O'Connell Bridge - Pt. 4

LC sat in his truck the next morning. The church bulletin still open to the page he encountered. “What’s Next?”

His visit to Ogden Waffle House was equally frustrating. As he pulled up he cringed; a large red and white sign was taped to the front door. “Closed due to electrical fire.”

“Shish, guess I’ll head for Dunkin’. The other Awful Waffle is probably busy already.” He turned his truck and soon was back on Market Street headed toward town. As he was passing Ace Hardware, he happened to glance up. A large electronic billboard was displaying a sign: “Liam, Remember O’Connell Bridge, June 30.” About 10 seconds later, the sign changed. He found a safe place to make a U-turn, but had to drive all the way to Gordon Road, about a mile, before he could safely turn around again. Seconds later, he pulled into the darkened Ace Hardware Company parking lot. LC sat in his truck watching the sign. He counted two advertisements going by, finally the display was there again, but it disappeared before he could study it. “Phooey.” He got out of his truck and readied his cell phone to take a picture, two advertisements later, he got his wish and he was able to take several photos of the display.

With phone in hand he drove to Dunkin’ Donuts. LC sipped his coffee and looked at the photos. “I wonder who owns the poles, or sells the service?” He used his phone to search the listings in the Wilmington area and finally decided to call on one located nearby on College Avenue. Customers poured through the small donut shop, but LC remained through his second cup of coffee. Eventually, he drove his truck to the sign company, which was closed. “I’ll come back later today.”

He walked into his apartment 20 minutes later with—two dozen donuts; eight of which were chocolate covered, two with sprinkles, four Boston Creams, and the rest glazed.

Mac stretched and yawned and then applauded when he saw the Dunkin’ Donuts boxes. “Hey, cool.” Mac opened the boxes and took two Boston Creams and two glazed.

“Save one for Arthur,” LC chided.

“He who be late to the party gets the crumbs.”

The front door opened with a bang. Caitlin and Betty Jo both rushed in. “We saw you carrying the boxes up.” Caitlin flipped open the lids and immediately took two chocolate covered.

“Yum.” Betty Jo claimed the sprinkles and both women headed for the couch after picking up a roll of paper towels.

“You’re too cool,“ sang Betty Jo.

LC wedged himself onto the couch next to Caitlin. “Look.” He held up his phone and showed the photos of the electronic bill board.

“Interesting.” Caitlin took his phone and showed it to Betty Jo. “Call the company who owns the sign, see if there’s any information.”

“I will after 9 AM, I suppose they’re open then.”

Caitlin gave him back the phone. “I don’t have a morning class, can we go see the sign? I mean like you have a picture, but I’d like to see it too.”

“I suppose.” LC looked at his watch. “We could go now.”

Caitlin stood. “Let me put on some different clothes and comb my hair better. I don’t want to be seen in public like this.”

“Okay, that’ll give me time to change out of these scrubs into some jeans.”

“Meet you in five minutes.” Caitlin stood and grabbed a glazed donut as she headed to the door.

“Cool.” LC hopped off of the couch at the same time and headed for his room. “I haven’t even had a donut yet.”

Ten minutes later he was sitting on the steps waiting for Caitlin. “You said five minutes,” he complained when she came out the front door.

“Woman’s prerogative. It’s a magic power.” She danced to his truck and waited for him to unlock the door.

“Use your power to unlock the door then.”

“That would be a waste since you have a key fob which with your new locks on this ancient truck seems to work at your will when so applied.”

“Oh, I see, the magic is now in my power.”

“Ooh no. You simply are granted temporary power, after that it returns to me.”

LC shook his head and unlocked the truck. “Thy wish is my command.”

Caitlin turned as LC opened the door. “As it should be.”

LC made a big deal of holding the door and bowing at the same time.

He slid into the driver’s seat. “Radio?”

“No radio.” Caitlin leaned against the door. “I never get to just talk to you without the crowd around. What are your plans, I mean, you’re graduating. Suppose you get to go to Chapel Hill to med school, you going to move of course.”

“Is there a question in there somewhere?”

“Not yet. Have you seriously considered Ireland yet?” Caitlin asked. “The mystery invitation, I mean if they want you to come for a visit the least they could do is pay for it.”

“For one thing, I don’t know if it’s a ruse or not. I’m in a hard place Cait, I can’t consider any commitments to school or Ireland or anywhere until first I maybe get an invitation from a med school; and secondly, if this O’Connell Bridge thing comes to reality. Sheesh, I might as well run away to a cave somewhere in Wyoming and worship rocks.”

“Don’t you think having friends around helps. I mean, lots of worthless free advice; at least you know what not to do.”

“Mike doesn’t even think I can get into med school. My exam grades are well above average, but not star quality. He even told mom I’m better suited to be a biology teacher in the high school. Maybe he’s right.”

Caitlin’s face turned bright red. “Mike’s a jerk and you know it. I mean like he’s your brother and all, but he has done you no favors and takes every delight in demeaning you. He has an engineering degree and spends his time with his angry Italian wife and hiding in his big office in Castle Hayne. I think he’s unhappy and wants you to be unhappy too.”

“You might be right; but, like you said, he’s still my brother.”

“LC, he broke your nose.”

“That was my fault. Besides, you’ve never been around brothers. They occasionally have knock down drag outs.”

“For telling the truth.”

“Yeah. For embarrassing Bambi.”

They rode silently until LC said, “There’s the back side of the sign; I’ll have to turn the truck around so you can see it.”

Minutes later, they were sitting in the Ace Hardware parking lot staring at the ever-changing sign. Finally, the O’Connell Bridge display came up and LC with Caitlin, by this side, watched it for several seconds before it changed.

“It was like every other one this morning. Now it’s only on for a few seconds per minute or so, looked like a dozen frames went by.”

Caitlin watched the billboard with interest. “What time did you see it?”

“Well, the Waffle House was closed. So, I drove by here about 6 AM.”

“Well, no magic made it possible for you to see the sign. Let’s see if the sign company is open.”

LC got back in the truck at the same time as Caitlin. “Look up the addy on your phone, unless your magic powers can guide us there without the aid of an address. I went by a closed one this morning.”

“My phone is my magic wand you know.” Caitlin found the address without too much trouble and directed LC to the company location. “See, magic wand works wonders.”

There were lights on in the building so LC and Caitlin walked in the office door and were greeted by a man in a suit and tie. “I’m Gerald Watts, the sales manager,” he said.

“Uh, like I’m Liam Brennan, and his is my friend Caitlin Dugan. Anyway, we saw this electronic sign over by Ace Hardware on Market Street.”

“I’m familiar with it.” Gerald pulled out a large book.

“Well it had a display sign about O’Connell Bridge. I saw it several times this morning and then again a few minutes ago.”

“This one?” He turned the book around opened to a colored photograph.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

LC pointed to the picture. “Who put it there. I mean, who bought the space?”

The sales manager smiled. “I can’t give out customer information. If it isn’t on the sign, then I simply can’t disclose the contract.”

“Well, this morning it was like every third sign, but now it’s in an array of a dozen other advertisements.”

“Yes, and no. The sign was frozen with the O’Connell Bridge information for two hours between 4 AM and 6 AM, and then it began in the array, after 6:30 AM. That array was expanded to 12 boards every two minutes. With the computer signs, we can program any pattern the customer wants. Starting tomorrow, there will be a new advertiser in the O’Connell Bridge space, but that is really more information than I should be giving you.”

LC looked at the photo again. “The sign is directed toward me.”

“Perhaps.” The sales manager closed the book. “If it’s you, then you should know what it means. I thought it was an event.”

“Kinda is.” LC did not want to share the other parts of the mystery with the sales manager, and he didn’t want Caitlin to say anything either. “I guess we’ll be going.” He took Caitlin’s hand and virtually pulled her out the door.

“I guess we’re leaving?” Caitlin squeezed LC’s fingers.

“I need to get some rest.”

“Me too,” she said. “I might be catching something, or you know.”

“Take care of yourself.”

“LC we just found out that the sign was programmed to be in your eyesight during your normal traffic pattern. We didn’t ask, not that ol’ Gerald there would tell us. But, I bet that sign has been up for several days and you just happened to catch it today.”

“So, you’re saying I’ve been driving by that sign every day?”

Caitlin got in the truck and waited for LC to open his door. “Yeah, I guess it was just a matter of time until you saw it.”

“Shish.” LC started the truck and pulled out into traffic.

She reached out and touched his arm. “What’d we learn?” Caitlin watched him intently.

“Someone is watching me.”

To be continued...