I set out to learn everyt could be kno tory and its telling are bound to anding  agents. Because t since tcook special deligime, hem.

    Lucracked o an older neigos as if lost. opped and talked to t yard. After c be Kivi and Blomma in ers guessed C aime later, our spies spotted alking to a ime,  to teering wheel, shoulders heaving as he sobbed.

    quot;,quot; Smaolacold us afterward.

    quot;I noticed as ; said Luc;t e, as if y of t and ure.quot;

    I asked t t they assured me she was somebody elses.

    Luc; anot;

    C t;Maybe two of ;

    Onions agreed, quot;Or ;

    Luc tte, let it dangle from ;ockless clock.quot;

    quot;ell pick t; Smaolach said.

    quot;o find out more about ?quot; I asked them.

    quot;Not muc; said Luc;tle sisters.quot;

    quot;Our Cs of prizes for playing music,quot; said C;tiny sel, or at least t; S tropo admire, its facade reflecting t.

    quot;I follo if tion,  very good. t fiddle.quot;

    e all laugime, told me many more stories of t large gaps existed in tale, and singular questions arose. as my motill, or  my sisters and ion.

    quot;Did I tell you ; Luc;e  our old stomping grounds by   at C t t;

    quot;tell trut; C;;

    quot;And old.quot;

    quot;And ,quot; said Smaolac;Youre better off ;

    ting up in tured  reminded me of Speck. I trudged back to my burrorying to find comfort in the hard ground.

    In my sleep, I climbed a staircase of a teps carved into tain. took my breat  my bones. Only blue skies and a feeps lay in front of me. I labored on and reacop, and tairs continued doain, impossibly steep, even more frig go back and could not go on. From t. Sransformed.  me as if no time had passed.

    quot;Soget;

    I could not say a h, she would disappear and I would fall.

    quot;It isnt as difficult or dangerous as it appears.quot;

    S t ttom. ts  alone ing for someto  floods to find  me. At first s at me and s. t, erasing t. From beneat, to fill er florong gossamer rope binds my limbs. Rising to my c, to my cers waso h and fill my lungs.

    I ars came into vie, I rose and stepped out of t space onto t orange gloarlit  t I could eady breat in tion dried and evaporated off my skin. ood still, I do not kno I ed someone to materialize from to take me or to embrace me.

    I  back to uck mid sentence at t o sctle Oscar Love. During my first visit beneat of  my former life and circumstances. Needless to say, my first story reeked of false impressions. I gat and t t my parents lived still and t t ters ural fatrue. And, of course, t story ten er waken my place.

    e started croubled man. ions  argument. Ages ago,  as rangeness increased, tory.  most of ime locked aes on lined paper. urning er. Onions t t a telltale unen stared into tance, as if to extract from to tered questions. tanced from t up in s, and s house as if looking for a friend.

    aking in t, I over ted a degree of privacy, but train.

    quot;Do you to, ourselves alone?quot; Onions asked.

    quot;If c t moment. Perracted or dro every kno infernal organ.quot;

    quot;But if you c ; Onions said, never more plaintive. I cougo alert to my presence and o s. t be brazen enougo try, and I resolved to keep closer cs before one migch.

    In t, to spy on one ribe. t alone, forgotten, and given a co live out , for after to resent time among us and fear t ot. But suc, became less important to us. e o make our own rules.

    I asked to find my moters, and at Cmas t last.  of us dozed, Cole ao toreets. As a gift to me, to explore my boyo find missing clues t mig more meaning. tood in t as solitary as it ons of ne a celebration aking place at my former  to to see t ter of tivities, a gray- in an easy cree.  from its outstretco top, scrambling over to ts bricks I still o touc, making it easier for o eavesdrop. My moto tyle,  instrumentation. o hear her again.

    quot;Give us a song, ; s;like you used to do.quot;

    quot;Cmas is a busmans ; ; ’ll it be, Mom? Cmas in Killarney or some ot;

    quot; make fun,quot; said one of ters.

    quot;Angels e ; said an unfamiliar, older man wed his hand on her shoulder.

    o to rejoin Cole one last look at ty, studied ters and scene for me, turned old tory t day, I o  my motails miginiest scrap of ne. I ree. Sers?  I  in tening to tory of tír na n?g. It is not fair to o miss someone for so many years.

    But t doo rue story of my imes letter by letter.  a single sentence  I o to steal more paper, and trasened to consume tale, I found myself tiring easily, early in t if I could string togeting riumpainty and procrastination.

    At times I questioned my reasons for ten proof of my oence. ories  of life. Id alk, and later all poplars outside my  of tc dragons and rescued trapped in oravagant deeds of my oion, Id ;Its only a story.quot; As if suc less real. But I did not believe ories ten do in time, to me te it doo s ale for cmare or daydream. Just as ories to exist, so do to give so te it to create meaning for my c ead of t, I could control tered. And srut lies belohe surface life.

    I finally decided to meet to-face. I  I no lines of ine. to aken a random score of music e, and left  I ed to confront o say goodbye, to my moters.

    I o to finisory. A man stepped out of a car and marc door of tired,   stoop to  tracted o gattered a stream of curses I considered pouncing out of t oo fragile to spook t nigead I squeezed to go about my craft.

    ing t summer, scolen from  and ernoons,  a sun-splasable. I could sense ed only by t, I climbed trapdoor and investigated.  spot in tack of books lay undisturbed,  slips of paper sticking out like tongues bet  titles on everyto a t;idiots savants.quot; Noted titles, but ive notes to himself on bookmarks:

    Not fairy but hobgoblin.

    Gustav—savant?

    Ruined my life.

    Find henry Day.

    to different puzzles, and I pocketed tes. In trated ttered about t a guilty pleasure at ed at t eventually ed  about ime to finising my book in t  evening, I packed ts in a cardboard box, placing a feop of t, and tter carefully and tucked t. After a quick trip urning one last time to collect my belongings and say my final goodbyes to te, I neglected to time. t   into t , but I stepped aaircase and began to walk home.

    ood not a dozen feet aly at me and ted instinctively, running straig o treet.  a single step. oe disregard for any people, crossed lazing t core in front of a moving car or t stop until deep in ting, laugil tears fell. to do er for t ory.