Unmaking Percy

Part III - VII, continued (The Dizzy Tent)

She pointed to a small wooden platform that cropped out of the walkway, halfway between the deck and the tent. A single figure stood there, hunched under the moon.

Percy was there in a second. He had to cross the entire deck, walking along the full length of the stage, all while navigating the tightly packed crowd; but he did so with an urgency that was as obvious to any who saw him as it was unseen by himself.

When he reached the platform, he saw Evans leaning over the wooden railing like a seasick man. His body shivered in a cold wind that was his alone, and his chest was rocked by a frenzied, erratic breathing. There was moonlight dusted on his hair, and he seemed to Percy to be made entirely of glass.

Percy stepped forward, announcing his presence before he had even thought of how he might best fit into that moment. It was unlike him.

Evans raised his head. There were tears running in silver streaks down his cheeks. "I'm sorry, I'll... go. Shall I go?" Percy stumbled.

"Why would I want you to go?" Evans asked, bewildered. His voice was both steady and quivering, like the rim of a glass singing under a fingertip.

Percy might yet live to see a flying beaver, a three-headed ogre, and a tap-dancing snail – in fact, he counted on it. But he doubted he would ever see something as strange as the chosen one, vulnerable before him, crying without seeking to hide it.

"Well... I was just thinking of myself in your position. I might not want someone to see me like that."

Evans looked at him in silence for a long while, as though trying to decipher an incomprehensible riddle.

"I would rather be spared a witness" Percy clarified.

"You mean you would deny yourself a friend."

Percy stared at him. He had felt the blow, and he reeled from it now, though he did not even know where it had struck exactly.

"Percy, I want you to stay. You can see me. You're my friend; I know you won't think badly of me for witnessing this. Why would you? If anything, I was more concerned about what you'd think of me earlier."

"Earlier?"

"On the stage. When I spoke to the others. I worried you might think it was... self-centred, perhaps."

Percy had often heard said the world had seven wonders. He had never guessed the eighth would be to have Evans care about what he thought.

"No, I never thought that" he murmured. "It was clear you did it reluctantly."

"Oh, gods" Evans chuckled, ruffling his hair back with his hand. "Was it that obvious? I'd like to explain why I did all that, if – "

"Wait" Percy heard the word spring from him unbidden.

He felt the world around him wait. Even the moon stilled, no longer swaying its reflection gently on the lake-waves.

"Before I get a chance of making any more excuses for myself... I'm sorry" he said. "For what I did. I only meant good by it. I know that doesn't matter, or change much. But I promise you, I did."

Evans turned a smile at him.

"It does matter. And it does change things. If I wasn't so certain you didn't mean any harm, I wouldn't be so quick to forgive you."

"So you... have forgiven me?"

"Yes. Although Valeria says I shouldn't forgive others so easily. She says it will get me into trouble one day."