IT’S CLOSED
© Dana W. Paxson 2005
Story threads back to scene DAY SPOKE FROM INSIDE THE LAND: * Jeddin Present |
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IT’S CLOSED 1563 4D He raised himself again, to stand now in Lulith‘s pale moonlit night. The mountains and the land had not changed. Where his house had stood in the sun, now only a chimney rose over a blackened mass that glinted here and there with the moonsilvered light of roasted and blistered cellusteel wood. The whine of a van ascended the farm road; Andrew moved behind an outcropping. He knew all this. The van stopped and its rear hatch opened; three men in blue and gray brought a body, completely wrapped in tempweave, to hurl it in the back of the van. As they climbed in after it, it kicked and writhed in the moonlight. Andrew stood, shaking. The scene collapsed into him, he staggered, and once more he stood in the vale where the two great moons had shone and the light had burst from the innards of the mountain. But now the light had left and the vale’s inner end was black. He stepped inward, reaching with his hands in the two-shadowed moondusk, until the walls of the vale narrowed to rub his shoulders. Before him, solid stone. He stooped to the ground; his fingers scrabbled in dust where the pure stream had languidly flowed. “It’s closed.” Jeddin‘s voice. Andrew turned. Jeddin and Turiosten and Onnhasshakh stood a few strides behind him in their own light against the dark sky. “I saw a child, and then Leil was gone,” Andrew said. “One of your children?” Jeddin asked. “No. It had the darkest eyes, so sad and old.” Dizziness washed over Andrew. He reached out to the sloping stone on either side to steady himself. He called out in his mind to Leil. I tried so hard. What did I do wrong? Arms came around him, and his legs let go. |
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Story threads leading to scene A GREAT DISEASE AMONG THE STARS: * Jeddin Present |
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