"Go back t'sleep, love," I say t'Edmund, lyin' next to me. Slip out o'bed after a bit an' fumble me way to the bedroom door. Faith finds me then, grasps me 'and, so I can see, though it's still dim - think the storm's knocked our power out - an' we go downstairs.
Know Edmund wouldn't like me takin' risks in my condition. But I also know 'e respects me to do what I think's best, an' I ain't ever goin' t'be able to 'ave this baby if the world goes an' ends. 'M only three months in but already I love it, the little thing inside me. Saw Nu last week, an' she said it'd be 'ealthy. She promised. An' I trust Nu. So I got to do this, fer Edmund an' our baby, an' fer Faith, an' fer everyone else I love. An' fer me, too. Cos I finally got the life I want, an' I ain't givin' it up.
Know some people're goin' down t'the river. But we 'ave gifts that wouldn't be no use out there. So instead we sit down at the kitchen table, lit only by lightnin' flashes, an' get out the cards.
Each one, when we turn 'em over, is the tower. Each card glows with lightnin', an' the corners are sticky with blood. Touch them, an' each one shows me death an' death an' death, Edmund broken an' bleedin', our 'ouse in ashes, carnival in flames, Genny coughin' blood an' Callie's baby dead in a ditch, an' I'm cryin' an' cryin'.
But I turn each tower card upside down. It 'urts, to do it, like I've got me 'ands in stinging nettles. But I turn each one. I invert you, I think, all fierce. I do. I'll turn each one of you over even if it takes me all night.
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"Go back t'sleep, love," I say t'Edmund, lyin' next to me. Slip out o'bed after a bit an' fumble me way to the bedroom door. Faith finds me then, grasps me 'and, so I can see, though it's still dim - think the storm's knocked our power out - an' we go downstairs.
Know Edmund wouldn't like me takin' risks in my condition. But I also know 'e respects me to do what I think's best, an' I ain't ever goin' t'be able to 'ave this baby if the world goes an' ends. 'M only three months in but already I love it, the little thing inside me. Saw Nu last week, an' she said it'd be 'ealthy. She promised. An' I trust Nu. So I got to do this, fer Edmund an' our baby, an' fer Faith, an' fer everyone else I love. An' fer me, too. Cos I finally got the life I want, an' I ain't givin' it up.
Know some people're goin' down t'the river. But we 'ave gifts that wouldn't be no use out there. So instead we sit down at the kitchen table, lit only by lightnin' flashes, an' get out the cards.
Each one, when we turn 'em over, is the tower. Each card glows with lightnin', an' the corners are sticky with blood. Touch them, an' each one shows me death an' death an' death, Edmund broken an' bleedin', our 'ouse in ashes, carnival in flames, Genny coughin' blood an' Callie's baby dead in a ditch, an' I'm cryin' an' cryin'.
But I turn each tower card upside down. It 'urts, to do it, like I've got me 'ands in stinging nettles. But I turn each one. I invert you, I think, all fierce. I do. I'll turn each one of you over even if it takes me all night.