Monsters of Men

“He asked me to go away with him,” I say, after a long minute.

“When?” Lee asks. “Where?”

“When this is all over,” I say. “As soon as we can.”

“And will you?”

I don’t answer.

“He loves you, you idiot,” Lee says, not unkindly. “Even a blind man can see that.”

“I know,” I whisper, looking back over to the campfire where Todd’s saddling up Angharrad for Bradley to ride.

“We’re ready,” Wilf says, coming over.

I embrace him. “Good luck, Wilf,” I say. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yoo too, Viola.”

I embrace Lee as well who whispers in my ear, “I’ll miss you when you go.”

I pull away and even hug Mistress Lawson. “You’re looking so healthy,” she says. “Like a new girl.”

Then Wilf strikes the reins and the cart starts making its way around the ruins of the cathedral, around the lonely bell tower, still standing after all this time.

I watch them until they disappear.

And then a snowflake lands on the tip of my nose.

[TODD]

I’m smiling like a loon as I hold out my hand to catch the flakes as they fall. They land like perfect little crystals before almost instantly melting on my palm, where the skin from my burns is still red.

“First time in years,” the Mayor says, looking up like everyone else, into the snow dropping down like white feathers, everywhere and everywhere and everywhere.

“Ain’t that something?” I say, still smiling. “Hey, Ben!” I start over to where he’s introducing Angharrad to his battlemore.

“Wait for a moment, Todd,” the Mayor says.

“What?” I say, a little impayshuntly cuz I’d much rather be sharing snow with Ben than the Mayor.

“I think I know what happened to him,” the Mayor says and we both look over to Ben again, still talking to Angharrad and the other horses now, too.

“Nothing happened to him,” I say. “He’s still Ben.”

“Is he?” the Mayor asks. “He’s been opened up by the Spackle. We don’t really know what that will do to a man.”

I frown and feel a roil in my stomach. It’s anger.

But there’s a little bit of fear there, too.

“He’s fine,” I say.

“I say this out of concern for you, Todd,” he says, sounding sincere. “I can see how happy you are to have him back. How much it means to have your father again.”

I stare at him, trying to figure him out, keeping my own Noise light, so we’re just two stones giving nothing away to each other.

Two stones getting slowly covered in snow.

“You think he may be in danger?” I finally say.

“This planet is information,” the Mayor says. “All the time, never-ceasing. Information it wants to give you, information it wants to take from you to share with everyone else. And I think you can respond to that in two ways. You can control how much you give it, like you and I have done in shutting off our Noise–”

“Or you can open yourself up to it completely,” I say, looking back at Ben, who catches my eye and smiles back.

“And which way is the proper way,” the Mayor says, “well, we’ll have to see. But I’d keep an eye on your Ben if I were you. For his own good.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” I say, turning back to him. “I’ll be keeping an eye on him the rest of his life.”

And I’m smiling as I say it, still warm from Ben’s smile to me, but I catch a glint in the eye of the Mayor, brief and vanishing, but there.

And it’s a glint of pain.

But then it’s gone.

“I hope you’ll be around to keep an eye on me, too,” he says, his own smile returning. “Keep me on the straight and narrow.”

I swallow. “You’ll do fine,” I say. “With or without me.”

And there’s the pain again. “Yes,” he says. “Yes, I expect I will.”

{VIOLA}

“You look like you’ve rolled in flour,” I say down to Todd as he approaches.

“So do you,” he says.

I give my head a shake and bits of snow fall down around me. I’m already up on Acorn and I can hear the horses greeting Todd, Angharrad especially, standing underneath Bradley.

She’s a beauty, Ben says, next to us on his battlemore. And I think she’s got a little crush.

Boy colt, Angharrad says, ducking her head at the battlemore and looking away.

“I suggest your first order of business be reassurance,” the Mayor says, coming over. “Tell the Spackle we’re more committed to peace than ever. And then see if you can get some demonstrable action from them right away.”

“Like the river being released,” Bradley says. “I agree. Show the people they’ve got something to hope for.”

“We’ll do our best,” I say.

“I’m sure you will, Viola,” the Mayor says. “You always have.”

But I notice he keeps his eyes steady on Todd and Ben as they say their goodbyes.

It’s only a few hours, I hear Ben say, his Noise bright and warm and reassuring.

“You keep yerself safe,” Todd says. “I ain’t losing you a third time.”

Well that would just be terrible bad luck, wouldn’t it? Ben smiles.

And they embrace, warm and strong, like a father and son.

I keep watching the Mayor’s face.

“Good luck,” Todd says, coming up to my saddle. He lowers his voice. “You keep thinking bout what I said. You just keep thinking bout the future.” He grins shyly. “Now that we actually have one.”

“Are you sure about this?” I ask. “Because I can stay. Bradley can–”

“I told you,” he says. “I think he just wants to say goodbye. That’s why it all feels so weird. It’s actually over.”

“Are you sure you’ll be all right?”

“I’ll be fine,” Todd says. “I’ve managed all this time with him. I can last a couple more hours.”

And we squeeze hands again, holding it a second longer.

“I’ll do it, Todd,” I whisper. “I’ll come with you.”

And he doesn’t say anything, just squeezes my hand harder and brings it up to his face like he wants to breathe me in.

[TODD]

“The snow’s getting thicker,” I say.

Viola and Ben and Bradley have been on the road for a little while now and I’m watching the projeckshun as they start up the hill to the Spackle, riding slowly in the weather. Viola said she’d call me when she got there but there ain’t no harm in checking their progress, is there?

“The flakes are too big to be much of a worry,” says the Mayor. “It’s when they’re small and coming down like rain that you’ve got a proper blizzard on the way.” He brushes them off his sleeve. “These are just a false promise.”

“It’s still snow,” I say, watching the horses and the battlemore in the distance.

“Come, Todd,” the Mayor says. “I need your help.”

“My help?”

He gestures around his face. “I may say I have no injuries, but the burn gel makes it easier to believe.”

“But Mistress Lawson–”

“Has gone back up to the hilltop,” he says. “You can put some on your hands at the same time. It’s efficient.”

I look down at my hands, starting to sting again as the medicine wears off. “Okay,” I say.

We head on over to the scout ship, landed in a corner of the square not far from us, get ourselves up the ramp and into the room of healing, where the Mayor sets himself down on a bed, takes off his uniform jacket and folds it next to him. He starts peeling off the bandages from the back of his head and neck.

“You should keep those on,” I say. “They’re still fresh.”

“They’re binding,” the Mayor says. “I’d like you to put new ones on a little more loosely, please.”

I sigh. “Fine.” I go to the treatment drawers and take out some burn bandages, as well as a canister of the burn gel for his face. I unpeel the bandage wrappers and tell him to lean forward, placing them loosely on the horrible burnt stretch on the back of his head. “This don’t look too good,” I say, setting the bandage down lightly.