31
Helen parked the car in front of the gift store that led to the entrance of the Natural Bridge.
“This is it!” Kate shouted.
“This is it? Where is the Natural Bridge?”
“Paul, if you want to see the Natural Bridge, then we must enter this gift store first and purchase tickets, then take a bus… Come on!”
Kate led the trio inside, opening her purse as she walked. She proceeded to purchase the tickets and lead Paul and Helen onward as if she had been there a hundred times before. The roadway down to the canyon was covered with a canopy of green. Tall trees reached up and over to the center of the narrow lane. The bus driver seemed to have memorized a series of winding curves, maneuvering the vehicle as if he could do it with closed eyes. At the bottom of the last straight stretch of the road, the small bus came to a stop. Kate was the first passenger off the bus after the driver opened its doors. She rushed forward, walking quickly, nearly jogging toward the Natural Bridge. Helen and Paul followed, but their pace was slowed by wonderment as they took in the sight of the rock spanning the gorge.
“Kate, wait!”
“Let her go, Helen, I am sure she has no intention of going any farther than the bridge.”
“How do you know where she will stop?”
“If something unusual happened here, it must have happened under that bridge!”
“What makes you so sure Paul? How did you know Kate was going to stop there?” Helen was surprised that Paul was right; Kate came to a stop directly under the bridge.
“I will explain later, let’s join her!”
Kate was looking around her for a moment, trying to find William’s face in the small groups of people walking by. Nothing! Kate had to accept that her mind had witnessed her husband vanishing in a downpour of water before her very eyes. Kate looked down at the pavement. She knew it was futile to look for William amongst the people around her.
Paul and Helen arrived where Kate was standing. They both looked down at the spot of pavement where she stared.
“This is the very spot William was standing !” Kate was aware that Helen and Paul had joined her. She turned to Paul and waited for him to say something.
“Look, Paul, I need you to help me understand what happened at this very spot.”
“Go ahead, Kate, I’m listening. Tell me exactly what happened; try to remember every detail.”
“William was standing here like he was in a trance, I was trying to tend to the girls when I noticed something was amiss with him. All of a sudden I heard a fraction of a scream from William, not a complete scream, but a scream like someone cut him off in the dream’s midst. Then a wall of water starting at the height of his head dropped to the ground, it knocked me over, and he was gone. Just like that… Now tell me, Paul, does that sound possible to you?”
Helen spoke before Paul had a chance.
“Well, Paul, what do you think? I know I am starting to doubt my earlier doubts; maybe it’s like you said, that anything is possible!”
Paul was not speaking; his mind was racing, he knew sincerity when he heard it, and he could feel the atmosphere of this place held mystery. He was afraid of what he might say.
He did not want to give Kate false hope that he had any answers for her, and he certainly did not want to appear to Helen that he was anything less than analytical.
“Paul?”
“Helen, I do not know how to say this… I believe your sister!”
“You do?”
“Gee, Helen, thanks!”
“Oh, Kate, I didn’t mean it that way! Like I said, I am starting to believe you myself. I am just glad that Paul thinks what you are telling us is possible… That is what you are saying, Paul? Isn’t it? You believe what Kate is saying is possible?”
“Helen!”
“Sorry guys, I guess I am just getting in the way; maybe I will just wait in the car!” Helen turned and took a step, but she was stopped by the tug on her elbow.
“Helen, your sister needs you right here… And I would like you to stay!”
“Alright… I’ll stay.”
“I’m glad that was easy!” Kate smiled at her sister and turned to Paul.
“Paul, please explain to me why you feel what I’m saying could be possible.”
“Well… First of all, I can feel something is mysterious about this place.”
“That’s funny. I don’t feel anything!”
“Helen, please!”
“Sorry…”
“No, that’s alright, Helen! The same is true for most, if not all of the people here. Except for the magnificence of this natural wonder, there is nothing strange here! Unless of course you believe that something here could be different, that something here could transform a grown man into water.”
Paul stepped back from them and looked around. He looked at the ground and at the stream, and stared at the wall of the canyon opposite them, following it up to the rock ceiling above them. Until now the water droplets that had been falling all around and on top of them from the underside of the bridge were not of any importance. Until now a droplet had not hit Paul’s forehead.
Paul now was focusing on the origin of the droplets bombarding his shoulders, hair, forehead, cheeks and chin. His eyes closed momentarily, and as a droplet hit the bridge of his nose, his left eye opened to see a droplet just leaving the underside of the bridge. His eye followed the individual droplet down, catching it head on. Paul let out a scream.
“That’s it!”
People around them were staring and then moving on. A guard walking at a distance heard Paul yell out and walked in their direction.
“That’s it, I think this bridge and in particular these droplets have some power beyond our comprehension!”
“These droplets?”
Helen looked up and realized for the first time that water had been dripping on her as well.
“Are you folks alright? Anything I can do to help?”
Kate did not turn; she anticipated that the voice belonged to a guard and God forbid that it might be the guy she assaulted. “Yep,” she thought, “that’s the guy!”
“No thanks! We are fine, I just got excited about being here.” The guard found it strange that Kate was not turning toward him.
“Are you alright, Miss?”
“Yes, I am alright.” Kate realized it was no use; she would have to face him. She slowly turned in the guard’s direction and kept her eyes and head low. Kate was expecting the guard to explode at her with accusations of how she almost killed him.
“You folks enjoy your visit here with us! Please try not to disturb the peacefulness of this place for others.”
Kate was relieved the guard turned out to be someone else, and not the guy she had slugged. The three of them just nodded their heads and waited until the guard had walked far enough away before they simultaneously broke out laughing.
“I can’t believe that eight dollar-an-hour guard made me feel like the CIA had just confronted us while we planned to overthrow the US government.”
“Helen, please let Paul continue! Paul, what do these droplets have to do with William disappearing?”
“Tell me something, Kate, was William staring at the underside of the bridge just before he disappeared?”
“Well… Yes! Yes, he was!”
“Helen, can you please walk over to the refreshment window at the pavilion and ask for a clean, unused plastic cup and lid if possible?”
“Sure, Paul, I will be right back!” Helen was glad to do something useful. She figured Paul needed the empty plastic cup to collect some droplets and if they were responsible for her sister’s husband disappearing then her role in retrieving something as simple as a plastic cup was very important.
“Paul, can you bring William back?”
“Kate, I do not want to give you any false hope. I am not some type of magician. I can’t really promise that I… that is to say, I personally can’t bring William back. But what I hope to do is try to find out what caused him to vanish.”
“Paul, please help me bring him back! I know you can do it!”
“Kate, it may take a while… A few days or so, but I promise I will set aside all my other projects for the next week and research this situation with as much focus as I can muster! That’s all I can do! It may not be up to us to bring William back. I think it may be up to William, wherever he is, to find a way back. And I strongly believe that your love for him will play a role in his ability to find his way back. Do not give up hope, Kate!”
“Hope! Hope is all I had before you came along. Now because of you I have my sanity back, and I have complete faith in you, Paul! I know you will bring William back to me and the girls!”
“Paul, here is your two-dollar-and-fifty cent empty plastic cup, the lid was free!”
“You actually paid for an empty cup, Helen? Have you lost some of Dad’s characteristics? Dad would not in a million years have paid for an empty cup… Even if our lives depended on it!”
“Kate, William’s life is worth more than a lousy two-dollars-and-fifty cents! What could I do? The number of cups is how they keep inventory. Why are we actually discussing this?”
Paul was ignoring Kate and Helen discussing such a trivial matter; rather he was busy collecting droplets released from the underside of the bridge. Paul moved the almost clear plastic cup with such precision that before long a half inch of water had accumulated in the cup.
“There, that should be enough! I think we can go home now!”