Authors: Patrick Ness
More Than This (48 page)
But she doesn’t.
“Mr. Seth,” Tomasz says, solemnly taking his hand, “I am wishing you very, very good luck. But I am also wishing very, very much that you come back to us.”
“So am I, Tommy,” Seth says, then corrects it to, “Tomasz.”
“Ah,” Tomasz smiles, “this is where I am supposed to say that you can call me Tommy. Except I like the way you say Tomasz and want you to keep on saying it. For many, many years.”
Seth nods at him, then he nods at Regine.
“You’re sure?” she asks, for what he can tell is the final time.
“I am,” he says.
She waits another moment, then she begins to wrap his head in the bandages, placing the first edge on his temple.
“See you soon,” she says, and covers his eyes.
Here is the boy, the man, here is
Seth,
being laid back gently into his coffin, the hands of his friends guiding him into place.
He’s uncertain what’s going to happen next.
But he
is
certain that that’s actually the point.
If this is all a story, then that’s what the story means.
If it
isn’t
a story, then the exact same is true.
But as his friends begin the final steps, pressing buttons, answering questions on a screen, he thinks that what is forever certain is that there’s always more. Always.
Maybe Owen died, maybe he didn’t, either way, it had affected his parents more than he ever considered, and maybe it was nothing to do with him.
And there’s Gudmund, too, and H, and even Monica. They’re weak and strong and they make mistakes, like anyone, like
he
has. And love and care have all kinds of different faces, and within them, there’s room for understanding, and for forgiveness, and for more.
More and more and more.
Sometimes in the shape of other people,
surprising
people, with unexpected, unimaginable stories of their own. People who looked at the world in a completely different way and by doing so,
made
it different.
People who could turn out to be friends.
And he doesn’t know what will happen when those friends press the final sequence. He doesn’t know where he’ll wake up. Here. Or there. Or some third place, even more unexpected than this one. Because who can say in the end that any one of these places is more real than any other?
But whatever happens, whatever comes, he knows he can live with it.
And now it’s time. There’s a silence he can tell is expectation.
“Are you ready?” his friends ask him.
He thinks,
Yes.
He thinks,
Go in swinging.
And he says, “I’m ready.”
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2013 by Patrick Ness
“Borrowing Time” written by Aimee Mann, published by Aimee Mann, sub-published by Fintage Publishing B.V. All Rights Reserved
“More Than This” words and music by Peter Gabriel © 2002, reproduced by permission of EMI Music Publishing Ltd/Real World Music Ltd, London W1F 9LD. All Rights Reserved
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First U.S. electronic edition 2013
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2013943065
ISBN 978-0-7636-6258-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-7636-6767-2 (electronic)
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