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Then Meadow ran toward the fountain, jumped in, and a moment later she was gone.
Nick pulled his own coin from his pocket — the one he had salvaged from the empty bucket. It was still cold as cold could be, but that was all right. He realized now that while his arrival had tied him to Allie, his departure was tied to Mary. As long as she was fighting to keep children here, he would be fighting to free them.
He supposed that made them enemies. It almost made him laugh. How strange it was to be in love with your enemy.
With the zeppelin coming in for a landing, and the last of the children vanishing from the fountain, Nick put his hands in his pockets and left, strolling leisurely uptown.
Perhaps Mary was right about Everlost being an eternal world: a place where all things and places that have earned immortality remain forever in glory. If that were the case, then Everlost was like the grand museum of the universe, a heavenly and priceless gallery. As Mary once said, they were blessed to be able to see it—but a museum was to be visited, and appreciated, not to be lived in.
That was Mary’s mistake. Afterlights were merely visitors passing through.
Nick knew there were more lost souls in lost places to free. There were more fountains and more buckets of coins to be found—and although he didn’t know when he would ever get where he was going, he knew that when the time was right he would get there.
In the meantime, he had work to do.
EPILOGUE The Sky Witch The little girl sat knees to chest on the playground sand, not knowing what to do. The last she remembered, she was at the very tippy top of the jungle gym, above all the other kids. Then she had lost her balance, and fallen. For the strangest moment, she had found herself running down a tunnel toward a distant light … if only she had listened to her mother, and tied her shoelaces, she might not have tripped over her own feet on the way.
And now she was here, still in the park, sitting on a small patch of sand beneath the jungle gym. Her parents were gone, and she instinctively knew they weren’t coming back, but she didn’t know how she knew it. When she had fallen, the park had been full of children, and the day had been hot. Now it was empty and cold. Even the trees, which had been lush and green, were now yellowing and losing their leaves—and the worst thing about it was that she couldn’t move, because the rest of the playground had turned to quicksand.
There was a sound far off in the sky, but getting closer: a mechanical groan that didn’t quite sound like a plane, or helicopter, and when she turned toward the sound, she saw something amazing. A big, silver…thing…came over the trees, and lowered into an empty soccer field. It was like a blimp she had seen hovering above baseball games, but much, much bigger. Still, she held her knees to her chest, excited, terrified as the giant blimp-thing dropped down, hovering just a few feet above the soccer field. Then some sort of hatch opened, a ramp came down, and a creature all slender and green came out.
No, not a creature at all. This was an angel. An angel in a green dress. She was coming right toward the girl, and the closer she got, the more of the girl’s fear melted away.
Finally the angel reached the playground, and looked at the girl through the wide cage-like bars of the jungle gym.
“Don’t be afraid,” the angel said. “Everything’s going to be all right. I promise.”
The girl looked toward the blimp-thing, and the angel smiled. “Would you like a ride on my airship? “
The girl nodded.
Then the angel said, “It only costs a nickel.”
The girl looked down sadly. “I don’t have any money.”
But the angel only smiled. “I’ll bet you do. Why don’t you check.”
The little girl reached into her pockets, and to her surprise she found a nickel in there. Or at least she thought itwas a nickel —it was too worn to tell. She held it out to the green angel, but then hesitated. After all, this nickel was all that she had. Something told her she might not want to part with it so easily.
The angel’s smile faded, but only slightly.
“I’m sure you don’t want to stay here alone,” she said. “If you do, the Chocolate Ogre might find you.”
“The Chocolate Ogre?”
“A monster,” said the angel. “He lures you with the smell of chocolate, and then he captures you, and sends you away.”
“Where?”
The angel shook her head. “That’s the scary part. No one knows.” For a moment the girl thought she saw a wave of sorrow wash across the angel’s face, but it passed. “Now, wouldn’t you rather come with me?”
And so the girl gave her the coin, and the angel gently took her hand. “Now, let’s find out what you like to do, and let you do it!” The girl rose, and holding the angel’s hand, she walked right through the bars of the jungle gym like magic!
“Welcome to Everlost,” the angel said as they crossed the field toward the silver blimp-thing. My name is Mary.”
smirked. “Is Mikey McGill even capable of good deeds?”
Mikey frowned. “Okay, then. Sixty years of halfway-decent deeds.”
