"You know what?" Gillian was on the verge of tears again. "I'm going to miss you."
He stood facing her. He was shining just dimly. His eyes were dark and bruised looking, but his lips were smiling. And he was more beautiful than she had ever seen him.
"Things are going to work out, you know," he said softly. "For you. Your mom's going to get better."
Gillian nodded. "I think so, too." "And I checked on Tanya and Kim. They're going to be all right.
Tanya's still got all her fingers." "I know." "You should go see Melusine. You could help them a lot with Circle Daybreak. And they can help you deal with the Night World."
"Yes. All right."
"And you might want to talk to Daryl at school. She's got a secret that Kim was spreading rumors about last year. It's that-"
"And-Gary!" Gillian held up her hand. "I don't want to know. Someday, if Daryl wants to tell me her secret, she can do it herself. But if not-okay. I have to deal on my own, now."
She'd already thought about school, all last night while she'd been lying alone in her room. Things were going to change, obviously. It was surprisingly easy to sort out which friends mattered.
Amanda the Cheerleader and Steffi the Singer and J.Z. the Model were all right. No better and no worse than any of the less popular girls. She wouldn't mind if they still liked her.
Daryl-who was not Daryl the Rich Girl anymore, but just Daryl-was better than all right. The sort that might turn out to be a real friend. And of course there was Amy. She owed Amy a lot.
As for the others-Tanya and Kim and Cory and Bruce and Macon-Gillian didn't really want to know them. If she never went to another Popular Party, that was fine.
"And I don't want to know if J.Z. really tried to kill herself, either," she said now.
Gary shut his mouth. Then his eyes actually seemed to twinkle. "You're going to do all right." And then, for the first time, he looked at David.
They stared at each other for a moment. Not hostile. Just looking.
When Gary turned back to Gillian he said very quietly, "One last thing. I didn't change my mind about killing him because I couldn't go through with it. I did it because I didn't want you to hate me forever."
Oh.
Gillian put out her hand. So did he. Their fingers were close together, blurring into each other... but they couldn't touch. They never would.
And then suddenly, Gary looked startled. He turned to look up and behind him.
At the dark, starlit sky.
Gillian couldn't see anything. But she could feel something. A sort of rushing. Something was coming.
And Gary was lifted toward it like a leaf on the wind.
His hand was still stretched toward her, but he was in the air. Weightless. Bobbing. And as Gillian watched, his startled expression melted into something like awe.
And then joy. Joy and... recognition.
"I've got to go," he said wonderingly.
Gillian was staring at the sky. She still couldn't see anything. Not the tunnel, not the meadow. Did he mean he had to go to the between-place?
And then she saw the light.
It was the color of sunlight on snow. That brilliant, but not painful to look at. It seemed to shimmer with every color in the universe, but all together the colors made white.
"Gary-"
But something was happening. He was moving without moving. Rushing away in some direction she couldn't point to. Getting smaller. Fading. She was losing him.
"Goodbye, Gary," she whispered.
And the light was going, too. But just before it went, it seemed to take on a shape. It looked something like huge white wings enfolding him.
For the briefest instant, Gillian felt enfolded, too. By power and peace... and love.
And then the light was gone. Gary was gone. And everything was still.
"Did you see that?" Gillian whispered through the ache in her throat.
"I think so." David was staring, his eyes big with awe and wonder.
"Maybe... some angels are real."
He was still staring upward. Then he drew in his breath. "Look! The stars-"
But it wasn't stars, although it looked like star-dust. Crystalline points of light, frozen beauty sifting down.
The air was full of it.
"But there aren't any clouds..."
"There are now," David said. Even as he said it, the stars were covered. Gillian felt a cool touch on her cheek.
Like a kiss.
And it was ordinary snow, just an ordinary miracle. She and David stood hand in hand, watching it fall like a blessing in the night.
[The End]