When the show was over, and the crowd dispersing, she found a proud Jed with his arm around his son, both beaming from ear to ear.
"Things are off to a damn good start," he said to Dorothy, and anyone else in listening range.
"You're not bothered about that other business, then?"
Dorothy said.
"Flicker, you mean?" Jed shook his head. "He's gone and he's not coming back."
"Music to my ears," Dorothy said. "And what about little Matty then?" Jed said.
"He was wonderful."
"He's been learning his lines for the past few weeks."
"I almost forgot them this morning," Matthew said.
"Didn't I?"
"You just thought you had," Jed said, "but I knew you'd remember them."
"You did?"
"Sure I did." He ruffled his son's hair, lovingly. "Can we get some ice cream, Dad?"
"Sounds like a plan," Jed said. "I'll see you later, Dorothy." to see Jed this way, and it She'd seldom had occasion was a real pleasure. "This is what the Festival's all about, isn't it?" she said ps and hats to Fiona as they watched the kids deposit their pro in cardboard boxes, then peel off with their parents. "People enjoying themselves." "It was fun, wasn't it?" Fiona said.
"Where did you find that bit about the reverend, by the way?"
"Well, I cheated a little," Fiona confessed, lowering her voice a tad.
"He didn't actually have much to do with Everville."
,,Oh."
"In fact, he had nothing at all to do with Everville. He founded his church in Silverton. But it was such a good
-q P
story. And frankly, I couldn't find anything about our founding fathers that was appropriate for the children."
"What about the Nordhoff story?"
"That comes much later," Fiona said, in her best schoolmarmish tones.
"Yes, of course."
"No, when it comes to the early years I'm afraid we have some very murky waters. I was quite shocked at how licentious Everville was at the start. There was certainly nothing very Christian about some of the goings-on here."
"Are you quite sure?" Dorothy said, frankly surprised by what she was hearing.
"Quite," said Fiona.
Dorothy left the subject there, certain that the woman was misinformed. Everville had probably seen some robust behavior in its time (what city didn't have its share of drunkards and hedonists?), but its origins were nothing to be ashamed of. If there was to be a pageant next year, she said to herself, then it wouldn't be some phoney story, it would be the truth. And she would tell Fiona Henderson in no uncertain terms that it was her responsibility as a teacher and as a citizen not to be telling lies, however well intentioned, to her charges. As she left the park, she took a moment to study the mist on Harinon's Heights. Just as Turf had promised, it was showing little sign of spreading. It was denser than it had been three-quarters of an hour before, however. The actual peak, which had earlier been visible through the fog, was now lost to sight.
No matter, she thought. There was nothing much to see up there anyhow. Just some bare rocks and a lot of trees. She consulted her watch. It was ten after eleven. The Pancake Contest and All-You-Can-Eat Brunch would soon be underway at the Old Bakery Restaurant, and the Pet Parade lining up in the square. She was due to be one of the judges of the flower arranging at noon, but she had time to drop by and see how things were going at the Town Hall first, where people would already be assembling for the Grand Parade, even though it wouldn't start for another two hours. So much to see. So much to do. Smiling people spilling off the crowded sidewalks, banners and balloons snapping and glittering against the blue August sky. She wished it could go on forever: a festival that never stopped. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
"I don't like this," Telso said.
She wasn't speaking of the climb-though it had steadily become steeper, and now left her gasping between every other word-but of the mist that had been little more than shreds when they'd begun their ascent and was now a thick, white blanket.
"I'm not turning back," Phoebe said hurriedly.
"I didn't say we should," Tesla replied. "I was just saying-" Yes. What are you saying? Raul murmured.
"That there's something weird about it."
"It, s just mist," Phoebe said.
"I don't think so. And just for the record, neither does Raul." Phoebe came to a halt, as much to catch her breath as to continue the debate. "We've got guns," she said.
"That didn't do us much good at Toothaker's place," Tesla reminded her.
"You think there's something hiding in there?" Phoebe said, studying the black wall that was now no more than three hundred yards from them.
"I'd bet my Harley on it."
Phoebe let out a shuddering sigh. "Maybe you should go back," she said.
"I don't want anything to happen to you on my account."
"Don't be ridiculous," Tesla said.
"Good," said Phoebe. "So if we get parted in there-"
"Which is very possible@'
"We don't go looking for each other?"
"We just go on."
"Right."
"All the way to Quiddity."
"All the way to Joe."
Lord, but it was clammy cold in the mist. Within sixty seconds of entering it, both Tesla and Phoebe were shuddering from head to foot.
"Watch where you walk," Tesla warned Phoebe. "Why?"
"Look there," she said, pointing to a six-inch wide crack in the ground.
"And there. And there."
The fissures were everywhere, and recent. She was not all that surprised. The opening of a door between one reality and another was a violation of the physical by the metaphysical; a cataclysm that was bound to take its toll on matter that lacked mind. It had been the same at Buddy Vance's house as here: the solid world had cracked and melted and fallen apart when the door had opened in its midst. The difference however, and it was notable, was how quiet and still it was here. Even the mist hung almost motionless. Vance's house, by contrast, had been a maelstrom.
She could only assume that whoever had opened this door was both an expert in the procedure and a creature of great self-discipline; unlike the Jaff, who had been a mere novice, and utterly incapable of controlling the forces he had claimed as his own. Kissoon? Raul suggested.
It was not at first thought an unlikely choice. She did not expect to meet a more powerful entity than Kissoon in the living world.
"But if he can open a door between here and the Cosm," Tesia thought,
"that means he has the Art."
That wouldfollow.
"In which case, why is he still playing in the shit down in Toothaker's house?"
Good question. "He's got something to do with this-I don't doubt that-but I don't think he could open a door on his own."
Maybe he had help, Raul said.
"You're talking to the monkey, aren't you?" Phoebe said.
"I think we should keep our voices down."