Quoted By:
>Piss off, gramps
And when you say "strange," you mean— bad. Weird. Mad. Who <span class="mu-i">is</span> this man to— to presumably orchestrate your kidnapping and your burial, to <span class="mu-i">spy</span> on you— you presume it was him doing the spying too?— and then to treat you like he knows and cares about you? He doesn't know you. He can't care about you. You don't know or care about him: you'd practically forgotten about him since the snake-party. Why? Because he was a fictional character, or at <span class="mu-i">best</span> a dusty historical figure. Not a real person standing here, standing <span class="mu-i">here,</span> pretending to— or not pretending, even. Maybe he really thinks he cares; it's just he hasn't realized you're not the Charlie Fawkins he remembers so well.
...If he really were so important you would remember him. This is what you are believing. Consequently he means nothing at all to you: you will ask succinct questions and leave with your dignity intact. Well intact. Before you can change your mind.
"Taught me what," you say flatly.
Henry grimaces and exhales. "So you— so he didn't?"
You have no way of knowing. "Didn't <span class="mu-i">what.</span>"
"..." He cups his jaw with his hand. "Then you pursued the interest independently? If he never caved, there's no way he'd condone— but you're down <span class="mu-i">here.</span> And you've already—"
He's speaking more to himself than to you. You don't care. "Answer my <span class="mu-i">question.</span>"
"I— I'm sorry, Charlie, I've been keeping a promise for twenty years. But I think this is a... a case he didn't account for, so..." More grimacing. "I was trying to ask if Martin was teaching you the Road."
"Your stupid cult stuff."
"Have we got off on the wrong foot? We're not a cult, Charlie. You always did like those books." Henry sighs. "But yes, roughly. I've been on this path for many, many years. As was your father until you came along, and then he... suffered a change of heart, I guess you'd call it. I thought once you got older, it was possible he'd seen the—"
"No," you say.
"Long shot. He was a stubborn one." He shakes his head. "Damn, I miss the old bastard. You didn't bring him with you, did you?"
Some of him. Rolled up into a tube. For portability. "No. Why are <span class="mu-i">you</span> down here."
"Why am I? Why's anybody? I carried on without Martin, got cocky, got caught out, got—" He mimics a big splash. "Didn't do much good, because I picked up straight where I left off. Even better this time, since I managed to find some smart people who thought the same way I did, and we've— we've been at it ever since, really."
"Here?" you say.
"Hm?"
"Here. In the— in the Corcass."
"Oh, no— you know our ol' Pillar's all the way over there, right?" He cracks a smile. "We relocated recently. I received some signs that this was the place to be, and here we are."
(1/2)
