The Second Coming

Bergen wrinkles at the corners of her eyes ironed out, showing white. Her eyes went fond and far away. “Allie Allie Allie. What to do with Allie?” Her eyes came back. “Let’s face it, Will.”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œAlistair’s been telling me this for years but I couldn’t or wouldn’t believe him.”
    â€œAlistair?”
    â€œDr. Duk.”
    â€œWhat’s he been telling you?”
    â€œWill,” said Kitty and in her voice he recognized the sweet timbre, the old authentic Alabama thrill of bad news. “Will, Allie can’t make it. Allie is not going to make it, Will. She can’t live in this world. No way.”
    â€œMe neither.”
    â€œWhat?” said Kitty dreamily.
    â€œNothing. How do you know she can’t make it?” On the contrary, he thought. She may be the only one who can make it.
    â€œBecause Alistair told me. And because I know her and I know what happens when she tries. Do I ever know.”
    â€œWhat happens when she tries?”
    â€œAt first she’s bright as can be. Too bright. Everything is Christmas morning. And that’s the trouble. She can only live if every day is Christmas morning. But she doesn’t know how to live from one Christmas to the next.”
    â€œWhat happens when she tries?”
    â€œShe can’t cope.”
    â€œWhat does that mean?”
    â€œI mean that she literally does not know how to live. She can’t talk, she can’t sleep, she can’t work. So she crawls into a hole and pulls it in after her. Twice I’ve saved her from starvation. I can’t take that responsibility any more.”
    â€œWhat do you want to do with her?”
    â€œWhat is best for her. The best-structured environment money can buy, and all the freedom she can handle.”
    â€œYou mean you want to commit her.”
    â€œI’ve talked it over again with Alistair. She can have her own cottage. She can do anything that you or I can do. The only difference is that I intend to make sure she will not injure herself. She will be around people who understand her and with whom she can talk or not talk as she chooses. She will have everything you and I have—books, music, art, companionship, you name it. And you and I will be here if she needs us.”
    He must have fallen silent for some time because the next thing he knew she was poking him in her old style.
    â€œWhat?” he said with a start.
    â€œWake up. I was talking about Allie.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œTell me something, Will.”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œDoes Allie’s life make sense to you?”
    â€œWell I don’t—” he began.
    â€œIt’s like Ludean said. Ludean, Grace’s wonderful old Nigra cook. You know what she told me? She said: That chile don’t belong in this world, Miss Kitty.”
    He was silent. He was thinking about firelight on Allie’s face and arms and breasts as she knelt to feed logs into the iron stove.
    â€œYou know what she meant, don’t you?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œIn her own way she was expressing the wisdom of the ages. I’m sure Ludean never heard of reincarnation, but what she was saying in her own way was that Allie had come from another life but had not quite made it all the way. That does happen, you know. I can’t find much written on the subject but it seems quite reasonable to me that some incarnations are more successful than others, that some, like Allie’s, don’t take. That’s why we use expressions like she’s not all there. Though I would say she’s not all here. You ought to see her eyes. She’s seeing something we don’t see.”
    He thought of Allie’s eyes, the quick lively look she gave him, lips pressed tight, after she hoisted him onto the bunk, her hands busy with him like a child bedding down a big doll.
    â€œThere is no other explanation for it, Will. If I didn’t know what I know, I couldn’t stand it. As it is, it is so simple, so obvious.”
    For a fact, she did seem to know something. There was in her eyes just above the Mercedes seat the liveliness (so like Allie yet unlike) of someone who knows a secret you haven’t caught on to. “Don’t you see it, you dummy, or do I have to tell you?”
    â€œWhat is it you know?”
    â€œAllie did have another life. Unlike most of us, you and me for instance, her karma is so strong she