The Island of Excess Love (19 page)

“I renounce all illusions,” says Hex.

“But this is real, what we have.”

Hex and I gaze at each other for a long time and I see his eyes fill with tears, mirroring mine. I brace myself to hear him say,
Was real
, but he doesn't.

“Land ho,” Venice calls from the prow. Acacia throws her arms around him and Argos, responding to their shouts, twists in joy-spun circles at their feet.

There, I see it. Across the water. What remains of our home. Waiting to be reclaimed and rebuilt.

*   *   *

The pink house stands again. It glows with dawn. Wine-dark morning glories grow up the walls and over the roof. I am sleeping in my old bedroom, in my bed. A sword hangs on the wall.

Where is Hex?

A baby is crying.

I get up and go to the basket where he sleeps. I lift him in my arms and take him back to bed and hold him to my chest. He presses his face against me, places his hands on my breast, and nurses. “Sylvan,” I whisper. My milk flows into him. His hair is downy on his perfectly round head; it smells sweet as honeysuckle. His eyelids flutter and then he opens his eyes and looks up at me.

My child, the one in my belly now. His eyes are blue. Like the antlered king's. His father.

*   *   *

This is what is to be. I only pray that Hex is there, perhaps in the next room, outside the range of my vision. And that wherever I must journey, he will join my child and me. He will forgive me and he will join us.

But that is only the beginning.

As I put my hand to my belly now I think of Storm, Dark, and Swift dying on the Island of Excess Love with feathers molting off their shoulders and the skulls of birds punishing their putrid necks. They killed their king and destroyed the world of illusion. It is too late to redeem them.

Then I think of Acacia, my brother's future wife, sitting on those rocks, shivering, staring out at the empty seas, empty except for us in our little boat. I think of the young men and women, whom Acacia called the brothers and sisters, and their white steeds clambering over the rocks, watching us leave, looking at us as if they were waiting to be rescued. I had believed that all I wanted was to stay hidden in my home, protecting my loved ones, hoarding our precious water and the glorious magic of fruits and vegetables. But after my journey I no longer believe this. I know that when I have returned, reclaimed and restored my home, won back my beloved, and completed what was begun on the Island of Excess Love, I will have to go out into the world, perhaps numerous times, and find the ones who remain. I must help them any way I can.

This is my destiny; now I know. And it has not quite even yet begun.

 

 

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE

 

 

While my previous book
Love in the Time of Global Warming
is loosely based on Homer's
Odyssey
,
The Island of Excess Love
is even more loosely inspired by Virgil's
Aeneid
. In that epic a Greek army, hidden in the belly of a wooden horse, attacks the city of Troy. The hero Aeneas escapes with his son, Ascanius, his father Anchises, and some warriors, and then ventures out into the world to create a new home for his people. After much danger, loss, and sacrifice, including a tragic love affair with Queen Dido, and a journey to the underworld, Aeneas finally founds the city of Rome. The story is about, among other things, perseverance in the face of adversity.

Although some of the themes in
The Island of Excess Love
are similar, I have taken many liberties with the story and not all characters in this book correspond directly to characters in
The Aeneid
. As mentioned, it served more as an inspiration than anything else and I am very grateful to have the words of Virgil (translated by the wonderful C. Day Lewis) to guide me. I hope you enjoyed this tale and that you turn to the original text to find out more and to discover inspiration of your own.

Francesca Lia Block

September 27, 2013

Los Angeles, California

PRAISE FOR

LOVE
IN THE TIME OF
GLOBAL WARMING

A Top Ten Title on the 2014 Rainbow List

A Junior Library Guild selection

“[B]eautifully written … Penelope is no buff, bold hero but a grieving, relatable girl ‘stuffed full of fear.'”

 —
The Washington Post

“A post-apocalyptic setting awash with danger brings an exhilarating twist to Block's signature mashup of rock-and-roll urchins and high literature.… Literary-minded readers will enjoy teasing out the allusions to Homer … but knowledge of the classics is not a requirement to be swept up in the tatterdemalion beauty of the story's lavish, looping language.”

—
Publishers Weekly
,
starred
review

“The juxtapositions, too, are pulled off flawlessly: the disgusting, deathly, anxious, and devastating are, improbably—through Pen's astute eyes—also beautiful, lively, serene, and hopeful. Block achieves these and other heroic literary feats in this sophisticated melding of post-apocalyptic setting, re-imagined classic, and her signature magical realism.”

—
The Horn Book

“Magic is no stranger to Block's world, nor is her signature poetic sensibility. And love, in its many varieties and forms, is celebrated, as always.”

—
Booklist

“The dreamlike quality of the writing, typical of the author's works, functions well with the fantastical elements of the story.… This is an excellent title for students who have read Homer's
Odyssey
as well as readers who enjoy a mix of fantasy and reality.”

—
School Library Journal

Henry Holt and Company, LLC

Publishers since 1866

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, New York 10010

macteenbooks.com

 

Henry Holt® is a registered trademark of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Copyright © 2014 by Francesca Lia Block

All rights reserved.

 

eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Block, Francesca Lia.

The island of excess love / Francesca Lia Block.

pages       cm

Companion to: Love in the Time of Global Warming.

Summary: Pen, Hex, Ash, Ez, and Venice are living on hard work, companionship, and dreams in the pink house by the sea until a foreboding ship arrives and all start having strange visions of destruction and violence then, trancelike, they head for the ship and their new battles, with Pen using Virgil's epic
Aeneid
as her guide.

ISBN 978-0-8050-9631-6 (hardback)—ISBN 978-1-62779-239-4 (e-book)

[1.   Survival—Fiction.   2.  Friendship—Fiction.   3.  Love—Fiction.   4.  Visions—Fiction.   5.  Virgil. Aeneid.   6.  Los Angeles (Calif.)—Fiction.   7.  Science fiction.]   I.  Title.

PZ7.B61945Isl 2014   [Fic]—dc23        2014005284

 

First Edition—2014

 

eISBN 9781627792394