The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

Six (Draft 3) "The Only Faerie Boy in New York"

New York City: last decade of the 20th century. These humans seemed to live as if it were the end of the world. On some corner, there would be that person advertising THE END IS NIGH. Like grasshoppers hopping to and fro, or ants toiling to live hand-to-mouth, the rest passed by with little heed, avoiding eye contact.

Mother said that New Yorkers were not so half in love with Death as Californians. New Yorkers favored slow decay.

Morpheus could see the decay over time. Masonry eroding in the polluted air and sea wind. Salt eating the streets and the vibration of constant traffic shaking loose bits away. Synthetic surface wearing against synthetic surface.

Grass grew back; concrete crumbled.

Glass eventually flowed downward and fell loose from its frame.

The Left Coast had their fits and starts, while New York City might sink to its last gasp.

A billion gallons of soft drinking water from upstate glacial reservoirs pumped into the city on a daily basis. 15 million gallons of groundwater pumped out of the city's labyrinth of subway tunnels. Stormwater runoff flowed into the very rivers that surrounded Manhattan. Not to mention all the waste and stormwater flushing through the combined sewers.

How could they enjoy the products of historic glaciation and not be aware of the hazards of sea-level rise? Did they really see time in such linear fashion?

"Are you even listening to me?" Mother asked.

Morpheus savored the last bit of bagel, cream cheese, and lox before swallowing. "Sorry," he said, "I was just thinking about bagels. You know? They let them rise slowly in a cool place and then poach them before baking."

Maybe there was something to New Yorkers liking it slow.

"Why are you smiling?" Mother asked.

"You don't want to know."

"Sigh. Do we need to go over the arrangements, again?"

Morpheus had been half listening. "This is Joy's final lifetime as mostly Human. She thinks she's known you for years and that you, she, and your Human roommate are members of Robert's Pill. Joy plays bass."

Said roommate, Elle Makepeace, was asleep on a couch where Morpheus had sent her when he entered the Brooklyn flat. Elle shared Mother's penchant for black clothes and eyeliner, but was darker of skin and lighter of hair. Morpheus hadn't been formally introduced, but inherited memory informed him Elle had met Mother in the earthly Los Angeles.

She knew about Mother, or at least enough to help keep other mortals at arm's length, so they didn't mistake Mother as a ghost or Djinn.

The actual Djinn, Loren and Hepburn, appeared as Maddalena Ciarrapico and Holly Golightly in stylish mid-century ensembles, as they unloaded shopping bags from East Village boutiques across the river, into the recently acquired flat in Williamsburg.

"Joy's in some closet of an apartment in Alphabet City for now." Morpheus said, "but we know where she'll eventually end up. I guess the point is to minimize damage."

"You probably understand better than me. Jibril only said it was our responsibility to watch her."

Morpheus didn't immediately understand Mother's implication, but there were only so many things he could really be better at. "Oh. Since you and I interacted with Joy in that instance of space-time, neither of us can change that. But, potentially, not having experienced the period between now and then, we may possibly influence how she comes to that. Or at least gather information to use after that moment."