'There is no Gracia.'
'I've got to be sure.' Somewhere here was London, somewhere in London was Gracia. I knew I would find her in a white room, one where blank paper lay scattered across the floor, like islands of plain truth, auguring what was to come. She would be there, and she would see how I had emerged from my fantasy.
Now I was complete.
'Don't go on believing, Peter. Come back to the islands with me.'
'No, I can't. I've got to find her.'
Seri waited, staring at the litter-strewn pavement.
'You're an athanasian,' she said, and it seemed to me that she said it in desperation, a last attempt. 'Do you know what that means?'
'I'm afraid it means nothing to me now. I don't believe it ever happened.'
Seri reached up to me, touched me high on my neck, behind my ear. There was still a sensitive place there, and I winced away.
'In the islands you will live forever,' she said. 'If you leave the islands you become ordinary. The islands are eternal, you will he timeless.'
I shook my head emphatically. 'I don't believe any more, Seri. I don't belong.'
'Then you disbelieve in me.'
'No, I don't.'
I tried to embrace her but she pushed me away.
Seri said--'I don't want you to touch me. Go and find Gracia.'
She was crying. I stood there indecisively. I was scared that London was not there, that Gracia would have gone.
'Will I find you again?' I said.
Seri said--When you have learnt where to look.
Too late I realized she had receded from me. I stumbled away from her and stood by the side of the road, waiting for a gap in the traffic. Carts and trams rushed past. Then I saw there was a pedestrian underpass, so I went through, losing sight of Seri. I began to run, clambering up to the surface on the other side. For a moment I thought I knew where I was, but when I looked back
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Priest is the author fo five previous novels, including _The Perfect Lover_, and most recently of _An Infinite Summer_, a colledtion of stories published in 1979 to wide acclaim.
