" She regarded it for a moment more, clearly tempted. "As payment for bringing me this message, I'm going to offer you a reward." He turned the coin in his fingers. Then he reached for the bucket, which he still kept close, and with his good hand he pulled out a coin. Used to be kids were more frightened by Johnnie-O and his power-knuckles than they were of Nick.
Most of it flowed into a dark dripping frown which made the girl back away into Johnnie-O, who stood behind her. Nick smiled to ease her fear, but he knew his smile no longer appeared comforting. The girl who had brought the note looked terrified. I feel confident we will be able to either resolve our differences, or reach an acceptable compromise. I will be there waiting for you today at five o'clock PM. I have been advised that the mansion at Graceland is a comfortable place for such a meeting. I propose a meeting at a neutral location. I have more than two hundred loyal Afterlights-certainly we outnumber you. It would be foolish of you to battle us, however. While I detest the very idea of putting my children at risk, I will defend what I know to be true. Mary had no fear of the vortex, because the way she saw it, she could not be any more right than she already was. In fact, she believed it was the destined place for their meeting, chosen, perhaps, by the Almighty himself. After hearing the Sniffer's account of his own personal experience there, Mary concluded, with both excitement and remorse, that this was the place she must meet Nick. Mary Hightower, however, was now privy to firsthand information. The Mississippi wind kept most Afterlights away from Memphis, so only a few Afterlights knew of the strange and curious properties of Graceland, and the rumors faded the farther one got from the place. While in Everlost it is known as the Intolerable Nexus of Extremes, the living have a different name for it. That is to say, whatever you bring in with you, you leave with tenfold. He passed through the vortex, and emerged with a supernaturally acute sense of smell, along with highly irritable sinuses. When she left, she found her entire head encased in wires, brackets, and gum-bands.Īnd then there was the Afterlight who was somewhat sensitive to odors. He stepped into the vortex, and ten minutes later rolled out as a six-foot furball with eyes.Īn Afterlight girl so self-conscious about her braces that they had already doubled in size in her mouth, stumbled into the vortex to satisfy her own curiosity. His most prominent feature was a sizeable Afro that was his pride and joy-even larger in Everlost than it had been when he was alive. One boy, for instance, had walked in on a dare. The Memphis vortex is a unique one, because it affects every Afterlight differently. And any Afterlight that enters any Department of Motor Vehicles in the western world will discover that time doesn't just stop, it ceases to exist entirely. Any Afterlight that stands directly beneath the capital dome in Washington, DC, will suffer the simultaneous bombardment of every speech ever delivered in Congress and the House of Representatives, causing instant and irreversible insanity. In Everlost, however, the effect of a vortex can be immense.Īny Afterlight that steps on the pitcher's mound in old Yankee Stadium will be sent flying toward home plate at 107 miles per hour-the speed at which Billy Wagner threw the world's fastest pitch on that very spot. Odd smells, or unexpected chills-but nothing more than that. Rare sightings of Afterlights, visible only in infrared light, perhaps-or recorded Afterlight voices that can only be heard at twenty times the normal volume. The living, of course, have only the slightest clue about the supernatural nature of these black holes of consciousness. Who can say what creates them? Perhaps it is the constant attention of the living that does it-for all vortices exist in spots that are the focus of human scrutiny.