Epilogue

Epilogue 0.01

    Of course, I don't know she's Comma yet. Actually, I don't even know she's here. As far as I'm concerned, I'm alone—and that's alone with a capital A. I hang suspended in a sea of white. Oddly enough, what I miss most is gravity. I mean, you just can't get used to floating in the air indefinitely; you're always expecting to fall. You have to teach your body to relax, and as soon as you do, you start to lurch and squirm and pitch and twist.

     So there I am, lurching and squirming and pitching and twisting like an idiot, when this girl flutter kicks over to me. Like she's swimming. She spreads out her arms and kicks out her feet, killing her momentum. Then she pulls her toque down over her ears. Her skin glistens, a couple tones darker than mine.

     "Hiya," she mutters, cramming her hands into her pockets.

     Something about her just throws me off. Probably the fact that the world just ended, and she just comes up to me and says "Hiya" like we're in third-period chem class. I really ought to say something. You can't just come up to a person who's just lived through the end of days and say "Hiya." I ought to really let her have it, you know? Say something like...

     "Hey."

     On second thought, she looks like a sophomore to me. It's not a freshman's place to talk down to a sophomore. Right?

     "So," she says, and it's a really loaded so—a thousand word essay crammed into a single syllable.

     "So," I repeat. I think that really sums it all up nicely.

     So.

     "Any idea where we are?"

     "How the hell should I know?"

     She looks at me as if she's the teacher and I've just given the wrong answer to a simple question. "Isn't it obvious? We're nowhere. The concept of place doesn't exist in this... non-place."

     "That's absurd. I'm over here, see? And you're over there."

     There's that look again. "How can you be so sure?" Before I can formulate a response, she asks, "How long have you been here?"

     I shrug, smirking. "Who knows? The concept of time doesn't exist in this... non-moment."

     She grins, flashing her teeth. "Now you're catching on. I'm Comma, by the way. You have a name?"

     Now I try to give her the look, but I don't pull it off quite right. Of course I have a name. Or I did. I was Bryan before, but in this non-moment, in this non-place...

     "Em."

     "M?" She raises an eyebrow. "That short for something?"

     "Yeah. Em-dash."

     Comma rolls her eyes. "Very funny."

     The nothing shakes. Comma pivots around, gritting her teeth.

     "What was that?" I ask.

     She's silent for a moment.

     "It's a glowdark."

     "What's a glowdark?"

     "Time to make like an Em and dash."

     "Dash?" I lurch and squirm and pitch and twist some more. "I can't."

     Comma shrugs. "Then I guess you're about to find out." Then she skates off, kicking her feet behind her as if she's wearing rollerblades. Then she's gone. Not here. So much for her non-place theory.