Anthy stands in the centre of the greenhouse. Around her, north east south and west, float four glass coffins, and inside them four women. Susannah, long-legged and serene; River smiling untroubled; Meg relaxed; Utena peaceful.
It's silent; even the fountain makes no noise. The water's halted in midair.
(
And Chuchu -- Chuchu isn't here.)
Anthy opens her eyes.
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She gleams in her happy crystal coffin, smiling slightly.
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She breathes in.
And then, very slowly, pulls an elbow back behind her, over the dirt. Draws up a knee. Runs the back of her hand across her chin, and pushes with the other.
The greenhouse is quiet. So quiet.
And there they are.
Four coffins. Four women, floating.
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Of course it's a trick. But life's a trick, and love a glammer, isn't it?
Mia takes the cookies out of the oven, and when Susan comes home from school she says, Girl you look good.
Detta dances on the razor's edge, in peace in danger, and she and Cuthbert laugh as the fires burn.
Odetta and Alain in the library; Susannah and Eddie in the bedroom. Chasing and throwing a frisbee with Jake and Oy, and walking (walking!) arm in arm with Roland, no longer wandering, because this is the soul and center; this is the nexus of space and the nexus of time.
This is home, in her mind are many mansions, and in this one this perfect moment (moments) goes on and on and on and never fades.
Odetta? Detta? Mia?
Never--
Susannah?
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She settles her palm against the cool glass.
Susannah?
Can you hear me?
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Nothing can touch her here. Everything is happening to somebody else.
Can you hear me?
She stirs; opens dark eyes that peer through the crystal-glass of her coffin. (From this side, it's milky-white, interlaced with blue; her very own forspecial place to hide in the ground forever, just like all the other gunslingers.)
There's a small dark hand splayed like a starfish against the glass. She blinks at it sleepily.
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"Anthy?"
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Then:
Yes.
Please come back.
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"Why?"
It's not just the world that moves on. Only Eddie is left, and he's slipping away--out there.
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Part of her does, throwing open the doors of the mansion of her mind, opening into a perfect replica of the Milliways lake (a replica of a replica?) and strolling arm in arm with Anthy through the rose garden. She's certainly glad she came out of that coffin.
Susannah sleeps. The world... is quiet here. And that is very well.
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"It's nicer here, isn't it?"
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"Nicer than where, sugar?" Absently. The bees buzz, pollinating up a storm. It's summer, after all.
( And--where is here? Milliways? Calla Bryn Sturgis? Oxford Town? The Drawers?
I think this is Rat's Alley where the dead men lost their bones.)
Susannah watches three black birds cross the sky; the grass tickles her bare feet. She can't remember the last time she felt this good.
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She makes a puzzled face at the weird turn of conversation, and then is promptly distracted. "Laws, child, your face." She takes a hankerchief from her pants pocket and gives the girl a hardy spit and scrub.
"You'll attract bees."
Buzz.
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