Eden

Fifteen

We reach the bridge, and start walking across it. It's made of old smooth stone, and feels surprisingly cool and silky under my feet. I wonder about that smoothness, and decide it's probably because the stone has been worn down and polished by many, many feet, over many years. Which is a nice thought, somehow. I think about the coolness, and wonder if it's because the bottom of the bridge is sitting in the river, and the water is very cold. Perhaps.

I'm not sure if that makes any sense, but I decide I like that idea too.

The bridge is much nicer to walk on than the dirt road, anyway, at least once we're past the first few steps where stray pebbles lie scattered about. A pleasant surface is actually quite a relief, by now. I'm not used to walking this far in bare feet.

We start to cross the bridge. We walk slowly. It's quite a long bridge, perhaps half a kilometre or more, and it seems to be fairly empty. There's actually no-one on it, no-one crossing, anyway, as far as I can see. There are people down at the other end, with what look like market stalls, apparently selling things, but no-one near the end where we are.

Probably everyone is still working in the fields behind us, I think. Probably it will get busier when they finish, and all start going back to the city. Probably the bridge is like a freeway, in that most of the traffic goes one way in the morning, and the other way in the evening.

I imagine that's how it works, anyway.

We walk a little way onto the bridge, and I keep watching the people at the other end. I slow down a little. I think we're both walking a little slower now, feeling slightly nervous about approaching them.

After a hundred meters or so, Lexi stops, and leans over the side of the bridge, and looks down into the river underneath us. I bend over too, and lean on the stone parapet. I look, glad of an excuse to delay meeting people.

The water below us still seems odd, as I'd noticed from a distance. It still seems very fast-moving and strangely dark, even this close to it. And oddly free of rubbish.

"I was wondering about climbing down the bank to get a drink," Lexi says.

I look at the water. I look at its colour. "I really wouldn't," I say.

"Yeah," she says. "Me either, actually. Now that I've seen it."