Page 61 of Exquisite Things

Oliver is angry with me. Again. He blames me. He has every reason to. “I told you we should go home. I knew there was something

sinister in that limousine. I could see he was staring at us.” I begin to pack a small bag. Throw some of my clothes inside.

Some of Oliver’s too. Oliver takes his clothes out. Puts them in a different bag. “Wherever we’re going, we’re not going together.

It’s over. Our little experiment failed. We can’t be happy in our prime.”

“Maybe this isn’t our prime.” I open up the floorboard. Pull our journal out. “Maybe our best is yet to come.”

“JUST STOP.” He unleashes decades of resentment at me. “Look around. You’ve been waiting since the nineteenth century for

some fictional perfect time when we can live free of hate. Where is it? When is it coming?”

I open the journal. Read one of his notes aloud. “ I didn’t think it was possible, but the world has gone from minor to major. ”

“Those were the words of a fool.” He takes the journal from me. “It’s all getting worse. Open your eyes. It’s never getting

better. Our people are dying, and nobody cares. They’ll exterminate us when they get the chance.”

I snatch the journal back. Read more of his words back to him. “ I’m watching you sleep as I write this. You look so peaceful and beautiful. Lily is frying up fritters downstairs. Maud is

in the shower. It’s the simple things, isn’t it? ”

“You’re only proving my point.” Oliver grabs the journal again. Throws it into his bag this time. “We’ll be fooled into thinking

things are better. That we can be happy. And just when we think the worst is behind us, they’ll strike. They’ll attack us.

Burn our books. Ban our music. Shame our youth. Make us hate ourselves so deeply that we’d rather be dead than alive. They’ll

turn us against each other.”

“Don’t let them!” My voice cracks. My throat feels raw. “Don’t let them turn us against each other.”

He places his hot palm on my moist cheek. I’m sweating. Delirious with fear. Anxiety. Panic. “I’m not against you. I’m not.”

He places a gentle kiss on my lips. “A part of me will always love you.”

“And a part of you will always hate me?”

He nods. “Let’s say goodbye now. Before the hate grows any bigger. Before we destroy more than we’ve already destroyed. Before

we put Lily and Maud and Archie in danger.”

Lily’s voice. “What danger?” Oliver and I turn to see Archie, Lily, and Maud standing in our doorway.

Archie steps forward. “I told Lily and Maud everything. They deserve to know. Lily doesn’t believe me.”

“If what they say is true—”

Maud interrupts Lily. “It’s true. Ever since they saved my life from the fire and emerged unscathed—”

Lily stops her. “What fire?”

“I-I’ll explain all that later.” Maud stares at us with moist eyes. “I knew something was different about them. But this... Immortality and eternal youth? Being chased by the biggest pharmaceutical company in the world? It’s madness.”

I pull out the single remaining page from the manuscript I’ve kept on me all these years. “Listen to me. I’m not Jack Whitman.

I don’t have research teams at my disposal. But I know that if this page burns, at least one person who sincerely wishes for

it will be granted immortality. Maybe all three of you could be. I’m not certain. But imagine... All of us. Traveling into

the future together. A family. The best mother any family could ask for.” I see a tear travel down Lily’s cheek. “A father

figure like no other. The daddy to end all daddies.” Archie can’t help but giggle sadly. I turn to Maud. “And a sister I never

want to say goodbye to.”

Lily approaches me carefully. She’s just found out I’m immortal. Unbreakable. And yet she treats me like I’m suddenly fragile.

“My sweet boy, you were never properly loved as a child. You don’t understand a thing about life.”

“I’ve been alive longer than anyone here. I’ve seen the cycle of time.” I hear the desperation in my voice.

“Look at you, playing the really big brother card.” Maud is joking. No one laughs.

Lily takes my hands in hers. Clutches them. “You may have been here longer than me. But you’re still a child. An unloved child

who thinks he can remake the world in his image.”

“No, listen to me. We can all be in this together. If you come with us, maybe Oliver won’t leave me.” I turn to Oliver. “Tell

them, Oliver. Tell them to come with us. You’ll stay if they do, won’t you?” Oliver won’t even look at me. “Oliver, say something!”

What he says is: “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”

Lily takes my chin in her hand. Shifts my face so I’m facing her again. “What have you learned about life, about love, about family, in all these years?”

“I—I don’t know— That love is the only thing worth living for. Not just romantic love. All of it. The love of family. Of community.

The love we feel for a poem or a song or a moment in time. The love I feel for you, Lily. I’m not ready to say goodbye. I’m

not ready to let go. I want what we had to last forever.”

Lily’s lips tighten. “What we had is already gone.”

“No!” I bury my face in her chest. She holds me close. Comforts me for the last time. “No, it’s not. It can last forever.”

“My sweet child.” Lily takes a deep breath. I can feel her chest rise and fall. Her glorious heartbeat. Her power. Her will

to create a life no one laid out for her. To pave a new path. To create love from the rubble of pain. “Nobody ever taught

you the most important lesson before it was too late.”

“What lesson?”

“That life only has meaning because of death. That love can only truly be appreciated because we know hate all too well. That

beauty must fade. That’s what beauty is.”

“But you—you fill your bathroom with antiaging creams and shampoos!”

Lily laughs. “True. But that doesn’t mean I want to be alive forever. It only means I want to look as good as possible while

I’m here.”

I turn to Archie. “Tell her, Archie. You must know what’s happening. We’re dying. This is a way to survive.”

Archie shakes his head. “Lily is right, Bram.”

Maud nods. “Lily is always right.” Maud approaches Oliver.

She pulls him into a wretched embrace. Wretched because it’s so full of longing.

Because she’s saying goodbye. “You two need to leave now. Before Jack starts looking. Don’t write or call.

They’ll track you down. The less we know, the better. ”

I fall to the floor. I want to become one with this house. This stained carpet. This chipped paint. I don’t want eternal youth

anymore. What I want is to stop time. Here. Now. An eternal present on this very day.

Lily joins me on the floor. Sits with me. “I don’t know what comes next, but I know this. We must love the life we’re given.

It’s our most important job. And when our time is up, we must hand the world over to a new generation. We must give them our

passions, our lessons, our art, our loves, our losses. We must give them our souls and hope they can find the same happiness we once did. Hope they’re as lucky as we once were.”

Oliver sits down too. “Lucky?” His face is ashen.

Archie sits cross-legged. “Of course we were lucky. Look at what we’ve had.”

Maud sits too. “More than most.”

Changeling paws at Oliver’s calves. He picks his beloved cat up into his arms. Looks deep in Lily’s eyes. “Take good care

of Changeling.”

Lily nods. We hold hands. I close my eyes. Imagine we’re around a campfire. But there will be no fire today. No burning page.

Our family won’t exist after today. But we lived. We truly lived.