Everwild (Skinjacker 2)

Chapter 16 Mary's Master Plan

It would be untrue to say that Mary Hightower had, from the very beginning, planned the various things she would soon accomplish, and the many things she would soon attempt. Ideas take root, plans blossom, and old ones wither and die--in Everlost, just as in the living world.

Back in her days at the towers, Mary had dedicated herself to taking stray Afterlights under her wing, and finding for them the one activity that would occupy them until the end of time. She believed this to be a noble calling. Nick, however, had dazzled her children with those abominable coins, then dispatched them all into that mysterious light at the end of the tunnel, from which there is no return.

She could not blame the children, for what child could resist such a mystery? It was all Nick's pigheaded wrongmindedness, and she marveled at how much damage a single individual could do to her controlled, perfect little universe.

She hated him with a ferocity and passion that was only matched by how much she also loved him--and the endless conflict of those two emotions made it impossible to go back to the way things were before. She supposed in some ways, she owed Nick a debt of gratitude, because if he hadn't freed her children from Everlost, Mary would never have been rousted out of her own pattern; she never would have seen the larger picture, and she never would have cultivated grander plans.

Certainly she would still gather and protect as many Afterlights as she could, but that would soon become a small part of a master blueprint so massive, it would make Mary light-headed every time she was to think of it.

When she came to Chicago, however, the plan was still merely an inkling--a seedling just beginning to sprout something green. She had yet to realize how deep the roots would take, and how large the limbs would grow.

Chapter 17 The Death Boss

Mary allowed her reputation to precede her. In fact, she pushed it ahead of her with a mighty hand. As the Hindenburg cut a slow path across the sky, she would send out emissaries ahead of her, with copies of her various books. Then those emissaries would strategically spread stories about her to any Afterlights who would listen--which was just about everyone, for Afterlights all love the telling of stories. Mary's disciples would spread tales of wonder, and proudly tell the stories of Mary's many good deeds. If the stories themselves didn't leave kids gaping in awe, the sight of the massive airship descending from the sky certainly would.

Because Mary had a high regard for honesty, she insisted that they be told only that which was true. Of course she handchose her emissaries of good will, selecting loyal Afterlights who would portray her in the most favorable light.

Mary's emissaries arrived in Chicago several weeks before she did, and so, by the time the Hindenburg came in over Lake Michigan, there was not an Afterlight in all of Chicago who had not heard her name and didn't wonder if the stories were true.

Mary had Speedo circle the city three times so every Afterlight below would have a clear view of it. Speedo was clearly apprehensive.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Speedo asked her. He had asked this over and over again, as if asking might get her to change her mind. "There's got to be a reason why the kids we sent out never came back."

"We'll discover the reason soon enough."

On the second loop above the city, Mary decided where they'd set down. It was a city full of deadspots, thanks to the great Chicago fire--but one place stood out. Mary recognized it as the grounds of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition--a giant world's fair. It was more than a mile across--the largest deadspot Mary had ever seen--and even from this height, Mary could see it was quite literally swarming with Afterlights.

"There," said Mary, pointing at the largest square, in the center of the fairgrounds. "That's where we'll set down."

Speedo quaked in his wet bathing suit. "But shouldn't we land somewhere away from the city? Far, far away?"

"No, Speedo," Mary said calmly. "This time, I want to be right in the thick of it."

;We'll be heading north," he told her, his voice raised against the whistling wind. "The Afterlights in Nashville heard rumors of a skinjacking girl up in Illinois."

"Jackin' Jill?"

"One can only hope."

Behind them, Moose and Squirrel milled around impatiently, but Milos took his time. "I hope you find your family," he told Allie. "And once you do, you will see things in a whole different light." Then he kissed her hand, and turned to go.

Moose and Squirrel both gave her quick, obligatory waves good-bye. Then the three of them skinjacked some random fleshies, and they were gone.

Later that day, in a Memphis church, Kevin David Barnes, twenty-four, married Rebecca Lynn Danbury, twenty-two. The groom, a bit scruffy in real life, was quite handsome in his tuxedo, and everyone agreed the bride was the most perfect vision of a bride that anyone had ever seen.

When the minister said those momentous words to conclude the glorious ceremony, Kevin Barnes lifted his new wife's veil to give her that long-awaited kiss. He had no way of knowing that Allie was secretly hiding behind the bride's wild, racing thoughts--not stealing the moment, but lurking within it, hoping to claim the tiniest fraction of it for herself. When the kiss ended, Allie found her spirit bursting into tears. She cried for Mikey, the boy she had lost, for Milos, the boy she had shunned, and she cried because she knew that this moment was someone else's, and she'd never grow to be twenty-two like Rebecca Lynn Danbury. She'd never go to a prom, or walk down the aisle, or be a mother. She was an Afterlight, and Afterlights knew no such things.

Although Allie tried to contain herself, her emotions touched the bride, making her cry as well. And the crowd applauded, so very pleased to see the bride's tears of joy. In her book Tips for Taps, Mary attempts to shed some of her own personal light on Afterlights who suffer from negative emotions.

"Surely sorrow will accompany any Afterlight when they cross from the so-called living world into Everlost--much the way a baby will cry upon being born. This is only natural. However, the healthy Afterlight will quickly put such negative emotions aside, lest they fester into anger or bitterness. I have seen the ravages of bitterness, and it is not pretty.

In Everlost, we have a responsibility to find happiness, and relive that same happiness day after day until eternity finds us filled with joy, and void of anything else whatsoever."

Chapter 15 The Flight of Mikey McGill

Mikey McGill remembered the fateful day he first awoke in Everlost, more than a hundred years ago, when he arrived home with his sister, and realized that they were ghosts. He remembered sinking through the wooden floor, while his sister clung to a bedpost screaming. Neither of them yet understood anything about Everlost, and both were terrified.