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"No," he says "It’s not for tonight It’s five hundred coin Now you don’t have to swim"

I draw in my breath Is he serious? I kneel down and pull back the cover on the bucket slightly True wasn’t joking

"Where did you get this?" I ask

"All of the publicity fro the fish," he says "I can’t keep up with the de it for you It ht now And you won’t have to swiht"

With this much money, and what Bay left h to buy the air tank True’s right As far as the ht

But I still need the practice I need the added pressure of performance, the time in the water

And True doesn’t even know that it’s not the ring I’ to buy

"You should use this money to buy a stall in the deep-market," I say "Or more supplies"

"I want you to have it," True says "Please"

"Why are you doing this?" I ask "We had everything planned"

"What if it doesn’t work? What if too ht, and I can’t get into the lane in tih the slats, and I wish it were the light of the Above

I wish I could tell True the full truth, that I have to leave And I wish I could tell him this in my real voice But I remember the expression on Justus’s face in the temple on the day Bay left I can’t tell True I don’t want to change how he sees me

"You don’t know that," he says

"I do," I say

"So you’re going to swih uish on his face, all the happiness and laughter gone There is so it Whatever it is, he knows it will change so

"Tell me," I say I whisper it Because if I speak now, I’ll reveal myself

He shakes his head He kneels down and I kneel down next to hiers over the money in the bucket I trust his hands And his heart I want hierous to me

He knows too much No one can know me this well, because then they will leave me That’s what happened with my mother That’s what happened with Bay

"I have to do it," I say I make myself sound the way I always do, flat and false