Bruce Wagner - I'll Let You Go

“My, look how full it is.”

“Over two hundred babes now,” he said.

She looked down at Edward’s plaque, void of his name. “How did that happen?”

“Something fell on it, years ago. Broke it in two. I told Joyce to leave it be — t’was an omen. I think she felt funny at first, but now she has left it. As she should! A very busy woman, Joyce — a good woman. But I don’t think Edward would have wished to stand out, no? He’d want to be just like the rest. ‘No favored treatment for me!’ he’d say.”

There was indeed a whirligig stuck in the dirt, with Edward brushed upon it in delicate script, along with the names of legions of others.

They walked toward the gate where her car was parked, and stared at Louis Trotter’s former plot. It was wide and green.

“Is it going to stay empty?”

“I’ve been talking to Katrina,” said Will’m. “Had a marvelous thought. What if the Westwood land is simply donated to those Candlelighters? For, God knows, there will never be enough space for the poor kiddies.” A gleam came into his eye. “And then I set to cogitating: wouldn’t it be wondrous to have another little parkland for these babes? If it were up to me , I’d stash the whole lot of ’em up at La Colonne — how many thousands of small souls might we there set at rest! I think it sits pretty well with Mr. Trotter now; I mean, having them here in the Westwood. Wouldn’t spring them on him up there just yet — no, ma’am! Might have ’imself a sore fit … but I do think he wouldn’t begrudge ’em that, not here, anyway. I think all’s forgiven — or is on its way to being — all round!”

She smiled and shook his hand, but he embraced her instead. He smelled like some great musky elf, and Winter’s heart leapt in her chest for the mysteries of the world. She watched him a long time in her mirror, waving as she pulled away. Then some children tugged at him, Lilliputians at Gulliver, and he went along.

Winter laughed as she sped toward the 405. It was an extraordinary idea, but she wasn’t as confident as Marcus that Mr. Trotter would approve — oh but to hell with it! Maybe she’d sign her condo over to the Candlelighters. They could probably fit a dozen in there.

She laughed again with wet eyes, imagining the entire cemetery, and broken tower too, overrun with tiny bodies — invaded by those holy homeless souls, thrown out before they were ever named.

BRUCE WAGNER is a novelist and film director. He lives in Los Angeles. I’ll Let You Go is the middle book of Wagner’s “Cellular Trilogy.”