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Brood of a New Age
111.
Barbara Delphine Wilson had imagined her life differently. As a girl who practically grew up in the shabbiest mud puddle among the shabbiest " settlements" in Louisiana, there was only one way to go. Upwards. Yes, she had made it to New York - actually far too cold for her liking in winter - but she managed. Yes, she had landed her "prince charming" through a hasty pregnancy. As loyal as Andrew (Glasses) was to Tony, he was just as decent to the mother of his child. His children. She liked the relative affluence in which she lived. But she hated that her husband's business regularly brought him to prison. And now he was even in hospital and would go straight from there to Singsing. Of course the Dracons' lawyers would fight for him and Tony as they always did. But every time this fear, every time this worry.
And ever since Tony's little bastard had turned up, Sonny had been so stubborn. Yes - basically everything bad had started with her appearance (if you didn't count Sonny's " sexual orientation" as a bad thing, although of course it was a bad thing). The thought that her son was more of her bloodline than her husband's had been a sore spot with Bunny since his birth. She had managed not to raise him to be a freak - to make him cautious and discreet from an early age. And then he openly admitted to liking boys - something that was far from unusual in her Louisiana swamp family. Damn, she just wanted to lead a normal life. Safe, fancy house, always a full bank account, electricity and running water, and kids who could fit in anywhere. Not just blending in with their surroundings and deceiving others - but really being like the others. Was that too much to ask?
She pulled another Klennex from the pack and blew her already sore nose. Andrew hadn't even called her yet. She was so devastated. What if the state froze all the accounts again? Andrew almost died! Those gargoyles always ruined everything. Graziella Dracon ruined everything.
No sooner had she thought that than the phone rang in the hallway. She looked at the clock. It was two o'clock in the morning! No way a call from Andrew. Or ... had they somehow bribed the guard at the hospital? Bunny jumped out of the bed she had spent the whole day in. But because her only company had been two bottles of wine, she stumbled more than she managed to stand upright in the hallway. Sonny was just about to pick up the phone when Bunny pushed him aside.
"Baby!" she cried into the phone and whimpered.
Icy silence on the other end that crawled through the receiver straight into her ear. It was a cordless phone but Bunny didn't even think of moving. She felt her eldest's gaze on her.
"Baby are you okay? I love you. We'll work it out," she babbled.
Someone on the other end of the line exhaled. Then the bright but impatient voice of a child. Not just any child.
"Barbara. Get Sonny on the phone."
The receiver almost fell out of her hand. "What? Graziella?"
Bunny's gaze found her son's, who must look as surprised as she was. He held out his hand and she took a step back.
"What do you want, Graziella? How are you-? I've seen you in the footage."
"Yes. I'm glad you recognized me. Not everyone succeeds in doing that right now," the child said precociously with a mixture of dissatisfaction and impatience. "Get Sonny on the phone, I need him."
"What are you doing? Are you-? Where are you calling from?"
"I'm telling my right hand, not you, Barbara. Give him the phone, I know he's standing next to you."
"Right hand?"
Barbara looked back at her son - who was staring at her - a barely perceptible, tiny smile on his lips and still holding out his hand. Bunny wrinkled her nose in hatred and didn't know who she was more annoyed with. Her son or the little witch.
"I don't give a shit about you, Graziella Dracon. You've ruined everything good," she hissed into the earpiece. She had never spoken to a child like that before. But she had never met a child like Graziella either. She sometimes hit Sonny and accepted that her husband hit and insulted Sonny. But she didn't talk like that herself.
But the girl she had hoped was dead just laughed coolly and said:
"Barbara. Give him the phone or I swear I'll be in Hoboken in three quarters of an hour and you don't want me in your fucking house this angry! I had a fucking iron rod in my leg. I'm drugged and I look like the boogie man himself. But I swear I have enough strength and energy to kick your fat ass. I speak with my right hand in three - two -o-"
Bunny handed Sonny the phone and stepped back. While he took it quietly she hugged herself and tried to make sense of what she was seeing and hearing.
She saw her son smile for the first time in a long time. What was going on between him and this girl? She knew the little bitch had taken a liking to Sonny and Barbara hadn't thought that was a bad thing - she was Dracon's daughter and it was always good to get along with any member of the family and make yourself indispensable to them. But they were kids, dammit. Whereas. As Sonny held the phone to his ear and spoke, she heard for the first time ever her husband speak. And quietly from the receiver she somehow heard ... Tony.
"Boss girl. How are you?" said Sonny.
"Much better than this morning. Come over, I need you."
"Tonight?"
" Ideally yesterday. But make a detour to my house first. My suitcase is in my room. Put in all the clothes you think I can wear with my leg and my arm. Hurry up, I want to get out of this shitty place before the early shift comes."
"How long will we be gone?"
"A long time. But I'm planning to come back."
"Okay."
Barbara saw Sonny's grin widen - it looked inhuman and the twinkle in his eye was one hundred percent Louisiana pedigree.
"What are you up to, boss?"
"Let me surprise you. Let's just say ... the angels have shown me a way. The swallow is leaving the nest. And you're coming with me - if that's what you want."
Sonny looked at his mother. There was as much judgmental indifference in his gaze as there had been affection when he had spoken to Graziella. Barbara knew she was being evaluated. And at the same time, she knew the pendulum would not swing in her favor. She had seen to that herself. Tears came to her eyes as Sonny turned away from her and spoke to "his boss" again.
"I'll follow you barefoot through hell."
"Good. Then we will become stronger together. See you later then."
"See you later."
Sonny hung up and went to his room. He didn't bother to close the door because he knew he had his mother on his heels. He started to change out of his pyjamas and into his day clothes.
"What are you up to?" asked Bunny.
'You've heard me. She needs me."
"She's a jinx. She's ruined everything."
Sonny looked at her coldly.
"She's the future. Mine, at least."
Barbara laughed bitterly. "I thought you were homosexual."
"I don't want her in my life as a woman either."
"She's just a child! You're crazy to call her ... your boss."
"Then I'm crazy. Don't need to burden you anymore." Sonny pulled his own suitcase out of his closet and started pulling clothes off the hangers and throwing them in.
"You're not going anywhere! Where anyway?"
"I don't know, mom. Just away. She'll know where. I don't want to argue with you."
Bunny, gripped by anger, rushed to him and almost trapped his fingers in the suitcase as she slammed it shut.
"You're not going!" she bellowed in a voice that wasn't human but rang out in three different tinkling pitches at once. Legends, love songs and horror stories were written about such voices. She immediately put her hand over her mouth and looked at Sonny with wide eyes. He stared at her too. Before he plopped down on the bed.
They both stared at each other and Bunny didn't know what to say.
"Tell me," Sonny said emotionlessly.
"... What?"
"If you tell me, I'll stay. If you tell me what I am - what you are, then I'll stay."
"We are- I am-. You are human."
"A human being doesn't swim the East River without practice and 160 pounds of luggage. A human can't spend minutes in the tub below the water level. A human doesn't have feet like me. Or you."
He looked at her feet. Big. In socks. Always socks or shoes. One of the two.
"Why do I never get sick? Why does the water call me? Tell me. Tell me everything," he demanded.
She bit her lips together.
"I can't. You're a human being. Please - let's just be normal."
"How can I be if I don't know who I am. If I don't know where I come from?"
"Please stay. I need you. Lakisha needs you. Now that your father will be away again for months. And when he comes back ... I'll make sure he doesn't beat you anymore."
"He'll never hit me again, I guarantee you that. And you'll find another babysitter. I'm done with this." Sonny stood up slowly and his mother noticed that he had grown up. Why was she only now noticing how big he had gotten? There was almost a man standing in front of her. But his words were those of a neglected child who had never learned to feel comfortable and secure with himself. Bunny had seen to that too.
"At least tell me that you love me. That I'm okay the way I am. That one day I'll find someone who accepts and loves me for who I am and who I don't have to hide from."
Bunny lowered her eyes and let herself sink onto the bed. How could she promise him a world that she had not found herself? Andrew overlooked her "shortcomings" because she was simply pleasing in every other situation and position - but that wasn't what he was looking for.
"I thought so," Sonny muttered, opening his suitcase and throwing in the last of his clothes from his dresser, a second pair of shoes. He wandered into his father's study where he found his birth certificate and social security card in a folder labeled "Children". Then he went into the bathroom with his rucksack and cleared out. Bunny didn't follow him.
She just sat there and stared into space. Her family had been so big in Louisiana. And always together. She was the one who hadn't fit in, who hadn't felt comfortable. The one who wanted moremoremore. That was why she had left - among other things. So as not to be suffocated. She had told herself that she could live well with a small family. And well - the security and the distance one could have from the sprawling Dracon family had been a perfect compromise for her. But now that her Guppy was leaving, it really hurt her. Even though he reminded her of her own weirdness and she loathed him for it with a part of her heart.
"Jeez, what's going on here? Why are you guys being so loud?" muttered Lakisha groggily from the doorway. She was wearing her pink Hello Kitty pyjamas and her little feet were as normal as Bunny and Sonny's were not. Her little, sweet, more human than human second-born. Bunny held out her arms.
"Come here, baby. Come to Mommy."
The child shuffled sleepily to her and Bunny lifted her onto her lap. The child didn't mind that she smelled of wine. She didn't know her mother any differently. She put her thumb in her mouth and let Bunny cradle her. Bunny just needed that now.
Sonny came back with the closed suitcase.
"Are you going on vacation?" asked Lakisha.
Sony smiled.
"Yeah. Maybe a long vacation. Don't know if I'll be back."
"Okay. Can I have your room?"
Sonny laughed.
"Sure pollywog. You can have it."
He tried to stroke her head but she slapped his hand away. Probably thanks to Bunny too.
"I'm going now," Sonny said with a tired, hurt look on his face.
"How can I reach you?" asked Bunny when he was already at the door.
"Not at all. I'll call if anything earth-shattering happens."
"Sonny?"
"Yes?"
"... My wallet ... is on the kitchen island. Take out all the cash in it. You'll be quicker in a cab." He turned around again. Now she still had a chance to stop him. To wipe the slate clean. But she just couldn't. Just saying it would make her fall back into the mud puddle she had crawled out of.
Sonny looked at her. Waiting - for more. A more that would never come. Then he nodded. "Thanks mom. Goodbye."
Then he was gone. Bunny rocked Lakisha until the child fell asleep. Then she put the child in her bed, lay down next to it and cried silent tears that were neither for her breadwinner and husband nor for her fear of social relegation.
.
.
Graziella's house was once again a chic but empty abandoned house - no one was there. Maria would not come, presumably informed by other family members that this place was now cop fodder or so traumatized by the worldwide television images starring a corpse-like Graziella that she couldn't make it out of her own stinky apartment. It was remarkable how quickly a cab got from Hoboken to New York City in the middle of the night. Less than half an hour later, Sonny was putting clothes into Graziella's suitcase. If he left out all the frilly dresses and the overly cumbersome girly stuff Graziella wouldn't be able to wear, it wasn't much at all. He zipped it up, plucked the gray stuffed bunny off the bed, stuffed it into her little backpack so that it was half peeking out, and was leaving when he heard a strange noise.
Wafting, light sounds followed by the thump on the balcony. Should Sonny be worried that he recognized what those sounds were?
"Graziella's not here, Nashville," he said, surprised not to see Nashville opening the balcony door. Now Sonny knew their names from the various television broadcasts.
Lexington hopped in on all fours where Hudson took in everything with the alert, grumpy look of a long-serving warrior.
"You talked to Xanatos, boy?"
Sonny nodded.
"Packing the suitcase because she's ready to move into the castle?" Lexington asked, fishing from the floor what Sonny must have dropped while packing Graziella's backpack. When he saw the hammer pendant on the pink ribbon, he threw it on the dresser with a disgusted noise. And gave Sonny a reproachful look - which just looked funny because of his overbite.
The looks of disbelief and dropped jaws from both gargoyles at his next words were funny to watch too but somehow disturbing.
"Graziella's not coming," he said.
"What does that mean?" asked Hudson.
"Well- I don't think she's taking Mr. FatCat up on his offer. She didn't sound like it on the phone. Just said I should come, that she had plans."
Lexington stood up on his hind legs. It hadn't been obvious from the TV footage that he could do that at all, but he was standing perfectly straight, so he was no longer a dwarf, just short.
"She already knows that Xanatos is a billionaire and will read her every wish from her eyes?"
Sonny huffed in amusement.
"Maybe she's not the kind of person to be lured by promises of an easy life. Maybe she's learned that there's no such thing as an easy life and that she might have to take the rocky road to become the person she wants to be."
The gargoyles exchanged glances, looking uncomprehending but also helpless. Hudson stepped towards him, his hand on his sword - which was perhaps more habit than threat. "We'll talk to her."
"You won't change her mind once she's set her mind on something. What are you going to do? Kidnap her from the hospital? She's weak and injured right now. She'd probably only put up a minimal fight."
He smirked when he saw the gargoyles considering it and looking genuinely uncomfortable with the option. Why had he been so afraid of them again? They were all a pretty soft bunch.
"Why are you so interested in her?"
Again, the gargoyles exchanged glances that contained hundreds of words. A whole two-way conversation. Weighing up between revealing secrets or not. Of course they didn't.
"The kids need each other," Lexington said tersely. Was that his normal skin color or was he just blushing? Sony rolled his eyes. He was so sick of it. He was really looking forward to leaving this town - which Graziella had probably hinted at. He was so sick of adults either lying to him or only sharing a fraction of it with him because they thought he wouldn't get it. He didn't feel compelled to give them an inch either.
"I won't try to push her in any direction again. Nashville will have to wait - for her. Graziella has promised to come back. She won't leave Nashville forever. But she wants to get stronger - for him, for you, for herself or whoever else. I don't know. But she's going to go through with it. And I'm very sure she thinks she's not going to get stronger by becoming Xanatos' doll after being Tony's doll. That's not what makes her tick."
"Xanatos and his wife are strong personalities. He knows karate and Fox is familiar with half a dozen martial arts variations. Their punches are not to be underestimated either," Lexington explained, making such a sour face that Sonny just knew the little gargoyle was speaking from experience.
"She didn't just mean physically stronger. She also meant psychologically, and mentally. She doesn't want to be under anyone's thumb anymore - but she also doesn't want to be under anyone's protective wing that softens her and blows sugar up her ass as soon as she bats her eyelashes."
"Clan doesn't make you soft - it makes you stronger," Hudson made his statement - just as stubbornly as Graziella.
"Maybe so. But she's already chosen her path. I heard it on the phone."
"If we can talk to her first and convince her-"
"She does what she does out of love!" said Sonny, annoyed. "It's a funny way to show love, but it's her way. Flutter into the hospital, try to persuade or manipulate her. She'll just shut down. And no, thanks, I'll take the cab." With that, he threw the door shut behind him and trudged down the stairs to his waiting car.
.
.
Sonny actually managed to sneak back into the hospital via a back door under the noses of the staff and the guards patrolling at night. Sometimes he had the impression that - despite his size - he could blend in with his surroundings, that people simply walked past him. Which, of course, was just the imagination of an underestimated fourteen-year-old influenced by comics and television. He had left his suitcase in the waiting cab and stuffed only a pair of jogging pants - one of his short ones, but one that would be wide enough for her thickly bandaged leg - and one of her tank tops into her backpack for Graziella.
Peering up from the stairwell all the way to the sixth floor, he really didn't see anyone, scurrying across the semi-dark hallway and into Graziella's room. Where she sat in her bed, her injured hand resting on a large box-like silver case, discussing with the Gargoyles. Their agitated whispers faded as he came in and grinned at Lexington and Hudson, who looked absolutely grim and just as stubborn as Graziella. Yep- from the looks of those guys, they weren't getting what they wanted from his eight-year-old chief.
"Your clothes, boss-girl," he said and then eyed the suitcase.
Her expression became mild again, even a little mischievous. She operated the wheels of the combination lock and opened the lid. Sonny peered inside the luggage - which was full of crumpled dirty clothes that even stank a little. But he saw that it was adult clothes and wondered where she had gotten the suitcase and why she was holding it so tightly and grinning at him when she closed it again. She still looked awful - but that grin was so much her old self that Sonny breathed a sigh of relief. He could tell by now if there was more to the story, but he wasn't going to tell the bats.
"Do you need help changing?" he asked.
"Yep."
She pulled the needle out of her arm, to which the gargoyles protested and Graziella clearly enjoyed the fact that she could outrage the creatures. Maybe that's why she ordered Sonny to help her out of her hospital gown and into her knee-length sweatpants and tank top in front of them. If she was uncomfortable letting him or the gargoyles see that she was wearing a diaper, she swallowed the shame in favor of the satisfaction of knowing that her indifferent handling of the situation was causing the emphatic beings to suffer. Her infantile body without developed sexual characteristics was full of bruises and cuts and out of the corner of his eye he saw how uncomfortable the Gargoyles seemed.
"Please, Graziella. I know you and Nashville would be much happier if you could be together. We- we'd be good to you. Nothing like what happened with Broadway will ever happen again," Lexington said, crawling over to her cautiously as Sonny set about putting the shoes he'd gotten from her room on her tiny human feet.
"It probably won't, you only got one chance to freak out about my last name," Graziella said snippily as Sonny pulled the drawstrings of her sweatpants closed and tied them into a bow. Without hips, her pants would still slide down when he stuffed the drainage into one of the large pants pockets. What was he doing if the thing was full anyway - he didn't see a plug to drain the blood.
Hudson grumbled unhappily at the child's stubbornness. He got down on his knees in front of her. "Lassie. I beg ya. If you care about Nashville, come with us."
Sonny knew - though the old warrior's words were gentle and urgently and certainly sincere - that the line was a mistake.
"Is he going to die?" asked Graziella inquiringly. Hudson and Lexington looked at each other in horror. "We-no! No, of course not. But -."
"Then I won't let you blackmail me. I will come back. I love Nash. And I know he loves me. But I will go to that school in Italy. That's already been decided. And I will come back stronger and better and perfect. He'll be able to take it. He's strong enough for it. I know he is. I wouldn't want him otherwise."
Sonny swallowed. He knew Graziella was a child and thought like a child. But ... she spoke as if she and Nashville were destined to be together. Mentally - and physically (although she certainly wasn't thinking about that, but it SOUNDED like that.) Ohhh, that would cause problems, he thought. But - in for a penny, in for a pound - he would go her way - if only because all the alternatives looked like a losing battle. He wasn't a born fighter - but he would raise his fists for Graziella.
Lexington rubbed a hand over his bare skull and looked utterly devastated. And Hudson in a similar way.
"He needs you," the little gargoyle beseeched, and although the world now knew that he could work wonders with scrap metal and plastic, he couldn't find words that seemed appropriate and understandable enough for a child. With which he insulted Graziella without realizing it. She lifted her head in a cool display of dignity, the personification of her name itself, and looked down at Lexington, who crouched before her. Even without the long hair - without her beautiful face, without a healthy body, she was beautiful in a fragile way.
Graziella as a true ... American princess? As the adopted daughter of David Xanatos? That would be too easy for someone like her. And it wouldn't make for a good, epic story befitting someone like Graziella Dracon. At some point, she would look like a princess again - and as Tony Dracon's daughter, she was kind of a mafia princess. But she wasn't a cliché. Pretty dresses? Smiling stupidly and being little more than decoration? Just being a sweet, silly thing that everyone could love and use at their will ... she'd never been that! She had perhaps played this role at the beginning here in America. But she had grown out of the role imposed on her by the adults around her. Sonny wasn't sure when it had happened. Maybe when she'd met Nashville. Or when her grandma had died. Maybe the spark had been when she had beaten the shit out of Alessio. She was no longer the girl who had longingly watched swallows from her window in this sleepy mountain village in the hinterland of Italy. She no longer waited for things to happen. She made them happen herself. She was not a princess, she was a warrior, a go-getter, a future sovreign without the airs and graces but with the budding beginnings of the strength that role required.
"Sonny- go out," she ordered without looking at him. "Find me a cane or one of those things people use to walk. And scavenge the nurses' room for anything that looks like painkillers. Preferably Oxycontin. Anything you can find."
Sonny looked at the bag hanging from the infusion stand that had been pouring liquid into her body until a few minutes ago. It probably contained painkillers. Of course - she would need something else. He knew she wanted to tell the Gargoyles something that was none of his business, and willingly Sonny went out to steal from the hospital and other patients.
"Lexington. Look at me," Graziella said, sitting back on the bed. Lex raised his head again. Graziella - though it sent waves of pain through her body leaned forward and looked deep into his wide eyes. She tried not to stare him down exactly. But after a few seconds, he looked away. She knew why and leaned back again.
"Four weeks ago, I came to this country in a frilly white dress. People sighed with delight when they saw me. I could walk. I was healthy. I had no pain anywhere, I was beautiful. Now I'm disabled, bald, sick, trying not to writhe in pain and wearing a fuckin' diaper. I'm pitiful."
"You're n-!" Lexington began, but she raised a hand to his mouth and looked at him bitterly.
"I look into your huge eyes and I don't recognize the reflection in them. I'm not stupid. I know that my leg will get better eventually, that my hair will grow back and everything. But even if one day I'm not this broken thing anymore ... it still won't be enough. I brought Nashville bad luck. He almost died because I was weak and stupid. I'm not putting him in danger like that again. I love him too much for that. Everything hurts at the thought of leaving him, but now is the best time."
Lexington wanted to ask why, his eyes as moist as Graziella's. But he shut his mouth again. She didn't have to answer that. He knew the answer. Anyone who had watched television in the last 36 hours knew the answer.
"I'll be back. And if he still wants me - as his friend. If he hasn't forgotten me because of all the other, better friends, then I'll stay."
Graziella took the gray rabbit out of her backpack next to her and stroked his floppy ears. She had a melancholic, reminiscent look in her eyes. As if she was thinking of a long time ago when she looked at the cuddly toy. Then she handed the rabbit to Hudson, who took it and looked at it with irritation.
"Give this to Nashville. He'll know what it means. He doesn't have to be sad."
Sonny had come back. In his hand was a plastic bag full of colorful pills and a multicolored child's crutch in the other. He showed Graziella how he thought she should use the crutch, then helped her to her feet. He tied the drainage to her crutch. Then - without being stopped by the shaken Gargoyles - she hobbled to her door with her head held high. Sonny behind her with her backpack and that strange silver suitcase.
"Your father survived, too. Will you visit him?"
Graziella, already in the hallway, looked wearily at Hudson. She thought about it for a moment. "I suppose I should. Might be smart at some point. But to be honest ... I don't give a shit about Tony. He tried to kill my best friend in the world. For that ... and for other things, I will destroy him one day." Immediately after the last word, she gave the two gargoyles in the room, who were staring open-mouthed, a perky grin, then limped out of their field of vision and life, her faithful Sonny beside her.
.
As they both sat in the car, Graziella visibly shaking in pain even after asking for two of the painkillers, she placed her cast on the large silver case.
"So - what about that thing?" asked Sonny curiously. She turned her head and Sonny blamed the tears in her eyes on the pain. The child looked briefly at the cab driver, whom Sonny had sent off until they had agreed on a destination. He would take them anywhere, Sonny had given him the whole two hundred dollars that had been in his mother's wallet. Since Graziella had learned from experience that even cab drivers didn't always keep an eye on the traffic but rather on the bizarre passengers, she turned the suitcase so that she could open the lid without the man seeing what was in it.
"You see what this is?" she asked.
Sonny wrinkled his nose again at the sight of the crumpled, musty clothes that filled the inside of the deep suitcase.
Without waiting for his answer, his boss slammed the suitcase shut - turned the numbers to a different combination and opened the suitcase again. Sonny tore his eyes and mouth open to utter every disbelieving curse that came to his mind at the sight of the infinite amount of money that had magically taken the place of the dirty clothes. But Graziella slammed the suitcase shut again, sat down more relaxed and placed her plaster arm on it again as if she wasn't sitting on millions of dollars like a goose on golden eggs.
"It's always 1234. The combination. Even the angels who gave it to me must think I'm stupid. But I forgive them," she said cryptically - perhaps because of the painkillers.
"What angels?" he asked.
She smiled. "They disappeared when I opened my eyes in a divine ball of fire. But I saw their outlines. Their wings. My grandma must have sent them. She always wanted me to be stronger."
"Okay ... Where's you want the cab to go?" he asked with a bemused blank smile on his face.
"You still have the documents?"
"In my suitcase."
"Then to Dino. After that to Maria. ... I don't know if Dino will let me go, but I'll bribe him if I have to."
"You don't have to," said Sonny. "He owes me one. And why Maria?"
"Because she loves me and will do what I ask. Besides, she's easy to manipulate. She has nothing here to hold her. Even in my current state ... maybe because of that, she'll work."
He saw his boss smile. A little wolf cub that might eventually become a ravening beast. Sonny chuckled with amusement. He could already see himself cramming Italian next to Maria. Oh, what had he got himself into?
So, my final chapters are getting more and more. But I have to tie up all the loose threads! Don't be angry with me even if there's no more action. These chapters are more for a smooth finish.
Thanks for reading, Q.T.