quarante-quatre ° dictated

[signedlefthanded]

I should like to announce my sister Sunny has arrived. [For those that know her, it's a big deal.] She's two and usually has a ribbon in her hair. She's very independent, but she's still learning to speak.

While I'm very good at taking care of her, I'm going to need some things. [Things she can actually afford. She hopes her parents are proud of her.] Dresses and the like. Sunny can keep herself occupied. She's a very good cook actually, and very intelligent.

She does have sharp teeth though. So I would beware.

Comments

[theabjectauthor]

No, he simply wanted to ask me about ... [he coughs, lightly]

... whale harpoons.

[signedlefthanded]

[She's quiet for a moment.] I see.

[theabjectauthor]

You don't have to tell me. I just... It seemed odd that he would want to speak to me about that incident, whatever it may be, over anything else.

[signedlefthanded]

Do you truly want to know? It's the reason why I no longer live in the castle, Lemony.

[theabjectauthor]

....something happened here, with a harpoon gun? [always the wrong questions. always.]

[signedlefthanded]

Something happened to Dewey with a harpoon gun. The castle decided I needed to be reminded of it.

[theabjectauthor]

[blood on her hands.

the harpoon gun.

a reminder.

occasionally, the truth is like a clown in a terribly ugly suit: it is very very hard to keep from seeing it, even harder to look away, and very unpleasant to look at, but people try to avoid looking at it all the same.

Lemony claps a hand over his mouth and stares at the page for a moment, trying to come to grips with what all of this surely adds up to.]

.... An accident?

[signedlefthanded]

[A slow sigh.]

It was meant to go in me. Our hands were all on the trigger, and then Dewey just appeared.

[theabjectauthor]

[like mother, like daughter, he thinks, then pushes the thought aside] Nothing is ever quite as it appears.... I'm sorry, Violet. I am sorry that the forces of destiny are so terribly out of tune.

[signedlefthanded]

It's already happened. Weeks ago for me, before I came here. Nearly two years. More than? Being here and returning home makes my head spin.

[theabjectauthor]

I was never fond of reading about time travel ... being a part of it is even more dizzying than even reading about it ever was.

[signedlefthanded]

Have you experienced it?

[theabjectauthor]

Well, what else could you call this? You have seen things that I haven't learned of, yet. [after all, he was in the midst of researching for Book the Tenth when he arrived - he hadn't yet had the chance to BE the taxi driver she originally knew him as]

[signedlefthanded]

That is true. Sunny is from a bit earlier than I am.