Windmill Square

IV

The Cave

Autumn, 97 A.V.

No light, but rather darkness visible

Served only to duscover sights of woe.

--Milton,

Paradise Lost

Chapter 24

--"Hello, she said.

I am sorry I have been away. I've missed you.

--I've missed you, too.

The space around them had altered; the room had dispersed into a darkness in which only the two of them existed, like a pair of actors on a spotlit stage.

Something is changing. 

--Yes. I think that it is.

You will need to go to him. Amy.

--Who? Who should I go to?

He's different from the others. I could see it the first time I laid eyes on him. A glass of iced tea. That was all he wanted, to cool himself off in the heat. He loved that woman with his whole heart. But you know that, too, don't you Amy?

--Yes.

An ocean of time, that's what I told him. That's what I can give you. Anthony, an ocean of time. A sudden bitterness came into his face. I always did hate Texas, you know. He had yet to look at her; Amy sensed that the conversation neither required nor even allowed this. Then: I was thinking just now about the camp. The two of us, reading together; playing Monopoly. Park Place, Boardwalk, Marvin Gardens. You always beat me. 

--I think you let me.

Wolgast chuckled to himself. No, it was always you, fair and square. And Jacob Marley. A Christmas Carol, that was your favorite. I think you had the whole book memorized. Do you remember?

--I remember all of it. The day it snowed. Making the snow angels.

He wore the chains he forged in life. Wolgast frowned in sudden puzzlement. It was such a sad story.

The Twelve

Justin Cronin