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“Shall we find so poles,” I joked, “and see e can catch from the end of this fancy pier?”

Miranda, Stefan, and I were standing on the ancient stone bridge that stretched halfway across the Rhône After we left the hospital’s Radiology Depart the city wall — the fastest way to cross old Avignon was to detour around it — but as we’d passed under the bridge, I’d adraceful arches In response, Stefan had whipped the car off the road, parked, and led us up through a tower and onto the bridge, or as left of it

“No fishing,” he said in response tothat comes out of the Rhône”

I peered down at the e over the metal rail for a better view

“Be careful,” he cautioned “That railing isn’t strong See, a piece of it is ap in the rail, cordoned off by orange plastic safety mesh “The river is full of industrial cheens Not just in the water; the sediment in the bottom of the river is full of them, too”

“Okay, I take your point,” I said “I won’t fish, I won’t swih” He reement

A few paces farther out on the span, Miranda hu in French, “Sur le pont d’Avignon, l’on y danse, l’on y danse”; athe song into a round Miranda and I had never sung together at all, I realized with a pang, h the verse, Miranda lost her place in the lyrics, falling into sync with Stefan for the last two lines

“Crap,” she laughed “Irounds worth a dae of my melodic convictions”

“What’s the song?” I asked “How do you know it?”

“It’s about dancing on this bridge, the pont of Avignon Myit to me as a lullaby” She smiled at the memory

“It has lots of silly verses,” Stefan added “You dance, I dance, we all dance The girls dance, the boys dance The dolls dance, the soldiers dance Frogs Gorillas”

“Frogs and gorillas? Mythe first verse over and over No wonder it put ! Matter of fact, I could use a nap right now” She faked a yawn

Halfway along the bridge was a se badly The front of the building partially blocked the bridge; the back, though, jutted above the river, supported by an extension of one of the bridge pilings “Nice fishing shack,” I observed

“The chapel of Saint Bénézet,” said Stefan

“Saint who?”

“Bénézet,” said Miranda “The kid that built the bridge”

“This bridge?” She nodded “It was built by a kid?”

“Yep Maybe a teenager Hard to be sure ‘A young shepherd boy’ is how ht e, now that I kneas retracing an outing they’dhis flock, el swoops down, or soht here So Bénézet goes and relays this non The bishop says, ‘Yeah, sure, kid—’”

“Wait,” I interrupted “Really? The bishop says, ‘Yeah, sure, kid’?”

She cut her eyes atthe bishop says, ‘Forsooth, callow youth, thou pullest ’?”

“Okay, suess ‘Yeah, sure, kid’ is more like it”

“Anyhow,” she resu, mind you—‘Okay, junior, if you want otta prove it See that huge stone over there? Thirty men can’t lift that stone If you can, I’ll believe you; if you can’t, go back to the far my time’ So the kid—”

“Young Bénézet?”