Katherine Paterson is one of my all time favorite authors. I recently re- read her book 'Jacob Have I Loved,' I thought I might add a bit of it into this story. If you have not read 'Jacob Have I Loved,' I highly recommend it.
I do not own any rights to the story 'Bridge to Terabithia,' or 'Jacob Have I Loved.'
A/N: Here is a little story that I have kicking around in the back rooms of my mind. And here's a nod to the likes of MadTom, Ihatesnakes, Emily McDonald, etal... for inspiration, and ideas for this story. What Dreams May Come Chapter 1
There are some things in this world of ours that we cannot explain. There are things that are far beyond our ken, beyond our abilities to measure and comprehend. In the great scheme of things who can say what is real and what is not? Who can say for example if God exists, or if there is a Supreme Being, or conciseness that controls our destiny as we hurtle through space on this tiny insignificant speck of dust we call earth? No one knows for sure. No one can say with certainty that this, or that is the truth, and then point to the hard undeniable evidence, that evidence does not exist; it is our faith that leads us to believe.
Since the beginning of time when the earliest human beings began asking the question why, the answers have eluded us.
What, we may ask, is the meaning of life? And what is life beyond the biological functioning of the physical body, and when the body no longer functions what then? What happens after death? Is there a heaven, and a hell, or do we merely close our eyes in the end to a black void of eternal nothingness. Is there a soul, or a spirit that lives on after our bodies die, and if so where does it go? Is what makes you you, and me me, forever, or does it exist for now only. Shakespeare had written: 'For in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil.' No one to my knowledge has returned to tell us what lies beyond our physical life, and what happens to us when our bodies discontinue its useful course, and ceases to breath, terminating its service to us. We can only imagine and have faith. But if we do live on after our bodies die, then what message do we carry with us from beyond the grave?
Amanda Roberts awoke early that morning. The labor pains had begun. She shook her husband, Ed, waking him up from a sound sleep, and in a soft whisper she said to him, "It's time." That was all he needed to hear. A quick glance at the clock ( it was five minutes past five in the morning), and he was up and ready to go. He helped his wife to her feet then grabbed her bags, and carried them out to the car. He hurried back, and guided Amanda nervously, fearing she'd break if he rushed her, or handled her too roughly.
He was about to become a father, and although they had planned for this moment, now that the time had come, he was at a loss as to what to do. He was as nervous as he could be, and he was fumbling and stumbling about. His wife shook her head, and after another contraction she laughed softly at his actions.
It was pouring rain out, and holding an umbrella over her head he gently hurried Amanda out to the car. Ed stood in the pouring rain, and he shoved his hands in his pockets searching for the car keys.
"Maybe I should drive," Amanda quipped, as she watched her husband fishing in his pockets for the car keys.
"No… I've got it honey… don't worry…. I've got everything under control," he said, trying to reassure her as he continued to search for the keys.
"There they are Ed." She said pointing to the ignition switch.
"What?" Ed looked at her with confusion in his eyes, then jerking his head this way and that he looked frantically around the car for the missing keys.
"There… in the ignition," she said, "the keys…there they are."
"Oh… yeah," he said sheepishly. He smiled at Amanda, and slid, soaking wet, into the car, and started the engine. It was just a fifteen-minute drive to the hospital but to Ed it felt like hours. The traffic was very light, after all it was just past five o-clock in the morning, and not yet rush hour. Had they been a half-hour to forty-five minutes later it might very well have taken them an hour to get to the hospital.
Ed pulled the car up the driveway and stopped outside the emergency room entrance. He ran inside, and the attendant at the desk called for an orderly to bring out a wheel chair. Ed ran back outside to help his wife who had already gotten out of the car, she was standing there in the early morning darkness, in the pouring rain: waiting. The orderly came up a moment after Ed with the wheel chair, and an umbrella.
"I don't think I need a wheel chair," Amanda chided the orderly.
"Sorry ma'am," the orderly said to her with a smile, "hospital policy, we wouldn't want you to get hurt."
"Yeah honey…I think it's for the best," Ed said nervously, anxious to get his wife in out of the rain, "c'mon I'll help you." Amanda, also wanting to get out of the rain, relented. Conceding to her husband and the orderly, she took the ride. The orderly pushed the wheel chair while Ed ran along beside it holding the umbrella over his wife. Inside Ed followed behind her and the orderly, they stopped at the admitting desk, and the attendant made another call. Ed was told to park his car, and come back to the desk to fill out the paper work. Amanda would be taken to the labor room, and he would join her there later. Ed wasn't particularly happy with this plan; he didn't want to leave Amanda's side, but realizing he really didn't have a choice in the matter he reluctantly agreed to their terms.
Everything was going well with the pregnancy, and they had told the doctor that they didn't want to know the sex of the baby. They wanted it to be a surprise, and they had picked out names for either a boy or a girl.
When Ed had finished at the admissions desk he went up to join his wife. It would be a while yet until the baby was born, and Ed was a jumble of nerves, he couldn't sit still. He paced and fretted, then he would sit for a minute or two, then he would get up and pace and fret again. He was driving Amanda nuts, and she finally told him to go find a soda machine, or a snack machine, or something, anything to get him out of the room for a while so she could relax.
Leslie Burke awoke early to the sound of rain pounding on the roof. She rolled over onto her side propping herself up on her elbow. It was still dark out, and looking over at the clock on her night stand, she saw that it was just past five AM. It was too early to get Jesse; she'd just have to wait until later to see him. She was wide awake now; she'd never get back to sleep, so she took one of the books that had been piled on her night table, and began to read. It was one of her favorites: 'Jacob Have I Loved,' by Katherine Paterson. She had already read it yesterday, and had finished it just before she went out to play with Jesse. She loved that book, and she loved the character Sara Louise Bradshaw. In many ways she identified with her, feeling she, like Sara Louise, had been living in the shadows, alone, and left behind. The story, taken from a verse in the Bible, and set on an island in the Chesapeake Bay, tells the story of Wheeze, Sara Louise's nickname given to her by her twin sister, Caroline. Her twin was a sickly baby at birth, and she had all the attention to herself while Sara Louise was wrapped in a blanket, and left alone in a basket, she was never a minute's worry, no worry at all. Sara Louise would go on to live her life in the shadow of her younger twin. Caroline was a gifted singer, and the Bradshaw family sacrificed to bring Caroline's gift to the world. Sara Louise felt her life was also sacrificed for her younger twin.
Leslie had felt, sometimes, like that baby, wrapped in a blanket, and placed in a basket, abandoned. No one, she believed, worried about her. That was, of course, before she met Jesse Aarons. Now her life is wonderful, and new, and exciting, and just like Sara Louise found Joseph in the end, she had found Jesse, who, if he could not sing to the oysters, would do battle with the squogres. As she read along her eyes soon became heavy, and her head drowsy. Leslie read as far as the part where Sara Louise's twin sister, Caroline, sings 'I wonder as I wander' at the school concert. Leslie's eyes drooped closed, the book slipped from her fingers, and she was asleep.
When Leslie awoke later in the morning, she leapt from her bed, dressed, and had a quick breakfast. Anxious to see her friend, Jesse, she set out to call on him at his house. The rain continued to pour down, and as she and Jesse had done the day before, she decided to go bare foot.
Leslie Burke bounded up the stairs on the Aarons' back porch and rapped on the door. She smiled to herself expecting Jesse to answer, but instead, Brenda came to the door and stood there behind the screen. She gave Leslie a hard, probing look, looking her up and down. Leslie stepped back away from the doorway fearful of Brenda, the look she was giving her sent chills down Leslie's spine.
"What do you want?" Brenda hissed from behind the screen.
"Um… is Jesse here?" Leslie asked in a soft, timid voice.
"No…" Brenda barked, "We thought he was with you…. We don't know where he is." Brenda quickly turned and retreated into the kitchen. Leslie stood there frozen, staring after Brenda, feeling the sting of her verbal slap still ringing in her ears. He must be at the tree house, she thought to herself as she regained her composure, where else could he be, Of course that's where he is. She hopped down off the porch and started running down the driveway, and off on her way to Terabithia.
"It's almost time," the doctor said smiling up at the soon to be parents.
"Ok Amanda…now push."
Amanda pushed with great effort, bearing down with all her might. She grunted, and groaned from the strain, and gripped her husband's arm tightly, causing Ed to grimace from the pain she inflicted.
"You're doing great," the doctor said to Amanda, and then looking up at Ed she asked, "are you ok dad… you look a little green." She had seen that look a thousand times before, that look of sheer terror on the soon to be fathers face. It was all she could do to keep from laughing out loud; it was always the same, so comical. Of course things were going very well and there were no anticipated problems with the birth. Both mom and baby were doing just fine. However if something was going wrong, and there were problems with the birth, her reaction would have been completely different. This was the best possible situation; this is what she loved most about her job. After all those years of schooling, these were the moments that made it all worthwhile, these moments when she could aid in the birth of a new life.
Leslie ran gleefully through the rain toward their kingdom. Her heart pounding in her chest, giddy with the excitement of the moment, she was sure he would be there waiting for her. Her bare feet splashed, and squished in the mud as she ran down the rain soaked trail that led to the enchanted rope. Her short blond hair was plastered to her head and face, and the soaking rains continued to splatter, and explode on her like tiny water balloons thrown from the heavens. Planning ahead, she thought she would sneak up on him, and surprise him, then laugh at his startled expression.
She had come to the realization when they had parted the previous day that she was in love with him. Not a squishy boyfriend girlfriend type of puppy love, but a deeper love, a love unlike any she had known before. A love she felt in her heart but could not put into words. She could not explain how she felt, not even to herself, but she knew it was real. The thought of him made her feel warm and safe inside.
She was almost there now, they will soon be together, and she will know if he feels the same toward her, she will look into his eyes and she will know.
The creek was overflowing its banks from the ceaseless rains of that week, and she had to reach farther out to snag the enchanted rope with the heavy stick they used to retrieve it. Almost losing her balance, and tumbling into the creek, she wondered if Jesse had as much trouble as she was having. Finally she pushed at the rope with the stick, and on the back-swing snagged it with the very end of the pole. She pulled it in toward her, and grabbed it. Giggling to herself as she climbed up onto the log that was the launching place, she imagined the look on Jesse's face when she surprised him. She pushed off the log and swung out over the overflowing creek flinging her head back, and pulling hard on the rope.
No one heard her scream. She hoped that he would hear her, and come rescue her, but he was not there. She had been mistaken, he had not gone to the kingdom that morning, and he was not there to hear her call for help. Her short life flashed before her eyes, and her last thoughts were of Jesse.
It's a girl the doctor announced as she held up the newborn baby girl, displaying her for all to admire. She was perfect. She was a beautiful bundle of life, chubby, and pink, with ten fingers, and ten toes, and the lungs of an opera singer. How much joy her parents must have felt at that moment; words cannot say.
"What are you going to name her?" the doctor asked with a cheerful tone in her voice. The new mom and dad looked lovingly into each other's eyes, and Ed announced proudly,
"Kimberly Anne."
"Um…Ed," Amanda said meekly, interrupting him. She was pale, and trembling from some unknown fear. She beaconed for him to come close.
"What is it honey?" Ed asked anxiously, he was worried that something had gone wrong, and that his young wife was in trouble.
"Ed… I know we had decided on Kimberly Anne," she whispered, "but I just had a strange notion."
"What is it Amanda…what's the matter baby?" Ed asked, his voice wavered, and cracked owing to his uneasiness. Amanda looked into her husband's eyes, imploring him to understand.
"I think," She said softly, "I think that her name should be Leslie…don't ask me why, I'm not sure that I know why myself, it's just a weird feeling I have."
Ed sounded out the name, "Leslie Anne Roberts…I like it," he said, and kissed his wife. Then he turned to the doctor and said, "We're going to name her Leslie Anne… Leslie Anne Roberts."
"That's nice, "the doctor replied, "Leslie Anne Roberts, "she rolled the name off her tongue contemplating the sound, "that has a nice ring to it. I like it… What a fine name."
