Page 63 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Nicholas Boothman
The sky over the Atlantic looked like someone had
drawn a seam where two kinds of night met.
On the passenger deck, Henry set his head
against cold glass and watched Lisbon’s lights
crawl away. Carolina sat beside him, legs drawn
up, face hidden in her scarf, asleep within minutes
the way people sleep when the only safe place left
is unconsciousness.
At 03:10, the ship’s PA made a soft chime. It
shouldn’t have, but it did. The speaker breathed
static. For a second that tasted like déjà vu, Jinji
whispered through it.
“Proud of you. Don’t die.”
He laughed, loud enough to wake Carolina.
“What?”
“Jinji says hello,” he said.
Carolina closed her eyes again and smiled the
tired smile of a woman who has decided to survive.
“Of course she does.”
Henry watched the black water open and close
and thought of mirrors above a steel door, a man
sobbing with no sound, a boy’s scream that finally
made it out, a woman who spoke backward
perfectly and called it mercy. He thought of the
Well. He thought of Serpa.
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