第99章 The Two Worlds' Children

And the two worlds' children's map, kept at the welcome station where the Ferry sat and read aloud every naming festival, grew page by page and name by name through the years, and the keeping of it was the keeping of the two worlds, and the two worlds were the children, and the children were the map, and the map was the road, and the road was the door, and the door was open, and the open was the whole of the two worlds' shared history, spoken in the children's own voices, kept by the children's own hands, growing page by page as the children grew, and the growing was the keeping, and the keeping was the two worlds' children, and the children were the whole of the long route, and the long route was the door, and the door was open, and the open went on, in the children's voices, forever. And the children's map, read aloud at the naming festival, was the two worlds' whole shared history spoken in the children's own voices for the first time, and the speaking was the whole of the fourth winter's naming festival, and the naming festival was the two worlds' children's own, named by the children, kept by the children, read aloud by the children, the whole long route's history in the children's own voices, and the voices were the two worlds', and the two worlds were the children's, and the children's was the map, and the map was the road, and the road was the door, and the door was open, and the open was the whole of the naming festival, and the naming festival went on, in the children's voices, forever, and the map grew, and the children grew, and the two worlds grew together, one, forever. The two worlds' children's map, read aloud at the naming festival in the fourth winter, was the first time the whole history of the two roads had been spoken by the children who would live in it, and the speaking was the whole of the two worlds' fourth year, the year the children became the map's keepers, and the keeping of the map was the keeping of the two worlds, and the two worlds were the children, and the children were the map, and the map was the road, and the road was the door, and the door was open, and the open was the whole of the naming festival, and the naming festival was the children's, and the children's was the whole of the two worlds, one, forever. The two worlds' children had names from both worlds by the fourth winter, the lit world's children taking drowned-country names at their naming festival and the drowned country's children taking lit-world names at theirs, and the taking of each other's names was the whole of the two worlds' fourth year, the year the children became one people with two sets of names, the way the count had become one count with two accents, and the one people was the two worlds, and the two worlds were the children, and the children were the names, and the names were the keeping, and the keeping was the whole of the two worlds' shared life, and the shared life was the long route, and the long route was the door, and the door was open, forever. The children's map, which had grown a page a season for four years, was read aloud at the naming festival in the fourth winter, the whole school's children reading the whole history of the two roads in the welcome station's east room with the Ferry sitting in the driver's seat of the old bus and the two worlds' adults standing in the west and the east, and the reading was the whole of the fourth winter's keeping, and the keeping was the map, and the map was the history, and the history was the children, and the children were the two worlds, and the two worlds were one, and the one was the reading, and the reading was the count, and the count was the welcome, and the welcome was the door, and the door was open, and the open was the whole of the naming festival, and the naming festival was the two worlds' children's own festival, named by the children, kept by the children, read aloud by the children, the whole of the long route's history in the children's own voices, forever. The two worlds' children, who had been riding the long route together for four full seasons, had become, by the fourth winter, a single school's children, and the single school was the two schools, the one above and the one below, joined at the seam by the long route and the old bus and the welcome station and the count and the bread and the note and the coals, and the children, who had started as two peoples' children, had become one people's children, and the one people was the two worlds, and the two worlds were the children, and the children were the whole of the keeping, and the keeping was the whole of the assessment's answer, and the answer was the children, and the children were the count, and the count was the welcome, and the welcome was the two roads, and the two roads were one, and the one was the children, and the children were the whole of it, forever. The children's map, which had grown a page a season for four years, was the whole of the two worlds' shared history, and the shared history was kept at the welcome station in the old bus where the Ferry sat, and the keeping of it was the whole of the children's work, and the work was the map, and the map was the children's, and the children's was the whole of the two worlds, and the two worlds were the children's, and the children's was the keeping, and the keeping was the whole of the long route, ridden by the children of both worlds to the school on the seam, forever.