an eight year old girl with brown-flecked white wings, looking dismayed and lost.
"Did you check Downside? You said Peace was like this, but two hundred years in the future and with aliens..."
"Exact details differ. I mean, you don't have the aliens, why should we have the exact same Nazis? We did have Nazis, but there's only one of the guy you mentioned Downside and he's from here."
"Just checking. ...Come to think of it, are there any of us in Downside from Peace?"
"Jane says no. ...Apparently according to Pen you're not a fan of the brainphone or Jane would talk directly to you."
"It was a surprise. I don't dislike it, but...the metaphor I used was, imagine someone talking to you, but instead of hearing it you felt it, only backwards? Not inherently bad, but extremely startling when you're not expecting it."
[That's me. Anyway, found your Nazi, flagged him do-not-wake, have not found any of the four of you Downside or anywhere else I've got nodes. Congratulations, you're new.]
[Anyway. Mother dear, am I putting all four-and-a-step grandparents here or a selection or them and also the entire 1900 St Louis Cardinals or what?]
[Coming right up. Do you want them deposited directly here or for me to run them through standard explanations first?]
"The standard when resurrection is generally known is a waiting list and request-based system with filters."
She awakens Edie (senior) first. [Hello, Edie. My name is Jane and I'm the manager of the afterlife. Your son has requested that you and your husband be resurrected. It has been thirty-six years since you died. I can answer any questions you may have and whenever you are ready I can put you where he and his living family are.]
And Grandpa next, with an equivalent introduction.
Jakob's response is a little quicker in coming, but similar in tone. "He made it out, then. Is he alright?" Jakob had lasted a little longer than his wife, had seen some of what that doctor had put their son through. Alive did not necessarily mean whole, physically or mentally.
Jane finds out their geographical location: [Westchester, New York.] [He looks all right, and is anxious to see you.]