2009 JULY 21

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On 9 June 2003 Love Lorde Wieber died in my arms.
On 19 July 2009 Peace Prince Wieber died in my arms.

They were both born around 1 May 1996. They were cats: Love was mostly black, and Peace was mostly light orange. Their names were originally Eightball and Joey, but one day when they were still very young my mother vetoed our choice of names and called them Love and Peace. She later gave them the middle names Lorde and Prince.

Love was extremely quiet. He wasn't shy or anti-social, he just didn't make a lot of noise. He was slender, and his coat was shiny and smooth. Peace was always rather loud. He wasn't an attention whore, he just had a really strong diaphragm. He was always a little fat, and he shed a lot.

On 9 June 2003 my cousins were visiting to spend the night. We went up to my room. Love was sitting in the window. A few days earlier they had come by spraying for mosquitoes, and he had gotten sprayed right in the face through our screen window downstairs. He had freaked out and run to hide under the bed, but other than that we thought nothing of it. As I entered the room, he jumped down from the window onto my bed. I came forward and picked him up. As I was holding him, he started stretching. I remarked that he looked adorable when he was stretching. He went limp.

I put him on the floor and started screaming for my parents. He was dead before I had put him down, although they rushed him to the veterinarian's office thinking he could be resuscitated.

On 19 July 2009 my father let Peace in from outside. He lay down in the doorway and started howling bloody murder and panting like a dog. He was wheezing, and I figured that he was trying to choke something up. He was making vomiting motions with his head. When we got the address for the veterinarian's office again, I picked him up. His legs were limp, and I knew despite my earlier assurances to my father that he really was dying. We rushed him there. The whole way I was trying to bounce him and meow at him to make him keep meowing. We ran into the office, and the inside door was locked. "Fuck you!" I screamed and kicked the door. I knelt on the floor still holding Peace while we waited for the doctor to come unlock the door for us.

Peace slowly raised his head. His eyes and mouth were wide. He let out a long wail, the cry of a dying animal. I've heard of that wail in books; now I know what it sounds like. He ducked and covered his head with his paws. Like a cloth being torn off a picnic table in a strong wind his life was whisked from his body in that very moment. The doctor unlocked the door, and we brought his body in.

2009 JULY 17

Text Edited
"DCLXVI" – [link]
"With Me" – [link]
"A Green Sky" – [link]
"Three" – [link]
"White Wastes" – [link]

Dedication Added
"Death" to Harri, who first read it – [link]
"With Me" to Hartley, who first heard it – [link]
"The Eye Of The Sky I" to Susan, who was with me – [link]
"Here Waters Break" to Rusty, who loves all things viking related – [link]
"Three" to Maria, who was with me – [link]

Title Edited
"Let Me Hold You," formerly "The Tragedy Of Ge" – [link]
"Lost To Gravity," formerly "The Swing Set I" – [link]
"A Splash Of Dawn," formerly "A Halcyon Moment" – [link]
"A Plume Of Water," formerly "A Sunset Plume" – [link]
"Under The Winding Rift," formerly "A Glimpse Of Heaven" – [link]
"Be Grateful," formerly "Philanthropy" – [link]
"A Stationary Rushing" formerly "The Onslaught" – [link]
"Renae I / The Scarf I," formerly "The Ruby Scarf" – [link]
"The Placid Feeds The Torrid," formerly "The Coming Maelstrom" – [link]
"A Head In The Heavens," formerly "The Cloud Head" – [link]
"Titans Of Vapor," formerly "Titans Of The Sky" – [link]
"Renae II / The Scarf II," formerly "An Eerie Red" – [link]
"Each One Sleeps," formerly "The Weeds" – [link]
"A Green Sky," formerly "The Red Sky" – [link]
"Renae III / The Anarch" formerly "Anarch Renae" – [link]
"Here Waters Break," formerly "Turning" – [link]
"The Light Of Ungotten Ones," formerly "Musings Of The Unbegotten" – [link]
"Wicked Are The Branches," formerly "The Riven Wood" – [link]
"A Force So Strong," formerly "The Swing Set II" – [link]
"Three," formerly "The Switching Colors" – [link]
"Those Monsters," formerly "At War With The Land" – [link]
"Renae IV / The Lion Boy I," formerly "Lionboy Renae" – [link]