Page 111 of Exquisite Things
“You’re only proving my point.” Oliver grabs the journal again. Throws it into his bag this time. “We’ll be fooled into thinking things are better. That we can be happy. And just when we think the worst is behind us, they’ll strike. They’ll attack us. Burn our books. Ban our music. Shame our youth. Make us hate ourselves so deeply that we’d rather be dead than alive. They’ll turn us against each other.”
“Don’t let them!” My voice cracks. My throat feels raw. “Don’t let them turn us against each other.”
He places his hot palm on my moist cheek. I’m sweating. Delirious with fear. Anxiety. Panic. “I’m not against you. I’m not.” He places a gentle kiss on my lips. “A part of me will always love you.”
“And a part of you will always hate me?”
He nods. “Let’s say goodbye now. Before the hate grows any bigger. Before we destroy more than we’ve already destroyed. Before we put Lily and Maud and Archie in danger.”
Lily’s voice. “What danger?” Oliver and I turn to see Archie, Lily, and Maud standing in our doorway.
Archie steps forward. “I told Lily and Maud everything. They deserve to know. Lily doesn’t believe me.”
“If what they say is true—”
Maud interrupts Lily. “It’s true. Ever since they saved my life from the fire and emerged unscathed—”
Lily stops her. “What fire?”
“I-I’ll explain all that later.” Maud stares at us with moist eyes.“I knew something was different about them. But this... Immortality and eternal youth? Being chased by the biggest pharmaceutical company in the world? It’s madness.”
I pull out the single remaining page from the manuscript I’ve kept on me all these years. “Listen to me. I’m not Jack Whitman. I don’t have research teams at my disposal. But I know that if this page burns, at least one person who sincerely wishes for it will be granted immortality. Maybe all three of you could be. I’m not certain. But imagine... All of us. Traveling into the future together. A family. The best mother any family could ask for.” I see a tear travel down Lily’s cheek. “A father figure like no other. The daddy to end all daddies.” Archie can’t help but giggle sadly. I turn to Maud. “And a sister I never want to say goodbye to.”
Lily approaches me carefully. She’s just found out I’m immortal. Unbreakable. And yet she treats me like I’m suddenly fragile. “My sweet boy, you were never properly loved as a child. You don’t understand a thing about life.”
“I’ve been alive longer than anyone here. I’ve seen the cycle of time.” I hear the desperation in my voice.
“Look at you, playing thereallybig brother card.” Maud is joking. No one laughs.
Lily takes my hands in hers. Clutches them. “You may have been here longer than me. But you’re still a child. An unloved child who thinks he can remake the world in his image.”
“No, listen to me. We can all be in this together. If you come with us, maybe Oliver won’t leave me.” I turn to Oliver. “Tell them, Oliver. Tell them to come with us. You’ll stay if they do, won’t you?” Oliver won’t even look at me. “Oliver, say something!”
What he says is: “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”
Lily takes my chin in her hand. Shifts my face so I’m facing heragain. “What have you learned about life, about love, about family, in all these years?”
“I—I don’t know— That love is the only thing worth living for. Not just romantic love. All of it. The love of family. Of community. The love we feel for a poem or a song or a moment in time. The love I feel for you, Lily. I’m not ready to say goodbye. I’m not ready to let go. I want what we had to last forever.”
Lily’s lips tighten. “What we had is already gone.”
“No!” I bury my face in her chest. She holds me close. Comforts me for the last time. “No, it’s not. It can last forever.”
“My sweet child.” Lily takes a deep breath. I can feel her chest rise and fall. Her glorious heartbeat. Her power. Her will to create a life no one laid out for her. To pave a new path. To create love from the rubble of pain. “Nobody ever taught you the most important lesson before it was too late.”
“What lesson?”
“That life only has meaning because of death. That love can only truly be appreciated because we know hate all too well. That beauty must fade. That’s what beauty is.”
“But you—you fill your bathroom with antiaging creams and shampoos!”
Lily laughs. “True. But that doesn’t mean I want to be alive forever. It only means I want to look as good as possible while I’m here.”
I turn to Archie. “Tell her, Archie. You must know what’s happening. We’re dying. This is a way to survive.”
Archie shakes his head. “Lily is right, Bram.”
Maud nods. “Lily is always right.” Maud approaches Oliver. She pulls him into a wretched embrace. Wretched because it’s so full of longing. Because she’s saying goodbye. “You two need to leave now.Before Jack starts looking. Don’t write or call. They’ll track you down. The less we know, the better.”
