How would God respond to making a mistake? Would planets collide or mountains slide into the sea? Or would the ledger of all life simply remain out kilter until a series of small events forced that ledger back into balance again? It's probably the l...
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DO a deer a female deer
RE a drop of golden sun
MI a name I call myself
FA a long long way to run
SO a needle pulling thread
LA a note that follows SO
TE a drink with jam and bread
Which brings us back to DO DO DO DO
I don't know whether I was thinking about that song or if Crow was really singing it. I guess it doesn't really matter because the words kept running through my head. DO-RE-MI over and over. Maybe it was just one of those radio things. You know, you hear some song that you thought you'd been singing. Then in just a second or two, you don't know which came first – the thought or the song. But regardless of which it was, every time that tune came around to LA, it made me sad. I know it really begins and ends with DO, but I kept getting stuck on LA. All the other notes were deer or drinks or drops of golden sun. All of them except for LA. LA was nothing. It was just a note that followed SO. And nothing could stop that tune from winding its way back to the same horrible sound.
LA LA LA—
"Starlin'! Hey! We be here too long."
I knew Crow was restless. It was our second night in the parking garage and I still hadn't been able to leave. We were crammed all the way in the corner of the fourth level. We weren't going anywhere, and neither one of us was happy about that.
"Here too long, Starlin'. Yes we is."
During those first hours, practically everything that came out of Crow's mouth sounded horrible. It was like one of those old blackface routines – the kind that became so exaggerated that you're sure nobody ever spoke that way. Except that we once did. When we were kids, we did it as a game. These days, it sounds awful, but back then we were too stupid to know any better. I don't remember how the silliness got started, but we used to talk like that when we wanted to annoy each other.
"Hey! Starlin'! We here too long."
here?
"Yes, course. Whatchu play dumb fo?"
I wasn't dumb. Or at least I didn't think so, but that never seemed to matter. The word was so familiar. How many times did you say it to me, Ril? Dumb or stupid or something like it.
"You gonna tell me, Starlin'?"
I shrugged.
"Excusé moi, monsieur. Was that a maybe or a maybe not? Un peut‑être ou..."
Crow waited for a second and then added, "Starling, which one do you like better – maybe or maybe not? To me, they seem really close, but they have to be the opposite, right? Maybe? Or maybe not? Which one do you like best?"
