The drunk Troy was back. He nodded at his son. And the Troys, one by one, came out of the bar, a slow, staggering army of them, following the women back home.
Chapter 49
Diane and Jackie and Josh stood near Diane’s burgundy Ford hatchback, with its recently crumpled fender.
“Quick question,” Jackie said. “How do we get back to Night Vale?”
“Huh,” Diane answered. The three of them stood for a moment, staring at the two cars and the pile of flamingos, waiting for an idea to come to them. A voice from behind them interrupted their thought.
“Hey,” the voice said. It was the man in the tan jacket. “Troy told me that he’s leaving for good.”
“I don’t care,” Jackie said. “How do we get back?”
“That’s what I was coming to say,” he said. “It might be impossible. I’m sor——”
Jackie punched him.
The man in the tan jacket holding a deerskin suitcase fell down into a sitting position in the dirt, but said nothing. The flies did nothing.
“I’ll let you know when you’re sorry enough,” she said.
“It’s not my fault,” he said. “I just drive to where I think Night Vale is, and sometimes I get there. Sometimes I don’t. I wish I could tell you—”
“Jackie,” Diane said, “Night Vale has a way of bringing home its own. I think we could drive in any direction and still get home. We live in a weird place.”
“Man, we really do.”
“It’s superweird,” said Josh.
“The best kind of weird,” said Jackie. She waved to the mayor, who was still sitting in the dirt. “See ya.”
They got in their cars: Diane and Josh in the Ford, Jackie in the Mercedes. They would drive out the direction they had come. They would stay together, not losing sight of the other car. They would keep a plastic flamingo and a cell phone in each car, just in case.
Jackie rolled down her window and looked down at the man in the tan jacket.
“What’s the deal with the flies anyway? Why does a mayor have a briefcase full of flies?”
“You don’t make much money as mayor of a small town. I have to have a full-time job to make ends meet.”
“Fly salesman, huh?”
“Fly salesman.”
“Makes sense.”
Without breaking eye contact, Jackie gunned the engine until a fog of white smoke enveloped the fenders. There was a sharp squeal, and the smoke lifted like a slow curtain, revealing her absence.
THE VOICE OF NIGHT VALE
CECIL:… City Council announced today that, in addition to history, the following other things are also “bunk”: memory, timepieces, walnuts, all hawks (obviously!), most advanced mathematics (trigonometry and higher), and cats. The City Council clarified that they are not announcing this to anyone in particular, and that if anyone in particular should hear this announcement they can do with it what they will. Although they added that the only legal thing to do with it is to forget it. Forget it immediately, they repeated, swaying together and moving their digits around in a “sparkle fingers”–like motion.
Before dismissing the press conference, the City Council, looking somewhat emotionally hurt, said that it’s a nervous tick—that thing with their fingers—and that they wish people wouldn’t make fun of it by calling it “sparkle fingers.”
Oh, bad news, listeners. Our newest intern, Sheila, fell into the pit that Carlos was using to bury the dangerous plastic flamingos. Rather than touching one and reliving her life, she touched hundreds as she rolled down the side of the pit, while at the same time dying not from the length of her fall but from the subsequent change in velocity at the end of it. She awoke again as a baby in hundreds of worlds at once, all of the infant versions of herself having awareness of the gaping silence that was her one true dead self.
To the family and friends of Intern Sheila, we extend our greatest condolences. Know that she was a good and hardworking intern, and that she died doing what she loved: simultaneously living and dying in infinite, fractal defiance of linear time.
If anyone is looking for college credit or to prepare for the life-threatening dangers of a career in community radio, come on down to the station. If one of the intern shirts fits you, you’re in.
The Night Vale Council for Language Management would like to remind you of this last month’s word definition changes.
Fork now means a momentary feeling of evening as a cl[BEEEEP] passes in front of the sun.
Loss now means whatever the opposite of loss is.
Migraine now means a large scorpion perched on the back of a person’s neck where they cannot see it or feel it and would have no idea it was there if no one told them.
And of course this week’s wild-card word is brood. For the next week, it means anything you want it to mean! Which is very, very brood.
Remember that misuse of language can lead to miscommunication, and that miscommunication leads to everything that has ever happened in the whole of the world.
Larry Leroy, out on the edge of town, has announced that he has found many wonderful things in his most recent sweep of the desert. A metallic sphere that fell from the sky and whistles softly to itself as though bored. A double of himself whom he had not seen in years, and whom he growled at until the double ran away. A number of plants, all exactly where they were before, but all a little bit different, as though they were somehow alive. A rock, but he won’t tell us where. A body dressed in a gray, pin-striped suit lying sprawled on a dune. A new way of breathing that he says gives him verve and spunk. He said it just like that, punching at the air in front of him. “Verve and spunk,” he shouted. “Verve and spunk.” He seemed to have gotten off track from his original plan of listing what he had found in the desert, and ran off down the street, breathing with his new method, punching the air, and shouting, “Verve and spunk!” to passersby.
That’s it from me for now, listeners. But something in me says that this is no ending. The night outside is bright and breezy and full of dangerous secrets. There is a taste in the air like tarnished silver, like the flesh of an extinct animal now only remembered through our spinal cord and the hairs on our back.
Something in me says that this is only the start. The moment after which all other moments will come. And looking back at the point we are at now, we will know that this was before, and that all of our nows from here on out will be after. This is the only way we know time works.
Stay tuned next for the sound of a creaking spine and the soft collapse of paper onto itself. And as always, good night, Night Vale.
Good night.
Chapter 50
Jackie knocked on Lucinda’s door. Diane answered.
“Come on in. You look great. How are you feeling?”
Jackie pulled her close with her completely healed left arm and let the hug go long past what is casually comfortable.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Jackie said.
“Glad you’re here too,” said Diane, through the constriction of the embrace. It seemed that Jackie had recovered her strength.
Lucinda met them in the kitchen and gave Jackie a kiss.
“It’s always wonderful to see you, dear.”
“You too, Mom.”
In the months since their cars had, only a few hours after leaving King City, rolled across the Night Vale city line, Jackie had hired Diane as a part-time bookkeeper at the pawnshop while she continued to look for a more permanent job. This had allowed Jackie some free time outside of work and given her someone to pass the time with.