Cheryl\u2019s House drives her to distraction, of course. They are . . . not sensible people. But even so \u2014<\/p>\n
The camaraderie in the House of Dreams is the best thing that Cheryl has ever known.<\/p>\n
When Amber\u2019s experiments started changing her \u2014 when you couldn\u2019t touch <\/em>Amber, not any longer, without being flung about at right angles to your initial approach \u2014 it could have been sad and frightful, but instead Cheryl and Amber had gotten into a vigorous, all-night discussion of life, death, and angular momentum. They\u2019d come up with more ideas for the boot in that shared brainstorm than either had come up with in at least three weeks <\/em>on their own.<\/p>\n When Tom\u2019s reanimated deer-owl \u2014 his first attempt at bringing something \u201cback\u201d to life that hadn\u2019t died as just one thing to begin with \u2014 tore loose and hunted the House of Dreams through their own secured installation, instead of everyone panicking, it became almost like a game . . .<\/p>\n She wakes up one morning, crying over the hurt of the paper serpent, and she suddenly realizes it. It suddenly hammers down on her, <\/em>like a boot falling from space.<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t just her. Not just her and guns and nukes off of Little Ganilly.<\/p>\n Tom\u2019s hat has refined her into one thing, unique and apart from every other, but \u2014<\/p>\n She isn\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n \u201cI think,\u201d she says, and they\u2019re all gathered there, all they of the House of Dreams, \u201cthat I am wound into it. That I\u2019m part of it, that it\u2019s of<\/em> me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOuch,\u201d says Amber.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I am myself,\u201d <\/em>she says, \u201cmy own worst enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPoint of order,\u201d interrupts Tom, who has never actually read Robert\u2019s Rules of Order<\/em>. \u201cWon\u2019t the term \u2018worst enemy\u2019 become utterly useless if we can apply it even to ourselves?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cE.g.,\u201d says Tom. \u201cTake a dog.\u201d<\/p>\n Harold provides a dog. Tom blinks. The dog doesn\u2019t vanish.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s really<\/em> disturbing, Harold,\u201d Tom says.<\/p>\n Harold puts the dog away.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I mean is,\u201d Tom says, recovering his equilibrium. \u201cTake a dog conceptually.<\/em> What is that dog\u2019s worst enemy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA cat?\u201d Harold wonders, providing a cat.<\/p>\n \u201cNo!\u201d says Tom, waving away the cat. \u201cThat very dog!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is diverging from the core point of my presentation,\u201d Cheryl says.<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d says Amber. \u201cI get it! He\u2019s totally right. Like, the dog can chase its own tail. But can it ever catch<\/em> its own tail? It can\u2019t! That\u2019s not true for any other dog.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut if you shoot the dog,\u201d Cheryl says, \u201cbecause it has rabies \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n Everyone is looking at her.<\/p>\n She flails a hand.<\/p>\n \u201cSpoilers<\/em>,\u201d sniffs Harold.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t,\u201d says Cheryl. \u201cWhat. I didn\u2019t even say <\/em>I was talking about a particular movie.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow I probably won\u2019t even watch<\/em> The Sixth Sense,\u201d observes Tom, because the camaraderie in the House of Dreams is also the worst thing Cheryl has ever known.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t really watch the Sixth Sense,\u201d Harold says. \u201cYou can only intuit it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn space!\u201d says Amber.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think,\u201d says Tom, verging with an awful suddenness back onto a previous conversational thread, \u201cthat the gun counts as the dog\u2019s worst enemy, no. Or even the rabies. If the gun had the rabies, it wouldn\u2019t be the dog\u2019s worst nightmare but rather its salvation; ergo.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI see,\u201d says Amber. \u201cSo what you\u2019re thinking is, we should reserve the term \u2018worst enemy\u2019 for \u2018worst enemy that is not actually yourself!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cExactly,\u201d says Tom. \u201cLike, my worst enemy: my malfunctioning toaster! Otherwise, it would almost certainly be Tom. And yours, Amber, and Cheryl\u2019s Cheryl, and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cStill Keith,\u201d Harold says.<\/p>\n Keith high-fives him. They\u2019re enemy-bros.<\/p>\n \u201c. . . fine,\u201d says Cheryl. \u201cI will use the terminology \u2018In some fashion, my own efforts to destroy the paper serpent are simultaneously folding it into being. It is Ouroboros: its ending is its beginning, and I am trapped in the middle, between.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n She sighs. She rests her head momentarily on the table.<\/p>\n \u201cHm,\u201d says Tom.<\/p>\n \u201cHm?\u201d Her head comes up.<\/p>\n \u201cThen let us<\/em> kill it!\u201d<\/p>\n Cheryl is staring at him in shock. Tom is blushing. He stammers. He looks away.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean,\u201d he says, \u201clet us help. Help. Not, not do it. Just, help.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s my<\/em> enemy,\u201d says Cheryl, hugging herself possessively. \u201cI was just going to ask you for advice.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s my advice!\u201d says Tom, recovering his savoir-faire. \u201cLet us help you! I can even,\u201d he says, brushing down his pants leg, \u201cpress the final button myself.\u201d<\/p>\n She looks at him like he\u2019s eating Christmas.<\/p>\n But he \u2014<\/p>\n But they \u2014 They\u2019re all so hopeful. Their eyes are shining. They\u2019re like puppies, she thinks. Like puppies who don\u2019t know<\/em> what they shouldn\u2019t be doing. Who don\u2019t know<\/em> eating Christmas is bad.<\/p>\n Finally, with a slow, grave reluctance, she nods. She gives in.<\/p>\n For the sake of the paper serpent.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cFine,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n She\u2019ll allow her friends to \u2018help.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cheryl\u2019s House drives her to distraction, of course. They are . . . not sensible people. But even so \u2014 The camaraderie in the House of Dreams is the best thing that Cheryl has ever known. When Amber\u2019s experiments started changing her \u2014 when you couldn\u2019t touch Amber, not any longer, without being flung about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"series":[50],"class_list":["post-5924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vidars-boot-chapter-16","series-vidars-boot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Hat_1_blankbg.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5924"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5968,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5924\/revisions\/5968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5924"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=5924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}