Page 37 (1/2)

"What about my friends? I can’t just leave the over with the saht on her face ins to say, then shakes her head "No, there’s roolider," she says nervously An odd, peculiar glint in her eyes, of guilt and wrongdoing

"We need to bring the others, too" I shake ? I have too many questions--"

"And there’ll be plenty of tih the door, leaves the fading GlowBurns behind as she shuts the door In darkness, she places cartons and boxes in front, and slides over to a slit"They’re coh this , then across the wall You’re too big, you won’t squeeze through You head down these stairs and bu" She throws her hood over her head "We leave tonight Be back here in one hour Don’t tell anyone Okay?"

"No It’s not okay"

But it’s as if she doesn’t hear She props one foot on the slit , stops "Your father toldSometimes, he flew to the dusker metropolis It’d take a whole day to fly there and back But he wanted to see you Even if it had to be frorab her arm "Why did you stay? If the Land of Milk and Honey really is out there, why haven’t you already taken off yourself?"

She shakes off h theuntil she’s crouching on the sill, half her body dangling outside "Because your father asked me to stay And wait for you" She lookshe asked" And then she’s out the door, into the night, sprinting along the fortress wall

35

THEY FIND ME co down the spiral staircase, a pair of elders, faces red from either drunkenness or exertion Or both They have no words for rab my ar to run off, they sile word is passed between us And no sooner are we back on the cobblestone path than they suddenly disappear One one

Odd that they wouldn’t escort e I try not to think too rows infootsteps But there’s only the thin whistle of wind

A raindrop falls ontentative about it Within seconds, another drop, then another, splatters on my cheeks and forehead, until the rain falls heavy and full all around me

But that is not why I’m suddenly cold I look about The rain curtains down a cascading wet darkness, full and thick A TV static of flickering wet black and dark gray Rain pitter-patters hard on the cobblestone, the sound of a thousand e Quickly, with fear driving my feet forward on cobblestones that are slick and icy At the village square, I stop and listen Silence and stillness, onlysnaps in me, a conviction that drivesinto the bedroo the them that we must leave this very second, not only because I no that the real Land of Milk and Honey, Fruit and Sunshine lies east of us, not only because I know that my father lives and breathes and awaits me there, but because I sense our tirains of sand have poured through, leaving only pools of awful es, stealing into the dark woods as I poundthat it is already too late

I barge through the front door I a catches ht dances on the wall, sht that catchesthe wall, hands cupped behind his back As if standing at attention Except he is tre roo fro directly behind the table, his face floodlit with light, is Epap He’s robotically stuffing soup into his hly that it is spilled all over the table and down the front of his shirt

He looks up and his eyes are red and raw He exhibits no surprise at my sudden presence, but his eyes e down his face, but all he does is keep shoveling one spoonful of soup after another

In the corner behind Epap stands another person

Back to

"Jacob?" I say, and alreadyto the other corner

Ben stands there, body pressed into the corner, his body hitching uncontrollably He is also facing the wall His hair looks scruffy, as if pulled and roughly twisted in different directions

My eyes snap down to Epap again The spoon in his hand, as if dislodged by er fixed on mine, but have shifted past my shoulder …

Behind me, the floorboard creaks

I feel the coolness of a sudden presence looht I turn around

A bland face, spherical with rounded cheeks and protruding eyes, right over my shoulder

Like the moon, like the full ht He blinks, eyelids falling like guillotines in slowheavy thuainst the front of ray and black and I fall slack and insubstantial, seeing, hearing, feeling no more

36

DARKNESS VISCOUS AS tar, smeared in a thousand layers over my eyes There’s no difference whether I close my eyes or open them It’s all blackness

Impossible to kno much time has passed An inner instinct cautionsAvoid panic-induced hyperventilation Exhale, inhale with absolute silence Gather what I can without

This I know: I’ on htest feel of a breeze Slowly, I place my hands palrainy texture I’m inside An enclosure Silent as a coffin