It has to be here somewhere.
For every spell, there is a counter-spell: magic, like the universe as a whole, requires balance. I have only to find it.
She’s standing there, watching me with unblinking eyes, immobile, caught in a posture of surprise and panic because of my error. Oh, gods, what if it’s in volume two?
“Looks like rain.”
“I believe you may be right.”
“Best bring in the dogs, and the bicycles as well. Cruel to leave them out if it thunderstorms.”
“Cruel to leave out bicycles?”
“Well, more the dogs than the bicycles, I’ll grant you. But bicycles can rust.”
“True, but they’ll feel no pain for the rust. They have no anima, no spark of life. They are mere inanimate objects.”
“The children who ride them, however, do have anima. They will feel pain, surely, if their bikes grow rusted and unrideable through our inaction.”
“I’ll get the dogs, you get the bikes.”
“You’re not going back down there, are you?”
There were no weapons or armor to gird on, no lovers from whom to tearfully take his leave. He had only to set his heart and step from the edge. “I must.”
“The danger is too great. You—”
“I must.” He stepped closer. “You heard what He said: we can still lose this war. The servants of darkness can still spill out across the land like the great Flood and devour all that is good and holy, and if they do it will not be because I feared being turned to stone.”
Bobby Joe pulled up to the curb in his pickup, leaned out, pointed to his dash radio and yelled, “Are you listening to this?!” He sped off before they could answer.
“What is he talking about?” Cindy asked. “Is there a game tonight?”
Francis pulled his little portable transistor radio out of his pocket, switched it on. “I didn’t think so…”
…residents are advised to remain in their homes. Alien landings have been confirmed in Philadelphia, but phone lines further South appear to be down…
“Francis, what’s going on?”
“Dunno.” He looked up, saw strange colored lights crisscrossing the sky.
Do you remember being cool?
Is there part of you that recalls biking halfway across the country with the redheaded girl on the back just because you had a week off and had never seen the Grand Canyon? Wading in and pulling those two guys apart before they killed each other over a spilled beer in a dive bar in Okeechobee? Playing the shaker on that Big Brother and the Holding Company record?
Isn’t there a picture somewhere of you with Bowie and Lou Reed and Bette Midler?
Can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.
