Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the story Bridge to Terabithia

I am just a fan of one of the most emotionally powerful books that I have ever read.

Chapter 4

Saturday morning Jess was helping his father clean out the old shed. It was out back behind the house, and no one had been in there for ages. His father was planning to tear it down, it was a hazard, he had said, and someone was going to get hurt. There were all sorts of interesting things in there, things that had been stored and forgotten about years ago. Jesse was too preoccupied with thoughts of Leslie to care or even notice. As they went through these things, most of it going into the trash, Jess found an old coiled up length of heavy rope; he pulled it out from underneath a pile of useless junk. He was surprised to see it was very much like the rope that hung from that old tree. The enchanted rope, the rope that took him and Leslie into their kingdom; into Terabithia.

"Hey dad," he asked, holding up the rope, it was very heavy, "may I have this?"

"That rope?" His father asked looking up, " sure son, you can take it, I don't need it; save me the trouble of throwing it out."

Looking at the rope then back to his dad he asked. "Is it strong?"

"Oh yeah, " he said, "that there is some very strong rope. That will hold a couple tons easy, very strong, and it wears like iron, it'll last forever.

" Thanks dad," Jess said putting the rope aside for later, he went back to work a Little happier then before, and smiling to himself.

After lunch he collected his rope and was just about to head off to the creek when May Belle came up and surprised him.

"Where you going with that rope Jess?"

"Huh?" Jess turned to see May Bell standing there behind him, "None of your business May Belle," he said.

"Can I come with you?" May Belle asked, her eyes pleading with him, her mouth in a little pout. He would always melt when she looked at him like that, but he couldn't have her tagging along, not today.

"No May Belle, you stay here."

"Please can I come?"

"May I come," he said correcting her, "and no you may not, I have something important that I have to do. You stay here ok; I'll see you later on. We can do something together then."

"Yeah, ok," May Belle said disheartened.

Jesse hefted the rope up onto his shoulder; it was quite heavy to carry. This time he took a hunting knife with him to cut the rope. It had a leather sheath with it and he thought it would be safer. Imagine, he was thinking to himself, Leslie thought I was going to kill myself. That girl, she sure has some wild ideas.

Jesse walked down the road a bit then took off through the woods. He took the long way around so he could avoid going by Leslie's house.

May Belle slipped between some trees behind him unnoticed. She shadowed her brother as he made his way down the road and through the woods.

Bill came upon Leslie reading in the Golden Room. He thought it odd that she wasn't with her constant companion on a Saturday afternoon.

"So Leslie, where is Jesse today? What's going on with you two? Anything I should know about?"

"Oh hi dad, we had an argument," she said putting down her book.

"Nothing serious I hope." He asked, with a mild concern.

"No not really, but I'm teaching him a lesson."

"Oh really, and what is that?"

"About lying."

"He lied to you? I'm shocked!" Bill said in a mocking tone, cradling his face in his hands, his mouth agape and his eyes wide with a look of horror in them.

"Bill...stop it, it's not funny."

"Ok…ok, I'm sorry," he said stifling a chuckle, " what did he lie to you about?"

"It's not important. The important thing is he lied to me and I caught him red handed."

"So you're giving him the silent treatment?"

"Yeah."

"Well don't carry it too far, he's too good a friend, and I'd hate to see you two break up over a silly argument."

"I know dad, I won't, maybe I'll go over there now so he can apologize to me."

"Well, you're pretty cocky, aren't you."

She smiled devilishly, and said, "yeah, I am."

The phone rang and Bill went to answer it. Leslie was just getting up to go over to Jesse's house. She was heading toward the door when she heard Bill on the phone.

"Yes Mr. Aarons this is Mr. Burke, please call me Bill," Bill's face fell and turned gray, "Oh no!" He exclaimed.

Leslie stopped and stepped back into the room with her father and stood next to him, a question on her face.

"What?" she asked looking up at him with a look of concern. Bill held up his hand indicating to Leslie to hold her thought.

"Yes Mr. Aarons...I see...Ok I'll tell her...Yes...Ok, ah huh, yes alright." There was a long pause while Bill listened, nodding every now and then, then he said.

"I'll let her know...I'm sure...Yes we'll be there... Ok, yes, ok goodbye Mr. Aarons."

"What is it? What's going on?" Leslie asked, she looked pale. Bill hung up the phone and looked down at Leslie. He swallowed hard and said, "Jesse' been in an accident."

"NO!!! IS HE OK? WHAT HAPPENED? WHERE IS HE? WHY...?" Bill grabbed her by the shoulders and bent low to bring his face even with hers. He looked into her eyes and shook her.

"Calm down Leslie…Leslie listen to me." Leslie's eyes were glazed over with tears glistening in them. Her lips curled, she was sobbing, trembling, not hearing Bill. Bill didn't know what to do, he considered slapping her like they did in the movies but thought better of that idea.

"Leslie stop, listen to me, look at me Leslie." She looked into Bill's eyes, not really seeing them. Her own eyes looked distant and empty.

"What?" she managed to choke out over the lump in her throat.

"Leslie," he said, holding her eyes with his own, hoping to reach her, "listen carefully Leslie...Jesse's been hurt, but he's going to be ok, do you understand me?"

"He is?" Leslie asked, sniffling and wiping the tears out of her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Yes, Mr. Aarons said that there are no internal injuries and no head trauma, he was conscious when they found him, ok, do you feel better now?"

She nodded in acknowledgement.

Then Bill continued," he's not dead or dying if that's what you were afraid of? Ok honey."

"Ok," she said, still sobbing. Bill pulled her into a hug, just as Judy came into the room.

"Hey what's going on in here? May I join in this love fest?" Then noticing something wasn't right she asked, "what is it? What's wrong?"

"Mr. Aarons called," Bill said, reaching his arm out to his wife, "Jesse's been in an accident,"

"Oh no that's awful, what happened, is he hurt?"

"Yes, he's in the hospital now, but Mr. Aarons said that they expect that he will be ok." Judy joined them in a group hug. They stood like that for several minutes, tears flowing. Tears of both pain because Jesse had been hurt and relief that he would be ok. Bill and Judy Burke had grown quite fond of Jesse; they considered him a part of the family, almost like a son.

"So what happened Bill, did he say?" Judy asked, wiping her tears and releasing herself from their embrace.

"Mr. Aarons said he fell from a tree down by the creek, fortunately May Bell was nearby and ran for help. Otherwise who knows."

"Did he say why he was in the tree?" Leslie asked meekly, suspecting she already knew the answer.

"Yes something about a rope, he was trying to tie a rope up into the tree."

Leslie felt guilty now, She was going to teach him a lesson about lying and he went off and tried to replace the enchanted rope. You stupid boy Jesse, you stupid. What were you thinking? I didn't care about that dumb old rope, not near as much as I care about you. You stupid boy.

Then Bill continued; he was looking at Leslie.

"Mr. Aarons said he kept calling your name, he kept asking for you."

"He did?" Her feelings of guilt doubled.

"Yes, and so Mr. Aarons wondered if we could bring you to see Jess tonight; visiting hours are at eight o-clock. So if you want to go, and I think you should, I'll be happy to take you."

"Can we go now?" Leslie asked looking at her parents, pleading with her eyes.

"No," Bill said gently, " he's still in surgery now but they expect him to be in his own room by tonight."

"SURGERY?" Leslie gasped, "WHY?"

" Calm down honey," Bill said, as Judy draped her arm around Leslie's shoulders holding her close.

"He has broken bones that need to be set. Mr. Aarons wasn't very coherent, but he did say something about ribs, his left leg and I think he said a collarbone and left arm. I couldn't really follow him. He sounded like he was still in shock himself and I don't think he knows for sure what he was saying. He was sort of babbling, and mumbling a bit."

Waiting was excruciatingly hard for Leslie; she couldn't contain herself. She was overwhelmed with anxiety, she couldn't concentrate, she couldn't read, which is what she would usually do to pass the time. She paced around the house with thoughts of Jesse spinning her head. She had no appetite; she just picked at her dinner. Then, at six o-clock, Mr. Aarons called to say Jesse was out of intensive care and doing much better then the doctors had expected. He had been moved into a semi private room where he was resting. Mr., Aarons said that Jess was still groggy, but kept asking everyone about Leslie.

After another round of pacing and nail biting Leslie went up to Bill and asked, "Can we go now dad?" Bill looked at his watch, it was seven o-clock.

"Ok," Bill said, "if you want to, we can go now."

"Thanks," she said, then grabbing a jacket she hurried her parents out the door.

When they arrived at the hospital the Aarons family greeted them. Mrs. Aarons came up to Leslie, hugged her and said, "Leslie I'm so glad you could come, Jesse's been asking for you all day."

One of the young resident doctors who was standing by the desk at the nurse's station had over heard Mrs. Aarons comment and came over.

"Excuse me did you say Leslie?"

"Yes," Mrs. Aarons said her arm around Leslie's shoulders; "this is Leslie."

"Jesse's Leslie?" he asked.

"Yes, this is Jesse's friend, Leslie Burke," Mrs. Aarons said.

"Oh well then," the doctor said, "you come right this way your majesty," he bowed to her and said, "I must present you the king immediately."

He led Leslie off down the hall toward Jesse's room. Leslie was looking back over her shoulder, confusion showing on her face. The Aarons' and the Burke's were all looking around the room to each other, catching one another's questioning eyes.

"What was that all about?" Bill said out loud what everyone was wondering. May Belle flashed a knowing smile that went unnoticed.

The doctor and Leslie had walked about half way down the hall when a nurse stopped them.

"Doctor," he said, " I'm sorry but visiting hours don't start for another half hour."

"It's ok nurse," he said, " she's royalty." He looked down at Leslie and gave her a wink. Then he led Leslie past the bewildered nurse and continued on down the hall.

They stopped just outside the door to Jesse's room; the doctor warned Leslie of Jesse's condition.

"He looks a whole lot worse then he really is, his face mostly, it's swollen and there's bruising. Of course you've heard about the broken bones, they'll take more time to heal, but he's going to be fine. So try not to look shocked or anything ok. We don't want to scare him."

"Ok," she said, nervously.

She peeked in through the door from the hall and gasped. He looked like he had been hit by an eighteen-wheel truck doing sixty miles an hour. She hurt just looking at him. She swallowed hard, took a deep breath, looked up at the doctor and nodded that she was ready. The doctor led her into the room.

"Hello Jesse," the doctor began, "oh I'm sorry, I mean your majesty. I present to you her majesty the queen." Leslie drew up to his bedside. The doctor smiled at them, pulled the curtain around, and saying goodbye he quickly bowed with a flourish and then left them alone.

"Hi Jess how do you feel?" Leslie asked.

Jesse was still quite groggy from the anaesthetic and drained from his injuries and the shock to his body. He looked up at Leslie with glassy eyes and smiled a crooked smile. Leslie had to look away for a moment. His face was bruised and swollen. His left eye was black and blue and partially closed. He had scrapes and cuts, several Band-Aids, and more then a few stitches; other then that he was looking great.

"Leslie… I'm sorry." He said, his voice was thick and dry. She could tell he was weak and that speaking took a lot out of him.

"Don't talk Jesse," she said taking his right hand, about the only part of him that wasn't injured. She held his hand to her lips and kissed it.

"But," he said, in a hoarse whisper, "I want to tell you how sorry I am about the rope…I did it for…I…a dream…you fell…died…dead, gone, had to protect you."

"Will you forget about that stupid rope, I don't care about the rope right now."

"But…You said our friendship was over…I cut the rope, all gone…us gone."

"Jesse, I was angry because you lied to me, not because of that stupid rope. I know you must have had a good reason to cut it down. And yes, the rope was important to me but not as important as you are. You, you're what's really important to me, not the rope. We can make Terabithia anywhere, anytime we could even build a brid…"

"Huh, a what?"

"Oh never mind," she said squeezing his hand tight, she kissed it again. He looked up at her, his eyes looked heavy and tired, they fluttered then closed. She felt him go limp.

"Jesse…Jesse?" she said, whispering his named. He had fallen asleep. Leslie pulled up a chair and sat next to his bed holding his hand and watching him. She stared at him for the next twenty-five minutes until visiting hour when the Aarons' and her parents came in to see him.

7