short:"Magpie" (4 of 4)

[part 3 here]

He didn't go to work Tuesday.  He had drifted in and out of sleeplessness.  Overeating.  He felt on the verge of sickness but nothing clearly came to hurt.  A funk.

He tried not to think of her.  Yet he made another outing Monday after work.  This time he did ask.  It's amazing how little people even pay attention.  The guy at the comic store said he didn't even remember me.  I've been going there every month for three years.

He switched to straight cigarettes, as much as he could not afford them.  He went through the whole pack ("stockade" cigarettes, the cheapest he could find in the vendie), sitting on his balcony, the sky knowing it wouldn't rain, but stayed grey anyway.  He went through his current playlist twice ("grey_18sep32"), almost two hours per.  Every part of him cried out now that she was gone.  His skin ached, his eyes burned, there was a mild, nagging pain in the back of his head, right above the neck.

He went to work on Wednesday and got chewed out for not making quota.  "You are non-functioning, Charlie, you are on the verge of being on assistance."  He wanted to laugh at that.  Everyone was on assistance.  It only meant getting a little less.  I don't care.  Who does?

...

The call came on Thursday, after work.  He was just getting a bit better, back on track a little more.  He was at his console and his phone glowed green.  Eversong Administration Plant.

"Yes?"  Glowing spring tides and butterflies came to him when he realized that Eversong had her: they would only call for that reason.

"Charles Johann?"

"Charlie.  Yes."

"We have her."

...

He had to wait until work was over but he got there right at dusk.  He tried not to look too anxious, but the week of worry had done enough.  She'll know that I missed her, then.

He walked into Eversong and had to wait for a technician.  "You should have had an appointment."

"No one told me of an appointment."

"You hung up before I could tell you."

He waited for an hour and forty minutes.  A kid came out, couldn't be a year out of university.

"You here for Magdalena?  Follow me."

When he walked into a little diagnostic room, she sat with her back to the door.  He didn't say anything, hoping that she would turn around and pour tears into his chest.  Her face was already half-turned, but she did not move.  She did not blink.

After a few minutes of silence, he saw the kid was staring at him.  He bristled in his skin.

"Where...?" Charlie asked, not knowing what to ask otherwise.

"As far as we can tell, she wandered all the way to the Cape.  There's a beach there that is all rock."

"Fleur Point."

He nodded then looked at his screen.  "By what I could tell by GPS, she was there Thursday afternoon.  She didn't move.  A park ranger found her underneath some rocks.  The exposure made a mess of her recorder."  He walked around her, still discerning, "I ran diagnostics.  I could see that she fell into rampancy spiral.  I know this means you both were very close.  I..."  He trailed off, they both knew there was a falling out.

Charlie just nodded and put his hand on her shoulder.  She was cold.  Her flesh was not the usual gelatinous feel, it was as if rocks were underneath the surface.  She did not move.  Her eyes were open, but cloudy.  There was no power.

"I'm sorry.  She was a grant?"

He nodded in response and that would end the conversation.  She was provided by the Counsel on a grant.  If you lose one, you cannot get a replacement.  Charlie would never be close to buying his own.  He was escorted out of the room, but he stood near a door where he could look in at her.

They ran a circuit to Maggie from a service port, which made her go into a fetal position, easier for movement.  They covered Maggie in a translucent bag and that was it.

...

They tell you to never to take pictures.  They tell you not to get too close.  It's a joke, they do this to control us.  They put us in a cocoon until we are broken and we don't care if they pull us out.

There were many pictures, he didn't realize how many.  He dug through two thousand until he found it.  The time they went there.  She wore her hair up.  It was a brisk day, but she only had on a black vertical shirt and white cut-offs.  She had these little, cute white boating shoes on.  She smiled at him and he remembered smiling back.

...

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