Exurbia: A Novel About Caterpillars (An Infinite Triptych Book 1) Read online

  ‘I’m too old to give you children,’ Annie said quietly.

  ‘I’m too old to want them.’

  She took his hand and kept her eyes on the gate to the Up.

  ‘But I could grow older yet,’ he said. ‘And I would like to do it with you. If you want to, I mean. I don’t know, we could walk to one of the cities, take us an abandoned house. There must be thousands of them now.’

  ‘A big one? With a fireplace and a library?’

  ‘With a fireplace and a library,’ he said.

  ‘And a wine cellar.’

  ‘And a wine cellar,’ he agreed.

  She put her head on his lap. He admired her pale face, her freckles; took in her perfume. Could we do this? Live together at the end of history?

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

  ‘It doesn’t matter.’

  ‘But I’m still sorry.’

  ‘Your head’s too big for your heart. Really, none of it matters now.’

  He didn’t want to say it but couldn’t help himself. ‘Your husband, Annie -’

  ‘Is sat just here,’ she said.

  He ran a hand through her hair and thought of nothing in particular then. The scallixes were coming out, dancing up from the w’liaks in lazy spirals. The abandoned cities lay in the distance, the chimneys inert now, the skylights all dark. It was no matter. The moons would be up soon.

  Contents

  Introduction

  A Cursory Syndicate Galactica Timeline of Migration to Stellar Phase Living

  Prologue

  Part I - Miss Butterworth

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  Part II - The Tersh

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  Part III – The Up

  39

  40

  41

  Table of Contents

  Introduction

  A Cursory Syndicate Galactica Timeline of Migration to Stellar Phase Living

  Prologue

  Part I - Miss Butterworth

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  Part II - The Tersh

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  Part III – The Up

  39

  40

  41

  Table of Contents

  Introduction

  A Cursory Syndicate Galactica Timeline of Migration to Stellar Phase Living

  Prologue

  Part I - Miss Butterworth

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  Part II - The Tersh

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  Part III – The Up

  39

  40

  41