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Third eye
ER, in steamy bathrooms where you die naked all
alone; but nobody ever realizes we are there. Thirteen years ago in front of
this nine-year-old was the closest I’ve ever come to being discovered by a
mortal.
“She was delirious from grief. So much emotion caged inside that
small chest. She rose. Then, realizing that one point in the air was the same
as any other, she focused her eyes, bent all her spirit and will to it and
repeated the words in her native tongue: ‘Take me. Let my Papino live and I
shall freely give myself to you.’
“I chose to stand in front of her and bend down to her height to
meet her gaze. And for a moment it did appear like she was looking me in the eye. She said: ‘Yes, I'm young. I'm only nine
and I don’t know anything. It's easy for me to speak of these things because my
life doesn't mean anything to me.’
“I nodded somberly while holding her gaze.
“ ‘Then you should wait till I'm older’,” she continued without
any encouragement. She said: 'Til I've started enjoying my life, to the peak as
you so desire, then take me at that time. When it shall be the sweetest for you
to rob me of something truly precious.’
“I couldn't believe it. What an intriguing concept! To have the
opportunity to raise your lamb, feed her, watch her grow, and then lead her to
slaughter. It was novel and perfect in its simplicity. What I would’ve simply
brushed aside as frivolous amusement was at that moment wisdom coming from the
mouth of a child! I guess being around dying people does have a peculiar effect
on humans. She was no longer an ordinary child but a being much, much more
aware. I was dumbfounded, tickled. It was a funny sight: Death stopped cold by
a nine-year-old girl. You can say I was rejuvenated , for the first time in my existence spanning eons. From
the ultimate knowledge of everything comes the insignificance of life and the
eternal boredom of it all. Out of nowhere came this flash of a challenge, this
whisper of a thrill, and I was totally smitten.
“ ‘On this exact hour thirteen years from now,’ she went on, ‘at three in
the morning of October 31st , come and visit me. I
shall be waiting for you.’
“I indulged her macabre game. I touched her tiny fist clenched at
her side and held it in the semblance of a handshake. I made her sense me like
a cold draft too, in that dark, shut room, while her whole bare arm broke out
in goose bumps as big as when men still shuffled forth on their knuckles. Then
I went to work.
“First, I froze the Sands of the Horologium. Next, I plucked out
the rotting, almost dissolved kidneys wrapped in layers of pustules, what had
been withering her father from the inside right before her eyes. So he’d live a
whole decade more. I breathed the sweet breath of cherubs down the parched
mouth, the sandpapery throat until he awoke with a gasp. They embraced each
other and, as you fleshies are wont to say…
“They all lived happily ever after,” Sephtimus finishes with a
smirk that I see inches from my face.
Chapter VI: Cry of the Fershee
“Does she remember?” I blurt out. Completely spellbound by the
story, I forget who I’m speaking to; at the same time there’s a kind of
split-second delay and it feels like I’m jolted back into Death’s office. “…
the promise that she made?”
“What
do you think? Humans are Janus-faced creatures. At times of need they shall
call upon the names of all the saints and then take back whatever they promised
as soon as they're out of harm’s way. Even more so with Death. Naturally no one
remembers me. I’m the Ever Uninvited Guest; the one thing no mortal thinks of
unless it's absolutely certain and can no longer be postponed. Never mind that
I'm the closest friend you have, at least second to your shadow.”
Sephtimus finally puts out his cigarette
in the most unlikely ash tray. Another skeletal arm, this one sort of
elongated, bursts upward out of the floor and opens bony fingers like