The Thirteenth Tale 精彩片段：
JOAN MARY LOVE NEVER FORGOTTEN
Poor Aurelius. He was so very weary. He hardly seemed to notice as I slipped my arm through his. But then he turned to face me fully. “Perhaps it’s better not to have a story at all, rather than have one that keeps changing. I have spent my whole life chasing after my story and never quite catching it. Running after my story when I had Mrs. Love all along. She loved me, you know.”
‘I never doubted it.“ She had been a good mother to him. Better than either of the twins could have been. ”Perhaps it’s better not to know,“ I suggested.
He looked from the gravestone to the white sky. “Do you think so?”
‘No.“
‘Then why suggest it?“
I slid my arm from his and tucked my cold hands under the arms of my coat. “It’s what my mother would say. She thinks a weightless story is better than one that’s too heavy.”
‘So. My story is a heavy one.“
I said nothing, and when the silence grew long, I told him not his story but my own.
‘I had a sister,“ I began. ”A twin.“
He turned to face me. His shoulders were solid and wide against the sky and he listened gravely to the story I poured out to him.
‘We were joined. Here—“ and I brushed my hand down my left side. ”She couldn’t live without me. She needed my heart to beat for her. But I couldn’t live with her. She was draining my strength. They separated us, and she died.“
My other hand joined the first over my scar, and I pressed hard.
‘My mother never told me. She thought it was better for me not to know.“
‘A weightless story.“