Page 157 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Nicholas Boothman
2. The Pages That Turn Themselves
The floor tilted. The corridor opened into a
chamber like a library had merged with a server
room. Paper and glass, fiber and thread. Books
without titles nested with racks of translucent
drives that pulsed softly, like jellyfish sleeping.
On a table lay an open volume. Pages turned in
a wind that wasn’t air. Each page displayed a scene
from a life that could have been theirs. Henry
reached and did not touch.
Carolina stood over a page where she presented
a paper to a room that applauded gently and then
forgot her name. She slid her hand beneath the
paper and lifted nothing. The page turned. In the
next scene she repaired a radio in a village where
thunder murdered power twice a week; a boy
grinned at her with all the teeth he had. The
applause there was a pot lid tapped with a spoon.
She reached toward that moment. The page refused
her. It enjoyed being true untouchably.
Sera leaned over a page where she sang into a
microphone and the world listened and then ate
her for it. She lifted her hand, and the image shook
as if embarrassed. Another page showed her
kneeling in a blue kitchen beside a girl who had
dropped a plate. Sera picked up the shards, pressed
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