It really does.” I scan either side of us as we go, but I don’t even know what I’m looking for. This has to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done.

“So, what’s the real reason we’re here?” Liam tugs me a little closer and our arms bump.

I look up at the back of his head as he pulls me along on a part of the path that’s narrowed. His hand holds mine tightly.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’m not really buying that you had a sudden urge for a solo hike.”

He has to think this was all to hit on him. It’s not like I can tell him the truth. He’d probably take me to a psych ward. Maybe he should.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I say. My voice is a little shaky though.

“This isn’t too far from where your Da went missing,” he says, and I stop walking. Liam’s hand jerks in mine, but he doesn’t let me go. I can’t believe he even thought of that.

He turns. “Isn’t it?” His broad shoulders block the late afternoon sunlight from falling on my face.

I nod. For a moment we just look at each other. Liam’s one of those people who always seems to know what someone else needs to hear.

Liam bobs his head and turns forward. “I thought so.”

We keep walking then, not really talking, my hand cradled in his. He doesn’t press me about why I want to be here anymore. He just lets me be, as we pick our way through the thickening brush, deeper and deeper into the woods. When he hears me panting a little, he slows our pace.

We reach a small clearing, overlooking a valley and we both stop.

“This is beautiful,” I say. We gaze over the green rolling hills below us.

“Sometimes I feel like a traitor for not wanting to stay here. But there’s so much to see.”

“Like California.”

Liam laughs. “Imagine, you and I riding up the Paific Coast Highway on my bike. That’d be some craic.”

I smile. “I guess it would be.” I think about it. Right now, riding up California 1 on the back of Liam’s bike seems like more freedom than I’ve ever wished for. Maybe even enough for a lifetime. I guess I didn’t really need to dream of freedom before we came to Ireland. But I’ve thought about it a lot in the last year.

“I wanna see Hawaii, and Fiji, and Alaska, and Nepal. I want to see it all.” His voice is firm. His hand holds mine tightly.

“I know.”

“I mean, if I’m going to wait tables my whole life, why not change the scenery every so often?”

I nod and look up at him. “You can do a lot more than wait tables.” He’s in the running to be our valedictorian. But Liam doesn’t want that any more than he wants to stay in Ireland.

“Callie,” Liam says. He turns to me. His right hand is still in my left, but his other hand brushes a strand of hair back from my face that’s escaped my ball cap. My heart feels like it’s a thoroughbred in the starting gate of a race and I look down from the intensity of his gaze. He slips his hand to my chin and starts to bring my gaze back to his, but as he does, beyond him, I spot a bridge. A strange little bridge, resting on the ground. A bridge that serves no purpose. A bridge that’s completely meaningless. My breath catches, as the words of a song dance around in my head.

“Hold that thought, Liam,” I say. I pull my hand from his and make a rabbit run for the bridge, afraid I’m seeing a mirage that could disappear as quickly as it appeared. I’m sure it wasn’t there before.

“Callie,” Liam calls behind me, as he crashes through the underbrush after me. “Don’t cross that-”

Whatever else Liam says is lost to me the moment the soles of my trail runners hit the thin wooden planks of the little bridge, and it swallows me whole.