Children -- Fiction; Pirates -- Fiction; Sea stories
First, what agency had so ordered it that out of all the people in the
world who she might have been, she was this particular one, this Emily:
born in such-and-such a year out of all the years in Time, and encased
in this particular rather pleasing little casket of flesh? Had she
chosen herself, or had God done it?
At this, another consideration: who was God? She had heard a terrible
lot about Him, always: but the question of His identity had been left
vague, as much taken for granted as her own. Wasn’t she perhaps God,
herself? Was it that she was trying to remember? However, the more she
tried, the more it eluded her. (How absurd, to disremember such an
important point as whether one was God or not!) So she let it slide:
perhaps it would come back to her later.
Secondly, why had all this not occurred to her before? She had been
alive for over ten years now, and it had never once entered her head.
She felt like a man who suddenly remembers at eleven o’clock at night,
sitting in his own arm-chair, that he had accepted an invitation to go
out to dinner that night. There is no reason for him to remember it
now: but there seems equally little why he should not have remembered
it in time to keep his engagement. How could he have sat there all the
evening without being disturbed by the slightest misgiving? How could
Emily have gone on being Emily for ten years without once noticing this
apparently obvious fact?
It must not be supposed that she argued it all out in this ordered,
but rather long-winded fashion. Each consideration came to her in a
momentary flash, quite innocent of words: and in between her mind
lazed along, either thinking of nothing or returning to her bees and
the fairy queen. If one added up the total of her periods of conscious
thought, it would probably reach something between four and five
seconds; nearer five, perhaps; but it was spread out over the best part
of an hour.
Well then, granted she was Emily, what were the consequences, besides
enclosure in that particular little body (which now began on its
own account to be aware of a sort of unlocated itch, most probably
somewhere on the right thigh), and lodgment behind a particular pair of
eyes?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account