. because you're half under its spell again but only half . . .
neither here nor there?'
'Between,' the boy acknowledged. 'Tell me about this 'it' you're
talking to,' Jack said. 'Jack, don't,' Heather said. She looked
haunted. He knew how she felt. But he said, 'We have to learn about
it.'
'Why?'
'Maybe to survive.' He didn't have to explain. She knew what he
meant. She had endured some degree of contact in her sleep. The
hostility of the thing. Its inhuman rage. To Toby, he said, 'Tell me
about it.'
'What do you want to know?' -On the screen: blues of every shade,
spreading like Japanese fans but without the sharp folds, one blue over
the other, through the other.
'Where does it come from, Toby?'
'Outside.'
'What do you mean?'
'Beyond.' ..
'Beyond what?'
'This world.' Is it ... extraterrestrial?' - Heather said, 'Oh, my
God.' 'Yes,' Toby said. 'No.'
'Which, Toby?'
'Not as simple as ... E.T. Yes.
And no.'
'What is it doing here?'
'Becoming.'
'Becoming what?'
'Everything.' Jack shook his head. 'I don't understand.'
'Neither do I,' the boy said, riveted to the display on the computer
monitor. Heather stood with her hands fisted against her breast.
Jack said, Toby, yesterday in the graveyard, you weren't just
between.
like now.'
'Gone.'
'Yes, you were gone all the way.'
'Gone.'
'I couldn't reach you.'
'Shit,' Heather said furiously, and Jack didn't look up at her because
he knew she was glaring at him. 'What happened yesterday, Jack? Why
didn't you tell me, for Christ's sake? Something like this, why didn't
you tell me?' Without meeting her eyes, he said, 'I will, I'll tell
you, just let me finish this.'
'What else haven't you told me,' she demanded. 'What in God's name's
happening, Jack?'
To Toby, he said, 'When you were gone yesterday. son, where were
you?'
'Gone.'
'Gone where?'
'Under.'
