The Night Parade(121)

We have come to the end of the line, said the head-voice. Bright swirls capered behind his eyelids. This is it, David.

When they separated, he kissed her on the forehead. Her eyes were planets, her eyelashes like butterfly wings.

“All right,” he said. “You’re a big girl. You make your own decision. I trust you.”

She squeezed his hand in hers.

“I don’t want to go to those doctors who have been looking for us,” she said.

“No?” This surprised him.

“No,” she said. “I want us to go back to Goodwin. I want to find those people living in the firehouse, and the man who can heal the sick. Do you remember that story the man Turk told us about those people?”

“Yes,” David said.

“I don’t know why, but I think that story is true, and that there is a man there who has abilities like mine. Only he’s older and his powers are . . . stronger. I don’t know how I know this, but I do. I think I even saw him that morning in the street, and it was like he wanted me to follow him, to go find him. And I think maybe he can show me what I need to do to make my powers stronger, too, and use them the right way. There might even be other people out there like me and him, too.”

“How do you know all this?”

“I don’t know. I just do. I feel like I might be part of a puzzle, one piece that needs to come together with other pieces to stop the world from dying.” She looked down at her hands and said, “Maybe it’s not the cure in my blood that’s supposed to save the world, but the mystery of my power.”

“You’re such a smart and wonderful girl,” he said.

“And this man, whoever he is,” she said. “He can help you, Dad. I can’t cure you, but he can. I know he can.”

He just smiled wanly at his daughter, taking both of her hands in his. He brought her hands to his mouth, kissed her knuckles.

“What?” Ellie said. “What is it?”

“Ellie, I’ll never make it back to Kentucky. I’m very sick.”

Her face seemed to change in subtle increments before his eyes until she was crying again. She withdrew her hands from his. “No,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“It’s okay,” David said. “I’ll talk with Uncle Tim. He’ll take you. It’s a good plan, Ellie. You need to do it. And you need to get on the road right away.”

She shook her head. “No. No, Dad.”

“It’ll be okay.”

“No,” she said.

“I can’t make the trip, Ellie. I’m at the end here, sweetheart.”

“Then I’ll stay with you until the end. I’ll make it better for you in the end.”

“No. I don’t want you to see me like that. I don’t want your last memory of me to be . . . to be whatever is going to happen.”

“I can make it better for you,” she sobbed. “Like I did with the girl on the highway.”

“I don’t want you to do that,” he said. He leaned toward her so that their foreheads touched. “Now, you go and save the world. You hear me? You go and save the world, Eleanor Arlen.”

She closed her eyes and nodded, her forehead still against his.

“That’s my girl,” he said, closing his eyes and smiling to himself.

His head was full of locusts.





64


David watched as Ellie and Tim loaded the Tahoe with some snacks, fresh clothes, and a few jugs of water. Tim also packed the two shotguns and the pistol in the back of the Tahoe, along with several boxes of ammunition. Tim estimated they could make it back to Kentucky in two days, unless they ran into trouble on the road. He had been apprised of Ellie’s plan and had agreed to see it through. “I’ll take care of her like she’s my own daughter,” Tim assured him. “Don’t you worry about that, David.”

David hugged his brother and kissed the scruffy side of his face.

He managed to make it out into the yard as they finished packing the Tahoe. Ellie stood beside the Tahoe’s open rear door, hands in her pockets, her face emotionless. She stared at him as he crossed the yard. And she hugged him when he reached her.

He knelt down so that they were eye to eye.

“I’ve been meaning to give this to you for a few days now,” he said. “It was Mom’s.” He twisted Kathy’s wedding band off his pinkie and held it out to his daughter. “It’s too big for you now, but you’ll grow into it.”

Ellie took it between two fingers, holding it up so that the sunlight caused it to sparkle.

“Happy birthday,” David said.

She hugged him around the neck. Cried against him.

“I love you,” he said, and kissed the burning hot side of her face. He braced her head in both hands and pressed the tip of his nose against hers. “Listen to me. Listen to me.”

She nodded.

“I’m so proud of you. Your mom and I, we’ve always been so proud of you.”

“I don’t want to leave you.”

“It’ll be okay.”

He kissed her forehead, the side of her face. Said, “Shhh, shhh,” over and over to her until her sobs tapered off, leaving only the sharp hitching of her chest in their place.