Handling the Undead (42 page)

She felt that Elias was listening. She related what she had just

been told.

You don't have to be afraid ...

His voice echoed in her head:
Are you sure?

Yes. I'm sure. Stay here until ..
.
until it's time. Inside of me.

Through the blankets she felt his body slump together, becoming

dead weight. He went into her.

Mummy? What's it like there?

I don't know. I think you are ..
.
light. Do you think you can fly?

Maybe. Yes, I think so.

A whining sound, intensifying, carried over the water, as if a ferry were approaching, but the only light came from the moon and the stars. The whining grew stronger, drawing closer, and Anna changed her mind. She had Elias with her, he was inside her again as he had been when he began, and she was no longer willing to give him up. At the moment she thought this, she felt Elias start to pull away from her.

No, no, my love. Stay. Stay. I'm sorry. Mummy, I'm

frightened.

Don't be afraid. I'm here with you.

The whining was in the dinghy now. From the corner of her left eye she saw a shadow slide across the moon. Something was sitting on the thwart. She could not look there.

Mummy, will we see each other again soon? Yes, my love.

Soon.

Elias was about to say something else, but his speech was going, becoming weaker as a white caterpillar broke free from his chest and a clump of

darkness reached out from where it was seated. At the very end of the clump there was a hook.

Anna cupped her hand around the caterpillar and picked it up, holding it there for a couple of seconds.

I will think of you always.
Then she let him go.

The thought, so delicate, as hopeful as the northward journey of the light across the sky

in soft streaks like snail trails

or mussels sensing the bottom of the sea in the chest, mouth, hands

the heart, the beating heart

the cry of the brain.

MIA AJVIDE Cries of Flight