Chapter 41 Chapter notes
Against all odds, Alice forms a friendship with the gal who delivers the mail of the spit of land that the Cullens now call home.
Remember, when vampires form ties, they're forever.
The chapter title belongs to Simon and Garfunkel
Chapter 41 Bridge Over Troubled Water Saturday, October 28th
Alice is trying to get settled into this new house near Juneau, but it's not easy. She can't blame anyone for this; it's just how it worked out. But she enjoyed living in Washington state, and really liked their house there. Esme hasn't moved them into a hovel, but this place still needs a lot of work.
They're not just isolated, they're cut off from the wider expanse of Alaska except for the one ferry that runs between them and the mainland. It's owned by a burly old guy named Maurice, who had once been in the Merchant Marine. Alice likes him, even though he had point-blank refused to haul their furniture over and instead they were forced to hire a boat to get it all delivered.
The community is small and Carlisle works as a family practitioner at the clinic a few miles from the house. When asked about it, he says, "I love it. Less demanding than being a surgeon, but much more rewarding. I get to see the difference I'm making in people's lives."
Alice is feeling peevish. "Why do you say you love every place you've ever worked? Surely some places have fallen below your expectations."
He smiles that knowing smile at her. "It's easy. I make up my mind to love it before I get there."
She frowns, something that she fears is becoming a permanent facial feature. "How do you do that?"
"Practice, Alice. Years and years of practice."
Alice is keeping a secret, something that was impossible when Edward was with them. She realized last week, when trying to see what the improvements that Esme had drawn up to this place would actually look like, that she couldn't see further than a few days. Specifically, not past Wednesday, November 1st.
This had startled her. She'd made an excuse and had walked out to the rocky shore alone and had sat for hours, gazing out at the ocean as the sun stole across the sky. This place was stunning. Snow-capped mountains, jagged rocks, good weather—if you didn't mind wearing a parka 24/7—there was a lot to love about the wilderness and rugged beauty of Alaska.
She'd sat very still, trying to marshal all of her considerable concentration on seeing forward. A fishing boat pulled into a berth, and she saw that the two men, Jack and Louis, would be home for dinner. Jack would eat a burger, Louis, a bowl of Raisin Bran. A woman walked by with a little girl who wore a bright yellow coat with a fur collar, sucking on a round lollipop. They would arrive home and the little girl, named Darla, would play a video game while the mother cooked supper.
But when she looked forward, to see what Jack and Louis would be doing next week, she saw them for a few days. And then Wednesday arrived, and they disappeared. Everyone disappeared.
Everything disappeared.
No matter how long she sat, how hard she concentrated, or how much she wished it to happen, she couldn't see past Wednesday. Not just for her; she couldn't see anything for anybody.It was like the world was coming to an end.
Alice feels like she has four days of life left. It is Sunday. Life looks like it ends on Wednesday.
Maybe it's just her existence that ends on Wednesday. This sort of thing has neverhappened before. Her second sight has been a reliable and predictable feature of her reality since she opened her eyes to this life. She wishes there was someone she could talk to about it, someone who could do something other than cluck sadly (Esme) or whisk her off to someplace he thought was less dangerous than here (Jasper) or give a sigh and wonder how it would affect her (Rosalie). Carlisle would begin calling every vampire he'd known in over three hundred years. Esme would bustle around and try to make everyone feel okay about the fact that they might all go up in a puff of smoke by midweek. Emmett would, god love him, probably just laugh. He'd shake his head and chuckle.
She's already made up her mind—she's not burdening the family with this right now. Not when they're all settling in to this awful place. She puts it out of her mind and gets on with unpacking and trying to love it here.
Edward is still a no-show, as far as Alice can see. She's crotchety and miserable from a too-small closet, no good shopping nearby and a comradery with humans that she neither wants nor appreciates.
Their neighbors are scattered along the street that borders the bay, but aren't close enough to be intrusive. The Cullens don't go to block parties or get to know the humans they live next to, some of whom may be nosy enough to notice that they're different.
But when they'd first arrived, she'd seen that the gal who delivers the mail, Bree Miller, was pregnant. Strangely, she can't see if it's a boy or a girl. Against all odds, Bree and Alice have become friends. Alice realizes, with a start, that Bree is her best friend. The first one she's had in a long time. Maybe, ever.
They begin to get together for some 'girl time' when Bree is off from work. Alice introduces her to the family, and they, in turn, meet her husband, Nelson. Alice and Bree go for walks along the windblown shore, sometimes stopping in at the gas station café, where Bree tries to eat a sandwich. Alice smiles when Bree pushes the food around her plate and wonders aloud why her stomach has been feeling so jumpy.
This is the first time that Alice has ever had more than a passing acquaintance with a human, except for Bella Swan, and they'd only had a few months to get to know each other before the Quileute pulled the rug out from under their feet. That was different, though. She'd anticipated Bella joining the family, as being a true sister. Bree is just a human woman, a service provider for goodness' sake, whose family won't have ties to the Cullens, and who won't remember Alice when the Cullens have moved on.
Alice, however, will remember her.
The days blend together. Emmett plays video games and Rosalie watches. Jasper fiddles around with his truck and Esme fiddles around with the house. Alice is in her and Jasper's room, sizing up the living space and wondering how to enlarge her closet, when her phone rings. She sees that it's Chief Littlefoot. She swipes to answer and almost squeals her greeting.
Chief Littlefoot laughs. "Hello, Alice! How are you and your family? Getting moved in?"
Alice sighs inaudibly. She doesn't want to burden the Chief with her petulant desire to go home, so she lies. "Oh, it's great! We're settling in nicely. I love it here!" Lies. So many lies.
"That's great, honey. Listen, I have a question."
"Shoot, Chief." Of course, Alice can't see any future around a Quileute.
"Is Edward back with your family?"
This is such an odd question, it takes her aback for a moment, but she can at least answer this truthfully. "No. I can't see him, Chief. He's not in any of my visions at all. We can't imagine where he is." She doesn't tell him that the world ends on Wednesday.
"He might be here, Alice."
She stops pacing the room and falls onto the bed. Of course. He's on the reservation. "I never thought of that. I guess he could be. I certainly wouldn't be able to see him if he were, but what makes you think he's there?"
"As you know, Quileute that are descended from Ephraim Black will sometimes transform into the Wolf when subjected to a vampire at close range. We have fifteen such descendants on the reservation that we know of. Nine had experienced what we call the initial manifestation when your family was still here. Since you left, three more have transformed."
Alice is speechless for a moment, but rallies. "And you think Edward is there? Nearby? Has anyone seen him?"
"No one has seen him, and no one has been harmed. But, according to our history, if the cold ones are away from this place, no further transformations should occur."
"Do you want me to come to the area? I could determine if it's Edward by his scent." Alice's mind is racing. It must be Edward. That's why she I see him! As she makes plans to go to the reservation and find her brother, the Chief begins speaking again.
"No, Alice. If you come here, we can't be certain that your proximity won't be the trigger for another to transform. Please let me know when you hear from Edward so we know where he is."
They end their call with Alice promising to call the Chief the minute she hears from or visualizes her brother. And she has four days to make that impossibility happen. She runs downstairs and yells for a family meeting, and just like in Forks, they're all sitting around a big oval table, except Carlisle, who is still at work.
Alice rushes to tell them about the phone call from Chief Littlefoot. Emmett howls. "Of course! Why didn't we think of that? He's got to be there!"
Esme isn't so quick to jump for joy. "We were banished from the area. How could Edward go back, especially when he knows he can't be with Bella?" Her expression mirrors her disapproval of the very idea.
Emmett is ecstatic. "Let's go right now! We don't need their permission to find our brother."
Alice shakes her head. "The Chief told us not to come looking for Edward, as our presence might set another Indian to transform, so I don't know what we do, except wait."
"Look for Bella," Emmett urges. "Maybe she knows something."
Esme frowns. "Edward asked Alice not to look for either him or Bella," she reminds the room at large. "You haven't, have you, Alice? Looked for Bella, I mean."
Alice shakes her head slowly. "Only the once. Like I said, she wasn't anywhere, so I thought she had to be on the reservation. Edward asked Jacob to look after her, so maybe…" Her words trail away, as she imagines her brother's one and only love taking up with that boy.
Emmett squirms in his chair and Alice huffs. "All right! Give me a sec!" She sits down and her eyes fall out of focus. In seconds, she blinks. "I see her up and about. Doing homework. Cleaning the house. She's fine, but there's no hint of Edward in her life. Now, don't pester me! I'm not looking for her again!" Not past Wednesday, anyway.
Alice had imagined a true friendship with Bella. A sister, unlike selfish Rosalie. But that's never happening now, so she's obeyed Edward's demand, not because he asked her, but because it's painful. Or it was, when she could actually see into the future. Now, the very memory of the whole mess is something she just wants to forget. But of course, that is impossible.
The best she can do is not look. They can't be a part of Bella's life! Why can't they all see that?
"Have you tried looking for Edward again?" Rosalie doesn't sound very interested in the conversation, as she's looking at her reflection in a spoon she's holding up.
"I have been looking for him every day. Every hour. If he's on the reservation, I can't see him, and I don't know where else he might be."
The part unsaid is how unreliable these visions have become, how they disappear completely in four days. The family doesn't know how the second sight works, so they certainly don't know how it doesn't work. Maybe the sun will rise tomorrow and she'll be back to normal.
She's keeping her fingers crossed on that one.