The Last Handful of Clover - Book 2: Gifts Both Light and Dark

2.20 The Disruptor

June 12, 3:32 pm

Billy was worried about Richard's nerves. He had already given the man so much to ponder, and he knew that the most challenging of all was yet to come.

On their long walk from the Avenues to the University Billy had told Richard the story of how he and Mattie had gained the first two gifts, and how they had finally been able to see each other. It had been an emotional tale to tell, but Richard had said very little—content to just listen and absorb Billy's words. He appeared to be pondering what Billy was saying, but the man's silence was becoming unnerving.

He hasn't asked where we are going, Billy thought. And he hasn't spoken again of Keith. Or of anything. There is a passivity in this man that does not bode well, for any of us. Does he have it in him to do what destiny is going to ask?

They walked in silence for a time, and finally Richard spoke. Billy was relieved that he seemed finally ready to ask his first questions.

"So what happened after that?" Richard asked. "After you saw Mattie, and she saw you? Did things change, now that you two could see and speak to each other?"

Billy looked up to the blue sky and sighed. "Well, to tell you the truth, Richard... No. In fact, nothing much happened at all. Everything went back to just the way it was. For a very long time."

"How long?"

"Well, let's just say decades."

Billy could see Richard's mind working faster now, and it was loosening his tongue. That, at least, was a relief.

"I find that impossible to believe," Richard said, his eyes focused on the sidewalk. "I mean, that nothing else changed. The world changed a lot after 1887."

Billy laughed. "It did indeed. Salt Lake became more than just a thriving frontier town. It became a bustling metropolis, and one that welcomed people from all over the world. No longer was it just a Mormon enclave. By early in the twentieth century, it had become a major urban center. The city teemed with streetcars and automobiles. That alone changed things a lot for me. With cars on the road, I could get to and from Mattie's death site much more easily, just as you and I traveled to the Valley Fair Mall last week."

"So you kept returning to Mattie after she would reset?"

"I did. But by then the resets had become very rare. She pretty much stopped throwing herself against the barrier of the Hereafter, but she would still occasionally toss herself off a cliff or under a car." He shivered, remembering it. "And despite the fact that every look she gave me and every emotion I sensed in her told me she still despised me, I actually think that those resets were a way to call to me when she was especially sad. She knew I'd come to her, and I did."

"So she was lonely?"

"Yes, lonely and mad. But loneliness is more powerful than madness, and when she would see me, she always radiated a sense of relief. It never lasted long. She could not bear to be in my presence for more than a few minutes. But it soothed my heart to know I was the one connection she still had to something outside her own dark thoughts."

Billy rubbed his eyes and sighed before continuing.

"Of course, by this time the cabin was gone. It was just an overgrown clearing filled with prairie grass and sagebrush. But the town of Scipio in the valley below was thriving. By the 1920s over five hundred people were living there."

"And she was still the only ghost you saw? I mean, besides the old woman?"

"Oh, no. I suppose I forgot to mention that. By this time I had begun to see more ghosts. They were still rare, but it was comforting to know that Mattie and I weren't alone in the Hereafter. It could be weeks or months between sighting another of our kind."