Read Online Out of This World by Charles De Lint - Free Book Online Page A

drop. “Right.”
    I stand there for a moment waiting for him to tell me what he wants.
    â€œSome of us have classes to go to,” I say.
    I figure that might get me a laugh, but he just nods like I said something profound.
    â€œYou heard from Marina?” he asks.
    I shake my head. “We usually walk to school together, but when she didn’t answer my texts, I thought she was catching a few waves or … you know …”
    He cocks his head, waiting.
    â€œOr that she was with you.”
    â€œNo, I dropped her off near her old man’s house in East Riversea last night when we got back. She’s not answering my texts, either.”
    Maybe that’s because she finally wised up, I think, except then I remember the way she was looking at him last night and how freaked she was when we all thought he was going to die. Time to take the high road.
    â€œDid you try calling her dad’s house?” I ask.
    He chuckles without any humour. “Yeah, like that would go over well.”
    I dig in my pocket for my phone. “Do you want me to try?”
    â€œNah, it’s all good. I haven’t seen Ampora this morning, either. They’ll be along.”
    â€œNot together they won’t.”
    He shrugs. “If she gets in touch, ask her to shoot me a text.” “Sure.”
    â€œLater, bro.”
    I stand there for a moment longer than I need to before I realize I’ve been dismissed.
    â€œRight,” I say. “Later.”
    I add “asshole,” but only in my head because I don’t have a death wish.
    â€œDes,” he says as I start to walk away.
    I look back at him.
    â€œHow the hell do you have Donalita in your pocket?” he asks.
    I smile. “Sorry, dude. That’s strictly need-to-know.”
    He lowers his shades and studies me for another long moment before he smiles as well. Then he pushes the glasses back up again and he looks away.

I turn to look at Tío Goyo sitting on a rock in the moonlight. “What exactly are the Thunders? I thought it was a cousin thing, except it kind of sounds Native American, too. But you’re Mexican, right?”
    â€œNo, I am Toltec.”
    â€œRight. Solana told me about that. So, the Thunders is a hawk uncle thing?”
    â€œIt’s just a word,” he says. “You can call the creator God, or gods, or Thunders. It can be an old man with a beard, a woman with the moon in her eyes, maybe a whole pantheon, each responsible for this or that bit. Or you can say that Raven stirred his pot back before the long ago, and this world is what came out. Whatever expression you use, it’s just a way to describe what’s impossible to comprehend.”
    He waves a hand to encompass the whole of the starry night sky. “How can we even begin to imagine the being that brought all of this into existence?”
    â€œWe could call it evolution.”
    He shrugs. “The first people believe that Raven woke the Thunders before he made the world.”
    â€œWell, I don’t.”
    â€œWhat do you believe?”
    â€œI don’t know what to believe anymore. But even with everything that’s happened to me, it all sounds like a fairy tale.”
    He nods sagely, as if I’ve just said something profound. Then he takes out a pack of cigarettes and offers me one.
    â€œNo, thanks,” I tell him.
    He shakes one out for himself and lights up. Standing, he turns in a slow circle and lifts the cigarette so that its smoke rises up to the stars. He does that four times before he sits down again. He leans back against a rock and takes a drag.
    In the distance I hear a vague rumble of thunder.
    â€œThink we’ll get a storm?” I say.
    He only smiles and exhales a stream of smoke.
    â€œSo what do you think?” he asks. “Is what happened to you purely random, or did somebody plan it?”
    â€œI have no idea.”
    He nods. “I would guess random. If