Read Online Spirits in the Wires by Charles De Lint - Free Book Online Page A

night, late summer, the sky clear above and full of stars. There was a bit of a wind and the moon was just coming up over the Tombs.
    I listened to his footsteps, timing it so that I looked up just when he was getting close.
    He started to give me a nod, the way you do when you meet someone out on a walk like this, but then he stopped and gave me a confused look. You know—he thought he knew me, but he didn’t.
    â€œNeed some directions?” I asked.
    I knew that my voice was just going to add to the off-kilter sense of familiarity he was feeling.
    â€œNo,” he said. “You … I feel like I should know you.”
    â€œI’ll bet you use that line on all the girls,” I said, smiling when it called up a blush.
    â€œNo… I mean…”
    I relented. “I know what you meant. You should know me. I’m the voice in the shadows.”
    I saw understanding dawn in his eyes and he got that look I was talking about, so cute.
    â€œBut… how can you be real?”
    â€œWho says I’m real?”
    Okay, so I was being a little mean. But I guess I still had some issues with him at that time, like how he cast me off when we were only seven years old.
    He leaned against the balustrade, looking like he really needed its support.
    â€œRelax,” I said. “You’re not going crazy.”
    â€œEasy for you to say.”
    I was going to reach out and touch his arm, just to reassure him, but something made me stop, I’m not sure what.
    â€œI just thought we should meet,” I said instead. “Rather than you sitting in your reading chair and me talking to you from the shadows. That’s starting to get really old.”
    He was studying my features as I spoke.
    â€œI’ve seen you before,” he said. “How can I have seen you before?”
    â€œRemember when you first started to keep your journals?”
    He nodded. “And sometimes I dreamed that I woke and there was this red-haired girl sitting at my desk, reading them.”
    â€œThat was moi.”
    â€œYou’ve been around
that
long?”
    â€œI’ve been around since you were seven and cast me off.”
    â€œI didn’t know I was casting you off,” he said. “I didn’t even know about shadows until a couple of years ago when I came across that reference to them in a book about Jung.”
    â€œI know.”
    A cab went by, slowing as it neared us to see if we might be a fare, then accelerating again when we looked away.
    â€œDid it hurt?” he asked.
    â€œDid what hurt?”
    â€œWhen you were cast off.”
    â€œNot physically.”
    He gave a slow nod. “Are you okay now?”
    â€œWhat do you think?”
    â€œI don’t know. You seem very self-assured. I got that from our conversations. You don’t seem unhappy. Actually, you seem nice.”
    â€œI am nice.”
    â€œI didn’t mean—”
    â€œI know,” I said. “You just figured that all the cast-off bits of you would make some dark and evil psycho twin.”
    â€œNot exactly that.”
    â€œBut someone the opposite of who you are.”
    He nodded.
    â€œBut you cast me off when you were only seven,” I said. “Lots of what you got rid of were positive traits. And we’ve both grown since then. We’re probably more alike than you’d expect, considering my origins.”
    â€œSo … where do you live? What do you do?”
    I smiled. “You know how you like to write about mysterious things?”
    He gave another nod.
    â€œWell, I live them,” I said.
    â€œAnd you won’t tell me about them because—”
    â€œThen they wouldn’t be mysterious, would they?”
    We both laughed.
    â€œBut seriously,” he said.
    â€œSeriously,” I told him, “I live in between.”
    â€œIn between what?”
    â€œWhatever you can be in between of.”
    He gave a slow nod. “Where