Epilogue to A Tale Of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones.
The New Time-Ghosts
"But I want to see those new time-ghosts that Sam found!" Vivian Smith stamped her foot as she declared this for the fifth time that day.
"And again, I say... NO." Her best friend Jonathan Lee turned crimson as he said this, and punched the automat in irritation. A seaweed chew popped out, followed by a fig-drop. "Disgusting Eighty Century health-conscious rubbish." Jonathan mentioned as he popped the seaweed chew into one of his suit pockets and handed the fig-drop to Vivian.
Vivian popped it into her mouth and began crunching. She didn't know why Jonathan was being so secretive about these time-ghosts. They always made it a point to show each other any new time-ghosts they noticed, but this time, neither Sam nor Jonathan would show her where these new time-ghosts were. Had it not been for Sam letting slip at dinner one night, she would never have known about the new ones at all.
"I don't know how many butter-pies you used to bribe Sam to shut up about them but I'll get him to tell me soon. And even if he doesn't, I'll find them myself." Vivian said calmly, as she and Jonathan climbed the stairs up to Seldom End for their weekly tuition with Faber John. Even though Jonathan had passed his Leavers' Test earlier in the year with spectacular results (he had only got 1 out of 2342 questions wrong), Faber John had insisted on continuing his tuition as long as he hadn't started work in the Sempitern Office.
"You'll never find them, they're in a pretty obscure place" Jonathan said, in a rather tense way, "And I don't advise you to go looking for them either. They're nasty. You wouldn't like them. They're big and...and...scary!" Jonathan added as an afterthought.
"Jonathan Lee, have I ever been scared of any time-ghosts before?" Besides the fact she knew he was lying, Vivian was also outraged that he thought her a coward.
"Five years ago you were frightened of perfectly ordinary ones."
"That's not fair!" Vivian swung a fist at him. She knew he was referring to the time when she had first come to Time City, the time when she didn't know what automats, Universal Symbols, Matutinals, Time Locks, butter-pies, or time-ghosts were. It seemed impossible that she had once felt so out of place here. Five years on, Vivian Smith was a perfectly functional resident of Time City. It was impossible to tell by looking at the pretty and confident young lady that she had once been a frightened refugee from an Unstable Era.
"Look," Jonathan stopped at the last turn of stairs before Seldom End and turned a rather desperate and awkward face on her, "They're no big deal really. And...well, I saw them again yesterday and they're fading... I guess they're really weak once-ghosts. They probably won't be there after this week. So just forget about them. You should think about other things, like that Ceremony tomorrow."
Vivian gave Jonathan a long, hard, look.
He was munching furiously on the end of his pig-tail.
"All right, Jon," she said sweetly, "I completely believe you."
But Jonathan knew that look in her eyes well by now, and only prayed that Sam had eaten enough butter-pies earlier in the week to be put off them for life by now.
"I'm afraid Sam won't be attending the ceremony today, Jonathan." Ramona, Sam's mother, apologized as Jonathan swung by his friend's house to collect him the next day. "He's made himself sick with butter-pies. For the second time this week would you believe it? He hasn't done that for years, not since we restricted his credit on butter-pies to 5 at a go and now he goes and does it twice in a week. His father's still wondering who he got to buy him all those pies."
Jonathan paled. He had a very good idea indeed. And that meant...
"Good morning," Vivian said stiffly as she met Jonathan in the square where the ceremony was due to start in five minutes. She felt herself going red.
"Good morning," Jonathan said equally stiffly, noticing her flush.
There was an awkward silence as they tried not to look at each other. Jonathan cleared his throat, "Sam's not going to be here today, he made himself sick with butter-pies again last night, you wouldn't happen to know how he managed to get all those pies, would you?"
"Not a clue." Vivian coughed suddenly, and seemed very interested in the ceremony.
"That's all right then." Jonathan said. Then to change the subject, "Look, the ceremony is starting."
They both pretended to be furiously interested in Sempitern Walker carrying out an elaborate ceremony which involved librarians, golden orbs and plenty of marching. From a raised platform on the right, Faber John and his wife the Time Lady looked on, both with incredibly bored faces. Tourists cheered.
Suddenly, Vivian could bear it no longer.
"Do you think that was our first?" she blurted out, blushing furiously.
"Huh?" Jonathan turned and looked at her.
"You know. The new time-ghosts. I got Sam to tell me. I saw."
"Oh." Jonathan Lee grabbed the end of his pigtail nervously, but managed to remember not to chew. "Oh, that. Well, I don't know, really."
"I mean, maybe it was just a very happy one, or a special one, or a something really exciting had happened... but it may not have been our first!" Vivian said in a rush. She had to yell a little, because the tourists were cheering really loudly now.
Jonathan looked at his best friend. He saw the small, frightened girl from five years ago smiling at him, but she had also changed. Her face had lengthened and grown cheekbones. Her figure slimmed and curved in all the right places under the white-and-pink suit. Her brown hair, once mousy, now shone in a glossy fold over her shoulders. Jonathan felt his heart pounding as realisation dawned on him.
On the platform, Sempitern Walker, Jenny and Mr Enkian were doing what looked like an elaborate waltz around a bright red chalice. The tourists cheered.
Jonathan gently tilted Vivian's face up to his.
She was blushing furiously, but she smiled and did not resist as he brought her lips to his.
"I guess that answers your question," he said softly, as they finally moved apart. "It wasn't our first kiss."
Behind Sempitern Walker, the bell in the Gnomon began to chime as the time-ghost of the gold-guardian once again begun to make his impossible climb up the tower.
Back home, Sam swore he would never eat another butter-pie ever again.
Jonathan put his arm around her waist.
Faber John caught her eye and winked at her.
Vivian sighed with happiness.
The tourists cheered.
-END-