belong here for some reason. That this is really my home.”
The three women didn’t make any attempt to dissuade her of this. Apparently they believe I belong here too, Candy thought. The realization made her eyes sting with happy tears. The women’s smiles and silence were confirming something she hadn’t dared to believe until now. She had a reason to be here. Even if nobody yet knew what it was, she still belonged.
“If I really do have some purpose here,” Candy said, “I mean, if I’m more than just some dumb sightseer, then can you help me understand what that purpose is?”
“We’d be happy to,” said Joephi.
“But I’m not sure we understand ourselves,” Mespa went on. The starlight in her eyes trembled. The woman wasn’t afraid, Candy thought; but filled with a curious excitement.
“Something’s going to happen to me, isn’t it?” Candy said.
“My dear, something already has,” Diamanda replied. “You’re not the same girl who threw herself into the Izabella, are you?”
Candy took a moment to think about this. But no more than a moment.
“No. No, I’m not.” Then she said: “I’m somebody else. I just don’t know who that somebody else is yet.”
“Well that’s what journeys are for,” Diamanda Murkitt said. “Remember, I made the same trip myself. Looking for something I didn’t have. And trust me, Candy, wherever you think you’re going, the real destination is… right here.” She tapped her chest, directly above her heart.
“Will I ever go back to the Hereafter?” Candy said.
The three women exchanged anxious looks.
“What’s wrong?” said Candy, reading the discomfort in their eyes. “Do you know something about this?”
“We’ve had glimpses…” Diamanda said, “only glimpses.”
“There isn’t much to tell,” Joephi said.
“But the news is bad?” Candy said.
“Not for you,” Mespa said.
“Then who for?”
Joephi and Mespa both looked at Diamanda, as though seeking some guidance from their elder.
“I’m not going to start making prophecies on the basis of glimpses,” Diamanda said. “But you should know, my dear, that from now on there is jeopardy at every step. For you. For those who travel with you. And even for the places you choose to go. You may bring down cities before you have solved all the mysteries that lie ahead of you.”
“That sure sounds like a prophecy to me,” said Mespa.
“Well, what do you suggest we tell her?” the old lady said, a little irritated.
“We could begin with the stories we’ve been hearing about Finnegan.”
“Who’s Finnegan?” Candy said, thinking halfway through the question that perhaps somebody on this journey had already told her, because the name rang a bell. Or did she maybe know a Finnegan in Chickentown?
“Oh, you’ll like Finnegan,” Diamanda said, with a teasing little smile.
“That she will,” said Mespa.
“Then there’s the Requiax,” said Joephi, moving on before Candy had time to ask about Finnegan.
“Who are the Requiax?” Candy asked, determined to get an answer this time.
There was silence for a moment. Candy looked from face to face. “Please,” she said. “I need some help here.”
Mespa began: “The Requiax are the worst of the worst,” she said.
“They’re the enemies of love,” Diamanda went on. “The enemies of life. Wicked beyond words…”
“And where are they?”
“Right now,” said Joephi, “they’re deep inthe Izabella, and let’s hope they stay there.”
“Doubtful,” Diamanda went on. “We hear all manner of rumors about the Requiax being on the move. And there are those who say that when they surface, it will be the end of the world as we know it.”
“You’re scaring me,” Candy said.
“I forbid you to be scared,” Diamanda replied, gently. “She was never scared, so you shouldn’t be.”
“She?” said Candy. “What do you mean, she?”
Curiously enough, all three women opened their mouths to reply to this, but before any of them could answer, there came the sound of a series of doors closing—maybe ten in all—the smallest of which sounded like the noise of a doll’s house door, the largest a solid oak door, slamming somewhere nearby.
“He’s coming,” cried Joephi.
“We’ve got to be off, Candy,” Diamanda said. “Abraham Hollow, the Keeper of the Twenty-Fifth Hour, doesn’t approve of anybody from the outside world being brought into the Time Out of Time. If he knew you were here, he’d have the Fugit Brothers tear you from limb to limb.”
“Nice,” said Candy. “What do I do with all the questions I’ve still got?”
“Keep them for another time,” said Joephi.
“But I have so many,” Candy said.
The women were clearly preparing to make a hasty exit, gathering up their robes, glancing around nervously as they did so. Obviously they did not want to encounter this Abraham Hollow.
“We’ll find one another again” Diamanda said. “Don’t you worry about that. There is so much to tell, on both sides. Thank you for the news about Henry, by the way. You’ve shamed me into an apology.”
“But… he’s dead,” Candy said.
“A matter of little consequence here,” said Diamanda.
“Why?”
“Because this is the Twenty-Fifth Hour. Everything is Here. Everything is Now. Even Yesterday.”
“I don’t—”
“Will you hurry up, Diamanda Murkitt?” said Mespa, catching hold of the old woman’s hand. “I hear Old Abraham coming.”
“Yes, yes,” said Diamanda. “I’m coming. I just wanted her to understand—”
“We don’t have time,” said Mespa.
“No time?” said Joephi, laughing. “That’s the one thing we surely have in abundance. Time and more time and time again.”
“Don’t get clever,” Mespa snapped. “I don’t want Abraham finding us. Any of us. NOW COME ON.”
She was pulling on Diamanda’s arm now.
“I’m sorry,” the old lady said to Candy, “there’s so much more I
