[Todd]
"Do you want to be on the council with us? Now that you're... y'know, not dead."
We're at the new cathedral, around a new table in a New Haven with Viola, Ben, Bradley, Lee, Wilf, Mistress Lawson and some other important people from the city. It was a lot more heartfelt than I thought it would be, seeing them again, and now that I can talk with them under a peaceful day...
I realise how much I missed them, too.
Especially Wilf, who even now, I can hear his clear and blank Noise, Noise that doesn't try to hide or lie, Noise that just tells you like it is.
And Lee, who Viola tells me was the man who saved her life once, shooting Mr. Tate before he could shoot her on the hilltop when the Mayor commanded his army to march one final time.
Who I admire now, even though he sometimes thinks of Viola in a way that makes me kind of want to-
He's a good guy.
And Mistress Lawson, the nicest of all the other mistresses. The one who wouldn't leave her patients even if you threatened to shoot her. Who even now, here in this council chamber, looks as if she's fretting over us even though we ain't sick.
And Bradley, who I've always liked, who Viola's always liked. He's smart and kind of funny, and he ain't afraid to speak his mind.
But he's someone who I still can't really look in the eye, because I see how he thinks about Simone everyday, see how much he misses her, see how he-
And even though he pushes the thought away everytime it comes, deep inside, I know-
He still kinda blames me.
"I don't want to join the council", I show.
"Oh... well that's okay, Todd. It's your choice after a-", Bradley says before I interrupt-
"I want you guys to come with me, to make a new town with me, maybe. To get away from Haven, from all of this."
They all look at me like I asked them to take off their clothes, dumbstruck at what I just said. And then I start feeling a little embarassed too, realising how ridiculous I sound before Viola speaks up-
"I know it sounds ridiculous, but I think it would be better for... for all of us. You don't have to come, it's just that living in a city for so long..." she takes my hand under the table, "I find that I agree with Todd. I'd much rather live in a village, with just a few people, people I know. People like you guys."
"And I've done my part here in Haven, too. I kind of want to return to my old life in Prentisstown. To be honest, it's all been rather tiring...", Ben shows, making it sound like it's the most reasonable idea in the world.
And when he says that, even I can see how visibly tired they all are. How much they've gone through and even though I've only been focussing on my problems for the past while-
I see that they've all suffered too.
They still don't say nothing to this, but I can see them thinking. And then Wilf says, "Like living in Farbranch?"
And I remember the lie we told him so long ago, when Viola told him my name was Ben and her's was Hildy. When we told him that we both were from Farbranch.
And even though we told him it was a lie, he still pretends our names are Ben and Hildy, just a boy and a girl from Farbranch. Still pretends like it's the most truthful thing in the world.
"Yeah, Wilf, like Farbranch. Just us, maybe with some other people that want to come along, too." And she starts looking hopeful, so hopeful that it seeps into all of us at the table, "We could just be farmers. We could pick crested pine and roisin fruits and sow wheat and we could get away from all this, get away from the bustle of Haven."
"And where would you want this New Farbranch, Viola?", Mistress Lawson asks.
And Viola thinks for a minute and she looks at me, and I nod because I know what she means.
And she turns to them, with a glint in her eye.
A glint of the future-
A glint of hope-
And she says-
"By the ocean."
***
It's the evening now and we're walking across the side of the river, up the zig zag road to the Spackle's camp, with Viola's hand in mine, walking back to our tents.
"Do you think they were convinced?", she asks me.
"Yeah, I could see it in their eyes. I think they're a little bit like us, too. You can tell they're tired. Tired of all this..."
We arrive to a secluded clearing, away from the main camp of the Land, near the Pathway's End where our tents are. I realise, however, that there's only one tent, and I'm about to ask where I'm gonna sleep before my face really reddens-
"Oh... sorry, Todd. I-I just thought...", and her face reddens as well but she's stifling a laugh and I can't help but smile and she doesn't take it too seriously so I don't take it too seriously-
And there's really nothing else for it so she takes me to her tent.
***
I never really realised how peaceful Viola's sleeping face was before. But now that I see it up close, I gotta say-
She's really beautiful.
We're just lying opposite eachother, laying on her cot on our sides, with our arms around each other's necks. We don't say nothin' much, we just look into each other's eyes with our Noise passing thru each other. And then pretty soon her eyes are closed.
And I just gently twirl her hair, but softly enough not to wake her. I can hear her Noise, even though she's sleeping, and it's mostly quiet but there are some flashes of past memories and faint kindsa feelings about me.
But then she starts dreaming-
And it's a nightmare, a terrible nightmare-
A nightmare of her stuck in the dark. Of her trying to reach out and see if there's anything that could help her, that could save her. But she feels nothing.
Until she feels something.
She hears something.
She hears me.
And she reaches out her hand and she calls out for my name and then she sees me in her nightmare, and I'm running towards her and I almost make it to her and she screams, "TODD!" but then I fall into the darkness with my hand outstretched and I disappear into the dark forever and ever and ever and her heart just breaks and she wakes up and her heart is beating fast and she's so scared and her breath is shallow and she's a little pale-
But then she sees me.
And she calms down.
And she smiles.
A smile so full of relief.
And then she goes back to sleep-
Just like that-
But this time she's in the nightmare again, and she's holding on to me in her dream, trying as hard as she can to not let go and I can see her face literally crease with worry and fear and so I think quickly and I pull her forehead gently closer to me and kiss her there.
And then the nightmare vanishes, and it's back to peaceful dream Noise, and her face uncreases.
And I swear I can see a smile form on the corners of her mouth, just slightly-
And I pull her head under my chin and I keep her there and her Noise kind of sparks in faint joy and then goes back to gentle, quiet sleep.
And I find myself sleeping too, sooner or later, I guess.
[Viola]
"And oh, I'm afraid of what she's going to suggest..."
I flip the last few pages of Todd's mother's journal, "And that's it, that's everything", I say. "A-are you okay Todd?"
"Wh- oh yeah, yeah I'm okay", he replies, wiping his eyes on his sleeves.
It's been around a week since Todd woke. His head is just laying on my shoulder and we're sitting in my tent in silence.
"Hey, Viola?", Todd asks, after a minute.
"Yeah?", I look over to him.
"Could you teach me how to read and write?"
I have to stifle a smile, because it's totally unexpected.
"Don't laugh-!", Todd exclaims, a little offended-
"No, Todd it's not that- of course I want to teach you. I was just smiling at something else..."
He sits up and smiles his crooked smile, "Really?"
I take his hand, "Really." I say.
***
"V-I-O-L-A, that's how you spell my name, like this..."
We're now sitting along some logs away from the falls, inside the forest, just by ourselves with a pen and book in hand.
"Now you try writing my name", I say, handing him the pen.
He scrunches up his nose in concentration (the way he always does, the way I've noticed him doing for a while) and slowly writes my name on the page. I can see him quietly sound out the letters and vowels in his head, and then shows it to me, spelling it perfectly.
I smile, "Now try writing a sentence, maybe something like, 'My name is Todd Hewitt'".
He scrunches up his nose again (I have to say it's really quite-) and he slowly writes the sentence, thinking about every letter.
He shows it to me and I read it-
'My naem is Todd Hewitt.'
I smile and look up at him, and I see his face is half-hopeful, wondering if he spelled it right and I almost don't have the heart to tell him he spelled it wrong-
But he sees it in my Noise anyway and his expression becomes a little disappointed.
"How about you trying writing another sentence of your own? Try something hard, it's fine if you mispell it.", I say to him.
He puts the pen to the page and scrunches up his nose again, (God, it's adorable) and slowly writes his sentence. He finishes his sentence and he smiles a little suspiciously. He doesn't show me the page for a few seconds, he just looks at his sentence, and then after a little while he shows it to me-
And I read-
'I lov yu Viola Eade'
And I can't stifle the huge grin on my face-
And I look up at Todd, his face half-hopeful and I just can't and I wrap my arms around him and after a few moments he asks, "I spelled it wrong, didn't I?"
"No... no, you spelled it right", I whisper, still smiling.