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I’ve been here s each day that make my jaw drop Like a pencil How do they put lead inside wood? And paper—nobody thinks twice about it, but in e, you had to hammer notches out of a chunk of rock

It’s a terrifying world and I shouldn’t be able to cope with it I cairl If I’d stepped out of the cave knowing nothing of what lay beyond, I’d have fainted with shock and gone on fainting every time I recovered and looked around

But when I took over Bill-E Spleen’s body, his memories beca, but I soon knew all that he did That helped me make sense of this neorld and deal with it Without access to Bill-E’s memories I wouldn’t have kno to use a knife and fork, knot a pair of laces, open a door or do any of the siranted

But as helpful as that’s been, it’s also proved to be one of est problems Because I live with Bill-E’s uncle, Dervish Grady, and Ihim about Bill-E’s memories As a result, he seeshihts

“Tell me about Billy’s first day at school”

We’re in Dervish’s study on the top floor of the house The lass ooden floorboards and bare stone walls (Except in this study, which is lined w

ith leather panels) All of the people froe could have lived in coht it was a co

“His first day at school?” I chew h I have to think hard to retrieve the memories Dervish watches me intently, hands crossed on the desk in front of his me up here three or four tis he experienced, the thoughts he had, the way he saw the world

“He wasn’t nervous,” I begin “He thought it was a big adventure He loved putting on his unifor the kitchen clock, even though he couldn’t tell the time”

Dervish s little detail about his dead nephew But he’s not s a joke with the absent Bill-E Spleen

I tell Dervishboy’s i as well as unco to read chapters from the same story, over and over My attention wanders and ic on the shelves, the weapons on the walls I want to flick through the pages of those books and test some of the axes and swords But there’s never time for that

Maybe Dervish doesn’t see me Perhaps to him I’m not a real person, just aanything other than talk about the boy I replaced There’s nothing malicious in it I just don’t think it’s crossed his

Eventually, two hours later, Dervish dish for now He waves ht I leave hihts distant, a sad wreck of a man, more lost in the past than I ever hen captive in the cave

I love walking, exploring the countryside between the house and Carcery Vale I like it in the forest The land was covered in trees when I first lived I alinal time when I leave the roads and paths of the h woodland Soue, to taste nature I try to trickthe neorld doesn’t exist, that the natural balance has been restored

Of course that’s fantasy and the sensation never lasts long These trees have been carefully planted and the undergrowth is nowhere near as dense as it was back then There are still rabbits and foxes, but they’re scarce