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Reply and I will write the ending of a library book you lost before you had a chance read.
The sound of the waves crashing against the shore, which had lulled her into slumber so often over the long summer, receded into the distance. Autumn was coming, which meant it was time to go to work. All those leaves weren't going to paint themselves.
All of the octopuses, save one. And though Eustace would never be able to prove it, he suspected that what it had seen of the commodore's end could well have rocked the very foundations of the monarchy, had it been told.
And Olivia? She had her parsnips.
And Olivia? She had her parsnips.
Three small seeds fell out.
Not a whole lot by any measure, but three times as many as Abigail had brought over in the toe of her boot.
it would have to be enough. The world did not often give one another chance to have another chance.
Not a whole lot by any measure, but three times as many as Abigail had brought over in the toe of her boot.
it would have to be enough. The world did not often give one another chance to have another chance.
The fires still burning on the eastern horizon created the impression of a second sunset. The singing of the insects and the night birds and the frogs created a chorus, and I tried to remember every detail of it.
I would never go back that way again.
I would never go back that way again.
I watched the taillights drift upwards and then disappear over the top of the hill, then walked back across the yard, up the steps, and into the house. I walked slowly, but with purpose, towards whatever happened next.
I hung up the phone, picked up the controller, and, after several long seconds of hesitation, pressed the start button. The game unpaused.
My marriage was over.
My journey across World 3-2 was only beginning.
My marriage was over.
My journey across World 3-2 was only beginning.
Like waves crashing against the shore, the waves crashed against the shore. I stood there, still as a person on a shore watching waves, and wondered what she had meant when she said I had no imagination. I couldn't imagine it.
"Hello?"
There was no answer.
Slowly, hardly daring to breathe, Juniper reached for the light switch with one hand, the drawer with the gun in it with another, and the phone with a third.
It was the wrong day to mess with Juniper Jeffries.
There was no answer.
Slowly, hardly daring to breathe, Juniper reached for the light switch with one hand, the drawer with the gun in it with another, and the phone with a third.
It was the wrong day to mess with Juniper Jeffries.
"The thing that baffles me, detective, is if the killer didn't take the Bramwell cup, what happened to it?" Lady Haskell asked.
"With all due respect, Lady Haskell," Bryce replied, "a better question is, what are we going to do with all these avocados?"
"With all due respect, Lady Haskell," Bryce replied, "a better question is, what are we going to do with all these avocados?"
Nothing really lasts forever, but nothing ever truly ends.
Except for books, which do so with alarming regularity.
This was not the last journey of the Lux Gastropod Limited, simply the last page of the one you've been reading about.
Except for books, which do so with alarming regularity.
This was not the last journey of the Lux Gastropod Limited, simply the last page of the one you've been reading about.
No one was sure where the new statue had come from, nor who had commissioned it or made it. Some called it guerrilla art, others called it anonymous philanthropy.
Everyone agreed it made for a considerable improvement over the previous one.
Everyone agreed it made for a considerable improvement over the previous one.
"And is it enough now?"
She closed her eyes.
"It will never be enough," she said. "But it will have to do, just the same."
She closed her eyes.
"It will never be enough," she said. "But it will have to do, just the same."
They had started the school year as strangers, then became rivals, then enemies, then lab partners, then enemies again, then rivals but in a different pursuit, then strangers for a bit more, and then enemies one more time, but now they parted as friends.
There was only one more door left to be opened, and it was the smallest door of them all: the door to the tiny dollhouse inside the dollhouse that was already fairly small to begin with, even considering it was a dollhouse.
And for as long as anyone lived in the valley to know it, the ravens continued to meow.
It was the end of childhood and the start of something new, and they knew in that moment they would never see the pie plate again.
But what the bus driver saw at the end of the alley is a different, altogether much better written, and more interesting story.
As cold, briny water rushed into the hold, Ludwig closed his eyes and relaxed, completely at peace for the first time in longer than he could remember.
They never did find the body, but they found something much better instead: each other.
The love of a good man, Edith had decided, might have had its fair points, but at the end of the day you couldn't dance to it, and that was that.
There were other cupboards still, in other rooms, and what we found there...
Well. Let's just say it kept us busy on alternate Tuesdays for quite some time.
Well. Let's just say it kept us busy on alternate Tuesdays for quite some time.
And for once, it turned out that the real friends we made along the way was the treasure.
The last embers of the fire were dying away by the time we finished.
We found a few more good logs and started again.
We found a few more good logs and started again.
"You have to get up much earlier in the morning to fool Anniversary Daguerreotype, Inspector."
And I'm going to stop there for now.
And that was how we solved the case of the missing baker. We had to return the client's money, of course. Even if we could have told them, they never would have believed us. But we told them Stephanie was happy and safe, and we had the bread to prove it.
We stood, staring across the aisle in silence, for a long time. The sounds of cats and rats fighting slowed and then died entirely. With a nod from her and a nod from me, we both took our leave of the abandoned church, no more wealthy but slightly wiser.
What had it all been for? We would never know. We could count the dead on the field and the cost in gear and services. The gains were harder to measure.
"Forget it, kid," she said. "We were the right people in the right place, wanting the right things for all the right reasons. You said the right words. I wore the right hat. But it didn't matter, because we had the wrong monkey."
I was so tired everything seemed impossibly out of reach, including falling asleep. I couldn't walk, I didn't think, only stumble slightly forward. So I did that, again and again, catching myself by putting one foot out in front, until at last I was home.
When the world had faded completely from view, what faded into sight in its place was... something else.
I hoped it would be better.
I hoped it would be better.
I keep thinking to myself, "Wow, I keep coming up with ones that are so final. End of relationships, end of fights, end of the world..." and then I remember that, oh, right, I'm writing endings.
"You rigged the contest from the start," I said.
"I didn't have to. Not wen I could rig the players."
"Don't you ever get tired of this?" I said. "Tired of the lies, the tricks, the manipulations?"
"Doesn't matter if I am," he said. "I'm rigged, too."
"I didn't have to. Not wen I could rig the players."
"Don't you ever get tired of this?" I said. "Tired of the lies, the tricks, the manipulations?"
"Doesn't matter if I am," he said. "I'm rigged, too."
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
"Nothing I said has been for myself. What I said, I said for my country, and for the Arizona Atomic Lizard Hatchery LLC. That's what it means to be a spokesperson. I spoke, you bought, and by God, we all paid."
"Nothing I said has been for myself. What I said, I said for my country, and for the Arizona Atomic Lizard Hatchery LLC. That's what it means to be a spokesperson. I spoke, you bought, and by God, we all paid."
The trees looked up to the stars, the stars looked down at the trees, and both agreed it was best to stay where they were, though they would always remember that one, brief moment when there had been fallen leaves flitting through the heavens.
