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As I sought Annaly see of a tide to come, the red tide of my dream

Street after street, every tree stood turbaned, robed, and bearded--until I arrived at the foot of a broad-leafed giant fro appeared to shrink This specinificent architecture of wide-spreading lis is a way to pay respect to the beauty of the world, I know the names of many trees; but I did not know the na seen one like it before

The leaves had two laer, they felt thick and waxy

Ae as bowls seenolia bloonolia Water dripped fro to form these flowers

Behind the tree stood a half-seen, two-story Victorian house, dressed with less gingerbread than was standard for the style, with aseemed to retreat frohts inside were barely able to pierce the panes

I passed under the tree, and psychic netisarage, where a ruddy glow pressed out froarage, a flight of stairs led to a landing At the top, the four French panes in the door were curtained with pleated sheers

As I was about to knock, the latch slipped from the striker plate in the jaap, I could see a plastered here soft ringlets of shadow pulsed in a shiht by a security chain and to see Annaed, and no face appeared

After a hesitation, I pushed the door open Beyond lay a large room softly illuminated by five oil lamps

One lamp rested on a dinette table at which stood two chairs Anna the door

She sht hand to motion me to the empty chair

Pleased to be out of the daed the lock

In addition to the table and two chairs, the huhtstand on which stood a gooseneck desk la armchair with a footstool, and an end table

Distributed around the roolass vessels in which floated burning wicks Tere the color of brandy, and three were red

When I sat across the table fro Two kinds of cheese and two kinds of olives Toes Circlets of cucu with a drizzle of olive oil A plate of ripe figs A loaf of crusty bread

I didn’t realize how thirsty I was until I saw theof tea, which tasted as if it had been sweetened with peach juice

As decoration, in a wide shallol floated three of the white flowers from the tree at the front of the property

Without a word, we began to eat, as if there were nothing unusual aboutme

One of the oil lamps stood on the counter in the kitchenette, the others in the ht and trelass vessels

Very nice, I said eventually The oil laht of other days

Other days?

The sun grows the plants The plants express essential oils And the oils fire the laht of the light of an oil la the stored, converted, and then liberated sunshine of years past, but of course it was

Laht reminds me of my parents

Tell me about them

You would be bored

Tryand said no ray slacks, and the roomy pink sweater that she had worn earlier on the pier The long sleeves were rolled up now to forraceful silver bell gleamed on the silver chain

The pendant is lovely, I said

She did not reply

Does it have any significance?

Shein her stare made me look away, and fear found me Not fear of her Fear of…I knew not what I felt a helpless sinking of the heart for reasons that eluded me

She fetched a ceramic pitcher from the kitchen and refreshed my tea

When she returned to her chair, I reached across the table to her, palm turned up Will you take my hand?

You want to confirm what you already know

I continued to reach out to her

She acquiesced, and took er sat on a chroht, with the sky afire andin the sea

When she releasedon the lalass

You’re part of it, I said

Not like the big man on the pier is part of it

He had been surprised by the vision that I had passed to him; but Annamaria was not surprised

She said, That man and I are in different camps What camp are you in, Odd Thomas?

Have you had the dream, too?

It isn’t a dream

I looked into the palhtes older than her face, yet they see to happen? When? Where--here in Magic Beach? And how are you a part of it?

That isn’t for s in their time

What does that mean?

Her smile reminded me of the smile of sos in their tilanced at the lighted wall clock in the kitchen I compared its declaration to that of my atch

The correct time was one minute until seven The kitchen clock showed one ht, a five-hour error

Then I realized that the thin red hand counting off the seconds had frozen on the 12 The broken wall clock had stopped

Your clock doesn’t work

That depends on what you want froested

When I returned my attention to Annamaria, I discovered that she had unclasped the silver chain and had taken it from around her neck She held it out to me, the tiny bell suspended

Will you die for me? she asked

I said at once, Yes, and took the offered bell

FOURTEEN

WE CONTINUED EATING, AS IF THE CONVERSATION and the events that had occurred since I had walked through the door were as ordinary as those of any dinner hour

In fact, people were not in the habit of asking if I would die for the in the positive, without hesitation

I would have died for Stormy Llewellyn, and she would have died for me, and neither of us would have needed to ask the other the question that Annamaria had posed to me Stormy and I had understood, at a level more profound than mind or heart, at the level of blood and bone, that ere coiven irl, Fate had not allowed me to make that trade Since the bullet-shattered day in which she died, I have lived a life I don’t need

Don’t getI do not seek death I love life, and I love the world as its exquisite design is revealed in each senuinely love the world, which is too large to love entire To love all the world at once is pretense or dangerous self-delusion Loving the world is like loving the idea of love, which is perilous because, feeling virtuous about this grand affection, you are freed fro people as individuals, with loving one place--home--above all others

I eenuine love--the shborhood, a street--and I love life, because of what the beauty of this world and of this life portend I don’t love them to excess, and I stand in awe of theht stand in the receiving roonificent palace, a that all this is as nothing cohts that lie beyond the next threshold

Since that day of death in Pico Mundo, seventeen months earlier, my life had not been mine I had been spared for a reason I could not understand I had known the day would coht cause

Will you die forthe fateful question, I felt that I had been waiting to hear it since Storue before the question had been spoken