Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Every morning at daybreak,Aunt Sybil who was the Guardian of the Bridge,climbed to the top floor of the house where she spent most of the day. Sofia's aunt was sharp and intelligence woman, which showed in her body that was lean and angular as if a firm hug would be painful for the hugger and unwelcome for aunt Sybil, who preferred interactions to take place at a safe distance, at least one arm's lenght. From time to time, Sofia made attemps to interfer with her aunts routine or to become part of it, always without success

“Aunt Sybil” she would say, feigning innocent “I brought you a cup of coffee and a pastry”

Aunt Sybil would fix her with a piercing stare.

“Sofia,you know that i drink precisely one cup of coffee in the morning and that i simply abhor sugar . Go play outside.”

Aunt Sybil always sat at the window, on a chair with a high back and wooden armrest, and a little pedestal for resting her feet.On the windowsill lay a leather bound ledger with a little, lock and every morning and evening, she wrote the time and date and the events of the day in it. A cast iron bell hung in the window,and in case of sudden danger, it would fall to her to toll it as loudly as she could.

And every morning and evening , she wrote with neat, small letters that nothing had happened. Nobody had ever heard the toll of the bell, not in as many generation as were still around to tell stories. There was a library to keep Aunt Sybil company, and each day she choose another book to read from science to astronomy to thr fine arts, which was why she was so smart .When she came down the stair to join Sofia and Uncle Tomas for dinner, she was even better educated than she had been in the morning. Sofia would ask her about it, but Aunt Sybil was usually too tired to past on many knowledge and dinner time went by to the sounds of Uncle Thomas gulping down a liquid with a deceptivelybland color that didn't fool anybody because it's sharp and bitter smell filled up the room. It was unfathomable to Sofia when people told her how much Aunt Sybil and Uncle Thomas had been inlove when they had been young people because there could not be two people less suited for each other.

Uncle Thomas was soft, chubby man, with a heart of gold and an incorrigible weakness for drinking ,which meant that each good nature promisw he made was broken almost as soon as it was uttered.Most days he slept until noon, then dragged his aching body to the kitchen where he woke his spirit with, well , spirits. Sofia loved her uncle for his tranquil smile and hated him for his cloudy eyes . Aunt Sybil seemed to only hate by now, and he wasn't any fonder of her. The Border Village counted a mere few hundre people , and the only bizarre thing, apart from the bridge and what lay beyond, was the fact that ther were only three children and none of them had parents. There was Sofia ,who was almost twelve years old , and twin boys of about the sane age called Pip and Tin , who also lived with an aunt and uncle.

Pip and Tin only went places together and didn't like to talk to anybody but eact other. They played enigmatic games, and when somebody past them they cast their eyes downwards and giggled at private joke. Threfore it felt to Sofia as if she was the only child in the village, and while she had become used to this there are some things that are impossible to get used to. When Sofia was sent outside to play , she mostly stayed around the bridge, in calling distance of her aunt's window,hoping that, one day,Aunt Sybil would call her insideand finally starts teaching her to become Guardians of the Bridge. In Sofia's mind she just had to be her aunt's successor , and even though it was never mentioned, she was refused to waver in this conviction . Many days, it was the only thing she had to look forward to. There were a lot of strange things to be said about the bridge, like its size, which seemed to change everyday or the pillars that were rammed deep into the rivers ground and yet kept changing in number . But the strangest thing was that nothing was ever said about the bridge at all as if the inhabitant of the village had forgotten its existence . People had unlearned to look its way and when mentioned in conversation its sometimes took them a moment or two to remember its existence. Sofia often played beneath the pillar of the bridge, where tha lawn stretched down to the water. The water was clear and smooth, with polished stones glinting on the ground. She flipped stones over the mirrored surface .She had perfected her technique and the stones jumped up to seven times as they flew weightlessly over the waves. The water was peaceful on this side of the shore , but when Sofia directed her eyes to the other side, the changed took her breath away. The water crashed dark and wild against spicky rocks. The stream tore mercilessly downhill, its foam yellow and foul .When Sofia focused, she could hear the wind howling and hissing, and smell the rancid odor of the fish that had found their watery graved smash against the rock. Quickly, she would turn her eyes back to this side of the shore,and all would be well again. A few ducks swam towards her ñ, and she greeted them like old friends, even though she could never be sure that they were the same ducks as the day before. But no day went by that Sofia didn't lift her eyes toward the other side. Sone days. The shore was shrouded in a cloud, white and thick, and it was imposible to imagine anything behind it except the sky. On those day. Sofia quickly list interests and went back to her solitary games. Other time,the shore stretched hellishy toweards the end of the horizon, an inhospitable wasteland, colored in black and grey and flashes of red as if fires were burning The gruesome setting made Sofia hug her arm around herself, and she felt cold even on the hottest day.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***