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"Do you have any idea what you’ve done?" Mary knew she was screa, but she didn’t care How dare he! How dare he do this to her!
"I know exactly what I’ve done," said Nick with all the calo to where they should have gone in the first place"
"How dare you presuone They were here, which means this is where they were meant to be!"
"I don’t believe that!"
"Who cares what you believe!" It was as if she was looking at a different boy
She had taken hi to be a teahts of Everlost forever and ever This wasn’t supposed to happen!
Then Nick’s expression changed, and for the first tier, and accusation
"How long have you known?" Nick demanded
Mary refused to answer hiinning? How long have you been robbing them from the children who come to you for help?"
She found she couldn’t face the accusation, and couldn’t rumbled "And I’m not a thief--they throw their coins into the fountain by choice They can take them out any time they want--but no one does--and do you knohy? Because they don’t want to"
"No! They don’t take back their coins because it’s your fountain, and they wouldn’t dreaainst Miss Mary But if they knew the truth about what those coins did--what they were really for-- they’d take them in a second!"
"My children are happy!" insisted Mary
"They’re lost! And you’re no better than your brother!"
Before Mary even knehat she was doing, she brought back her hand and slapped him across the face with the full force of her fury For a moment she wanted to take it back, and tell him that she was sorry, but then she realized she wasn’t sorry at all She wanted to slap hiain until she slapped some sense into him What had she done to deserve this treachery? She had cared about him--more than that, she had loved him She loved him still, and now she hated the fact that she loved him
Nick recovered from the slap, then picked up the bucket and tilted it toward her "Strange," he said, "but there were exactly enough coins in there for every Afterlight"
"So what!" said Mary "A thousand Afterlights, a thousand coins Nothing strange about that"
"Look again"
Mary looked into the bucket to see that it wasn’t entirely empty Two coins remained
"Two coins," said Nick "Two of us"
"Coincidence!" insisted Mary She would not be swayed by it This was not the universe trying to tell her so out to them Mary didn’t need a bucket to tell her what God’s purpose for her was
She reached in, picked up a coin and prepared to throw it as far froht as possible…But then Nick said -- " -- Is it warm or is it cold?"
Mary felt the coin in her hand "It’s cold," she told hihed "Mine’s cold, too So I guess neither of us are going anywhere for a while And then he added, "All these years here, and you’re still not ready"
"I’ll never be ready!" said Mary "I’ll never leave Everlost, because this world is the eternal one, and it’s my job to find lost souls to fill it It’s my job to find them and take care of them Why can’t you understand that?"
"I do understand it," Nick said "And ht--maybe that is your job…But now I think I have a job, too And oing"
Mary looked at the ugly coin in her hand What was so wonderful about the end of the tunnel? How did anyone know if that bright light was a light of love, or of fla Mary kneas the simple rule that every mother tells her child: If you’re lost, stay put Don’t walk away, don’t wander off, don’t talk to strangers, and just because you see a light, it doesn’t give you permission to cross the street Lost children stay put! How could Nick not see the sense in that?
At the sound of a car engine, Mary looked up to see Speedo drive up in the Jaguar she had given hih not to hurl hi," Speedo said
Nick turned to Mary "I’ to tell all those kids what I know"
"They won’t listen to you!" Mary told him
"I think they will"
There was certainty in Nick’s voice, and Mary knehy It was because he was right, and they both knew it As much as Mary wanted to believe otherwise, she knew her children would take their coins back They would not be able to resist the temptation That’s why the temptation had to be taken away