Page 8 of Katabasis
“Too important,” huffed a boy with glasses. “Would have just sailed by.”
“Sailed.”
“Without speaking.”
“He did come by,” said the more intact girl. “So quickly I thought it was a dream. But now you say it—I did see. I saw. I waved. He said hello.”
The other three floated up and down in agitation.
“You saw him?”
“He saidhello?”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Oh, my God!” The more intact Shade flared for a moment; ever so briefly, her form took a more solid, distinct shape, and Alice glimpsed a flash of red in her hair. “Do you know how annoying it is to spend eternity with you lot? It was a memory all my own, something thathappened, and I didn’t want to share.”
The other Shades looked miffed. Alice could actually see the shape of their irritation, spiky wisps of gray miasma drifting about their shoulders.
“Could have told us.”
“Could have.”
“No point keeping secrets.”
“There’s an eternity for secrets.”
“Hold on,” Alice said desperately, before she lost them to their chatter. “When did this happen?”
“Don’t know,” said the boy with glasses. “There is no time here.”
This was demonstrably metaphysically false, but Alice chose to ignore this. “What did he say to you?”
“Wanted directions,” sniffed the more intact girl. “Couldn’t stand the fields. Couldn’t wait to get out of here.”
“And where would we go?” asked Peter. “If we also wanted to get out of here?”
The undergraduates pointed. Alice and Peter turned, and there it was, a line of white in the distance—a wall or building, she could not tell for sure, but it was at least some structure that promised an end to the silt monotony. Alice did not think it had been there before. She squinted, and saw what from this distance reminded her of teeming ants around their anthill. Shades, thousands of them, lining up for whatever release lay behind the white.
The undergraduates sighed, deflating, all at once.
“The lines—”
“So long!”
“Never make it to the end—”
“Worse than concert tickets—”
“I only ever got to see one,” declared the boy with glasses. “I got to see the Chordettes. I stood in line for four hours to see the Chordettes.”
This set off another excited shuffle. “You sawthe Chordettes?”
“Focus,” said Peter. “Please. Is that the only way into the next court?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Everyone has to stand in line.”
