Winged Memories
The Golden Ostrich


Back at the mansion I shrugged wearily out of my jacket and tossed it on the couch. No one seemed to know anything about a ghost named Schwarzwald, or else they were unwilling to tell. I had Dorothy ask around his old neighborhood, but they were none too eager to speak of their deranged neighbor. It briefly crossed my mind that I should search out Angel, but since she'd been fired it'd been just as impossible to find her as well. Big Ear may be right…

It was raining, away from the protection of the domes. I found myself walking out onto the roof, despite the downpour. There's something symbolic about standing in the rain in this city…it's like a desire to peer back into that time forty years ago when there were no artificial skies to shelter people from the rain. I wonder if this is why some people choose not to live beneath the domes…if the rain brings out people like Schwarzwald who search so desperately for their pasts. Do they see themselves as what they once were in those puddles on the street? Does the rain reflect their histories?

I stood there as the rain soaked through my hair and clothes until Dorothy came out. She was carrying my discarded coat.

"What are you doing?" she asked in her monotone.

"Do you like the rain, Dorothy?"

"It does not bother me."

"But do your memories of the real Dorothy Wayneright feel an affinity for it?"

"I do not like to think of myself as a fake Dorothy."

"I'm sorry."

"It's all right. I do not know what she thought of the rain, but it is nostalgic."

"I thought it might be…"

"You're going to get sick." She handed me the jacket. "Come inside. Dinner will be done soon."

I nodded and followed her back into the warmth…my answers were not going to appear in a puddle like Schwarzwald's.


As I was buttoning up a dry shirt, I decided that I should look over the letter again…his words may've angered me, but perhaps I overlooked some clue. I took my jacket off the back of a chair and reached into the pocket, but the letter wasn't there. I spent a few minutes searching the floor and beneath the furniture before it dawned on me.

"R. Dorothy Wayneright!" I yelled as I slammed the door open against the wall. I was certain I'd put the doorknob through the plaster at last. She looked up from her seat at the piano, the sheet of paper in her hands.

"Is it true?"

"What?" I asked, caught off guard.

"'Don't you want to know why you can pilot the MegaDeus? Doesn't it pique your curiosity that you're the only true god of this world?'" She stared at me with eyes devoid of emotion, but they pried at my edges nonetheless. "Do you think this is true?"

"It's nonsense!" I said. "They're just the deranged words of a man driven by something intangible."

"Then why did you hide it from me?"

I didn't answer her directly. I didn't know how.

"Why were you going through my pockets?"

"I wanted to see the letter for myself."

"I read all the important parts to you."

"But I couldn't see what he'd written. I understand now."

"Understand what? That he's insane?"

"No, I don't believe he's insane. He's brokenhearted."

I looked at her incredulously for a moment…an android talking about broken hearts…

"What did you find?" I asked, calmer. I sat down on the bench next to her.

She held the letter up to the gray light of the window. "This paper is watermarked."

I looked carefully at the insignia hidden so lightly in the fibers. "'Trinity Co.'. There's an old factory there that used to make this paper."

"Schwarzwald will be there."


author's note: watermark? WATERMARK? what the hell am I thinking? "shakes head" Please R&R!