Chapter 14: Borrowing Trouble

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Yes, yes, Linda, thank you, and I'm sorry. I mean, you're the dean.

I should have called you earlier, and I'm sorry for not giving you the advanced notice because obviously it put you in a spot.

But no, no, no, it's not exactly resolved.

But I think the emergency part of the family emergency is over at this point. But anyway, Yeah, thank you, I appreciate it. No, no, no, no, no, I don't think a leave of absence is necessary. We caught up on quite a lot this morning, and I should be back on schedule by the end of the week.

Oh really, who's the publisher? Oh well, that's fantastic. No, I don't.

I don't have any completed chapters that I could share just yet, but I.

How how soon do they want that? I could try to do that?

So hold on, So just two or three sample chapters and outline whole book.

Okay, yeah, okay, I'm going to get right on that.

Thank you, Thank you, Linda, Okay, bye.

Jeremy, Hey you What are you doing here?

Were you ever going to tell me that Celestia is dead?

Shit? Can you please close the door?

What the hell happened the other night? You were supposed to protect her?

How exactly was I supposed to do that? You gave me nothing to go on. It was all set up anyway. You were never worried about her, of course I was. She didn't seem all that surprise to see us. You sent us there under false pretenses.

Yeah.

I may not have given you the whole picture, but I was concerned about what she was going to do. I knew she wanted you for the ritual, and I thought, I mean, okay, when she told me her plan, I just assumed you were an anchor for your dad, that she could help him pass over.

Yeah, well that is not what happened.

So what did happen?

What did she tell you she was going to do? There? The viil?

It had been getting weaker and weaker for a long time, and she thought there was finally going to be a way to close it. She thought Thomas was stuck like he was holding the doorway open because he wasn't. He wasn't what willing sacrifice.

So you knew you knew that my father had been murdered by the gathering.

By the children of Titchuba. There were something else, something twisted and wrong, that is no, I didn't know until that night. She told me to come get you, to send you an an to her at the ledge. She she was going to push Thomas through, finally closed.

The gate for good.

But she she lied, didn't she that she could close the gate without anyone else getting hurt.

I don't know what she was thinking, but yes, she jumped. I'm sorry.

Was she happy?

Was she what?

Not?

Okay, maybe happy isn't the right word.

But did she.

Did she want to be doing it?

I don't know, I think so. We tried to stop her.

I tried to call out, I tried to pull her back, but there was the wind, and there was all this massive storm.

And that it would happen very fast.

What do you mean there was a store?

Yeah, there was a storm. Don't you remember.

I don't think there was a storm anywhere else?

Right, of course, you should have told me, honestly, Katie, I didn't even it didn't occur to me.

I mean, the last three days have been.

I don't know how to begin to describe them to you, and I'm not going to so don't ask. I just I know that Celeste should have been more on my mind, but I feel like I haven't had a chance to breathe. I am sorry, she's gone me too. How did you find out I haven't seen in the papers anywhere?

Well, they, I mean they called me. Yeah, I guess I was listed as one of her emergency contacts. They couldn't get a hold of any of the others, so eventually they hit my name on the list.

Do you know who the others were?

Other members of the gathering? I would assume once from other places, maybe people Celesti used to.

Know, And none of them answered. Is this the end of the gathering? Do you think Celesti was the leader? Right?

Yeah?

For our chapter at least. And things have been scattered the last few days.

But I've heard read what.

Celested, the sacrifice she made, it should have calmed everything down. But there's been whisperings of another chapter leader coming to Bridgewater to deal with the fallout.

What fallout?

I don't know. I mean, it's not over.

Yet, is it.

Honestly, Katie, I have no idea. I'm just trying to get back to my life and to I don't know, start getting to know that the.

The new life that this whole situation brought me. Right. So, wait, who is this other leader?

Someone from Virginia? The triangle down there.

The historic Triangle, you know it? Yeah, of course, it's a very well known area in the folklore circles.

Well, I guess that makes sense. More supernatural activity means more members of the gathering.

And they're coming here because something went wrong with Celeste ritual.

Yeah, I guess.

Do you know who it is?

A woman named Peyton Blake. She's the youngest leader in the history of the gathering, apparently barely thirty, apparently very knowledgeable.

Do you think you could give me her contact information?

I mean, see what I can dig up. But I should tell you I'm not going to try to seek her out.

Uh why not?

Look, I joined the gathering as a way to process my grief about my mom, and maybe I don't know, maybe I started to believe some of it the longer I was part of it. But I'm in way over my head now and I'm not sure I want to be.

Yeah, I know how you feel, but I'll try.

To track her down for you. I mean, as much as I want to put all of this behind me, you might not.

Be able to.

Yeah, Katie, I'm sorry you had to find out how to celast from the police, but you, I don't know.

You can't expect me to be upfront with you, and you haven't been upfront with me.

I guess that's fair.

Maybe you and I could just try being honest with each other from now on. If this really isn't over, then I think we probably want the same things that to make sure that whatever's on the other side that you all are always talking about doesn't come out.

Wait, did Sless make a believer out of you?

After all?

I think there is a lot more going on in the Bridgewater Triangle, and I originally thought let's.

Just say that welcome to the club.

Look, okay, I know that we don't always see I I, but Maria and I we want to help. I'm not going to go out of my way to get involved, but if you need people to help you, we're here.

Thank you. But actually I think I'm good. I've already got a crack team on it.

I'm telling you, the plaid is going to make him look like the original brownie towel man.

Not now that the mustache is gone.

Oh thank god, Hey, you're you're the.

Immediately assumed you recognized him from that hipster coffee shop.

It's the same.

No, I think the mustache could have been a strong choice.

Too strong, that had to go.

I liked my mustad too bad.

Hey, maybe you can grow a beard. Beards are so in it and it would cover your face more beard maybe.

Hey, so is this what you expected for a granddaughter grandfather bonding?

Oh right, you mean did I expect to be spending my Friday helping my dead grandpa who's only like eight years older than me shop for skinny jeans? No, not exactly.

Well, Olivia is right, it's somehow still too brownie towel guy.

Okay, the pants are good, though, way better than the bell bottoms.

I never wore bell bottoms.

Okay, Oh, try the button down and the sweater next. Hey, thank you for coming, by the way, I know this whole thing is super weird.

Oh gosh, no, I am happy to do it.

I just I wasn't sure I was ready for the full one on one with a total stranger i'm biologically related to.

Yet trust me, I get it. I barely want one on one time with my grandparents, and I've known them my whole wife.

What do you all right? What do you what do you think?

WHOA?

Holy shit? You look well.

I can't look that ridiculous, can I? We had collared shirts and sweaters in the seventies.

No, no, you look fine.

You just oh you look just you look just like Jeremy.

Really just like him.

I mean it is creepy, all right, So no on the sweater.

How do you feel about a Henley?

I don't know, I have no idea.

Great, try it on.

That's a Henley.

Okay, try it with that bomber jacket and the black jeans. So you're not so cozy with the other coronas.

Oh no, I mean they're fine. I mean they're not super thrilled that I'm spending my life doing research on made up stories for children. That's what they say now. But you know how it is. They're old.

Yeah, my dad's parents are kind of like that too. Never understood my dad working in tech, and so I understand me even less. How about your parents? Do they think it's all made up nonsense?

Oh?

Yeah, they're religious Hindu, which is how I was raised. Actually, actually, became really obsessed with religion when I was a teenager. I went to church and temple and the mosque, Buddhist centers, basically anything I could find. It drove them crazy.

That is a lot. Did you ever settle on any of them?

I still celebrate the Hindu holidays with them, but I don't know. I've always had a hard time believing in gods. The idea of a more powerful being having an effect on all of us just felt strange. Ideas about the soul or karma or universal forces, even magical creatures or monsters like those always made more sense to me. So I get Hinduism more than a lot of other religions.

But none of it really feels right.

Yeah, exactly. I guess that's what led me to all of the cryptozoology. I do think there's an explanation for most of the weird stuff that's happened in the world, for the miracles and the ghosts and the myths. I just think that maybe our scope of understanding it is limited. For some people, that leads them to religion, and for me it led me to what my parents consider bigfoot hunting. I've never been able to make them see that I'm just seeking out the same answers that they are with

Oh, I can totally picture you as a religion obsessed fifteen year old. Yeah yeah, well, I mean it's all kind of part of that historical narrative that you're always talking about. Right, So the stories that we tell ourselves in religious texts, you know, they aren't that different from the myths we make up to explain the unexplainable.

See, you should talk to my parents for me. Oh okay, So I guess a lot of those things are explainable now because monsters are real.

Well, I'll be sure not to mention that part to them, though. You know, you should probably ask me out first before you go introducing me to your parents.

But I feel ridiculous, like I'm pretending to be Jim Morris or something.

Oh maybe if you kept the shaggy haircut. But I think you look perfect.

Really, I don't look anything like myself exactly.

And hey, Jeremy, how are things at the university Little Rocky?

They're okay. My Dean was weirdly not thrilled that I missed the last.

Two days of classes without any morning, But I think I was actually able to smooth things over?

Would you tell her?

I told her truth that I had a family emergency. I didn't get specifics.

I couldn't exactly tell her that my dad came back from the dead, and I didn't.

Literally did not know what day of the week it was. But it's okay. Where is he?

Oh, he's out with Olivia and Vippen.

Why doing what?

Shopping?

No?

Getting a haircut? Yeah?

Why?

The kids thought it might be a good idea for Thomas to you know, blend in a little bit more. I guess.

Yeah, I think he might really like Olivia.

I actually think she asked him to come along. I'm not sure she was ready to go out with Thomas on her own, but you.

Know, yeah, juicy gossip.

Yeah, how's he doing? Man? You saw him this morning, Jeremy, I mean.

I know, I know, but I mean, hey, thank you for letting me crash on your couch.

I think I'm just I'm not really ready to.

Like you don't want to let him out of your side? I get it.

Yeah, does he seem off to you at all?

Off?

How? I don't know, Like this morning, he was sort of still half asleep, and he seemed a little bit disoriented. I don't know.

Maybe maybe he's just not a morning person. I no, he.

Always liked mornings. Maybe he's just you know, he's just not used to sleep when yet or something?

Right?

I guess that makes sense.

I mean, like his food thing. His whole body has to be adjusting.

M Jesus. Would that have been my room? What your guest room? Would that have been?

That?

That was gonna be my room, wasn't it?

Uh?

Yeah, yeah, that was the plan. Shelley would have stayed with us in our room while she was a baby, and then you guys might have shared for a little bit before we could afford a bigger place.

And then you never needed a bigger place?

No I didn't.

And what what happens?

Now?

Where do we go from here?

I have no idea.

Does he get a job? Does he go back to working on the forest? Am I gonna fucking die before him? Or is he just going to disappear one day in two years from now? Because this is all just borrowed time?

I mean, see, you're spiraling?

How are you not?

The man?

The man you love is back? But man, he's forty years younger than you.

Yeah, thanks, I noticed.

I mean, how does any how does any of this work?

I don't know. I mean, we did it. You know, we got him back. It's more than I could have ever hoped for.

You don't feel like it's it's a monkey's paw or something.

Well, sure I do. I mean I got them back, but I can't get the last four decades back to spend with them. Oh. We miss an entire life together, and I mean, you know, I know that we can't be together now, not really, but I mean there's no life for us. A build.

Doesn't it like eat you up?

Of course it does. But me coming to terms with the cruel irony of my situation is not the same as you waiting for the other shoe to drop.

It's just a.

If there's one silver lining to me missing out on my life, it's that the two of you have gotten yours ahead of you. I mean, you're the one that got robbed, Jeremy. I'd give up a lot more for you and Shelley to have time with your dad.

Oh my god, Shelley, what are you gonna tell her?

I don't know, I don't know. I mean, Olivia doesn't want me to keep it from her. She doesn't think it's fair.

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree, But what.

If telling her I'm putting her in danger. I mean, there's still something roman around out.

There, and maybe it's not our problem anymore.

What Look, Katie Franks came to see me earlier, and she says, there's this new gathering leader who's on our way up from Virginia and maybe she can just take care of this.

I'm not sure that we can rely on I'm stranger from another state to fix things here.

I also met someone outside of Oakley Farms. You did?

Why didn't you say?

Well?

I don't know.

I guess I just got distracted. It wasn't really much of anything. It's just another hobbyist. But she's part of this group of legend trippers who've all they've come to Bridgewater to look into all the strange stuff that's been happening.

So maybe we can just like keep.

An eye on them and hear about any other attacks and then just like, I don't know, just go from there. I I don't know. I just think that we can maybe afford to do a little outsourcing.

Here, Okay. And if all of this really is the Fay Realm like Vipen and Olivia think. Doesn't that mean we're dealing with much bigger issue here?

I don't know, maybe, but Fay myths are incredibly broad and until we have something concrete.

And I know my.

Dad wants to get Alden out and he wants to figure out what's going on with the in between but come on, it took us forty years to get him out.

Don't you think we've done enough? Ah?

Tassa pepper.

Oh, here you go.

So you really think that all of this the in between space? What happened to me? It's fairies?

Yep, that's the working theory.

I thought fairies were tiny and harmless.

That's the modern Disney version of them. But the Fay realm, well, depending on when and where the myth is from, it can encompass so much.

Oh exactly on the version that's small and impish, like luring children into the woods, that appears in so many different cultures, like fairies and hobgoblins in Europe, Puck wedgies here.

Right, everyone using different language to describe the same thing.

Okay, then which version of the myth do we think is correct?

I don't think it's about one group of people getting it all right. It might be all true to some degree. I mean, it's like the Abrahamic religions, right. The God is the same across Christianity and Judaism and Islam, but a lot of the details are different.

So what's the God in this situation? The one unifying thing.

The fay Realm. I guess it appears basically in every myth tradition, just not always in the same way.

The other side. That's what the gathering calls it, right, right, I think it's.

A place where spirits are and the afterlife essentially.

I guess the only other soul I saw it was all the It's not.

Always just about the afterlife, though, Mount Olympus could be considered the other world, even though they had the underworld too, or Valhalla or reu Gujo, a Japanese land of dragons under the sea. There's actually a whole folk story about a man who went to reu Gujo for three days and then came back to his life three hundred years had passed.

Sounds familiar.

And that's not even including the liminal spaces, the river sticks, Purgatory, chinwit Bridge. Sometimes there are not even places but times, the day of the dead, all hallows, eve seances, even any place or time that connects this side to the other side, whatever the other side might be.

So we think the in between space that Thomas was in was really like a halfway to the other side, like river sticks.

It would make sense.

Right where did you guys learn all this stuff?

Well, I'm getting my PhD in it, so kind of have to know it all.

But Olivia, you don't work in folklore like Jeremy.

Right, No, but I have access to the Internet. Oh did Jeremy explain the Internet to you?

It sort of honestly sounds just as made up as the favor realm or some idea of monsters coming over a kind of bridge, at least that stuff I've actually experienced.

Don't worry, we'll work up to the dark web.

What everything seems mysterious when you're first learning about it. We think of the Fey realm and monsters as something magical and impossible. But what if they're just another species that's just really different from ours, like those fish that live in the bottom of the.

Ocean, another species that lives in another dimension with a bunch of supernatural beasts.

I know, I know, it sounds far fetched. Your dead. Grandpa's currently dipping a French fry into his milkshake.

So it's delicious.

Yeah, well, I can say if we say, I will never confirm that for myself.

You're missing out.

Wait, what does that make magic? I mean Celeste and the children of Titchubo were able to open up the gate. So there's something at work here.

Whatever it is, magic or physics, we don't understand. It has to have rules. We just need to find out what they are.

Okay, Well, we know that things happen on a forty year cycle, and that it seems to need two souls at any given time. There was someone with Alden before I appeared. He's always had someone with him until now. Celeste didn't get all the way through. She broke one of the rules. I broke them, and we have no idea what the consequences of that are going to be.

Come on, but let's get out of here. If it, Ben will drop you off at years on our way, on our way to what to deal with some of the consequences.

Jeremy, I don't think Thomas is going to see it that way. He feels responsible to all of them.

I know that, But what about his responsibility to us, to himself. Well, we can't spend the rest of our lives trying to control the Bridgewater Triangle because it's out of control.

Okay, how about starting with trying to learn more about it? Okay, don't you still have a book to write?

Honestly, I don't even know how I'm supposed to write a book now. The entire premise of it was that people in the Bridgewater Triangle have this unique relationship to myth. They're spending centuries stealing legends from the Wampanoague and bringing legends to of their own, then mixing them together to create something particular to this place. How many times have I said this place? And it was all about urban legends influencing culture and vice versa.

Except not da da.

It turns out they weren't really legends at all, because people in the Bridgewater Triangle have been and are being attacked by real fucking monsters.

By entire life's work is all bullshit. I've been made.

Reality has turned me into a complete fraud. And on top of all of that, I'm the same fucking age as my father. I'm sorry, I just like I feel like I can't even breathe.

Anne, I understand. I get that, Jeremy, I really do, I really do. But what about Alton? Okay, he is just a kid.

I know, but for all we know, there is nothing that we can do about it.

Right?

But then what about the balance that Celeste was always talking about?

If whoever whatever controls the triangle or the gate or the fucking in between whatever this is, isn't happy with the way things are.

I am quite confident that they're gonna make it known.

Okay, An, then don't you think we should get ahead of this?

I don't understand what is this about? What is it? Why are you so eager to find more problems? Aren't you tired?

Of course?

Of course I am, Honey. This is what I do. I figure things out, you know, I mean I've fixed them.

Yeah, but as you were just talking about, and you missed your entire life because of it.

That's not fair, really, it isn't.

And you're right, my dad and I we have a chance now to really get to know each other.

Yeah, yeah, So why the rush, right? I mean, we can figure all of this out and then you can have that time. But I know that you'll both be safe.

And I'm sick of trying to change things that I can't control. Do you really think that we can figure this out enough to fight against it? Celeste did the ritual wrong, We're definitely not going to do it right.

We need to enjoy this while.

We can, while we can.

What if it takes him back?

Wait?

What?

This is so much bigger than any of us, and I can't I can't wrap my head around it at all. And it was literally this was literally my job to understand all of this crap. But now it's th real, the cycle, the balance, the Faye realm, the goddamn dog, all in It's all so beyond.

My scope that I don't even see the point.

I don't see the point in trying what I do see.

I see.

I see a chance at a second chance, and for whatever reason, I'm getting that and having a dad, And until something happens that forces me to confront all of this other shit, that is what I am going to focus on.

Jeremy is not going away again.

Don't You can't say that you don't know that, And that is the whole point. None of us know anything. Celeste is dead, She's not somewhere else. So if everything is still fucked up that we have a ticking clock here. I'm sorry, I just.

What the hell? Power search? Earthquake?

What get away from the windows?

And what's happening? I don't know?

And and what do we do? What do we do?

I don't know?

I don't know.

Do you hear that?

What?

Nothing?

There's nothing? Are you sure this is a good idea?

We have to rip the band aid off sometime, you know, especially if knowing everything could help her stay safe. So the sooner the better. But while she's working, well, I figure it lowers the freak out chances, trust me, okay, because banks are just nice and quiet.

Knock knock, I have high honey, what are you doing here?

Sorry for the unexpected drive by, but we were in the neighborhood.

And did you finish whatever you're helping your nana with? Oh? Sorry, Hi, who's this?

Mom? This is Thomas.

Hello Thomas, I'm Shelley. I'm Olivia's mom.

Yeah, yeah, I know, so mom.

This is Thomas Bradshaw.

Oh hi, okay, Bradshaw is in Jeremy's brother. I didn't I didn't know he had a brother.

Oh no, this is not his brother. So I'm just going to tell you some stuff, and I need you to know that I'm not messing with you live.

What are you talking about?

Does the name Thomas Bradshaw sound they get all familiar to you.

That was Mom's old partner, right, the one who died well missing.

It turns out I'm still very much alive.

You Okay, I don't understand.

Yeah, okay, right, So all that stuff Nana told you growing up about Bridgewater and how weird it is and how something happened to her partner, something that defied explanation, yeah that was all true. And so this is Thomas Bradshaw who went missing in nineteen eighty, except he wasn't so much missing as he was trapped in a magical dimension where time didn't really pass, which is why he looks closer to your age than Nana's, even though he's

What HI.

With. I don't really understand what you're doing.

I know it's a lot to take in from me too, and I know Anne would want to talk to you explaining everything, but I couldn't wait to meet you I've been waiting to meet you for.

Forty No, no, you're crazy and you're here's some sort of scammer or a creep.

But and then no, no, mom, this is real, Olivia. It is I promise, Shelley.

You can ask me anything you want and I'll tell you everything that I can.

Really. Okay, listen, I don't know what your game is here, but you are going to stay away from my daughter, Mom, Olivia. It's not your fault, honey. This man is clearly praying on you, and so I will now just stop it stop. You will get out of here right now, Shelley. Please, if you do not leave in the next five seconds, I am pressing my panic along.

Oh my god, Mom, he's not trying to rob the.

Place, and then the police will be dragging your sick predator asked to jail before you can blink. So you have options, Mom.

Olivia, It's okay.

I'll go fantastic, and if you so much as look at my daughter again, I won't wait for the police. Do you understand me?

Yeah?

Okay, just go worked.

And animal, No, do not go near my mother.

Mom.

He's gonna go okay, and and you and I will.

Talk I mean it, stay away from my.

Family, Okay, I understand. I am so sorry for springing this on you.

Shelley.

I'm so sorry for so much.

I don't understand. How is this happening?

I don't know.

This is not a natural quiet Dad, Jeremy, hey you okay?

Well, actually I need to talk to both of you.

We need to talk to you too. Something just happened.

What do you mean, Wait, what's going on? Why is everything? Why can't I hear anything?

We don't know. There was this earthquake and then everything went quiet inside.

So we came out here and it was the same thing.

An earthquake.

I don't know that's what it felt like. It was it quiet when you were walking on I don't know.

I wasn't paying attention really, so I guess I would have noticed. This is God, Wait, this.

Happened before when you went missing, and you remember we were combing Freetown.

For you and yes, and it was unnaturally quiet, like we.

Were somewhere else, entirely the in between.

How is that possible? You can't just wander into another dimension.

Maybe we didn't.

Maybe it wasn't about us going into the in between, but it was about it coming out to us.

Maybe, ah, whoa dad? Hey you okay, what's going on?

Yeah?

Yeah yeah yeah, Thomas you okay.

I'm fine. I just got a bit dizzy, dad, Dad.

This episode of Bridgewater was written by Lauren Shippen and directed by Brendan Patrick Hughes Assistant director Sarah Kleine. Sound designed by Vincent de Johnny rema El Kali, Josh Thane,