She still looked out of the window, a convenient way to avoid his gaze. 'There's much work to do, but before we begin, there's something you need to know, and something I need to find out.'
Then she offered him a confession.
'As much as I despise stepping out into the course of living events, there are times it must be done,' she told him. 'There is an appliance store not too far from here. In it are many of those television machines, and they often display the news of the day.' She began to rub her arms as if she was cold. 'I was there, in search of something in particular, and I found it. There was a report of a dreadful car accident- a terrible thing. Witnesses claimed that the driver actually swerved to hit pedestrians, but the driver claims to have no memory of it whatsoever. Imagine that.'
Milos took a nervous sip of his champagne. 'Strange things do happen in the living world.'
'Yes, they do,' agreed Mary. 'But I don't think it was an accident at all. And I don't think the driver was himself that day.'
Milos withheld his opinion. 'And… were any lives lost?'
'What a curious expression. How can a life be lost when you know exactly where it is?' Mary said. 'Two children did leave the world of the living, if that's what you mean. The news was kind enough to show their photographs, but I had already seen their faces. Jill had brought them both into the incubator earlier that day. Of course they were asleep, but I still recognized them.'
Finally she turned to him. 'You knew, didn't you? Don't lie to me, Milos.'
'I am truly sorry,' was all Milos dared to say.
'Sorry that I found out, or sorry you didn't tell me that Jill's amulet was fake?'
He looked at the bubbles in his champagne, feeling all his hope begin to extinguish. Milos had no idea what Mary would do now. Would she throw him out? Would she have both him and Jill hurled off the pier to join Pugsy? Directness and honesty, thought Milos. That's what Mary respects. And so rather than wasting his breath trying to spin things to his favor, he simply told her the truth.
'I was afraid to tell you. I thought you might blame all skinjackers for what Jill was doing. I feared that you might send us away. That you might send me away. But I'm not like Jill…'
And instead of throwing him out, Mary tapped her champagne glass very gently to his and said, 'Do you really think I am so shortsighted as to let you go, Milos?' He didn't think he was supposed to answer, so he didn't. 'It does change things, though,' she said. 'Since we don't have to wait for accidents, I can increase Jill's quota.'
'Increase… Jill's quota?' Milos was stunned.
'The more opportunities we have to save innocent children from the living world, the better, don't you agree?'
As Mary's words tumbled through Milos's mind, he knew there were two sides to which they could fall. The side of terror, or the side of wonder. He also instinctively knew that the choice he made now would define his entire afterlife-it was, in fact, the very focal point of his existence. Milos had always considered himself a good person at heart. Admittedly, he leaned toward serving his own best interests, but in an enlightened way-always in a way that helped others even as it helped himself.
'Milos, are you all right? Did you hear me?'
Terror or wonder? To which side would it fall? He still wasn't sure, yet he forced a smile, and took a step closer. 'You never cease to amaze me,' he said, which was true.
'I understand that skinjackers can't skinjack forever,' Mary said, 'and that Jill has been skinjacking much longer than you.'
'Jill has been in Everlost for more than twenty years, I have been here for four,' he told her. 'I do not think she will be able to skinjack for much longer.'
She looked at him a bit differently than before, as if she were searching his eyes, and Milos held the gaze, hoping she would find whatever she was looking for. 'I know you're not like Jill,' she said, 'but there may come a time that I will need you to do what she does… .' They were standing close now. Close enough to be deep within each other's afterglow.
'If I asked you to, Milos, would you do it for me?'
He knew the question was coming, but he didn't want to believe she would ask it. There was no more hiding behind a gentle gaze and inscrutable eyes. He needed to make a choice. What Mary called 'saving innocent children,' would be called something very different in the living world. It would be called murder. Would he do that for Mary? Should he? His own words came back to him. 'You should never be afraid to tell anyone 'no',' he had once told Allie-but if he said no to Mary, he would lose everything. He would lose her. Losing Mary was not an option for Milos, and once he realized that-once he realized what he truly wanted, the choice became clear.
'Would you do it, Milos? Would you do it if I asked?'
He took Mary's hand, and his afterglow blushed lavender. 'Yes,' he told her. 'I would do anything for you.'
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PART SIX City of the Dead In her book Order First, Question Later, Mary Hightower offers us her personal insights on the art of war:
'To bring about order in a chaotic world, one must, on occasion, resort to large-scale conflict. Weaponry and the size of one's army are certainly factors-but far more important are brains and righteous convictions. In the living world it seems right-thinking people are often trampled beneath the filthy boots of impure ideas. However, I like to believe that, at least in Everlost, good will triumph over evil.'
CHAPTER 31 On the Banks of Eternity
The city of Memphis is gone.
This once great river city-the very center of civilization-now lies in ruins, eternally buried by time and river silt. That is to say, the Egyptian city of Memphis, capital of ancient Egypt when that kingdom was at its height, over 3,000 years ago. The great palaces have crumbled, and the towering stone obelisks, once wonders of the upper and lower Nile, have fallen like trees, and now lay hidden beneath farmland.
Across the Nile river from Memphis, on its western bank, was the necropolis: the city of the dead, containing the tombs and burial chambers of Egypt. It seems all cultures respect the awesome and mystical nature of a great river-how it can divide life from death, here from there, known from unknown.
No one has ever accused Memphis, Tennessee, of being the center of civilization, although it does have its moments. It, too, lies on a great dividing river-a gateway to the West. At least it's a gateway in the living world. In Everlost, however, it is a city of relentless wind, and marks an inexplicable barrier to the West… which makes it interesting to note that Memphis, Egypt, was also known as Ineb-hedj or 'the White Wall.'
To the living world, the kingdoms of Egypt are ancient history-because in the living world, even that which is considered permanent is always proven to be temporary. To the living, eternity is a concept, not a reality-and yet they know it exists.
The living do not see eternity, just as they don't see Everlost, but they sense both in ways that they don't even know. They don't feel the Everlost barrier set across the Mississippi River, and yet no one had ever dared to draw city boundaries that straddle both sides of its waters. The living do not see Afterlights, and yet everyone has had times when they've felt a presence near them-sometimes comforting, sometimes not-but always strong enough to make one turn around and look over one's shoulder.
Look behind you now.
Do you feel in your heart a slight hastening of its beat, and a powerful sense that something momentous is about to happen?
