The Tangled Bridge

by Rhodi Hawk

Zenon spent all his time in the briar now. For him, it had become a constant training ground. How would she ever keep up with him?

  Rise and fall. Madeleine matched her breathing to Ethan’s. Her hand went to his chest. She could feel his heart beating inside. The breath, the blood, the lungs, the heart, the brain. Altogether they did not equate to life. Life was something beyond this collection.

  The moonlight darkened as a cloud rolled in, and then the only illumination came from streetlights beyond the window. Madeleine kissed his temple. Jasmine lay sleeping on the other side of the room.

  This was part of it, she knew. Somehow, this quiet feeling was what kept the briar from seeping into her heart.

  The clock switched its blue digital display to 2:43 A.M.

  Raining outside now. The streetlight illuminated droplets streaming down the window and cast fractals across the wall. A flash of lightning and then thunder. The rain intensified with the electrical surge in the atmosphere, and the sound of it was divided between rushing in the trees and pelting on the roof. She drew in a breath.

  Across the patter of raindrops, her cell phone rang.

  Madeleine turned her head toward it. Ethan blinked awake and rose up on his elbow. The beautiful feeling vanished. But she could get it back; another quiet moment and she could feel that softness in her heart again.

  She slid back from him and stepped toward the kitchenette for her phone. Didn’t recognize the number that appeared on the caller ID.

  “Hello?”

  “Doctor LeBlanc?” Madeleine knew the woman’s voice but could not place it.

  “Yes?”

  Ethan had followed her into the kitchen, and he passed his fingers along her shoulder as he made his way to the cupboard. He frowned at the phone. Madeleine shrugged.

  “Hello, Doctor LeBlanc,” the voice finally said.

  Then, silence again. And Madeleine knew.

  She said, “Is this Esther? Esther Ramirez?”

  “Yeah.” Esther’s voice hung in a clench, and it sounded like she’d been crying.

  “Tell me what’s happened. Is Bo alright?”

  Esther’s words were slow and careful. “Mare says he’s just fine. But I don’t know what to do. I’m at Ochsner.”

  “You’re in the hospital?”

  Ethan’s brow deepened as he listened to Madeleine’s end of the conversation.

  Esther’s voice held steady. “Yeah. The night nurse was kind enough to let me use her phone. I just called Mare. She says Bo’s fine, but…”

  And then her voice broke.

  Madeleine said, “It’s alright, just tell me.”

  She could hear Esther’s breath hitching. “I’ve done something terrible, Doctor. I can’t say why. I took someone’s stash and shot up yesterday. Was a coworker, he kept his paraphernalia in the laundry. I found it and used it and he beat me pretty good. I just now woke up, or … came down. Mare been watchin Bo for me, she says. And Doctor, there’s things…”

  When the silence stretched on, Madeleine said, “I understand.”

  “You do, huh? You understand. Well I’m glad for that. You came to warn me, I know, but you could’ve told me more about this, I think.”

  Madeleine pressed the palm of her hand into her forehead, listening.

  Esther said, “I’m calling to ask you to go see to my boy.”

  Madeleine said, “Sure. I can do that.”

  “You and Doctor Manderleigh both, OK? Is he there with you now? Can I talk to him?”

  Madeleine said, “Hang on.”

  She handed the phone to Ethan. “She wants us to check on Bo.”

  She remembered the moment when Severin had conjured the thoughts of violence against Bo as he was escaping the bullies, that flicker of savagery Madeleine felt in her heart. Esther had seen it. Smart that she was insisting Ethan go, too.

  “Yeah,” Ethan was saying, and then, “You mean, take him home? With us?”

  Madeleine looked up, surprised. Take him? Ethan looked puzzled, too. He lifted his brows at Madeleine, and she nodded.

  He said, “OK, we’ll do it … Yeah … Hang on.”

  He passed the phone back. “Wants to talk to you again.”

  “Yes,” Madeleine said into the receiver.

  Esther said, “I know I’m asking a lot. But I prayed about it and I think you two might be the only ones who can actually do something here.”

  Madeleine swallowed. “That may be true. Have you made arrangements with Mare?”

  “Gonna call her again right now. I imagine she’ll be relieved. But if she ain’t, I’ll tell the police if I have to. I’ll tell them that my boy needs to be with you, not her.”

  “We’ll be there first thing in the morning.”

  But Esther said, “No ma’am. Please go now.”

  Madeleine looked toward the window where the rain had escalated to a steady pour. “Now?”

  “I’m afraid for my boy, you understand? I just talked to Mare and she told me he was fine, but she wouldn’t let me talk to him directly.”

  Madeleine tightened her grip on the cell phone. “You never actually got to talk to Bo?”

  “Said he’s sleepin. That woman don’t give a care if he sleepin. She’d wake him up to complain about the weather.”

  Esther paused, and her voice trembled. “She didn’t chew me out for never coming home from work yesterday. She didn’t even ask me what happened. Do you hear what I’m saying?”

  Madeleine drew in a hard breath and let it out. “We’re leaving now.”

  twenty-four

  NEW ORLEANS, NOW

  THE WIPERS LEFT BEADED trails where there had been something hard and sticky on the windshield. The devilwood grove in the Rosewood Arms mobile park had a much blacker look at 3 A.M. No streetlamps. Porch lights glowed at some of the trailers, but not at Esther and Bo’s place. It stood completely dark.

  “Do you think they went to bed, after all?” Madeleine asked.

  Ethan shook his head. “If they did, we’ll just have to wake them up.”

  He parked at an angle and left his lights on so that they could see their way through the gauntlet of ferns up the steps. He knocked on the door and then wrapped his arm around Madeleine. They huddled together under the umbrella. No lights came on inside, and no one answered the door.

  Ethan knocked again, this time pounding a little harder.

  Finally, Mare answered the door. She was fully clothed and she carried a long black flashlight, unlit.

  Mare had a strange-enough look about her that Madeleine decided not to bother with greetings, and she said simply, “We’ve come for Bo.”

  “Take him if you can find him.” Mare turned around and disappeared into the living room, leaving the door open for them.

  Madeleine followed her in while Ethan shook out the umbrella. The only light inside came from a red cigarette coal. It moved in an arc and then glowed as Mare picked it up and took a puff, though Mare herself was completely invisible in the dark.

  Madeleine asked, “Is the electricity out?”

  But then Ethan entered and flipped the wall switch, and the lights came on.

  Mare shrugged. “Looks like they working.”

  “Why were you sitting here in the dark?”

  Mare was still wearing what looked like her work clothes—a black flowered skirt and a suit jacket. The ashtray was spilling over with cigarette butts and it left a ring of ashes on the coffee table. Somewhere in the pile of butts a filter was burning.

  Next to the ashtray lay a long, wide carving knife. Mare set the flashlight down next to it.

  “What happened to Bo?” Madeleine asked.

  “He run off like he do.”

  Ethan said, “At three in the morning? In the rain?”

  Mare said nothing for a moment, holding her cigarette like a piece of chalk and staring at the burning end. Her hair was cropped in tight curls like a flapper’s. The exaggerated arches of her brows and the heavy makeup gave her the look of a silent-er
a film star.

  She said, “I do love a smoke. Never tried to give them up. Not once, no.”

  And in that, a switch had tripped. Same high-pitched voice, but something about the intonation was different. Her words sounded more down-country than New Orleans.

  Mare brought the cigarette toward her lips. “Now look at me. Water water ever-where.”

  She drew in very slowly, as if thinking across each micron and particle that streamed through the inhalation.

  Madeleine whispered to Ethan, “I’m going to look outside.”

  She could tell by Ethan’s expression that he knew Mare was not alone inside her body. Mare was still in there, it seemed, but she certainly wasn’t driving.

  “I’ll come with you,” Ethan said to Madeleine.

  But Mare said, “No, let Maddy go. She got a job to do.”

  Madeleine said to Ethan, “I’ll be fine. Best to keep an eye on … her.”

  “That’s right,” Mare said, and then she stubbed the cigarette out on her knee.

  Madeleine jerked backward at the sight. The smoke made a whisper as the coal extinguished itself somewhere between Mare’s skirt and her skin. Ethan took a step toward her. Mare rose to her feet.

  Ethan snatched the knife from the table and handed it back to Madeleine. “Get rid of that thing.”

  Mare laughed. “Go on, baby, tell him, ‘Yes, mastah; anything you say, mastah.’”

  Madeleine said, “Zenon, why don’t you leave Mare alone? She’s got nothing to do with this.”

  Mare smiled. “Ain’t my first choice. Lumen boy’s got all the neighbors tainted.”

  Madeleine was gripping the knife Ethan had passed to her, her knuckles tense, and she felt horrifically energized by the feel of it in her hands.

  Mare said, “That’s it, Sis. You want a little practice round? Go ahead. Stick it in this here pigeon. I’ll make sure she holds still.”

  Too easily, Madeleine could see a vision off herself piercing Mare with the knife. Target practice. No Severin here to blame it on, either. The briar wanted to bloom forth like mold through old drywall.

  Madeleine started to turn away.…

  And then Mare rushed toward her. It happened so fast Madeleine didn’t even know she’d raised the knife until it was too late. Ethan stepped in just as Mare was throwing herself at Madeleine. He caught Mare and pulled her so that she went to the ground. Not so much a counterattack as a deflection of Mare’s path.

  A thin line of blood showed on Ethan’s shirt.

  “I hurt you!” Madeleine said.

  “Forget it, I’m fine.”

  Mare rose to her feet and picked up the flashlight. “I never did like you, Ethan Manderleigh.”

  “Yeah, Zenon? Breaks my heart. Tell you what. Someone’s gonna put a stop to you, and that someone’s gonna be me.”

  Mare said, “What, you gonna come put a pillow over my face while I’m lying helpless in my bed? That’s the only way a candy ass like you could ever pull it off.”

  Ethan said, “You got to go after women and children to make yourself feel like a man. Take over a woman’s body.”

  “You stupid mooncalf. You have no idea what you’re messing with. This look like a game of chess to you? Well it’s bigger than that. It’s the whole fucking future of the human fucking race. Madeleine got a chance at leading the charge except you keep getting in the goddamned way.”

  Too late, Madeleine realized that the flashlight in Mare’s hand didn’t look the way it was supposed to. It had been tampered with. But Ethan saw it, too, and he threw himself sideways just as the thing exploded. Madeleine screamed.

  That sound, like a gunshot. She’d heard it before when the huffers were chasing Bo. Oyster had been carrying a flashlight then, too.

  Mare was looking at the desecrated metal in her hands. Three of her fingers were missing.

  She said, “Damn these homemade zip guns. Never work worth a shit.”

  She took two steps to the couch and dropped onto it; pulled out another cigarette, one-handed, and lit it. She breathed in and held a moment. Then released. The smoke poured out from her lips in a full, deep stream.

  Mare said, “I need to find a redneck or a cop next time. Someone who embraces the right to bear arms.”

  Her torn hand was draped over the armrest of the couch, blood leaking onto beige-and-blue striped velour.

  “I’ve got to find Bo,” Madeleine said.

  Mare was looking off somewhere beyond the planes of space confining the trailer. “Loves that boy better than life itself, Esther does. Stupid woman. Kid’s nothing but trouble. Now, look, here I gotta do without fingers. Damn that Bo.”

  Mare was in there, tangled together with Zenon, and she was probably so confused by now she didn’t even know she’d been taken prisoner inside her own body.

  She took another drag.

  Ethan handed Madeleine the umbrella. “Please be careful.”

  She turned toward the door.

  From behind, Mare said, “Kid’s all yours, Sis. Predator or prey.”

  twenty-five

  NEW ORLEANS, NOW

  MADELEINE JOGGED TOWARD THE devilwood grove and called Bo’s name. Rain was sopping her jeans despite the umbrella. The lightning and thunder had long since ended but the rain held steady. She called out again.

  No light at all. Madeleine realized she was still gripping the knife. She held her hand out in front of her but it was so dark she couldn’t see it. She swung around slowly until the blade was backlit by a distant porch light.

  Bo didn’t answer. If he was out here, she knew, he’d have heard her calling.

  Movement caught her eye. “Bo?”

  A small figure among the trees.

  “Bo,” Severin parroted back.

  Madeleine gave a huff. Everything was black except when Severin passed before it, then Madeleine could see a tree trunk or leaves or just a window of rain. Severin herself was barely visible as anything more than a moving lens.

  Madeleine said, “What are you doing here? We have a bargain.”

  “A bargain, so,” Severin said.

  She wove through the trees, swinging an arm around each trunk like a carefree child, following a pattern similar to the way Bo had dodged the huffers two days ago. Madeleine knew if she receded into her mind a step she’d be able to see Severin better, but she didn’t dare do this. Her mind needed to remain staunchly on this side of the briar or else she’d be putting Bo at an even greater risk.

  “A bargain is a bargain, Severin.”

  “A bargain is what makes a maybe. Here is of interest to me now, so.”

  Madeleine clenched the knife in a wet fist. “I won’t be following you into the briar any more if you keep intruding.”

  “Ah, so you will! And so I will. It is your will.”

  “What do you mean, my will?”

  But Severin was weaving in a wider circle, ignoring and infuriating. Madeleine watched in mute loathing and could almost feel the stinging creatures bursting from the briar.

  And yet it seemed that if she cracked open Severin’s nonsense, she could find a kind of logic inside.

  Madeleine shouted, “I don’t want you here! My will is that you go!”

  Severin linked her arm around a tree to spin again, but suddenly she was nose-to-nose with Madeleine. Madeleine gasped.

  The river devil’s eyes were brighter now. Her child’s feet hovered above the ground and the creatures of the briar clouded around her hair.

  “Your will is what we say,” Severin said.

  Hooded creatures, with strange, sharp curves, shimmered in the rain like violet-and-ruby-colored glass. Madeleine couldn’t help but stare at them. Fascinations. The rain had lessened and a churning fog was now filling the grove. Light, scented, illuminated in silver.

  Madeleine heard a sound from very far away: click-click click-click.

  She turned. The creatures darted in front of her, puffing their hoods.

  “No,” Madeleine whispered
. “I’m not in the briar. I’m here in the trailer park.”

  Severin leaned forward and circled her arms around Madeleine’s neck.

  Madeleine said again, “I’m not in the briar.”

  The little river devil allowed a grin to pass over her face. But then she backed away. The fog swelled in a curling wave behind her, thick, shimmering. Severin leapt down to all fours near a wide puddle. The hooded creatures disappeared into it. And then Severin crawled into the puddle, too, stepping into it as though it were a deep well, pulling herself down inside.

  Madeleine turned around. The fog was gone and everything was black again. The rain returned in full deluge; it had never stopped. She was soaked through. Ethan’s umbrella lay inverted and was full of water in a puddle, one of the metallic arms broken in a reverse joint. The knife, though—it had never left her grip.

  She picked up the umbrella.

  The clicking came from a fair distance away.

  * * *

  SHE FOLLOWED THE SOUND all the way back to Esther’s trailer, stuffing the broken umbrella in the trash can as she approached. The rain made warped streaks in front of the car’s headlights.

  “Bo?”

  She could see Ethan’s silhouette at the window, but Mare was somewhere out of sight. Madeleine looked next door, where Cheryl’s trailer stood. A likely place for Bo to have gone.

  But when the clicking sound came again, it didn’t come from Cheryl’s place. It came from the direction of Ethan’s silhouette beyond the curtain sheers. Madeleine stared at it. And then she looked lower, at the darkness beneath the mobile home.

  “Bo.”

  “Doc LB?”

  Madeleine stepped toward the underside of the porch and strained her eyes into the black space beyond the mobile home’s footings. She could see nothing. Not so much as a glint.

  “Come on out of there, Bo.”

  He went quiet for a moment, and then said, “I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  She could hear him shivering. The temperature was around 70 degrees but he was probably soaked and exhausted.

  He said, “Doc LB, Mare tried to kill me. She’s gonna cut me up with a knife.”

  Madeleine looked up toward the window. “I don’t think she’s herself tonight, Bo.”