* * *
As he slipped down into the water of the lake with the Teacher Girl in tow, he caught a glimpse of the Strange One coming towards the bridge with what must have been some kind of weapon. He might have worried about the Strange One and his explosives if he did not sense the Black Cloud returning to Stansbury. Oh, the joy of things moving with purpose and the love he felt knowing he moved with his. The love of the bridge and of the town and he knew that even this Strange One who felt the love of the bridge and mistook it for darkness would come to see the joy of this day.
He swam quietly under the bridge with the Teacher Girl floating behind him. Oh the joy she would feel when she took her place at the heart of the bridge and the heart of the town. Her pure love would overflow and protect Stansbury until it was time to for her to be replaced as she now replaced the last Counter Girl. He swam under the bridge until he found that Special Place that his creator made. He felt the symbols carved into the wood and moved his hand along them as he chanted the words he had so many times before with so many different voices, so many vessels who gave up their flesh so that he could protect the town. He could not remember the last time let alone the first. He felt the wood grow warm beneath his hand as the Special Place began to open. What love was left from the last Counter Girl spilled over him and it was ecstasy and he remembered this feeling from the last time or the time before or the time before and it was the love draining away and he knew that he must complete his work and set the Teacher Girl in place because even as the love from the last Counter Girl faded and even though the Black Cloud loomed over Stansbury, the bridge was without love and the town was without love and at this moment it was still possible that somehow the Strange One could destroy everything. Even now, as the Special Place opened, he heard him overhead and felt worry for the very first time. That amused him.