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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Chloe Gong
Read between
October 14 - October 18, 2023
They could fall apart and split onto sides at two different ends of the universe, but they would still find their way back here. There was nothing that could truly pull them far from each other.
“Because when people care about you, they hold on to you.” She squeezed once, then placed a small orange into Alisa’s palm. “I ask out of concern, not restriction. Be careful, okay? And eat this before you go anywhere. You’ll starve otherwise.”
“Do you have any errands for me to run?” Rosalind interrupted suddenly. Juliette appeared confused. “What?” “Letters to drop off, groceries to get, enemies to kill…” “First of all”—Juliette put her hands on her hips—“I have people for that. What’s going on with you?”
At last, at the end of the road, where there was no more room to muse about whether he was better off without her, she had to admit: getting him back meant everything. How could she bear it if she remained nothing to him?
It felt like she’d had new air injected directly into her lungs. Like she had leaped off a precipice expecting to hurtle to her death and grown the ability of flight instead.
“I love you,” Orion said in lieu of a reply, in perfect replacement of any straightforward answer. “I love you, I love you, I’m sorry I said so many stupid things. I can’t believe I asked why we couldn’t cross the Suzhou Creek.”
No longer observed by witnesses, he leaned in, and then he was kissing her to make up for every day they had lost, every week that had been stolen, every month spent torn apart.
“You are bound to me in matrimony. If you break it and descend into another plane of existence, I will chase after you and snatch you back.”
As infallible and brave as she was, Rosalind still needed him. She needed him as any person needed their burdens borne by another from time to time. Just as he needed her—and now that he had her, he refused to let go.
operative. I tried to convince myself that I was simply devoted to the country, but then I saw you in that cell and everything finally made sense.” His eyes dropped. “Of course I was committed to her beyond what was acceptable for the mission. I was so fascinated because I could see the parts of you in her. I’ve loved you this whole time, just split in two.”
He kissed her, and she recognized the tune even if the pitch was different.
“No more science,” he decided. “It doesn’t solve anything.” “It would have solved the fact that you’re bleeding to death right now,” Rosalind snapped.
“You need to get me more bullets.” “Done.” He kissed her temple, and the sensation overrode everything else that tried to cling to her with heaviness. “I’ll get you the world if you need it.”
“Your life is mine as mine is yours—do you understand me? You are not allowed to die.”
Fortune unhealing. Huntsman without the strength. The very world seemed to hold its breath at this change in its nature, but no skies were falling, and the ground remained even. Now they were mere people, civilians plucked off the streets.
“I didn’t hear anything before I woke up. I’m talking about what you said to me after I’d lost my memories. Eventually you’re going to leave. I won’t. I won’t ever. I just defied death itself to prove my point.”
“I’m settling for a compromise. I will refrain from being an attention-seeking menace if you let me be very public. The sky itself says I love you. I have loved you since we weren’t actually married, and I can’t bear another day living in a falsity. Please, Rosalind, put me out of my misery.”
The ground could break under their feet, the sky could wash out its blue, descend into ash instead. The next month lay uncertain, as did the very next day, but no longer was it time spent in the shadows, hidden without love.
“The ending [of the play] does not so much lay out a plan for social reform as celebrate a utopian moment of forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope.”
I can’t take away the eventual outbreak of war, nor the destruction that’s about to enter the city when the next invasion arrives. But in all darkness there are moments of recovery, a happy-for-now, and that was the truth I saw for these characters too.
We leave our characters during a period of peace, to continue onward with their lives even if they are soon to be surrounded by tragedy: as we all must do to some degree during our time in this world.
I had the time of my life being gangsters and spies with you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading.
