Bridge of Clay

In the present, Matthew reflects on Clay’s tendency to sleep outside on an old mattress in the field behind their house. The space was called The Surrounds and used to be a practice track and stable for horse races. After the track went bankrupt, it became a junk dump site. Clay sleeps there the night the Murderer (Michael) arrives and imagines that Carey arrives to camp out with him, as she does on Saturday nights.

In the past, Penelope’s father prepares for her departure without sharing a single detail of his plan. He packs a bigger suitcase than usual and fills it with additional essentials: his mythology books, money, and a letter. He rushes her out the door and tells her there is a gift in her suitcase for when she is on the train. He is emotional and curt with her as he bids farewell. On the train, Penelope remembers her gift and opens her suitcase, discovering the books and letter. The letter contains instructions for her to take a bus to an Austrian refugee camp. Penelope cries for the rest of the train ride.

Clay wakes up the next morning feeling guilty. After the Murderer (Michael) left, the brothers talked about his appearance, but Matthew feels betrayed by Clay for his use of the word dad. The Murderer asked the boys to help him build a bridge on his property in the outback because of annual flooding that leaves him trapped. The boys immediately rejected his offer, but he left his address in case someone changed their mind. The boys scatter to various activities and Matthew throws the address away. Clay showers and climbs onto the roof of their home, where he can see Carey’s house. Henry eventually joins him and the two sit until Rory returns from the bar and they help him into bed. Later, Clay goes to the kitchen to find the Murderer’s address but cannot find it; he then finds it on his bed.

Penelope trades her return ticket for an earlier one home, intending to return to her father, but ultimately decides to go to the camp Traiskirchen. There, she is questioned and ultimately admitted to the camp. She waits to be sent to another holding location and is eventually sent into the mountains, where she waits for nine months to be approved by an embassy for relocation. There is a phone booth that the refugees are free to use. She debates for a long time whether to call her father until a man comforts her and assures her that it is safe. Penelope calls her father, and their conversation is brief as she is overwhelmed by fear and emotion.

Several months later, on her father’s birthday, Penelope and some of the other refugees celebrate the day with schnapps. The same man who comforted her earlier begins to sing a birthday song, which leads them all to sing different birthday songs and weep for their lost loved ones. As more time passes, Penelope alternates between guilt and anger toward her father. After nine months of waiting, her refugee application is approved for Australia.

Clay returns to the house, where Matthew has already woken and made coffee. Matthew waits on the front porch and reveals that he was the one who left the address on Clay’s bed. The two study each other and Matthew thinks about their similarities. Matthew gives Clay permission to leave, ending the offer with a vaguely worded threat about him not being allowed to return. Matthew leaves Clay to think, knowing his internal conflict.

Penelope arrives in Australia in November and lives every day with conflicting gratitude and guilt. She is brought to another refugee camp while she learns English with other people from all over the world. She finds others from the Eastern Bloc but feels out of place at their celebrations because they all have families, and she is alone.

Matt upbraids Rory for drunkenly stealing a mailbox the night before, then goes to work. The next day, Clay goes to school, where he approaches Claudia Kirkby. Claudia and the principal call Matthew to discuss Clay’s desire to leave. Matthew realizes that there is no talking him out of it. After the meeting, Claudia gifts Clay books to read, and in the car, Clay tells Matthew that Claudia likes him.

Clay goes to the library and checks out books on bridge building. Upon his return home, he and Matthew have a standoff. The next day, Clay drives with Henry to garage sales. He waits until the evening when he can go to The Surrounds.

Penelope has her first visit to the beach, where she watches bluebottle jellyfish sting children and gets a bad sunburn. She gets a job cleaning public toilets and works hard to improve her English. As she gets money, she writes to and calls her father, learning of his sacrifices to get her out safely.

Carey first arrived on Archer Street with her family, having moved from a small town seven hours away. In the present, Carey arrives at The Surround and lays down beside Clay. The two discuss a biography about Michelangelo that they re-read together called The Quarryman. She eventually asks about his father and if Clay is leaving to build a bridge. Clay avoids the question and instead encourages Carey to talk about the horses down at the racetrack. In the past, Carey meets Clay several days after she moves in, and he apologizes for not helping her family carry things into the house. They joke and she asks to climb the roof with him someday. In the present, Clay grapples with how perfect he and Carey are for each other. She asks him not to leave her but tells him to go, then gives him a gift and leaves.

Years pass for Penelope. She moves into an apartment, saves money to buy a used piano, and makes friends with her fellow cleaners. One day, she receives a letter notifying her that her father has died, but the funeral has already occurred.

Clay opens Carey’s gift. There is a wooden box, within which is a letter and a Zippo lighter engraved with Matador in the fifth. The letter contains words of encouragement and a request that he return to her. In the letter, she also notes that “the bridge will be made of you,” which grants him the courage he needs to leave (116).

Penelope resolves to buy a used piano to honor her father. She knows all the shops in the area and returns to one where the man told her she needed $1,000. She is $53 short but promises to pay the rest later, insisting that she buy one that day. The shopkeeper lets her try one and she cries as she plays. The shopkeeper gives her a $100 discount and orders the piano delivery, but sends it to the wrong address. The piano movers try to sort out the confusion with the man who lives there, Michael Dunbar. Penelope arrives and, with Michael and the movers’ help, takes her piano home.

Clay returns home Sunday morning and does sit ups. He helps Tommy check Achilles’s hooves, then accompanies Henry to the graveyard. Henry gives Clay money from the bets made on his running performances, then they run laps at Bernborough. Clay finds Rory waiting at the 300-meter mark, and Rory warns Clay that Matthew will not take the betrayal lightly. Back at the house, Clay watches part of a movie with Matthew. Late that night, Clay says goodbye to the pets, taking a feather from Telemachus and the iron from the Monopoly board game. He also takes a blue clothing peg from the clothesline outside.

Clay packs his bag and reads until 3:30 in the morning. He goes to his porch and watches Carey emerge from her house with a bike and a backpack, headed to jockey practice. She sees him and they wave goodbye. He says goodbye to each of his sleeping brothers, then stands on the porch to wait for dawn. He walks away from the house with the rising sun.