Skellig

Chapter 38

MIDMORNING. MINA’S MOTHER BROUGHT cups of tea for us. She sat beside us on the step. She talked about the fledglings, the flowers that were bursting into bloom, the air that every day became warmer, the sun that every day was a little higher and a little warmer. She talked about the way spring made the world burst into life after months of apparent death. She told us about the goddess called Persephone, who was forced to spend half a year in the darkness deep underground. Winter happened when she was trapped inside the earth. The days shrank, they became cold and short and dark. Living things hid themselves away. Spring came when she was released and made her slow way up to the world again. The world became brighter and bolder in order to welcome her back. It began to be filled with warmth and light. The animals dared to wake, they dared to have their young. Plants dared to send out buds and shoots. Life dared to come back.

“An old myth,” I said.

“Yes,” she said. “But maybe it’s a myth that’s nearly true. Look around you, Michael. Fledglings and blooms and bright sunshine. Maybe what we see around us is the whole world welcoming Persephone home.”

She rested her hand on my arm.

“They can do marvelous things, Michael. Maybe you’ll soon be welcoming your own Persephone home.”

We thought of Persephone for a while in silence. I imagined her struggling her way toward us. She squeezed through black tunnels. She took wrong turns, banged her head against the rocks. Sometimes she gave up in despair and she just lay weeping in the pitch darkness. But she struggled on. She waded through icy underground streams. She fought through bedrock and clay and iron ore and coal, through fossils of ancient creatures, the skeletons of dinosaurs, the buried remains of ancient cities. She burrowed past the tangled roots of great trees. She was torn and bleeding but she kept telling herself to move onward and upward. She told herself that soon she’d see the light of the sun again and feel the warmth of the world again.

Then Mina’s mother broke into my thoughts.

“I’ll watch the birds,” she said. “Why don’t you both go and wander for a while?”

And Mina took my hand, and led me away.

It was like walking in a dream. The houses tilted and swayed. The sun glared over the rooftops. Birds were ragged and black against the astonishing sky. The roadway glistened, a deep black pond. Invisible traffic roared and squealed.

She held my arm.

“Are you all right, Michael?” she kept asking. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

We made our way toward the DANGER door. She led me through the gate, through the long garden, through the door, into the dark and dusty interior. We went up in silence. She held my arm, like I was an old man, or an invalid.

On the final landing she told me,

“He’ll be waiting for us, Michael. He’ll be so pleased to see you again.”

She turned the handle, we went in, sunlight poured through the arched window.

We stood there staring.

He wasn’t there.

Mina ran back down through the house. I heard her feet on the bare boards, doors swinging open. I heard her calling for him.

“Skellig! Skellig! Skellig!”

I heard her coming slowly back up to me. Her face was paler than ever. There were tears shining in her eyes.

“He isn’t here,” she whispered. “He just isn’t here at all.”

We went to the window and gazed into the empty sky above the city.

I found myself falling forward. I gripped the windowsill tight. I touched my heart.

“Oh, Mina!” I said.

“What is it?”

“My heart’s stopped. Feel my heart. There’s nothing there.”

She caught her breath. She touched my chest. She called my name.

And then there was just blackness.