Bridge to Cutter Gap / Silent Superstitions / The Angry Intruder by Catherine Marshall Page A

with a musical splash, like a tiny fish.
    â€œSomehow I pictured—” Christy hesitated. There was no point in telling him. He’d just laugh.
    â€œPictured what?” David asked. When she didn’t answer, he said, “Let me guess. You thought it would be easy. That the children, all of them, would welcome you with open arms. That they would be poor, but it would be a nice, clean, easy poor, not one that came with ignorance and filth and smells and superstitions and feuds.”
    Christy met his eyes. They sparkled with humor, but there was something deeper there, too. “How did you know?”
    â€œYou forget. I haven’t been here that long myself. I came to Cutter Gap with lots of high hopes about bringing the Word of God to these people, about changing their lives overnight.” He laughed. “I suppose I expected them to be grateful. Instead, they’ve been resentful and slow to accept me. That’s when Miss Alice helped me out.”
    â€œShe did?”
    â€œShe told me I couldn’t change the world overnight. That this place belonged to the mountain people and that I was the stranger. That it was up to me to understand them, not the other way around.”
    â€œAnd do you?” Christy asked hopefully.
    â€œNope.” David shook his head. “But I’m learning.”
    â€œDid you—” Christy gazed up at the bridge, which was shimmering colorfully in the sunlight like an earthbound rainbow. “Did you ever think about going home, giving up?”
    â€œSure. I think about it every day.” David said it lightly, but Christy thought she heard uncertainty there, too. “Sometimes I wonder if I can ever really be a part of this place, the way Miss Alice is. The way Doctor MacNeill is.”
    â€œHe told me you were still learning,” Christy said.
    David rolled his eyes. “I suppose he’s right,” he said. “Although I might point out that the Doc’s more than a little set in his ways.” He shrugged. “Anyway. Take your time, Christy Huddleston. It will get easier.”
    He stood and touched her lightly on the shoulder. She was grateful for the warm smile that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside him. “Oh, by the way. I heard about the incident with Vella.”
    â€œI’d planned to talk to Lundy about it—”
    â€œI see you’ve quickly figured out where the trouble’s likely to start. I tried talking to Lundy and Smith myself this afternoon. Couldn’t get anything out of them, so I guess we’ll just have to keep an eye on things.” His face went grave. “I don’t want to worry you, especially when you’re feeling nervous enough, but Lundy and his friends are bad news. This won’t be the only time you’ll have to confront them, and next time, it may be worse. If that happens, I want you to come to me, understand?”
    Christy nodded. But as she watched David trudge back up the hill, she remembered some advice Miss Alice had given her about taking charge of the classroom. Christy knew she couldn’t run to David every time there was trouble.
    She gathered up her diary and started to leave. But after a few steps, she turned around. Slowly, methodically, she began to search the bank of the creek, hoping she might find the locket her father had given her.
    She knew it was crazy. The necklace must have caught on something during her fall, or broken when she was underwater. It was probably miles down the stream by now, lost forever. Lost forever like her old life. And in its place was the new life she had chosen, a hard, demanding, terrifying, complicated, lonely life in Cutter Gap.
    It’s an adventure, she told herself. This was what she’d wanted, what she’d dreamed of. She was doing God’s work.
    But what if I can’t do it well enough? a doubting part of her heart asked.
    She gazed up at the bridge. She remembered wondering