Singularity Playtime: at Eternity's Gate

At Eternitys Gate
Singularity Playtime
Information
Thank you for downloading a few chapters of my work. Im more grateful than
you could possibly know. If you like the first few chapters of At Eternitys Gate
and would like to read more just send me an email. Ill be giving out some reader
copies in a few months once everything is edited. Keep your swords sharpened
out there.
At Eternitys Gate
Chapter 1
I chewed my stuffed monkeys ear and watched Seven kill a spider on the train window with
a chess piece. He slowly pressed his king down on the glass, and the bugs black legs squirmed
and scraped at the trees passing by. I was scrunched up in the chair across from him holding
my dress over my knees. My feet didnt touch the floor and I hated the way it felt when they
dangled. Why dont train conductors have seats for kids? I guess wed complain about not
being able to see out of the glass. Especially if there was an animal like a bear or a fox in the
forest outside. Wed be mad if we didnt get to see an animal like that and someone taller did.
Can you imagine that? Having to hear your mom or dad just talk about how amazing the
wolf looked in the woods, and how sorry they were you couldnt see it. But they shouldnt be
sorry. Its the kids fault. It would be my fault for wanting my feet to touch the ground and
for whining to the conductor about it for a shorter seat.
Seven couldve seen out the window even if he was in a short kids feet-on-the-floor
chair. Youd think he was a grownup, since he was thirty, the big three-oh. He was way older
than me, but he didnt act like it. Not like the other grownups. If I missed seeing a deer
walking outside he would tell the conductor to stop the train. If the conductor didnt put on
the brakes Seven wouldve punched him in the face and made the train stop himself. Hed go
outside and pretend to be a deer, just so I could see it. Hed go on all fours and walk around
real careful. Sniffing the air or a tree. Even put his hands up to his head to make antlers and
rear up on his hind legs. It wouldnt matter if it was snowing, raining, lightning-storming or
volcano-ing. Hed do it for me.
You didnt have to do that, I said as he scraped the spider off underneath the table
between us.
Really? He pretended to be scared and pointed at the smudge on the glass. That
thing was looking right at you guys. He had sized you two up and was ready to leap straight
for Mr. Chippers throat. He scratched his armpit and made some monkey sounds. Ooo Ooo.
He doesnt scratch himself like that, he doesnt make that kind of noise and thats
not his name. You will address him as Sir Galileo. Galileos little button eyes looked at me
and I patted his head.
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Ah, Galileo was an okay astronomer, but he lied to everyone about stuff he knew
was right just so the church wouldnt torture him. Tycho Brahe was a better astronomer and
way cooler. He had a metal nose.
Well, Sir Gali doesnt.
Well, he should.
Whatever you say, Eight. Oh, he didnt like that much. His parents named him
Seven, but it seemed that the universe nicknamed him Eight. Anyone who met him would
eventually come up with it on their own. They probably thought they were real clever and
all, calling him the number that comes just after his real name. No one ever called him six,
the number right below seven, they always added one instead of subtracting one. Im sure he
didnt mind at first, but I guess it got old fast. Stupid jokes usually do, dont they?
Alright. Next time a blood-thirsty arachnid comes clambering for Galileo Im not
gonna stop him, or his little fangs. Got that, Robot?
I am not a robot! You could see him cheer up right away. One day he just decided to
call me Robot. The story behind it involves me filling up his water bottle so perfectly that it
blew his mind due to the impossible angle I had to tilt the bottle to fill it at the water fountain,
and other boring stuff like that, but it convinced him that I had to be made of computers and
gears in order to pull off such an exact refill. On that day I became Robot with his overflowing
drink in my hands. Sometimes hed use clever names like Micro-chip or any other word that
implied I was made of wires and batteries. He said I looked like a cute little machine, and if
he wanted my attention hed make little robot sounds. Boop boop beep. I acted like I hated
the name, but I really thought it was awesome. Id make a great robot. Im good at math and
can make lots of weird noises. I even know that people use little bits of electricity in their
brains, so I guess were all kind of robots. But I know how much Seven hated being called
Eight, so I wanted him to think I got annoyed when he called me Robot. You know, so he
didnt have to be alone with the not liking his nickname thing. Sometimes people need stuff
like that.
Hey Short Circuit, its your move. Seven pulled out a tangle of his long hair and
cracked his neck. On the table was a chess board with our pieces all mixed up on it. He played
as the black pieces and I commanded the white. I thought he might be letting me win. Id
taken his two knights, one rooky-rook and a handful of pawns. Hed only taken my bishop.
As I pondered my next move a hand extended through the gap in between my seat and the
one next to me. The hand opened and closed like the mouth of an ostrich and looked around.
Mackenzie peered around the edge of the aisle seat behind me, and she made a tired sound,
a little bird squeak.
Yeah Seven, were tough. I aint afraid of no spiders. When she talked her bird hand
did too. She was a few years younger than me, just six years old. One of her eyes would stay
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At Eternitys Gate
scrunched closed until you responded. She kept on pirate-eying Seven, and I squished her
hand-bird to keep her from talking.
Thats right, I said, were all tough as teddy-bear mother fuckers. Seven bowed his
head.
You know, I still feel a little weird hearing you guys say stuff like that. Toby popped
up from behind the bar counter where all the snacks were. Powdered chocolate dusted
through the train cars kitchen and over all the empty passenger seats around us. He licked a
chocolate milk mustache off his lip and took another sip. Then he gargled while saying, son
of a bitch. A toilet flushed and my best friend Allie stepped out of the bathroom and found
her seat across the aisle from us. She accidentally sat on one of her books and made this real
uncomfortable grunt when she pulled it out from under her butt. She played with her glasses
and eyed Seven, real smart like and all. A little librarian a little annoyed with the book she
just sat on.
Really? she asked. After all weve seen cursing is nothing bad at all. Anyone thats
still alive would curse too. It lets other people know that youre okay. That you made it
through everything. Dont be an ignorant.
Thats why she was my best friend. She knew exactly what was going on. I mean, we
lost almost everyone. A lot of things went wrong in front of all of us. Buildings crashed over
and broke apart all over people. Have you ever seen a big chunk of a building? Theyre huge!
I know Im still small, but even the tallest person on earth would look very tiny next to sky
scraper parts. Even a dinosaur couldnt live after the top floor of a hotel fell on it. Theyd be
totally extinct, just like we were going to be. We were all tiny against the things happening.
A lot of people werent strong enough to make it and many decided to end themselves before
it got to them. It happened all over the place. In the streets. In backyards on swing sets. At
the mall. Men and women jumped out of windows or in front of cars. One guy even dove into
his lawnmower. People couldnt handle it anymore. Lost their shit, yes they did. All of the
marbles and their cupcakes too. Sprinkles and everything.
Seven got this real big smile on his face. He got that way when he told us grownup
secrets, stuff kids arent supposed to hear, which is stupid, of course, as if not telling us would
make those things disappear. Adults can be so very childish. Seven put his hand to his chest.
An ignorant? Well, sticks and stones will break my bones but wordsfuck, whats the rest
of it? There was a paw scratching my back. Mackenzie gave up on her ostrich hand puppet,
but instead of burying its head in the cushions she turned it into a claw. She was bored and
wanted attention, so much so that she was almost growling at me. Mack purred and then
said, Rawr. Im the lion king.
Its weird how little things can make you remember stuff. Like rolling around in a
sleeping bag after an all-night-up sleepover. Eating cereal and watching a good movie in a
dirty log cabin, or the smell of a fresh new picture book. I hadnt thought about the lion king
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for a while and Macks cub roar reminded me. I hadnt told Seven about what happened yet,
and I told him everything. This thing in particular could make me feel sad though, and I didnt
want to talk about it. Not because I was afraid to, but because I didnt want him to think I
was still sad about things yet. Its okay to be sad though, but I dont think its okay to make
others feel sad just because you are. Thats for babies and whiners. Yep yep.
So before Seven came back for me and pledged to be my new dad, and before we made
our new family with Toby, Mackenzie and Allie, I was all alone. Alone alone. Eating poptarts out of dumpsters every day because there wasnt much food left and the big city was
sorta still on fire and stuff. The tall buildings and markets had always been my home, but
then it was more like a jail, or the dentist when you have to sit in a funny smelling chair and
not get up and move even though you want to. And since I was trapped, go figure, all the
things thatd been trapped before the calamity were set free. Just fate and physics hard at
work.
The city had a big zoo. I loved it. Every time I went my mom let me pick out an ice
cream popsicle from a freezer thing beside the lion cages. One of those carts with an umbrella
and someone taking your money wearing a white visor. I always picked the lion shaped one
and ate it in front of the lions in their cage. Not to make them feel bad, but to show em how
much I liked them. And there was this lion in the cage that had a big brown spot on its neck.
A girl lion. She always looked at me when I was there, and I always waved to say hi. I named
her Duke Ellington, which is weird because I knew Dukes were boys and that she was a girl,
but I didnt really know what a Duke was, so I thought that girls could maybe be Dukes too.
I dont think she remembered me though. I hope not anyway. When the city was still falling
everyone went crazy. People started doing stuff like flipping over cars and stealing T.V.s.
How nuts is that? Why didnt they use the car to drive away, and how was a T.V going to
save them? You cant shoot anything with a T.V. Anyway, some looney went into the zoo
and let all the animals out, including my lady Duke Ellington. I know because there were
zebras and elephants and weird birds all in the streets. I even saw a giraffe pick a fight with
a traffic light.
I was in this little grocery store, munchin on my pop-tart when Ellie popped her head
out from behind the counter. Her tongue hung out of her mouth while she breathed hard. I
watched the brown spot on her neck rise and fall as she panted. I wasnt scared though. I was
too out of it to be scared and was just trying to pick up a few of the cupcakes Id lost, and put
the sprinkles back on the ones Id found. I just waved to her like I always did and was kinda
happy. But then she climbed up on the counter and knocked over a rack of skittles and the
scratch-off lottery tickets, which are my two favorite things at stores like that. Scratching off
those numbers is a lot of fun, but dont sniff your fingers afterwards. The pennies make them
smell funny. Well, I knew things were probably not going to be okay after that stuff spilled
everywhere. Duke got down real low and wouldnt stop staring at me and breathing hard. I
heard her claws scrape against the counter, and I knew she was about to jump. I got up and
ran as she launched herself into the glass door with all the coke drinks and things. The door
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At Eternitys Gate
shattered over the floor and I ran out into the lobby of some building. I thought then that she
did remember me from the zoo, and was mad I always ate lion popsicles right in front of her.
It was time for her to return the favor. Show me what her favorite flavor popsicle was.
She hunted me for two days. I had to sleep on the floor of a dirty bathroom, but it
wasnt too uncomfortable after I used a roll of toilet paper for a pillow. I climbed through
broken air conditioning tubes and crept over piles of filing cabinets. I kept going up and up
through the offices to try and escape but she never called off the hunt. I couldnt trick her
good enough to go down the stairs. The one time I tried I made quite the discovery. Duke
Ellie could go down the stairs faster than I could, and I only managed to escape because there
was a fire extinguisher in the stairwell. My eighth birthday was the first time Id used one.
Without permission, of course, and all over my neighbors pet goose. Duke Ellington got a
face full of the cold foam and she got scared, but only a little bit. I ran through a door into a
room full of white walls with desks and chairs and papers with all kinds of numbers on them.
I tripped over a rolley-chair, which was my favorite kind of chair before that one knocked
me on my butt. I tumbled and almost fell to my death. One whole side of the building was
collapsed and you could see right out to the other sky scrapers. Even the street if you dared
to get that close to the open edge. An exit sign flickered and I could hear Duke in the office
beside me, so I ran, but so did she. There was this closet full of mops and brooms and I jumped
in and closed the door.
Duke Ellington didnt like me leaving her out of that closet party. She slammed against
the door, again and again, so hard the wood split and bent. Her eye peered through one of
the cracks. Purrs hummed into the closet to try and lure me out into the hallway.
Come play with me, her purrs said. Crawl inside my mouth so I can show you a secret.
It will make us both stronger. Youll have claws like me to tear apart anything you like. You
can see through my eyes, pump the blood through my heart. Come now, let me whisper in
your ear, ancient and warm, a song thatll merge our lives into one.
I was no fool though. To Duke Ellie I was just a robot flavored pop-tart. Unfortunately
for her, I was just a tad more intelligent than your average breakfast pastry, so I knew I
couldnt stay put for long. Janitor closets dont generally have food supplies and all the
cleaning chemicals smelled like fumes from a wet garage. What the closet did have were a
bunch of hand held vacuums on a rolley-cart for spray bottles and trash bags. They were the
little things you use to suck up bugs or dirt from underneath your couch, maybe a whole
quarter if youre lucky. I got an old looking broom and stomped and pulled on the handle
until it broke into a sharp point. I turned all those vacuum cleaners on, one by one, and
opened the door.
Poor Ellie. She cowered and hunched her back with all the vacuums roaring on the
cart and me screaming almost as loud in a full charge. Yep. She didnt want in on my closet
party anymore. No robot-flavored pop-tarts for her. Id become an inconceivable machine of
bewildering complexity and fury in her eyes, one which could not be stopped by her Serengeti
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instinct and strength. I lunged my makeshift cleaning spear hard into her jaw and she bolted.
The carpet tore from where her claws gripped the fibers with all the fear an escaped zoo
animal could muster. I chased on but it didnt really matter. My lady, Duke Ellington,
galloped off valiantly over the ledge at the open wall. She tumbled straight down twenty
stories to the wet street. I braved it to the edge and saw her sprawled out on the ground. She
looked just like a stuffed animal, a little soggy, all peacefully sleeping by the giraffe having
its neck-battle with the traffic light. Mr. Giraffe was mad that the signal wouldnt stop
flashing red, another concept well outside a simple zoo animals understanding. I watched
him for three rounds. At some point Im pretty sure one of his eyes popped out of its seeing
hole and dangled from a pink brain thread. Mr. Giraffe gave up on banging his head into the
stoplight after he lost that one peeper, deciding it was time to lay down beside Ellie to tuck
himself in for a forever nap, too.
I couldve handled how sad me and Ellies final encounter was, just kept on moving
and chomping on skittles and never looked back, but I did my best to make up for killing the
lion kings girlfriend. I went back down to the street and pet Duke Ellie for a little bit. Put
my head right to hers and tickled those floppy and furry ears. Even pulled a few broom
splinters out of her gums.
Now, youre one with me, I told her. Her head was heavy and wet with blood, but I
put it on my lap and let it soak my leggings anyway. You can roam free in the plains inside
my head. There are secrets there for you to hunt down and sink your teeth into if you like. I
wont blame you. Because I knew what your secret was long before you told me to crawl
inside your mouth. You were scared. Scared of all the enormity and mystery thats been
draped over all our lives like a flaming blanket. Im right there with you, sister, and so was
Mr. Giraffe. Our little sprinkle brains are all getting blown away. But its okay now. Ill teach
you how to deal with all the eternity towering overhead, the horror its raining down on us.
Remember, your claws are my claws now, and together were gonna tear open heavens belly
and find somewhere warm to make our nest. And I promise, when we get there, I wont ever
eat another lion shaped popsicle again.
Sevs made a cuckoo noise by flicking his cheek.
Avery, its still your move. Seven used my real name when I zoned out or wasnt
paying attention. Thats me. Avery Lucile White. Lover of animal shaped chocolates and asskicker aficionado. Known to enjoy cartoons with space ships in them and scaring people from
behind doors. Honestly at that point I didnt care about the chess game anymore. He was
letting me win so it didnt matter. How was I ever supposed to get better if he took it easy on
me? I couldve gotten a big head and bragged about how good I was. Then someone might
challenge me to knock me off my little chess throne, and Id probably lose, being too
confident. Yep. Id rather think I wasnt good and work hard to get better. To beat him at his
best. So I figured I would just try to learn more about the game.
Sevs? I asked. Whats the most powerful piece in chess?
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At Eternitys Gate
Thats easy, Toby said. His hand was all the way in the milk glass and he pulled it
out to lick the chocolate off his fingers. Its the king, dofus. If you lose the king youre done.
Allie threw a hand towel at him and it fluttered over his head. Wipe your fingers off,
Tobes. Thats gross. And the king can only move one spot at a time. Not tactically superior to
a piece like the knight. It can jump over any other piece to attack and evade.
Knight my ass, Toby said and shoved the towel into the glass. Im sticking with the
king. He pulled the dampened end of the cloth out of the cup and sucked on it.
Well the queen can move far and in any direction, I added. And I like that a girl is
one of the strongest pieces.
Mackenzie licked her mouth. Piece of caaake, she said and started gnawing on the
side of the seat.
Youre all kind of right, Seven said. It depends on the situation, you know, what
kind of hole you dig yourself into. One might be more powerful than another at different
times. But I think the king suckssorry Toby. Kings arent real. They dont exist and
shouldnt exist. Not much different from a pawn, moving one space at a time. Theyre more
like a pawn with a big ego. Knights are good but can miss crucial pieces from hopping around
so much. The queen is beautiful and mighty, but if you rely on her too much youll be
devastated when you lose her. He looked at me and sagged his face into a big frown. But if
I could be any piece Id be a pawn. Its definitely the most powerful in my opinion.
Open what? Mackenzie asked.
Nothing, Allie said. He said opin-ion. Al tossed Mack a tootsie-roll and she put it
in her mouth. Wrapper n all.
Mack slobbering all over that candy was a spectacle to behold, but I wasnt going to
let that distract me. Why do you think so Seven? Pawns get killed all the time in chess. I
wanted to know the secret so I could use it to beat him one day. He perked up and leaned in
close over the table. His fingers rolled a pawn back and forth in them, and he had this look
he got sometimes. It made him happy. Sharing stuff with people. Thoughts. Sharing his
thoughts with me.
Well, if a pawn survives long enough sometimes the other player will forget about it.
Not think its a threat, but if youre careful and sneaky you can make a run for it and get your
pawn all the way across the board.
What happens when you make it to the other side of the board? Can you jump off?
He laughed at me and placed the pawn in my hand.
Well, kind of. It does disappear. When your pawn makes it to the last square of the
board it can bring any other piece thats been taken and killed back to the board. So it could
bring back a knight, or a bishop
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A king! Toby yelled. Allie threw her whole blanket over him this time.
No Toby, it cant, but fuck the king. Kings arent real anyway. It can bring back the
queen though, in all her rapacious splendor. Any piece it desires. Just like magic.
More like cheating, Mackenzie said, one hundred percent serious and with some
brown saliva leaking out her mouth. I brushed her away.
What happens to the pawn though? I asked. He lost a bit of his smile and patted me
on the head, like I couldnt understand what he was going to say.
The pawn goes away. Sacrifices itself for the greater good. Dies. Maybe lives forever.
I dont know. I was tired of holding my knees. My leg was falling asleep and my butt was a
little sweaty. Sorry if you think thats gross, but it happens though. So I stood up on the chair,
and then thought I would just go ahead and stand on the table. I stepped up onto the middle
of the board and looked down at Seven.
So, the pawn gets to be kind of like god? I toed over his king on the board. He stood
up in the aisle and looked at me. My head was just a little bit taller than his with me standing
on the table. It felt good.
No. Not at all. When the pawn gives up everything and brings back its friend from
the dead, then the pawn has become greater than god ever was or ever will be. God should
know everything, so even if it gave up its life god wouldnt be scared since it would know
what was going to happen afterwards. And thats it, thats the real force that makes you
scared. The unknown. God would know and it would be no different than if god held the
door open for you or fed your cat while you were on vacation. How meaningful is that? The
pawn isnt the same way though, the pawn doesnt care what happens to itself despite not
knowing the outcome. For all the pawn knows its death could be in vain, or only lead to
more violence, even on planes of existence it doesnt understand, like in the world of the
chess player sliding the pawn across the board. There are so many unknown possibilities of
its actions, but the pawn just casts that fear aside. It only cares about the survival of its friends
and. No matter how scared or how little the other pieces make it feel the pawn goes head
first anyway, to save the ones it loves.
Goddamn, I said. Its my favorite curse word. See, I think about god all the time, and
I like knowing what other people think god is too. So when you say goddamn to someone
you get to see what they think of the big mighty bearded fellow. Its like Im handing someone
a present to unwrap, only Im more excited to see whats inside because I dont know what
theyre gonna say, but they do. Goddamn is the great mystery, and every time I use it someone
hands me another one of gods puzzle pieces to fit together, so I can figure out what it really
is. So I said the big GD. It seemed like we had the all clear to curse away and I took full
advantage of it. Dropped the holiest of word bombs.
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At Eternitys Gate
Goddamn, he repeated. My dear Robot, one day the sum total of all that is sacred
will bow down before you, eviscerated, with its entrails strung through your claws, its soul
dead and damned, dangling from your jaws. He gave me a big hug and spun me around. I
looked at chocolate fingerd Toby, at sleepy and constipated Allie, and even at herp-derped
Mackenzie chewing on Sir Galileos head. It felt like Seven just flipped over the lid of the
puzzle box and showed me the whole picture. Over his shoulder and out the window I saw
the sun go goodnight. The sky filled with the trickling gold fire leaking through space where
the stars used to be. Where all of the pieces to the puzzle were jumbled up now.
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Chapter 2
We called it the mouth of god, what happened to the sky. It just sort of appeared one day. A
Friday. I was at a younger kids birthday party and it was bo-ring. The piatas face was
ripped, the pool was full of kiddie pee and the lawn was itchy. Id just lit a napkin on fire
with a tiki-torch when I noticed. The sky was dark and the stars were shining like they always
did. Twinkling in their usual constellation neighborhoods. Then there was a flash, a great
one that blinded everyone on the planet. When I could see again all of the stars had changed
position. Teleported, that means instantly moved from one point to another. Some just a little
bit and some a lot. Orions constellation gained a hundred pounds and his belt bloated out.
Leos mane frizzed and the Big Dipper lost its handle and spilled. Some of the stars were
growing. Changing color and blooming like small neon blue and yellow thunder clouds.
Seven called my dad as soon as it happened. He told me all the stars and galaxies had just
moved to what he called true position, and ones closest to the edge of the universe just
started exploding. Exploding exploding. He was real concerned about it. Seven was an
astronomer and was in love with the stars. I know it hurt him real bad to see them all
suffering such horror and violence. His favorite nursery rhyme would never be the same.
Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are

Up above the world so high, in the place where youll all die
You wont shine anymore, now that heaven shut its door.
Other people were worried too, and they panicked right away. My dad drove me
straight home, which was fine with me. That party sucked. Just a bunch of little kids running
around being brats and wanting to open their presents before having their cake. It was a scary
drive though. We had to dodge all the crazies getting into wrecks and flipping their cars off
the roads like it was the new cool thing to do. As we got on the highway I saw a man impaled
on a tall street light. He hadnt worn his seatbelt and was impossibly rocket-booster-ejected
when he rolled his car. We drove by, and like some kind of omen his hand lifted up and
pointed. Not at me. Not at the deer with its antlers jammed and twisted in a high fence. But
at the sky.
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At Eternitys Gate
It was time to buckle up.

In the days to come scientists and professional telescopers found out that it wasnt just
stars and star-neighborhoods on the edge of the universe, but closer ones too. Seven said there
was a membrane moving through space and wherever there was a planet or a star or a moon
or an asteroidany little particle, like a molecule or atom, the same amount of energy was
released. More energy, he said, than thered ever been. It was coming for us fast. Trying to
swallow us whole. So that was that. He told us it was the mouth of god so thats what we
called it. Seven said we shouldnt even be able to see what was happening because light
travels so slow. The only way this was possible, he thought, was if something bigger than our
whole universe had overlapped with ours, something invisible and huge. Like if everything
in the sky, the whole cosmos was your friend underneath a blanket, and then you said, Hey,
I want to be in a blanket too. So you put an even bigger blanket over you and your friend,
then took their blanket off so you could see them. Seven said that the big blanket had other
rules in it, science rules, and when our blanket was taken off some of our laws of nature
merged with the big blankets.
After Seven and I cleaned up the chess pieces he saved Mack from choking on some
candy, and then he decided it was bed time for everyone. Allie and I got under an unzipped
sleeping bag and watched the sky fall out the window. The blowing up was a firework show
now. The grand finale. You couldnt even see the stars anymore. The celestial eruptions were
too bright. Over the tops of the forest trees we saw long clouds of light reach out and bubble
in big swirls. Every now and then you could see a cooled energy blister pop, like gum in slow
motion, into sharp shells of silver and blue. Only I knew those bubbles were larger than our
solar system, or even billions of them. Whole galaxies were vanishing in an instant. There
were a few wide patches of black in the sky, but they were getting smaller all the time.
Allie put her finger to the window and traced the edges around some of the light. I
wondered if she missed someone, or was mad, or if she was pretending to be a wizard. I
wanted to ask her, but I didnt want to intrude on her thoughts, blow the door to her brain
off its hinges with a large amount of plastic explosives. So I just traced some of the great boom
on the window with her. My finger smudged its grease on the bright bulges and blurred them
into the little bits of black left. I used my thumbnail to highlight the thin color around the
edges of all the gold and purple heat. Occasionally Allies finger and mine would touch. When
that happened we shared something in a way we never couldve if we were talking.
Whispering secrets. When our fingertips collided it seemed that we were the ones guiding all
that holy fire out there. It made me feel good, thinking I was in control, because if I was then
I could make it all mean something. I could tell Seven about it and he would figure it all out.
Save everyone, just like he always did.
Sevs arm was around Toby and Mackenzie, who I let sleep with Galileo that night.
My monkey pal looked over at me with his head helplessly squeezed through her elbow. Just
for the night, little buddy. He hung in there for me.
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Toby didnt need a stuffed animal to sleep with. He was always the strongest out of
us kids, or at least pretended to be. He didnt even make faces when we passed a candy store
with a giant robot head mounted on the wall, and bodies, or at least body parts, sticking out
of the chocolate and bubble gum bins. A few weeks before getting on the train we got pinned
down inside a half rotten treehouse on the edge of a grassy hill. A herd of people ran across
the open rolling meadow, and we peeped through the crooked windows as they were torn
open and flung into the sky. Stomped and smeared on the green grass by a glistening rainbow
entity. Torpedo sleek. Tangles of grazing feelers plowing up troughs for body fluids.
Complete with smooth shimmering sea monster jaws that munched on the twitching bodies.
When the rainbow being finally stopped coloring on the hillside with tentacles full of broken
people crayons, the only sound to be heard was the obnoxious slurping of juice through a
straw. Toby observed the bright carnage, squeezed the carton, and spit its chewed plastic tube
out the window. Smacked his lips. Ah, thats some damn fine juice.
Theres Toby for ya. He would even hold our hands until we fell asleep, sometimes.
But on the train he was just like the rest of us. Still had someone to lean against and fall
asleep on.
I could tell Allie was out by the way her breathing changed. She was slumped against
the glass and already had a dark spot of drool on her pillow. The sleeping bag was easy to slip
out of and I walked out into the aisle. We had the whole train car to ourselves. First class,
baby. The Conductor said hed choo-chooed right past almost everyone who tried to get on
the train. Thankfully for us the Conductor stopped when he saw Allie sitting on the tracks
with a bunch of leaves in her lap, trying her hardest to go number two.
You cant let a lady go without proper toilet paper, the Conductor said and let all of
us onboard. Hed kept that train hidden for months in a hangar at the station he worked at
so he could make it to the west coast. Gotta see that big blue lady of mine one last time.
I thought the big blue lady was his girlfriend, but Seven said he was actually talking
about the ocean. There were two more groups riding along in the two train cars behind us,
and they only got on because the Conductor was bored and lonely and wanted some friends
for his last locomotive joyride. Once his passengers learned it was just Seven and us out there
in the wild they let us have the best car on the tracks, bumped us up. We all told them that
wasnt necessary, but they insisted. The train car was full of big comfy seats and a nice bar
top with a small kitchen behind it. We invited the other passengers over at dinner for
milkshakes and heart felt thank yous. Toby forgot to put the lid on the blender for the first
shake and blew chocolate everywhere. Our guests thought it was hilarious. So did we. An old
man, who told me his name was Captain Frumpy Butt and wore a sweater with a moose on
it, helped Tobes put the lid on the blender for the next one. When Toby hit the button Captain
Frumps lifted the lid and sprayed it all over himself to stain his sweater-moose brown. Boy,
he said, my moose sure is hungry. Hope this hits the spot for em. Captain Frumps
15
At Eternitys Gate
proceeded to suck the concoction out of his sweater. Oh yeah, baby. I wish I could be this
stain right now.
Yeah, we were all a little crazy, but thats why we were the only ones left alive.
I quietly got the juice carton from the fridge and drank the last of it. The train rocked
back and forth, just a little bit, and turned our car into a big crib. The forest rushed by the
windows. Soft yellow light from the sky made it so I could see the leaves and grass covering
the ground, and the shut-eyed faces of my friends. Its a little weird. Watching people sleep,
I know it is. But who else is going to protect you while you dream? Seven and Toby. Allie and
Mack. They all did so much for me during the day. Saved my butt more times than itd even
been in a chair. Night was the only time I felt like I watched out for anybody. Made them feel
safe. When youre the only one awake youre the only one who can save them if something
happens. So thats what I did. I stayed up all night long and kept them safe. I loved it. The
way a shadow felt when I stepped into it or the way the moon was still there, trying its best
to block the universe from smashing into us. Seven and them, they never knew I stayed
awake. Thats the best part. I was good at staying quiet while they slept so when they woke
up they didnt know Id been watching them the whole time. I spent those nights wishing I
could watch everyone in the world sleep. Pull their blankets right up to their ears to keep
em warm. Make sure no monsters came to pull their covers off and make them cold, or do
something worse, like color a green meadow red with their broken necks and faces. If you
woke up nice and safe with your arms still attached to your body all warm under your
comforter, youd know Id been there.
I wont lie. It got boring every now and then, staying up so late, but thats why I played
games. Seven had collapsed the table to the ground and his feet were raised up on the seat in
front of him. His tangled hair swept over his face and covered his eyes. I sat down beside his
footsies and tugged on his sock a little to make it straight. I checked the clock and saw it was
2:30 am: imaginary conversation time. Sevens head was leaned back and his mouth was open.
I couldve thrown a peanut in it and choked him right there. Seven, I imaginary said, all
the numbers on the number line have decided that you are no longer needed. They, after
much deliberation, declare war on your most comfy and cozy spot amongst them in the top
ten. Their army is infinite. Their hunger is deep. How will you defend against them? Against
what youre a part of? Against all of the endless other Seven point ones and twos and the
numbers theyve joined?
I held out my pretend microphone to his big, open mouth and sleeping head.
I dont plan on fighting, really. I am just going to make some pancakes. Maybe some
bacon. Then Im going to make a pancake hat and wear it around with a bacon mustache.
The numbers wont know what hit em. Captain Breakfast doesnt take shit from anybody.
Not from french toast and powdered sugar, and especially not from numbers. Numbers are
for calculators and birthday pony rides.
16
I brought the microphone back to me.

Mr. Lulsleep, your defense strategy could use some work. Were talking about a skyfilled armada set out to destroy you. Physics and probability. Time and space. You cant
possibly think a plate of breakfast will save you! And what do pony rides have to do with
anything?
I dropped the microphone and threw my hands in the air.
Your mom is a birthday pony ride, but youre also right. Ive got it all wrong. Seven
snored a bit and then continued. Theres no way I can get bacon to stick to my lip. What Ill
do is put the bacon in the pancakes. That will really throw them off.
Again, your plan seems a bit
Delicious. Do you know how many numbers there are in maple syrup? I dont, but
its at least twelve. I could probably take out a dozen of them in one bite!
I started giggling a bit. Seven closed his mouth and brushed the hair out of his eyes. I
drooped my head and pretended I was out cold. Started breathing nice and slow, even
changed the look on my face to peaceful and cute. He didnt say anything but I heard him
look around a little, so I woke up. Fake yawned and caught him gazing out the window at
the great mouth. He was thinking about stuff I could never understand. Real smart people
stuff. About all those numbers out there trying to kill us. He could think up a better plan
than making bacon pancakes for sure. If he had his telescopes with him he probably wouldve
figured it out by then. His scopes were neat. I got to play with them back when he came to
my school, and then after we became best friends on the Big Bad Day and started hanging
out. One of his telescopes was way taller than me and I could fit right inside it. But he didnt
have a telescope with him then. Just food and water for us, camping stuff and the weapons.
He saw me awake and looked concerned.
You should be recharging now, he whispered. We dont want you to run outta
batteries.
Real cute, I whispered back, sounding just a little bit annoyed and still sleepy.
Youre okay though?
Yeah, Im good.
Beep boop?
Beepboop, I conceded.
He did a happy wiggle and slowly pulled his arms out from behind Mack and Toby,
and put one behind the chair and the other in his lap. So relaxed. Sitting in a chair with a
finger in his bellybutton would look like the coolest thing if you watched him long enough.
17
At Eternitys Gate
He could cheer you up like a laser show at a funeral, or an arfing walrus, or an arfing walrus
with laser tusks at a funeral. People we met would circle around him and listen to everything
he said. Smile for the first time in months probably. They made him a leader everywhere we
went. Not because he knew everything that was going on, although he knew more than
anyone else wed met, but because he could turn anything into a party. Make everyone enjoy
the small things we had left.
Seven, are you okay? He didnt answer right away, which if you dont know, meant
he was not okay. Even sleepy-headed Toby and Mack could tell that. They snoozed away in
agreement.
Of course I am, he said and pouted his lower lip.
Can we go outside for a minute?
Its cold out there. We got on the train so we wouldnt have to shiver anymore.
Whats wrong with shivering every now and then? I hugged myself and shook.
I dont know. It makes me feel like I have to pee.
Well then you can whizz off the railing onto the train tracks.
Lets do it in the morning after we sleep.
Ill give in, if you tell me whats really bothering you.
He thought he was real clever, but I could see images through that paper skull of his.
Little figures dancing on the inside of an old flimsy lantern. Id never seen him upset. Not
even once. After all the people he lost, his friends, his family, youd think he would get sad
from time to time. He only got serious if one of us started a great fall. You know, when you
start missing the people who arent around anymore. Seven would see us plunging down that
big hole into bad feelings and thoughts, and hed snatch us right up. Stop us from falling all
the way to the bottom of the well where there were probably things that smelled like wet
goats. He could do that better than almost anything else. Better than naming stars, finding
hidden planets around them or imitating our favorite animals. The only thing he did better
was hide his great falls from us. He was like me. He didnt tell anyone because he didnt want
them to be sad like him. I could tell though, and I always made him cough it up. Big emotional
hair balls. Sometimes people need stuff like that, too.
Have I ever told you how terrifyingly beautiful you are? he asked. Thank goodness
it was dark. My cheeks lit up like a christmas tree.
You cant sweet talk your way outta this one. Ill jump off the train if you try. I
swear.
18
I know you will, but Id love you to death before you got out the door though. The
christmas lights blew their fuses and the whole tree went up in flames. All the presents too.
I pointed at the door and then made my two fingers look like they were walking out of it.
Am I doing a good job of being your new dad? he asked me.
Yes, but I want you to tell me what you were really thinking before I caught you
staring out the window all, all lonely like and everything.
My mom, he said.
Your mom?
If you look out the window you might be able to see it. Blinking way off over the
trees. I saw the shapes of pine trees blur past. Far away there were a few red lights blinking
on a tall tower. One of those thats real thin and held up by cables.
That is not your mom, I said. He held in a laugh with his hand.
No, it isnt. But she told me about those towers once. When I was little like you. I
dont like being called little, but I let it slide. She told me that if you stood underneath one,
and closed your eyes that it would launch you, like a space ship, high into the sky. That those
towers would let you fly if you believed they would.
Did you ever try it?
Once, when I was a lot older.
What happened?
Well I was waiting in my car out in the woods by a tower like that one night listening
to some music.
Waiting for what?
A girl.
A girl?
Yes, we were supposed to meet out there.
Was she your girlfriend?
No. Dont tell me youre jealous.
Never. Youre nice and all, but not really my type. Plus youre my new dad and that
would be weird.
Type? You dont even know what that means, he said and wagged a finger at me. I
hate wagging fingers.
19
At Eternitys Gate
Yes I do.
What do you mean by type then? It was obvious this conversation was going off
track.
Its like youre an octopus and Im a whale. They can be friends, but they dont wait
for each other under blinking towers. He nodded and the conversation hopped back on the
rails.
Alright alright. One breathes air and one doesnt, I got it. Well the girl never showed
up and I got pretty bored.
Never showed? What a stupid idiot.
What?
Nothing. Its just that if someone is waiting on you at night in the woods you should
show up.
Even if theyre a whale and youre an octopus?
Damn. He really knew how to corner me with my own words.
Yes, Eight. Even if youre a dumb six armed octopus and theyre a big stupid whale.
Exactly. Now lets continue. He inflated his chest with victory like he was about to
barf it all over the place.
Nah. Im bored now. Youre a good storyteller, but this one blows.
You keep interrupting me!
I put my finger to my mouth. Shhh.
Mack tightened her grip on Galileo and Toby wheezed. Seven shrugged and pawed at
his eye. I tickled his foot a little and he toed me under my armpit. He looked at me and I
looked at him. We could stare at each other all night and all day like that. Maybe forever.
That kinda thing is special. With most people you can only look them in the eye for a few
seconds. Hello Mr. Cashier, I would like some skittles and a scratch off lottery ticket. Thats
how long you can look right at most people. A little longer if they hand you the wrong color
skittles though. With friends its different. I could maybe stare at Allie for half a minute
before she looked away or we both started making weird sounds. There were only two people
I could lock eyes with for longer. My dad and Seven. And now, Seven was my new dad and
he let me stare away. Into those big seas in his eye holes. I could tell there was a whole world
inside there. Full of islands with monkeys playing coconut drums and happy dolphins saving
drowning sailors. Exploring that ocean was one of my favorite things to do. I had a little row
boat and would paddle around in the waves, use a little spyglass to look at stuff from far
away, searching for a special kind of treasure I knew was buried in there somewhere.
20
I wondered if he searched for the same thing in the place inside me, but was it the
same world, all wet and wide, or was it a different one? There was no way to tell. Maybe he
didnt even see a world in my big open peepers. Thinking that made me sad though. So, I
thought the opposite. I thought when he looked at me that he saw not just one world, but all
of them. Everything that could ever be. Thats why he could stare at me forever, because there
were a forever amount of things to find in me.
I paddled around in his world and he made his way through mine. I found an island
where the girl that didnt meet him in the woods under the blinking tower was brushing her
hair. With a slap of my paddle on the water a black and white killer whale surfaced and
beached itself on the sand in a big arc. The killer whale bit her leg and shook her back and
forth like a dog with a sock until her plastic Barbie arms flew off into the water. Splish and
splash. In my world Seven climbed an icy mountain with two big ice picks. Stuck one in the
snowy cold and then the other before taking another step up. At the top he sledded down by
sharp rocks into a desert, and walked through a grove of dead trees sticking out of the red
sand with stuffed animals growing on their branches. At the end of the trees was a pond full
of swans swimming upside down just underneath the surface. The water was made of all the
tears from their crying. It scared me sometimes, thinking about what he saw in me. When
that happened I cut his adventure short.
Hey, will you tell me a story? I asked. Storytelling was one of his favorite things to
do. I loved listening to his tales. Everyone did. They were good right from the start. Even
better after they ended. They grabbed you by the hand and led you into a perfect dream. Huge
ones that felt small and small ones that felt huge. He turned your heart into a heavy gate and
slid it open slowly. Took you to places inside yourself you never knew were there, but always
were. Made you feel things you had never felt before. Happy and sad. Connected and alone.
All at the same time. At the end you felt like a different person. Like the stars shifted around
you just from his words to make you the center of the universe. Sometimes they made you
feel like the universe was the center of you.
What kind of story? He tried freeing Galileo from Mackenzies elbow, but she only
squeezed tighter.
I dont know yet. Let me think.
Anything you want, Robot. I brought my knees up to my chest and wrapped my
arms around them. Seven took the blanket off his lap and tossed it to me. The fabric was
warm and smelled like cedar trees from the woods. I put it over his feet.
Machines dont get cold, I said and moved my arm up and down.
Please, Mrs. White. Im a sucker for when people make me feel older than I really
am. I pulled the blanket over my legs, but made sure to keep his feet nice and cozy. Being
under that blanket made me feel safe, but I knew we werent.
21
At Eternitys Gate
I dont like this, I said.

Dont like what?
Not knowing whats gonna happen.
To all of us? I nodded and got a shiver out of nowhere, but unlike Seven, it didnt
make me feel like I had to pee.
Im going to keep you safer than Mr. Bananas is in Mack-a-doodles arm right now.
But Mackenzie eats bananas.
So?
So, were not safe. The mouth is going to eat us like Mack is going to eat Galileo. I
saw her try to do it earlier. I put my hands together and made them bite down.
The mouth is not going to eat us.
Are you going to stop it? My hand chomper opened up again.
No, he said. My hands chomped hard. Seven leaned forward and pulled them apart.
I dont think I can do itbut you.
Me?
Yeah you. I think youre gonna bust its teeth out. He opened his mouth and bit down.
All at once. The cosmos is going to need dentures after youre done with it. He booped me
on the nose and rested back into his seat. The feeling of his finger spread over my face in a
tingle and volted its way down my arm. Magic. It made me feel like the most special thing
ever. Your favorite flavor ice cream when it knows its your favorite flavor. It would be
embarrassing for the ice cream if it let you know that though. The same went for me wanting
to run over to him and push Mack and Tobes out of the way to snuggle up for sleepy time. I
played it as cool as I could.
Id never be able to knock em loose without you. So much for playing it cool. I was
ice cream melting all over my seat. Dumbo, I added to stop myself from pouring onto the
floor. He flapped his ear back and forth and then we were quiet again. Just watching each
other. I hopped back in the rowboat and set out to sea. He was flying in a hang glider through
mist over a jungle. We were both looking for the same thing. The same treasure chest. One
Id seen on the Big Bad Day when he beat the shit out of death and saved me and we became
real friends. The chest was older than both of us. Made of brown leather and heavy iron
buckles, scraped and torn and rusted with pirate blood. He had half the key and I had half
the key to its heavy lock. Neither of us had a map to it. We had to search and search and
search. Every island, every mountain and every everything. We had to. Because it was buried
in the place where the world inside me and the world inside him were the same. Where they
22
met. A place where we could stay forever. Inside the chest was the force that brought us
together. The unexplainable thing that made us friends.
Hey New Dad, I know what story I want to hear now. I tugged on my half of the
key to the chest. It was a necklace I wore with a pendant of the little dipper constellation, or
as me and astronomers call it, Ursa Minor, or little bear. The necklace he gave me on the
BBD. He lost some of his playfulness, scrunched his eyebrows and sat up a little. Tugged on
his half of the key, a pendant of Ursa Major, also known as the big dipper and the great bear.
I tucked my stars away and let him know what was on my mind. I want you to tell me the
greatest story ever told. His head went a little sideways and he sat all the way up.
What if its sad?
I dont care.
Or people get hurt?
Everyone does. He got all serious then. His seas went flat with not even a wave or
a ripple. It let me know he did indeed know the story I asked him to tell. Tell me.
I cant, he said and then covered his mouth with a finger. Like that was going to
keep the story in there.
Dont mess with me, Eight. Tell me the story. He pulled his feet off the chair beside
me and shook his head back and forth. He was scared of it.
I slid forward in my seat, slowly, and smiled real big. Fuck you, I whispered as
innocent as I could. Nudged his knee jokingly. But he didnt budge. He knew I meant business
and that I was getting mad. He was hiding something from me and I was going to pry it outta
him. Every last nail out of the storys coffin. Tell me.
He whispered, I cant.
Seven, I said gently. He looked up again. I stared at him real hard, and at the book
resting under his foot until I thought of the right word. On the cover of the book was a
weathered tree, its branches twisty and endless. I want to hear the story all fiction stems
from. That really shocked him. Jolted wrinkles right into his forehead. I want to hear the
bedtime story that tucks god in for sleepy-sleeps, and turns its night-lite on by setting the
bedroom on fire. I want to hear the story that keeps all existence existing. The story that the
end of all things dreams of. He looked out the window. Watched the skys great march
toward our home. When he looked back he scooted forward and took my hand. His cheeks
had wet streaks on them. A tear followed one of the trails and landed on the back of my
hand. His seas were gone. Poured right out onto the carpet with the last drop on me. The
oceans were all dried up with the sharks and fish and whales flopping around on its muddy
floor. Gasping for water. It looked like they were singing something I couldnt hear.
23
At Eternitys Gate
Sweetheart, are you ready to hear it? he asked. Listen. He let go of my hand and
nodded at the window. At the trees and the ground and the sky. The train clicked and clacked
like pages being turned and the wind howled the chapter titles. Then Seven looked all over
the train car. At Allie. Drool spilled out her mouth onto the pillow to make a puddle of ink.
He watched Toby and Mack. Their little snores and bugger whistles punctuated sentences
and indented paragraphs. He remembered to look at Toby and Captain Frumps chocolate
milkshake stain on the wall and at super-squeezed Galileo. Seven filled in the tiniest details,
and at last he looked at me. He brushed away some of my hair and cupped my cheek.
Tweaked my ear a little.
Youre inside of it, this story you want to hear. The main character is sitting across
from me. Im not the one whos going to tell it to you. Youre going to be the one who tells it
to me. He sat back and put his feet by me again and closed his eyes until he dozed off to
sleep. I stared out the window. At the shadows of trees the mouth of god cast on the ground.
In the train I watched the breathing of Seven and my friends, how their slow chests inflated
like balloons that could never be filled. I read our story a while longer and then pulled my
bookmark out of a magazine. I put it in my lap to save my place for when I woke.
24
Chapter 3
I woke up because Toby was drumming on my shoulder with an egg beater. A paper bag with
two big eyes drawn on it masked his face, and the dance he performed was less than
flattering. I didnt appreciate him moving my bookmark to this page in our story. Mackenzie
helped Seven make food in the kitchen, well, in her mind anyway. She wore this dirty apron
and shoved anything she could get her hands on into the apron pocket. An egg shell. A hand
full of flour. Some plastic wrappers. Seven had something on the stove steaming up. Allie
drowned out the noise with her earphones and bobbed her head to the music. A perfect
morning. Outside the sky was blue and cloudless, but I could still see the yellow ghost of the
great mouth bubbling and popping like a mist. Toby hadnt stopped whacking me with the
kitchen utensil. I guess with the bag over his face he couldnt tell I was awake. So I rolled
over real quick, got behind him and gave him one hell of a kick in the butt that sent him
headfirst into the seat.
I left him and took my small ladybug bag into the bathroom. Peed, brushed my teeth,
but not in that order. I tickled my armpits with a mini-deodorant stick. I know that stuff is
meant for grownups, but when you go weeks without bathing it can make you smell like
fresh laundry. I paid little attention to my hair. Pulled out a few knots with my fingers and
then called it quits. Looking fashionable in those days didnt get you anywhere. I liked to
think it never really did. My dress was in its usual state of dirtiness. It was tan, which helped
make dirt and stains blend in, but you could tell the flower bud pattern was starting to fade.
Makenzie colored some of the petals with a marker in hopes of bringing the buds back to
life, but her gardening hadnt been fruitful. My leggings rounded out the outfit, a little torn
and pocketed with holes crusted with blood. I couldve changed into new ones, but I liked
looking tough.
When I came out Toby was busy adding fangs and eyebrows to his bag mask and Allie
was rocking out even harder than before, occasionally lifting her hand and commanding the
beat, so I went to go check on breakfast. Whaddya know? Pancakes, rice and bacon. You got
used to eating weird stuff, to whatever was around, that even soaked tree bark and
grubworms wrapped in your last fruit-rollup looked like the best thing youd never ate. A
pancake bacon burrito was going to be the tastiest thing Id eaten in weeks. I propped my
elbows up on the bar top and knelt on a stool.
25
At Eternitys Gate
Its feeding time at the aquarium. Who eats first? The whales or the octopi?
Seven flipped a perfect pillow shaped pancake and caught it on the plate. The whales
are going to have to wait a minute for all the meat to cook.
Whales dont eat meat.
Killer whales sure do.
You told me killer whales are a kind of dolphin, one, and two they only eat girls with
plastic arms who dont meet people in the woods who are waiting for them.
Seven tossed a pancake but missed it with the plate. The serving of breakfast food
bounced off Mackenzies head and landed flat on the floor. Wait, what? he asked.
Nothing, Captain Breakfast. Dont take shit from anyone. He didnt know what to
make of that and rubbed his head. It took me a second to realize I was talking about the
imaginary conversation I had with him, and that he didnt have a clue as to what I meant. I
rolled with it though. But hey, lets give that flappy jack to Mack, I said and pointed to the
pancake on the floor. He nabbed it right off the ground and put the contaminated pancake
somewhere in the finished stack.
Well never know who eats it now! he shouted, and began this crazy mad-scientist
laugh. He went muahahahahahahhabwahahahahaha, as he shuffled all the pancakes like
cards in a deck.
Allie took her headphones out and gazed on in utter confusion. Mack skipped over to
her and snatched a napkin from under the seat and shoved it in that apron pocket, which
now also contained Galileo, plunged headfirst into its depths. Thats borderline animal
cruelty if you ask me. Seven took notice of his primate plight as well and stopped Mack with
a spatula to the chest. Then he grabbed a metal spoon and held it to his nose. I dont
thinkTycho Brahe can breathe down there. I couldnt help but make the face he wanted
me to make, which was something half way between super-annoyed and pissed, and he
instantly broke back into his evil-genius giggle fit.
MuahahaHahahaBwuahahaHahahahahahaha!
He choked a little and then pointed to the spoon. Metal nose I tell ya. Tycho-frigginBrahe.
There was a thud behind me and Tobes was on the floor, laughing so hard there were
probably real tears to match the ones hed drawn on the mask. His bag caught and ripped on
a seat corner and he shut up. Mackenzie laughed along too, but only because she discovered
the unattended bowl of batter felt good with her hand inside it. Allie nibbled on her
headphone cable.
26
Honestly, she said, Hubble is a better name for the monkey. The name of an
astronomer and the space telescope dedicated to him. Those two saw farther than anyone.
The librarian utters the truth. Toby got on his knees and held his hands high in the
air. Bow to Lord Book Worm. He bent over, and it almost didnt seem fake. Real reverent
and respectful. Then he passed gas.
I hope that doesnt make you uncomfortable. Not old Tobes bottom throwing caution
and its smell into the wind. I mean that we all had so much fun after all the bad things that
happened to us. You might think we should be sad more. Think real deep and hard about the
collapse of civilization and the loss of our families, but where does that ever get anyone?
Believe me, wed all been there long enough before our perfect morning train ride. Long
enough to learn it was still okay to have good time even though others could never have any
kind of time ever again. For us it wasnt the apocalypse and never had been. Its sort of like
people who say you cant have fun on a rainy day, when if you really wanted to youd get full
on naked and do a little dance in the middle of a downpour. It only became the end of the
world if you stopped living, and that was something none of us were giving up anytime soon.
I ignored Tobys salute to Allie and spotted the kitchen. Seven, do you need any help?
Not right now, Jane Goodall. He whipped up the last of the batter.
Can you do me a favor?
No, maybe. Yes.
Will you put some of that bacon in a pancake? I asked as sweetly as I could.
Roger that.
Imagination turned to reality I tell ya. Easy peasy. I joined my only sane company on
the trip and let out a great huff.
Allie, how were we going to ditch all these weirdoes again? At that Toby stopped
being a moron and got up off the floor. He opened his mouth to talk, and then closed it. Im
sure he was about to say something not very nice.
What? I asked. He shrugged and kept quiet, which was definitely for the best, and
then headed for the kitchen with the shreds of his bag-mask in hand.
Al Pal said what hed been smart enough not to. We? Youre one of the weirdoes,
you know that right? She winked, but I still wanted to get her back somehow. I thought
about making fun of how she was having problems going number two, but then Id have been
the only one whod really said anything mean.
Hey, I whispered. Ive got a secret to tell you.
27
At Eternitys Gate
About what? I made sure to look back and forth slowly to ensure no one else could
hear.
About my room in the super ultimate treehouse were going to build once this is all
over. She dropped the pen she was fiddling with onto the floor. Yep, this was serious
business. We started talk of this future treehouse when it was just me and her, before Seven
found us. We only discussed it when we were alone and never let anyone else know what we
were up to. Of course, we planned on inviting everyone over to the treehouse after it was
built, we were legally obligated according to an agreement scrawled on a napkin that I forced
Allie to sign after Toby put a dead frog inside one of her books.
Allie squinted me over and wrinkled her nose. Lets take this outside, she said and
put a finger up to her lips. Seven was huddled over the skillet on the stove. Mack and Toby
were on the counter top beside him. They both let out a long aaaaaaaaaah in awe of whatever
sizzled in the pan, and I have to admit, smelled especially tasty.
Seven, I said. The ladies are stepping out for a moment.
Good god, he replied, still staring at the food. Hal, this was another nickname I
didnt understand, please dont jettison me into outer space. Not before you see this. Seven
turned around with the skillet in his hand. In its center was what I asked for. A pancake with
bacon inside it. Three slices ran parallel to each other through the fluffy circle. He scraped it
off onto an empty plate, a big gesture, him not mixing it in with the pancake contaminated
with Macks hair and floor germs. Robot, you shouldve told me a genius programmed your
breakfast food routines.
I will be the one to take that honor, Toby said, and took up the egg beater as his
scepter. I just reprogrammed her this morning. I tried to give him my worst look, but he
was too busy basking in his self-crowned achievement with an instrument used to whisk up
liquid chicken babies.
Herein lies your salvation, Sevs told us. Anyone who mars its perfection will meet
with death and annihilation on a guided journey of absolute despair through the infinite
coffin of reality. He held the plate high in the air, and then set it down on the counter.
Mackenzie raised her finger to her face, then dove it straight into the heart of the bacon
pancake.
Have fun with that, Allie said and hooked me under the arm. We went to the door
that joined our train car to the next group. Nine of them, I think. More people who made a
second family after losing their first. The other groups train car had multi-colored lights
hanging in the windows. I called it the fiesta-car. We stepped out to the transfer deck and
closed the door behind us. Captain Frumpy Butt was already on the connector, snacking on
some sunflower seeds while the moose head on his sweater eyed the wilderness. Outside on
the platform the air was cool and crisp and the forest saluted us with its still branches.
Clackity clack went our little train over the railroad. The mountain air was good, not like the
28
fumes from the city. This was fresh, alive and free of destruction. Grade A nature. Allie and
I leaned up against a guard rail and watched a cluster of white rocks jutting from a hill.
Captain Frumps finished his last seed and then sputtered the shells out of his mouth
in machine-gun fashion. I fought a quetzalcoatlus last night in my dream. A full blooded
adult, complete with a forty-eight and a half foot reptilian wingspan and taller than a giraffe.
Knife-edge beak the size of a big wave surfboard. You girls know what Im talking about?
We let loose some anxious chuckles and nodded.
There ya go. This thing was Mesoamerican deity incarnate. Huge. She ran at me
through a baseball field swarmin with badgers or hamsters, her knuckled fingers flinging
the furry fuckers high up over the stadium lights. I stood at the plate with my arm cocked
back, baseball bat stirrin little circles in the air. The behemoth craned her head all
catawampus to squint me real good n proper, and Id had it with that prehistoric
condescension gazin down on me. So, I stormed the mound, brought the fight straight to her
gaping wide gullet. Beat her in the beak over and over again, smashed her claws after she
tried to pop my head like a balloon. She scraped me up good, but I managed to gouge one of
those big black eyes right outta its socket. We fought for hours. She sliced me with that razor
mouth and chomped off summa my fingeys. Allie yawned and Captain Frumps and myself
assumed expressions that snapped her jaw closed.
Well, he said, you gals know why Im tellin yall this horror show stuff?
Because its freaking awesome, I said and pumped my arms.
Im pleased you approve of my astral projected badassery, but Im trying to teach ya
something too. He took in a deep breath to carry the weight of his words. Piku bo bebop
tucan maru.
Allie focused in on his face with her glasses. Captain Frumpy Butt, that didnt make
any sense.
It doesnt, does it? he asked with some secret wildness twinkling in his eye. If the
world wont make sense anymore, why should we have to? Captain Frumps squinted us
over hard and then stared right into the sun for a second. Blew it a kiss. When that
cretaceous cyclopd pterodactyloid bit my arm off I knew I was done for. She gripped me
good and flew up high, through cloud and lightning and space and stars, right into the sun.
Burned me alive all the way down to that hollow pit where your soul should be, where your
dreams end up when youve solved your own secrets. But it was okay. I had fun the whole
time, with every whack a the bat and severin of my limbs. The good Captain Frumpy Butt
hooked an arm up in his sleeve to make his elbow a stumpy appendage. He hooted and
hollered, paddling with his pretend severed limb, as he turned heel and ducked into the fiesta
car while doing a silly dance.
29
At Eternitys Gate
That old man is crazy, Allie said. Remember when he blasted that milkshake all
over himself and said he wanted to become a stain?
Oh, I remember. I think thats why I love em, right down to that stained n dirty
moose hanging out on his sweater. You cant let your moose get hungry, ya know, or else itll
eat your babies.
Al Pal nibbled on the sleeve of her sweater and mumbled through it. Do you still
want to have a secret passage from my room to yours? In the tree house?
Of course. Well put it behind bookshelves, or a big mirror.
Okay, good. I was worried maybe you didnt anymore. Nibble nibble.
I nudged her. Dont be a ridiculous rhinoceros. She stopped munching on her
sweater.
You know, we could have a zoo down on the ground level.
Yeah, or even in the lobby.
No cages though, she said.
Definitely no cages.
A zebra receptionist and an alligator doorman. Dimples popped up on her cheeks
as she smiled into the woods.
Lemurs can deliver room service with tiny top hats on and pockets full of mints. I
made my fingers leap along the railing. Allie waved her hand and arm up and down in slow
dips.
Dolphin swim coaches in the pool.
Well be the zookeepers, Al.
It will be nice to see some animals again. The white rocks disappeared as the train
pulled around a bend and crossed a bridge. We watched the river below crash and froth on
big oval stones. Several large trees plunged down the flow. Theyd been torn in half and were
splintered badly. One had a dark red stain on its bark, a color we were seeing a lot of back
then. The river disappeared and in front of us was a field full of green grass and yellow
flowers stretched out to the base of the rocky mountains.
So, Al asked, whats the secret? I had a few to choose from and hadnt really picked
one out. I stared at the flowers and smelled them deeply. Life. It didnt make much sense to
me, why you decorate the dead with them, flowers that is. Why kill them just because
something else died?
30
I know once were safe well make the tree house, but that doesnt mean bad things
will stop happening. We all are going to bite the bullet sometime.
Thats not a secret, she said, and pushed her glasses up on her nose.
Right. Well when Im gone, whether I fall off the deck on the third floor and crack
my back on a branch, drown in the hot tub or accidentally let go of the fire pole going down
into the toy room, I dont want a grave.
No grave?
Yep. Theyre sad. They make me sad. They make it seem like you are just in one place
and thats a lie. After youre gone youre in all kinds of places. Al reared back and spit hard
as she could into the grass. Exactly. See? Part of you is out there now. I hate seeing the tacky
graves made out of debris and ripped up clothing that are all over the place now. I dont want
rubble to remind you of me.
Bookmarks, she said.
Huh?
Even when youre not around bookmarks remind me of you. All the ones youve
made for me. How it feels when I play with the tassels and strings on them while I read. All
that reminds me of you.
I put my arm around her and pulled her in close. Thats right, Lord Book Worm. I
want everything to remind you of me, not just some silly hunk of stone or even a bookmark.
I want you to see me in falling leaves and icing on birthday cake decorations. In funny movies
and shooting stars. I want you to think that if Im gone Im not really gone at all. Just think
Im part of everything trying my best to make the world a good place for you. Nothing sad
about that.
Allie nibbled on my sleeve for a second. Nothing sad at all, best-friend-automaton
number three. Robot nicknames caught on quickly in our group.
The door flew open behind us and banged into the train car. The Conductor ran out
onto the platform and spotted us. He was a geezer with a big white beard, usually calm and
cool just stroking his face hairs with a little patch of velcro. Right then it looked like he was
about to mess his pants. He was panting, sweating and making awkward gestures to the fiesta
car. His baseball hat flew off his head and he didnt even try to catch it. Something was not
right.
One of them is heading for the train, he said and covered his eyes with a hand and
then his mouth. A messenger.
The Conductor pointed out to the empty pasture and then crossed over to the next car.
Allie went back inside and I stayed at the door and watched. Playtime was over. Weapons
31
At Eternitys Gate
and ammo spilled off the table and bar top. Mack took the regular bullets out of the rifle and
put the red tipped projectiles in. Those were the ones that blew up when they hit. Reserved
only for our real enemy and not for people, even though people could be our enemies too.
Toby busted out a window with a skillet and propped the rocket launchers end outside. He
wasnt supposed to use it, since when Seven showed him how he almost rocketed our car and
hurt himself from the kickback, but he would use it if he had to. Seven strapped his sheathed
sword to his back and unhinged the Dance Party. Thats what we called his short nosed
double barrel shot gun. One night we went into a house and this boom box wouldnt stop
playing dance music, so he turned it off with a round from the gun. Hilarious, I know. He
twisted and turned the silver casing of a shell and slid it into the Dance Partys first chamber.
Everyone was busy. Allie rushed to Mack and helped her empty the normal bullets from the
magazines. There they were. Saving my butt again.
My hand rested on the first rung of a ladder that led to the roof, and I decided the least
I could do was yell when it was coming. Plus, Id never seen one up close and operational. I
climbed up to the roof and fought against the wind to earn my footing. I looked out at the
yellow spotted plain for the pair but didnt see anything at first. Just boulders, grass and
flowers. Then I noticed something that didnt fade away with distance. It kept in step with
the train. A black sphere about the size of a car hovered a few feet over the ground about a
football field or two away from the railroad. It zoomed in a straight line, occasionally dipping
down to make tracks in the grass and kick up a dirt wake. Flower petals were torn apart and
fluttered away in the breeze behind it.
We called them halos, but they were always supposed to be with their masters. The
Conductor called them messengers, but everyone had different names for em. Thats what
Seven told us. The halo shot down into the ground and was gone. I could see the humped trail
of its burrow as the halo headed for the train. Its owner was nowhere in sight and that
worried me. Out of everyone we met, Seven was the only one whod taken on what we called
an angel, and its halo, alone. Hed killed two pairs of them. The angels and their halos. Beings
sent from the mouth of god.
Get down! the Conductor shouted from the car platform. I shooed him away and
yelled back.
Tell Seven its burrowing and will be here in thirty seconds! The Conductor ran back
into our car and I kept my eye on the halo in its Bugs Bunny tunnel. I was a little scared even
though I knew Seven would take care of everything. He promised hed be there to save me
even if the universe tried to eat me alive, and that was long before the mouth appeared. We
were in for a fight alright, but Sevs had some special equipment that would tear em a new
one, if you know what I mean. Good old Eights head popped up from over the ladder and he
clambered to his feet, covered my heart with his hand to hold me back. The halo burst up
beside the train car and rocks rained down on us. Thin bands of rings churned and whirred
on the machines surface while smooth shapes spun and twisted like pieces of a crazy puzzle.
32
His hand stayed over my heart.

Covered it. Protected it, and I wondered if he could feel it beating, and if that made
him feel stronger, like it made me feel stronger. The moving parts found their places in the
halo. They clicked into position and stopped, one by one, perfectly flush with the spheres
surface. It became a smooth black circle and glinted in the sun. The most perfect ball ever
made. The halo drifted down to the next groups train car and smaller holes opened on its
sides. Thick cables shot out from them, long and black, and they punched holes through our
windows. More latched onto the caboose car behind our neighbors fiesta car. The halos new
cable-legs bent and flexed as its body reared backward.
It looked like a spider, the king of all spiders. A midnight grand-daddy longlegs thatd
come to exact vengeance upon us for the spider Seven killed, the one he squished on the
window with the chess piece. I told him he didnt have to do it! We were all going to pay now.
The big spider tightened his grip on the cars and the metal creaked. It reminded me of how
his little spider buddys legs scratched at the window. Yep, the halo definitely knew what
wed done, but it had the wrong train car in its sights. Circles extended from the back of the
sphere and floated in the air unattached. They glowed some sacred shade of orange Id never
seen before. The rings floated there and the fiesta car began to float too. The whole car turned
a little sideways, with all its party lights flickering, and our car started to tip over because it
was still attached, but the connection under the platform broke and we slammed down with
the wheels sparking and screeching on the rails.
Seven steadied me and I could see the windows of the levitating fiesta car. The other
group was huddled together in the corner, except for one. Captain Frumpy Butt stood as close
to the window as he could with the chocolate-stained moose pressed against the glass. He
stared the spider orb right in its fangs and put his hand to the window. Then he stuck his
tongue out at the machine and showed it his middle finger. This beautiful sounding hum
roared out from the halo like a thousand golden harps playing the sound of a sunset, and its
orange circles slammed forward back into place. Old Frumps exploded. All the windows in
the train car were painted red from the inside, so thick I couldnt see anything but a torn bit
of sweater with the moose head on it, plastered to the glass, right where Captain Frumps had
turned into a stain on the wall, just like hed wanted.
Sorry if that doesnt make you feel good, me thinking about Captain Frumps death
that way, but it makes me happier to think he got what he wished for in the end. He earned
that much. Rode his quetzalcoatlus right into the sunset, never gave up even when shit went
piku bo bebop tucan maru.
Metal on the fiesta car caved and buckled inward, red hot and molten, and the whole
thing blasted off into a patch of trees beside us. Hot wind blew my hair back and I saw the
passenger car roll through tree trunks like they were twigs, right into the steel hammerhead
of an oil well. The front of the train was only connected to the caboose by the halos grip, its
legs wrapped around the platform connectors of both our car and the next one down. The
33
At Eternitys Gate
group thatd been behind the fiesta car knocked out their windows and opened fire. One guy
with a red bandana covering his mouth ran out the door with a rifle and took a knee to aim.
Their bullets pinged off the halo and it sounded like rain on a roof, but not the kind of rain
that helps you get to sleep. Muzzle fire flared out from underneath me. Mack and Allie had
the assault rifle out the window, with Allie aiming and Mack helping to hold the gun still.
Their shots flashed against the halo in loud black and red booms.
Then the halo smiled. A big U crease opened up and unfolded like a lip peeling back.
From inside the angel uncurled with its two clothed arms folded over its chest. A hood hid
its head, but the wind tugged the white fabric off its face. Two eyes. Blonde, short hair. One
nose, one mouth. It was so beautiful I almost peed myself. Seven hadnt lied. The angels
looked just like people. Like you and me. They didnt have wings like I first thought they
would. Bright light from the spiders mouth swirled around the robed man and the cable legs
of the halo flexed to close the gap between our train cars. The wheels skidded and whined
and Seven crouched low and caught me as I rocked forward. We were closer to the angel and
I looked into its eyes to see what sort of world was inside.
I was crushed before I could even look all the way into them. The presence of a being
thatd come from universes away, from places I couldnt even imagine was staring right at
me. I could feel the pressure of its reality weigh down the air around me and squeeze it out
my lungs. Its gaze showed me just how small a creature I really was, how unimportant a thing
my existence was before it. Holy. Thats the only way to describe the angel. That thing was
definitely on another level from us, like it was a black hole and we were tiny atoms falling
into it, stretching down into forevers we could never understand. This one angel had to know
more than all of mankind ever did. Times infinity. It was so deadly smart there was no reason
for me to even think about how to beat it. No logic my little cupcake brain could produce
would be of any use. Seven said the only way we could fight them was because they were still
restricted to some of our laws of nature, the ones they invaded. He thought they started the
mouth closing. That there was no reason why they should even be on the planet with us.
Unless they were looking for something they couldnt find anywhere else.
Seven wasnt one to hesitate. He ran to the roofs edge and leapt onto the halo, climbed
up the cable arms and stood eye to eye with the angel. Seven managed not to be crushed by
the angels presence, hadnt even drawn his sword yet. He just pointed at its face and yelled
something. The angel was not amused. A cabled spider arm latched onto Sevs and cocked
back to throw him over one of the snowy mountains. There was a whooshing roar from
underneath and Tobys rocket detonated on the side of the halo. Seven was flung onto our
cars transfer platform and members of the other group caught him. Theyd boarded our car
and, I could only imagine, helped Toby stop from blasting us all to hell with the big-time
bottle rocket. I climbed down the ladder as Sevs got back on his feet. Once down I was
covered in a shadow as the halo primed itself for another train-destroying blast. Its rings
cocked back, not as smoothly as before, and they wobbled and clanged while heating up. The
angel jumped onto the roof of the caboose train car.
34
Mike, hurry up! The red bandana wearing cowboy waved his friend over to us. His
buddy handed him a duffel bag with wires sticking out of the canvas.
Hero-man, the cowboy said to Seven, Its time to drop some hammers. I held onto
Seven and the spider cried out a symphony for his fallen brother, but before the skin melted
off our faces, part of the halo broke off and landed underneath the train, making the whole
car jump. The halo was knocked back and its invisible attack missed us, blowing a tunnel
into the ground. Stuff flew out the car door. Bullet casings, spoons, a pillow and my primate
in crime, Sir Galileo. The debris clattered against the other train car and my dirty monkey
flew high over its roof. I saw a hand reach into the air and catch him. The angel gripped tight,
held on, and pulled him close. Sevs saw it too and he patted me on the head.
Time to go play zookeeper, he said, and snatched the gym bag bomb from the
cowboy and jumped to the other car.
Wait! I screamed, but he didnt. He ditched the bag through a broken window and
headed to the roof, drew his sword and walked out of sight. The faceless cowboy had an old
walkie talkie in hand, primed to initiate the dropping of hammers. He wouldnt look at me,
so I knew he didnt want to light the fuse but would anyway. My hand rested on something
warm and sticky. The bacon pancake had flopped out of its stack and was covered in dirt.
My imagination gave birth to it, a real thing that only existed because of a fake plan. Stop the
hyper intelligent beings with breakfast. It didnt make any sense, but I thought thats why it
could work. Fighting logic with stupidity almost made sense if I stretched it far enough.
Coincidence and random chance was all I had. I grasped the pancake and crossed the gap to
the other car before it spread apart from ours. The gap opened up again and Mr. Cowboy
made like he was going to come get me even though he couldnt make the jump. I gave him a
taste of my middle finger, for Captain Frumps, and to let him know I meant business.
With pancake clenched in teeth I climbed the ladder and bent over on the roof. The
sound of metal on metal was quiet as they fought. Sevens sword was a little wider than the
credit cards I used to steal from my mom, and it was about as long as me, segmented like one
of those super sharp exacto-knives parents and teachers try to keep hidden from you. The
angel fought with a short knife in one hand and Galileo in the other. He blocked every swing
Seven made, and when he threw Sevs sword back he shone a light on Galileo. Scanning him
or something. Cling. Clang. Clang. Without effort the angel parried his sword back and
lunged. Sevs turned and spun down the length of the angels arm until his elbow entered its
eye socket. The angel didnt flinch, Seven jumped back, the wind gusted, and Sevs saw me.
Froze with his weapon at the ready.
Hey! I shouted. The angel turned and locked on to me. Confidence in my plan
receded as the world in its divine eyes rained down on me. Crystal churches the size of Jupiter
crashed steeple-first onto my head. It was a calculated look. Its face tried to make me bow
before its royal form, worship its domination of body, soul and existence itself. I came real
35
At Eternitys Gate
close to dropping down and giving up, but Id just come to terms with the fact that there
werent any real thrones or crowns.
As Seven put it, Kings arent real.
Do you know how many numbers are in this maple syrup? I asked the angel. Seven
swung and the angel caught the blade without looking. The angels eyes opened wide. I was
onto something. So I pointed to him and then the pancake and took a big, gritty bite out of it.
Put my tough-as-shit face on and swallowed. Twelve, I said. I held the pancake up to the
sun and the angel braced against some invisible force, some truth in the nonsense I spoke
only it could understand. My words made it take a step back, horrified. I couldnt believe it.
Herein lies your salvation, I continued. The angel opened its mouth but stayed quiet. Seven
was even more clueless. Anyone who mars its perfection will meet with death and
annihilation on a guided journey of absolute despair into the infinite coffin of reality.
A fuse blew in the angels head and he dropped to his knees. I threw the bacon
pancake and it smacked into his chest. An alarm boomed from the halo, loud and deep, like
the sound of a mountain falling in slow motion. Bright orange lights flashed from the halos
mouth and pulsed with the noise. It was a siren. The angel reached out to me as a wave of
disbelief crashed over its face. Seven put the Dance Party to the angels head, cocked the
barrels and turned on the music. Silver metal oozed out the angels nose and two exit wounds
from the slugs.
The angel shivered. Long and stiff colored lines shot out of its back to make bent
streamers. Crystal blue water gushed out from his rainbow-spine and sprayed hundreds of
feet in the air. The newborn ultra geyser shot the water out so hard it pushed the angel flat
against the roof of the train car, which moaned and dented under the pressure. Some of the
spray misted into my mouth and I could taste salt. Seven backed up as the frothing liquid
spouted higher and wider. An odd shape surfaced from the salty jet up in the sky, completely
invisible at first, but something was definitely blocking the water spray high above us. Then
the shape crackled with static and a brightly colored ball swirled in the water and looked at
me. It flashed every color Id ever seen around a big black pupil, then disappeared back into
the water.
The angel screamed out in more pain than all of mankind could ever feel. It grabbed
its head and roared louder as technicolor bars extended from its face, a little like the
emergency broadcast signal I watched on a television for a whole night one time. The bars
quivered and then erupted out the back of his skull. I relaxed. Just sat back and watched as
the ocean inside Sevens eyes spouted out the angels back, gushing with the same beautiful
sadness in which it was lost the night before, when it leaked out of his peepers while he told
me about the story all fiction stems from.
Seven grabbed Galileo out of the angels open hand, picked me up and dashed to the
end of the car. The halo disengaged from the front of the train and cradled the angel with
36
one of its arms, embracing another fallen friend. The gap between the train cars was
widening, but Mr. Cowboy finished tying a length of rope to the busted off door and kicked
it onto the tracks. Water from the angels broken pipes rained down in plumes to make waves
in the field beside us. Some crashed against the train car and the door floated atop the water.
The cowboy let out more line and Seven held onto me and jumped onto the makeshift inner
tube. Yeah, we landed hard. I felt pain in my nose run all the way down to my back and my
hand got sticky with blood. Sevs had to be in way worse shape and he still managed to hold
onto me and the rope. We bounced over wakes and dove over waves as we were drug through
the new ocean being formed. All the cowboys reeled us in and the angels car fell behind.
The man with the red bandana pulled it off his face, and I dubbed him the Lone Ranger
as he called over his walkie talkie. The explosion behind us was swallowed by a foamy cave
mouth of sea as the angel was lost to its depths. Seven and I were laid on the platform and
everything was back to normal. A fresh breeze and sunlight on our faces welcomed us into
safety as we escaped the last of the waves. Seven looked more than a little beat up. He
struggled to move and was bleeding from behind his ear. I pinched my nose and it hurt, but
there wasnt that much blood coming out.
That was incredible, the Lone Ranger said. You didnt have to run over there, we
were just going to throw the bag. Seven looked at me and handed over my monkey.
You might want to teach Galileo to stay in the zoo. Im not sure Ill be able to catch
him the next time he escapes. He went Ooo Ooo with a wince and tried to scratch his armpit,
but collapsed on top a bunch of silverware and bullet casings. I hugged my monkey tight.
He doesnt scratch himself like that, he doesnt make that kind of noise and thats
not his name. I found a spoon and put it to my monkeys nose. From now on you will
address him as Sir Tycho Brahe.
37
At Eternitys Gate
Thank You
Email: singularityplaytime@gmail.com
Twitter: @ephellstrom
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At Eternitys Gate

Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are

It was time to buckle up.

I brought the microphone back to me.

I dont like this, I said.

His hand stayed over my heart.

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