@@@@@And the ladder, although aslant, was still
@@@@@And the
ladder, although aslant, was still standingI
looked to my right and there was the moss-covered
Table Whiskey keg we'd come all this way to find
There were two toads on it now instead of one
They saw me looking and leaped into my face, eyes
bulging, mouths gapingI had no doubt that Perse
wished they had teeth, like Elizabeth's big boy
Ah, the good old days
"I'm okay," I said, batting the toads away and
struggling to sit upBones broke beneath me and
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all around me
They were too old and damp to breakThey first
bent, then poppedIt's okay
to drop it in the bag, just try not to hit me in
the head with it
I looked at Nan Melda
I'm going to take your silver bracelets, I told
her, but it's not stealingIf you're somewhere
close and can see what I'm doing, I hope you'll
think of it as sharing
I slipped them off her remains and put them on my
own left wrist, raising my arm and letting gravity
slide them up to the catch-pointAbove me, Jack
was hanging head-down into the cistern"Watch out,
Edgar!"
The bag came downOne of the bones I'd broken in
my fall punched through the plastic and water came
trickling outI yelled in fright and anger,
opened the bag, looked insideOnly a single
plastic bottle had been puncturedThe other two
were still wholeI turned to the moss-covered
ceramic keg, slipped my hand into the thicket of
slime under it, and worked it freeIt didn't want
to come, but the thing inside had taken my
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daughter and I meant to have itFinally it rolled
toward me, and when it did, a good-sized chunk of
coral slipped away on the other side of it and
thudded to the muddy bottom of the cistern
I shone the light on the