When we came to the chamber where Glottis and the Bone Wagon were, I said to him, “Hey, carnal, wanna take a ride on the Number Nine?”
“Me?” he asked in surprise.
“Sure,” I said. “I’ve got my ticket. I’m all packed. Let’s go!”
“Maybe Gunnar can look after the Bone Wagon while I’m gone.”
“I’m sure he’d be happy to, Glottis,” Eva said.
“Well,” I said to Eva, suddenly feeling awkward, “I guess this is it.”
“I guess so,” she said, seeming a little awkward herself. “You know, I sort of thought you’d be around a lot longer.”
“Yeah. Me, too.”
“But I’m glad you’re finally getting out of here,” she said. “I’ll miss you, though.”
“You’ll make it, Eva,” I assured her. “We’ll see each other again, I’m sure of it.”
“Don’t wait up. I might be here a while yet,” she said. She gave me a peck on the cheekbone. “Bye, Cal.” Eva turned to Meche and they hugged. “You take care of the lousy fraud, OK?”
“You can count on it,” Meche said.
Meche and I walked out of the sewers to a dirt road on the outskirts of the city. We got into an armored car and were driven toward the train station. To any disinterested onlooker, it was just one car in heavy traffic, but the ‘traffic’ was a flock of cars full of LSA agents all around us. When we got close to the station, uniformed cops armed with painful, but non-sprouting, shotguns stood like rows of corn all the way from the curb up to the waiting train. We got out of the car. Meche was a little apprehensive as we rode the escalator up to the top and approached the platform, but nothing happened that shouldn’t have. Glottis, who had been sent ahead, was waiting for us.
“Any ravens around, carnal?” I asked him.
“I don’t smell any,” he answered.
We showed our tickets to the conductor and boarded. We had the entire train to ourselves when it pulled out of the station a few minutes later and shot away from El Marrow. We were on our way. Finally. When the city disappeared behind us, I let myself relax for the first time in years.
On the evening of the second day the Number Nine was already well out over the Sea of Lament. We were in the dining car when Meche asked me, “Do you think there’s any hope for Salvador? Even if he does have a ticket, he was sprouted and no one has found his body.”
“I don’t know,” I answered. “I’d like to think there was. I guess it depends on what really happens to a soul when they’re sprouted. If Sal still exists, then maybe there’s hope.”
“I don’t know what to hope for,” Meche said. “I’d like to think that he could still have his rest in the next world, but there’s no hope in that for all the other people who have been sprouted.”
“Yeah, I know. It’d be nice if Hector were stuck here forever so he could suffer, but I don’t want that for Lola.”
Meche shook her head. “What a world we’re leaving behind.”
“No worse than the first one, I guess.”
“I don’t know what to think. I just want to get out of it.”
“We’re on our way,” I assured her. “Nothing can stop us now.”
On the fourth day the Number Nine pulled into the station on top of the temple at the end of the world. I was a little nervous as we approached, half expecting the train to dive into a fiery pit. Instead, the train rolled to a stop and we got out to confront the Gatekeeper. I opened the suitcase and showed him the tickets.
“You can count them if you want,” Meche said. “They’re all here.”
“How about yours?” the Gatekeeper asked me.
I took my ticket out of my pocket and showed him. “The company gave me one on the other end. Sort of a retirement present. And demons ride free, right?” I asked hopefully.
“Aw, Manny,” Glottis said, sounding embarrassed. “You know I can’t go with ya. I’m a spirit of the land and all that. I can’t ever leave this world.”
I really wasn’t all that surprised. Just bitterly disappointed. “I guess I got so wrapped up in saving people, I just assumed I’d be able to save you, too.”
“But I don’t need to be ‘saved’,” he protested. “I like it here! I’m not all alone in that basement anymore, thanks to you. I’ve got a new job, wrenchin’ for the LSA, and all these new friends… I’m a big demon success story!”
He was right, but it hurt to admit it, even just to myself. He had been the only constant in the last few years, the only thing I could depend on. Especially when I couldn’t depend even on myself. Still, there was no appealing fate. “So,” I said, “I guess this is it, then.” I held out my hand.
Glottis spread his arms wide. “C’m’ere,” he said, “gimme a hug!” He scooped me up and popped my spine in a dozen places as his massive arms squashed me against his chest. “You were the best boss I ever had,” he mumbled through sniffles.
The train’s whistle sounded and Glottis reluctantly put me down.
“You take care of yourself,” I said.
“Don’t worry, Manny,” he said. “I’ll be fine. And I’ll take care of the Bone Wagon, too. Every soul I meet, I’ll have them tell you about the races we’ve won. Promise.”
Meche and I went to get back on the train. While I had been saying goodbye to Glottis, everyone had been freed from the waiting room and were surging on board ahead of us. Pugsy and Bibi were swooping and diving over everyone’s heads, laughing and playing. They spotted us and dove around us, pulling Glottis’ ears and stealing my hat before Meche got them settled down a little.
Once everyone had boarded, Meche and I went back to our compartment. I was waving one last time to Glottis through the window when Meche put her hand on my arm and said, “Manny?”
“Yeah?”
“When we get to the next world…” she trailed off.
I took her hands in mine. “What is it, angel?”
“Will we still be together?” she asked anxiously.
There was only one answer to that. “You know, sweetheart,” I said, “if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: nobody knows what’s gonna happen at the end of the line, so you might as well enjoy the trip.”
THE SPROUTING OF DON COPAL
Life, Domino Hurley liked to think, was good.
He was never struck by the irony of that thought. The fact that he was dead had made very little impression on him, although it wasn’t a case of denial. It was simply that he was on the make, doing very well for himself, and that was all that mattered. His death hadn’t been a surprise. It had taken long enough in coming. The surprise was that he had survived it. He had expected oblivion, but instead found himself in a world not unlike the one he had left behind. It looked a little different, especially the people, but that wasn’t anything he couldn’t cope with.
There was one thing he did have a problem with, and that was the negative attitude of everybody else. When he was first brought to the Land of the Dead, he was told that he had been a bad little boy and that he had to work off some kind of debt. Work as a reaper, in fact. Domino tried to laugh it off, but the woman handling his case passed him along to the Department of Death’s training department anyway. At the first opportunity he went looking for a way out of the building he was being held in, but he couldn’t find any door that led outside. He knew there was an outside because he could see it through the windows. So, he thought, if he couldn’t find a door he’d just go out a window. But once he had that idea he couldn’t find a single window. He ended up—confused, tired and demoralized—in the training room he’d refused to go to just in time for the first session.