The Bridge to Lucy Dunne

by Exurb1a

A dog might present you with some of his finest poops, but I doubt you'd award him the Pulitzer.

all the time. I don't control them at all, Novelty said.

“This is Greek,” Barney says. “You've just stolen a Greek myth.” “I know, I know, but wait. He cuts all their souls in half as a punishment and scatters them across time. So one soul – the woman part – is born in, I don't know, Beijing in the 1700s, and the male half is born on a space station around Jupiter in the 2500s. It's tragic isn't it?” “You've had an entire year,” Barney says quietly. “Wait. So, let's say a few billion souls are cut up and scattered throughout history. There's a very, very slim chance they'd ever meet. But every now and then, one half of the soul knows that its match is out there and pines for it.”

“Well, when that dies I'm never sure what to do next. It always seems like they’re this perfect match for you, the way they think, the things they say. But they never are. It's always something small, like them showing you up in a conversation with your friends, or choosing cooking shows on TV over actually talking to you, and you just think, This is horrible. This is absolutely horrible. And you know you have to get out.”

Lindsey puts her hand in his and her fingers are cold but his are too. That's a good thing, he thinks. To hold someone's hand in yours and know theirs is just as cold; to know a person by common imperfections.

“You're an idiot,” Lindsey says, in a matter-of-fact kind of way and sips her coffee. “Maybe that's why I came home with you, because you're an idiot. No one is guaranteed happiness. It's not a human right. It's a house you have to build yourself. Your family and friends can help, but they're all busy building their own houses too. You're just bitter because you built a shit house.”

Boundless hope turns to bounded acceptance of the true state of things, of death, of disease, of decline. And no god – whether it be Jesus of the bible, or Camilla’s deities down there next to Hvita in the valley – can fight it.