"I got a message-" Harry said.
Another voice now; this the message carrier. "She wanted to see you," he said.
"Fine. I'm here."
"Except you're too damn late," the first man said. "He found her already."
Harry's stomach turned. He looked hard at Maria. There was no sign of life. "Oh Jesus."
"Such easy profanity," said the message carrier. "Maria said you were a holy man, but I don't think you are."
The palm tightened against the back of Harry's head, and for one sickening moment he thought he heard his skull creak. Then his ton-nentor spoke, very softly: "I am you, and you are love-"
:,Stop that," Harry growled.
'I'm just reading your thoughts, D'Amour," the man replied. "Trying to find out whether you're our enemy or our f'riend."
"I'm neither." "You're a death-bringer, you know that) First New York-"
"I'm looking for Kissoon."
"We know," came the reply. "She told us. That's why lk she sent her spirit out, to find him. So you could be a hero, and bring him down. That's what you dream of, isn't it?"
"Sometimes- "Pitiful.
"After all the hann he's done your people I'd have thought you'd be happy to help me." "Maria died to help you," came the reply. "Her life is our contribution to the cause. She was our mother, D'Amour."
"Oh-I'm sorry. Believe me, I didn't want this."
"She knew what you wanted better than you did," the message carrier replied. "So she went out and found him for you. He came after her and sucked out her soul, but she found him."
"Did she have time to tell you where he is?"
I 11
'Yes.
"Are you going to tell me?"
"So eager," the skull holder said, leaning close to Harry's ear. "He killed your mother, for Christ's sake," Harry said. "Don't you want him dead?" "What we want is irrelevant," the other son replied, "we learned that a long time ago." "Then let me want it for you," Harry said. "Let me find some way to kill the sonofabitch." "Such a murderous heart," the man at his ear murmured. "Where are your metaphysics now?" "What metaphysics?" "I am you, and you are love-"
"That's not me," Harry said. "Who is it, then?"
"If I knew that@' "If you knew that?" "Maybe I wouldn't be here, ready to do your dirty work." There was a lengthy silence. Then the message carrier said: "Whatever happens after this-" "Yes?"
"Whether you kill him or he kills you-"
"Let me guess. Don't come back."
"Right."
"You've got a deal."
Another silence. The candle in front of Maria flickered.
"Kissoon's in Oregon," the message carrier said. "A town called Everville."
"You're sure?" There was no reply. "I guess you are." The hand didn't move from the back of Han-y's head, though there was no further response from either of the sons. "Have we got some further business?" Harry asked.
Again, silence.
"If we're done, I'd like to get going; get an early start in the morning."
And still, silence. Finally, Harry reached round and tentatively touched the back of his head. The hand had gone, leaving only the sensation of contact behind. He glanced round. Both of Maria's children had disappeared.
He blew out the candle in front of the dead woman, and said a quiet goodbye. Then he went back to his hotel, and plotted his route to Everville.
PART FIVE. PARADE
Not for the first time in the dark years since the Loop, Tesla dreamed of fleas. A veritable tsunami of fleas, that rose over Harmon's Heights with the wreckage of America on its busy crest, and teetered there, ready to drop at a moment's notice. In its itching shadow, Everville had become a lagoon city. Main Street was a solid river of fleas, upon which makeshift rafts were paddled from house to house, rescuing people from the leaping surf.
A few folks seemed to know her, though she didn't recognize any of them.
"You! You!" they said, stabbing their fingers in her direction as she towed her own creaky little boat down the street, "You did this! You with the monkey!" (She had a monkey on her shoulder, complete with vest and red felt hat.) "Admit it! You did this!" She protested her innocence. Yes, she'd known the wave was coming. And yes, maybe she'd wasted time with her wandering when she should have been warning the world. But it wasn't her fault. She was just a victim of circumstance, like all of them. It wasn't "Testa? Wake up! Tesla? Listen to me.
Wake up, will you?"
She unglued her eyes to find Phoebe staring down at her, grinning from ear to ear.
"I know where he is. And I know how he got there." Testa sat up, shaking the last of the fleas from her head.
"Joe?"
"Of course Joe." Phoebe sat down on the edge of the sofa. She was trembling. "I was with him last night, Tesia."
"What are you talking about?"
"I thought it was a dream at first, but it wasn't. I know it wasn't. It's just as clear in my head now as it was when I was there."
"Where?"
"With Joe." "Yes, but where, Phoebe?"
"Oh. In Quiddity."
Tesla was ready to dismiss the whole thing as wishful thinking at first, but the more Phoebe told, the more she began to think there was truth here.
Raul concurred. Didn't I tell you? he murmured in Tesla's ear when Phoebe came to the part about the door on Harmon's Heights. Didn't I say there was something about the mountain?
"If there is a door up there... " she thought. It explains why this damn town's gone crazy.
"I have to go up there," Phoebe was saying. "Get through the door, so I can go find Joe." She grabbed hold of Tesla's hands. "You will help me, won't you? Say you will."
"Yes, but-2'
"I knew. I said the moment I woke this is why Tesla came into my life, because she's going to help me find Joe."
"Where was he when you left him?"
Phoebe's face fell. "He was in the sea."
"What about his boat?"
"It went on without him. I think... I think they must have thought he was dead. But he isn't dead. I know he isn't. If he was dead I wouldn't be feeling what I'm feeling now. My heart'd be empty, you know?"
Tesla looked at the woman's elation, and heard her faith, i@ and felt a pang of envy, that never in her life had love taken hold of her this way. Perhaps it was a lost cause, going in search of a man lost overboard in the dream-sea when it seemed the world was about to end, but she'd always had a taste for lost causes. And if she spent the last few hours of life trying to reunite these lovers, was that so petty an ambition?
"Did Joe tell you where the door was on the mountain?"
"Just somewhere near the top. But we'll find it. I know we'll find it."
It was less than half an hour later when Tesla and Phoebe stepped out into the sun, but Everville was already in high gear. Main Street was fairly swarming with people: bleacher builders, banner hangers, balloon inflaters, barricade raisers. And where there was labor, of course, there were people around to watch and remark upon it: coffee drinkers and doughnut dippers, advice givers and troubleshooters.
"We shouldn't have come this way," Phoebe said as they waited in a line of a dozen vehicles for a truckload of chairs to be unloaded.
"Calm down," Tesla said. "We've got a long day ahead of us. Let's just take things as they come."
"If only they knew what we know," Phoebe said, watching the people on the sidewalk.
"Oh they know," Tesla said.
"About Quiddity?" Phoebe replied incredulously. "I don't think they've got the slightest idea."
"Maybe it's bufied deep," Tesla said, studying the blithe faces as the passed. "But everybody gets to go to Quiddity y three times, remember."
"I got to steal a visit," Phoebe said proudly.
"You had help on the other side. Everybody else gets their glimpses, then forgets them. they just get on about their lives, thinking they're real."