part vii?

"And for a time this girl shall not watcheth Dr. Who but instead shall imagineth things from her own brain and impose them on imaginations of others."

(I always save my spare parts, Mr. Mihuta!)


"Abel, why am I here?"


"Question after question after question..."


"Really, why did you bring me here?"


"It was supposed to happen."


"What kind of a––"


"Now we need to go to the bottom of the ocean."


"Do I have to go foot first again?"


"Question after question after question..."


"Abel!"


He smiled, took her hand, and then they were off. He wasn't going any slower this time, so while Pince wasn't being dragged by her foot, she still had little ability to look around her and get more than a split second glance of a school of fish. The speed helped once they were in deeper waters where there were sharks. Once a great white shark spotted them and had opened its mouth to invite them in but they had swooshed by before it was able to chomp its jaw.


"I wonder if I daydreamed about the movie Jaws (1975) so much I turned heaven into attack shark paradise?" thought Pince. "No, if it was my interest in movies that made this heaven Carl Theodore Dreyer and Johannes would live next door to me. Or maybe Ari Folman...or Chris Marker? Why don't I live in a neighborhood of people who worked at NPR or PBS? Where's Mr. Mihuta?!" For the billionth time she tried whistling the theme song to The Art Maker. She only managed lots of bubbles which caused Abel to look over his shoulder and raise his eyebrows. It didn't matter, she'd never been able to get the tune right.


Abel slowed to a stop. Pince couldn't see where they were, the water around them had been steadily growing darker as they got deeper and at this point there was little difference between having her eyes closed or open. Abel placed his hands over her eyes. "You have eyelashes, they tickle."


"Don't you?"


"No, I don't need them underwater."


After a moment he removed his hands and she could see. It was like camping out in the wilderness and having a few lanterns, she could see for several feet around her but the darkness still engulfed them making her feel tiny. They were floating just above the ocean floor where little worms were creeping around. She crouched down by them and watched them inch and nose about.


"Do you know what they're looking for?" Pince asked Abel. 


He sighed and pointed to their left, "We're going over here."


Swimming forward she saw a deep and long canyon materialize underneath her. "Is this the Mariana Trench?" she asked.


"That's in an Earth ocean."


"So where are we?"


"Heaven." He took her hand again and swam down to the bottom of the canyon this time bringing them both to stand on the floor. They walked along the canyon whose peaks disappeared into blackness. Strange neon lichens covered the rocks and the fronds of little red plants swayed around in the gentle current. 


After a while Abel stopped and pointed at the rock face. A door was cut into it which Pince regarded for a long time before turning to Abel, "Where does this door lead?"


"Open it to find out. Oh wait, and take these two pennies."


"Pennies? Oh jeez."