Mythworld: Invisible Moon by James A. Owen

Author:James A. Owen [Owen, James A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WordFire Press
Published: 2015-01-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Freya’s Day

It wasn’t until the next morning that they realized the real freeze had finally begun to set in; it took several men nearly three hours to free Fujiko’s ice-laced body from the spot where she had been found, frozen to death.

The same spot in the nearby woods where Meredith’s father’s body had been found.

Next to Fuji was an ornate, short, Japanese sword, still sheathed. On her other side, a bundle of recently placed flowers was encased in clear arctic amber; in her hands, another handful of blooms, and a crumpled piece of paper. Eddie Wallace and Vernal Solomon struggled to free the paper, and inadvertently snapped off two of her fingers.

“Uh oh,” said Eddie.

“Exclusive,” sang out Mr. Janes, who had tagged along (actually, the mayor made him go everywhere with the group, so as to ensure no bootleg editions of the Sun were produced, which would thin their already drastically reduced population). “Local idiot fingers corpse—killer still at large.”

“Hee hee hee,” chuckled George Daves. “‘Fingers corpse’—that’s pretty good, Chief.”

“Oh, shut up,” said Eddie.

O O O

Shingo had left the house before Meredith woke up, and was nowhere to be found. June was at Soame’s, when they broke the news. He bowed his head, and bore it as stoically as everyone thought a Japanese man would. Without a word, he climbed the scaffolding into the dome and began to paint for the first time since the crisis began.

It was shortly after that Meredith realized the source of the water puddling underneath the scaffold was not a leak in the ceiling, but tears, silent and flowing from above, where God was touching the finger of his creations.

O O O

The funeral was quick, at June’s request, and of the only type they could manage—the ground was too frozen to even consider a proper burial, although Hjerald brought a measure of dignity to the dilemma by suggesting that rather than simply erecting some sort of tomb, they give Fujiko a more symbolically respectful service.

There was no historic evidence to suggest that the Vikings ever engaged in sea cremations where the body was placed on a vessel and then ignited as the boat sailed out to sea. Although such a practice could have been possible, it was unlikely that it was ever widely used, and seemed to have been more a modern theatrical invention than an actual practice of Viking culture—much like that of horns on their helmets, it worked for Hollywood, but not much for historical fact.

However, in the situation at hand, where the ground could not be broken with a pickaxe, and resources to erect a proper mausoleum were scarce, it seemed a more fitting solution than waiting, and more palatable than simply burning her.

Meredith wanted to wait for Shingo, but no one was sure where he was, or how long he’d be gone. They wrapped Fuji’s body in fabric, and the men built a raised platform that they placed on one of the small boats that were still moored along the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.