Bridges

(Late July, 2014)

Chapter 1: Ghost Falls

The valley and town of Gravity Falls were both named for the hundred-plus foot cataract that poured over the rim of the surrounding bluffs. It was the source of the lake and the main branch of the winding river.

However, Roadkill County boasted nearly a hundred waterfalls, some of them barely more than rapids, others not as impressive as Gravity Falls Falls, but still scenic. Wendy suggested that she take Dipper and Mabel on another camping trip, this one a real camping expedition, not just an overnight tent stay in the Bonfire Glade, to see a special waterfall.

"I know what would be great, dudes," she said that Thursday morning in late July. "Go with me tomorrow to a place I know. It has a fantastic view of Ghost Falls, and the whole place is pretty, and you can explore the Death Bridge." They were ready to open the Shack, and she sat on her stool behind the counter, her feet propped up and her arms bent, hands behind her head. That morning she wore a red plaid flannel shirt, plus the fur trapper's hat that she and Dipper regularly swapped around every summer and fall.

"Where is this place?" Dipper asked, pausing in his job of polishing the eyeball glass.

"It's a high grassy hilltop called Chílwitwapsúx Meadow."

"The chill with a what now?" Mabel asked, holding her feather duster and turning her head nearly sideways to give Wendy a popeyed look of puzzlement.

"And, uh, those names? Ghost Falls? The Death Bridge?" Dipper asked. The eyes in the jar spun around as if watching to see what Wendy would say. Dipper suspected they could lip-read.

Wendy yawned. "Mabes, the name of the hill's an old Indian name—'scuse me, that should be Native American name, I get that from my dad. Dunno what it means. Chílwitwapsúx."

"How do you spell that?" Mabel asked.

"Dunno, I never tried. Dip, about the other names: The bridge is probably called that because the timbers aren't safe. It's long abandoned. It's a rickety ancient covered bridge—you know what that is?"

"Well—sure," Dipper said.

"I think I do," Mabel added. "It's like a wooden bridge with a roof over it, right?"

"Right," Wendy said. "Looks kinda like a long stretched-out house across a river or creek. This one was built like in 1870 or some deal, 'cause there used a little mining settlement back in the hills, called Plenty. It's a ghost town now—"

"Ghosts?" Mabel asked. "Do they jump off a cliff or something? Is that Ghost Falls?"

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Mabel, a ghost town is just an old deserted town. There aren't any real ghosts in it. Uh—right, Wendy?"

"Not as far as I know," Wendy said. She put on her Summerween expression of pure evil. "But then again, anything could lurk there in the shadows! Bwah-hah-ha!"

"Ha-ha," Dipper laughed, weakly.

Wendy gave him a playful shoulder punch. "Ghost Falls is called that 'cause when the sun hits it right, it looks like there's a ghostly figure standing just behind the water, or maybe under it, like a dead-white ghostly person takin' a shower. But what I like about it is it sends up spray that creates the most beautiful rainbow you ever saw."

Dipper chuckled, rubbing his upper arm. "Yeah, that's uh, that's great. But, uh, can you just take off from work to, uh, go camping?"

"Asked Soos already," Wendy said. "I've covered for him, like, ten days already this season when he and Melody had to be away. He says no big deal. Melody can hold down the register in the afternoons while Little Soos has his nap, and Teek says he'll be glad to come in early in the mornings to pick up some overtime."

"Aw," Mabel said, turning back to dusting the Sascrotch, which seemed not to care one way or the other. "I thought maybe he could come with us."

"Mabes," Wendy said with a smile, "you're mine and Dipper's chaperone. If Teek came along, you two would need a chaperone, too. Who'd you want to come with us? Abuelita? Stan?"

"Ummm, that would be a no," Mabel said. "OK, I guess. And I know Teek would like the overtime 'cause he's saving up for something, so I suppose I'm cool with it."

About that time, the tourists began to trickle in. Soos, in his Mr. Mystery fez, suit, and eyepatch, greeted them and Wendy sold tickets for the Mystery Tour. Soon the place buzzed with visitors. Teek showed up for his shift as short-order cook, Abuelita manned the snack-shop register, and for hours the twins didn't get a chance to talk to Wendy about the trip. Mabel hung out with Teek, and then when he got very busy, she went out to play with Widdles and Waddles, her two pigs.

Dipper headed up to his attic bedroom and fired up his laptop. He couldn't find anything about Chílwitwapsúx, probably because he couldn't spell it, but he did locate a striking photo of Ghost Falls. The caption said the picture had been taken in 1897. The grainy black-and-white image showed the waterfall coming out of a cleft in the woods and spilling over rounded stones for some forty feet or so. The sun striking it did give the illusion of a gigantic, ghostly human figure, head somewhat slumped, arms at its sides. Dipper could even make out the arc of the rainbow, though it was just a bow of white in the old photograph.

He located nothing on "Death Bridge," and he couldn't find an entry on it in a list of "Covered Bridges of Oregon," though pictures of other bridges gave him an idea of what it might look like.

He had a little more luck with "Gold Mines of Oregon." As it turned out, there were a lot more than he'd ever heard of, though the overall gold production in the state was low. He couldn't isolate one near Ghost Falls, though, or any mention of a settlement called Plenty.

So, he waited and eventually asked Wendy for more details. After the Shack closed at six that afternoon, they went to the office and unrolled Stan's oversized relief map of the Valley. It dated from around 1900 and the heavy paper felt a little brittle with age, so they handled it carefully.

The old mining camp—"Plenty"—showed up as a minute dot on the side of a low, smooth mountain. Curving around the foot of the mountain lay "Big Bow Slough," and flowing into that was "Murderer's Branch." "OK, Ghost Falls is the headwater for Murderer's Branch, and the bridge is across that creek that runs back out on the east side," Wendy said. "Along in . . . let me see . . . 'bout there. The campin' place is on this broad hill here. There's a spring that comes out right about here—good water, too—and it flows down the hill and into the creek."

"Wait, now," Dipper said. "Murderer's Branch?"

"What's a slowph?" Mabel asked.

"Sloo," Wendy said, correcting her pronunciation. "Just means a swampy marsh. This one's basically a shallow beaver pond. Dip, there's a story that around 1865, three miners discovered gold in the area, flakes and nuggets in the creek bed. They staked a claim and started a mine, but when they hit a pretty good-sized lode, one of them went nuts or some deal. One night he bashed in the heads of both his partners, and then he claimed that some hostile Umatillas had attacked them in the dark and killed the other guys."

"Whoa," Dipper said. "Was he caught?"

"Well, sort of. See, he'd murdered his partners with a stone tomahawk. He might've got away with it, too, but as the years went by, he started having terrible nightmares of them coming for him and finally confessed and even produced the tomahawk, which he'd kept all that time. He'd sold his interest in the mine before he confessed, and other folks had come in and were mining into the mountain, chasin' that lode of gold."

"How big a load?" Mabel asked.

"L-O-D-E," Dipper spelled out. "It means a—"

"I know what it means," Mabel said. "It's like a vein of gold buried under the ground."

Wendy nodded. "Anyhow, by that time, the little settlement of Plenty down at the foot of the mountain was a going concern, and the people picked out a guy to be their judge, tried the miner, and hung him from a tree on the bank of the creek right where he'd killed the other two. That gave the creek the name of Murderer's Branch. Anyhow, that's what my great-aunt once told me."

"Has, uh, anybody run into the actual ghosts?" Dipper asked. "Lately?"

"Nope," she said. "Not that I've heard of. My dad and my brothers and me have camped on the meadow lots of times. No spooks, just the usual Gravity Falls Valley strangeness. You know, glow-in-the-dark frogs, mutant two-headed woodpeckers, somethin' real quiet that leaves great big naked human-like footprints in the mud around the slough. Normal stuff." She scratched her nose and added, "'Course, we never tried to cross the bridge and never went into the ghost town."

Dipper took a deep breath. "And your dad's OK with your being away from home for the weekend?"

"Yep," she said. "Got that covered, too. He's taking the boys up into Washington to visit a lumber camp there—Junior's working at it as a foreman—so they're gone from this evening through next Tuesday. I've got the house in good order, all the laundry's done, pantry is stocked, so Dad's cool with leaving me behind. 'Course he probably thinks I'm working at the Shack. I don't tell him everything."

"Good strategy!" Mabel pronounced.

"OK, then," Wendy returned. "Now, look—this is a little more strenuous than the backyard camping we've done. Closest we can get to the site by road is just about here on the map. So, it's gonna be a three- or four-mile hike through the woods to get to the meadow. We pack in everything we'll need for the weekend. Backpacks may get heavy, dudes! I think when you see the place, though, you'll love it. If we get good sunny mornings, with that big old rainbow glowing, Ghost Falls looks like something out of a fantasy story."

"Ooh!" Mabel said. "I've got a great rainbow sweater to wear!"

"It's settled," Wendy said. "We'll start off tomorrow early. While I was at the counter, I made out a list of provisions you guys could pack. Dip, you get permission from Stan, OK? Soos said I could take you both if he says it's all right." She reached over and rubbed his neck. "And don't look so worried!"

The instant she touched him, their strange semi-telepathy kicked in, and he felt, rather than heard, her reassurance. You'll be with me, Dip. You know I won't let anything bad happen to Mabes. Or you. And you'll see why I love the woods so much. It'll make us closer.

Well . . . OK. But that creek name bothers me. And even the words "Ghost Falls and ghost town."

Hey, man, don't sweat it. We've seen worse, right?

Right.

Dipper made the call to Grunkle Stan, asked for permission, and an excited Stanley immediately asked, "Wait, what? A gold mine? Can you get me some ore samples?"

"I . . . think it's all played out," Dipper told him. "It's abandoned."

"Try, just in case! Dipper, there are two things you can't get enough of in this world: Gold and more gold. C'mon, just look around for any rock that's yellow and sparkly and put it in a bag and bring it back to me. And remember where you got it! Drive in a stake or something!"

Dipper sighed. "OK, you got a deal."

"Hot tamales! Put Soos on and I'll give him the go-ahead."

They found Soos in the gift shop, tallying up the day's profits, and he spoke briefly with Stan. Then he handed the phone back and gave Dipper a thumbs-up. "It's cool, dawgs. You guys have an awesome good time. Check in with me, though, all right?"

"Up to a point," Wendy told him. "No cell reception way up there, Soos. But I know just about where the signal runs out, so one of us will call you before we start the hike in. Now, don't expect to hear from us from maybe nine tomorrow morning until Sunday afternoon. Don't worry, though, we'll be fine. I've had a lot of experience campin' in that part of the Valley."

"That's cool, then, I guess," Soos said. "Hey, Wendy, since you'll be, like, away on Saturday, you want me to give you this week's pay right now? I can do it in cash instead of a check, 'cause I guess if you guys leave crazy bonkers early, the bank won't be open."

"Nice!" Wendy said. "Thanks, man!"

Soos counted out her pay in twenties, tens, and fives, she signed a receipt and pocketed the cash, and then before she left, she told Dipper and Mabel, "Guys, get your provisions together, fill up your backpacks, and be ready at five tomorrow morning. Sunscreen and hiking shoes, remember! We're off on an adventure."

"Yeah," Dipper said, his voice still nervous. "That, uh, that'll be great."

"Wait, wait," Mabel said, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. "You're trying to tell me there's a five o'clock in the morning?"

She could believe in ghosts and demons, but convincing her that yes, there really was a 5:00 a.m. was about the hardest thing that Dipper had ever done.