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The History This is a story about memory And this much can be rememberedthat the Death of the Discworld, for reasons of his own, once rescued a baby girl and took her to his horow to become sixteen because he believed that older children were easier to deal with than younger children, and this shows that you can be an is, as it were, dead wrongthat he later hired an apprentice called Mortimer, or Mort for short Between Mort and Ysabell there was an instant dislike and everyone knohat thatterm As a substitute for the Gri probleht between him and Death which Mort lostand that, for reasons of his own, Death spared his life and sent him and Ysabell back into the world No-one knohy Death started to take a practical interest in the hu It was probably just curiosity Even the most efficient rat-catcher will sooner or later take an interest in rats They ht watch rats live and die, and record every detail of rat existence, although they may never themselves actually knohat it is like to run the es the thing which is observed[1], it's even ot married They had a child This is also a story about sex and drugs and Music With Rocks In Wellone out of three ain't bad Actually, it's only thirty-three per cent, but it could be worse Where to finish? A dark, storh the rickety, useless fence and dropping, tue below It doesn't even strike an outcrop of rock before it hits the dried river-bed far below, and erupts into fragments Miss Butts shuffled the paperwork nervously Here was one froed six: What We Did On our Holidys: What I did OnWhite hors and a garden it is al Black We had Eg and chips Then the oil fronites and there is a second explosion, out of which rolls - because there are certain conventions, even in tragedy - a burning wheel And another paper, a drawing done at age severe All in black Miss Butts sniffed It wasn't as though the gel had only a black crayon It was a fact that the Quir Ladies had quite expensive crayons of all colours And then, after the last of the ember spits and crackles, there is silence And the watcher Who turns, and says to someone in the darkness: YES I COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING

And rides away Miss Butts shuffled paper again She was feeling distracted and nervous, a feeling coel Paper usually made her feel better It was more dependable Then there had been the matter ofthe accident Miss Butts had broken such news before It was an occasional hazard when you ran a large boarding school The parents of els were often abroad on business of one sort or another, and it was sometio hand in hand with the risks ofunsympathetic men Miss Butts kne to handle these occasions It was painful, but the thing ran its course There was shock and tears, and then, eventually, it was all over People had ways of dealing with it There was a sort of script built into the human mind Life went on But the child had just sat there It was the politeness that scared the daylights out of Miss Butts She was not an unkind woently dried out on the stove of education, but she was conscientious and a stickler for propriety and thought she kne this sort of thing should go and was vaguely annoyed that it wasn't going 'Erif you would like to be alone, to have a cry-' she'd proht track 'Would that help?' Susan had said It would have helped Miss Butts All she'd been able to e was: 'I wonder if, perhaps, you fully understood what I have told you?' The child had stared at the ceiling as though trying to work out a difficult probleebra and then said, ' I expect I will' It was as if she'd already known, and had dealt with it in some way Miss Butts had asked the teachers to watch Susan carefully They'd said that was hard, becauseThere was a tentative knock on Miss Butts's study door, as if it was being made by someone who'd really prefer not to be heard She returned to the present 'Co open Susan always made no sound The teachers had all remarked upon it It was uncanny, they said She was always in front of you when you least expected it 'Ah, Susan,' said Miss Butts, a tight s across her face like a nervous tick over a worried sheep 'Please sit down'

'Of course, Miss Butts' Miss Butts shuffled the papers 'Susan'

'Yes, Miss Butts?'

'I'm sorry to say that it appears you have been ain'

'I don't understand, Miss Butts' The headuely annoyed with herself, butthere was so frankly unlovable about the child Acade, of course, but that was just it; she was brilliant in the saes and chilliness 'Have you beendoing it?' she said 'You pro to stop this silliness'

'Miss Butts?'

'You've been ain, haven't you?' Susan blushed So, rather less pinkly, did Miss Butts I ainst all reason It's- oh, noShe turned her head and shut her eyes

'Yes, Miss Butts?' said Susan, just before Miss Butts said, 'Susan?' Miss Butts shuddered This was so else the teachers had mentioned Sometimes Susan answered questions just before you asked the there, are you?'

'Of course, Miss Butts' Ridiculous It wasn't invisibility, she told herself She just makes herself inconspicuous ShewhoShe concentrated She'd written a little ainst this very eventuality, and it was pinned to the file She read: You are interviewing Susan Sto Helit Try not to forget it 'Susan?' she ventured 'Yes, Miss Butts?' If Miss Butts concentrated, Susan was sitting in front of her If she el's voice She just had to fight against a pressing tendency to believe that she was alone 'I's have coed 'I'm always in class, Miss Butts'

'I dare say you are Miss Traitor and Miss Stamp say they see you all the tiuic and Maths and don't like Language and History?' Miss Butts concentrated There was no way the child could have left the rooestion of a voice saying, 'Don't know, Miss Butts'

'Susan, it is reallywhen-' Miss Butts paused She looked around the study, and then glanced at a note pinned to the papers in front of her She appeared to read it, looked puzzled for a moment, and then rolled it up and dropped it into the wastepaper basket She picked up a pen and, after staring into space for a moment, turned her attention to the school accounts Susan waited politely for a while, and then got up and left as quietly as possible Certain things have to happen before other things Gods play gaet all the pieces on the board, and look all over the place for the dice It was raining in the s in Llamedos Rain was the country's main export It had rain reen, more out of habit than any real hope that it would keep the rain off Water just dribbled through the spiky leaves and fors, so that it was really a sort of rain concentrator Occasional luhteen, extremely talented and, currently, not at ease with his life He tuned his harp, his beautiful new harp, and watched the rain, tears running down his face andwith the drops Gods like people like this It is said that whosoever the gods wish to destroy, they first ods wish to destroy, they first hand the equivalent of a stick with a fizzing fuse and Ac, and doesn't take so long Susancorridors She wasn't particularly worried about what Miss Butts was going to think She didn't usually worry about what anyone thought She didn't knohy people forgot about her when she wanted them to, but afterwards they see the subject

So her This was fine She'd generally take a book into the classroom and read it peacefully, while all around her The Principal Exports of Klatch happened to other people It was, undoubtedly, a beautiful harp Very rarely a craftsine an improvement He hadn't bothered with ornae And it was nehich was very unusual in Llamedos Most of the harps were old It wasn't as if they wore out Sos - but the harp went on The old bards said they got better as they got older, although old ardless of daily experience I in the air, and faded The harp was fresh and bright and already it sang out like a bell What it inable His father had said it was rubbish, that the future ritten in stones, not notes That had only been the start of the row And then he'd said things, and he'd said things, and suddenly the world was a new and unpleasant place, because things can't be unsaid He'd said, 'You don't know anything! You're just a stupid oldreatest musician in the world!' Stupid words As if any bard cared for any opinions except those of other bards, who'd spent a lifeti how to listen to music But said, nevertheless And, if they're said with the right passion and the gods are feeling bored, sometimes the universe will reform itself around words like that Words have always had the power to change the world Be careful what you wish for You never knoill be listening Or what, for that h the universes, and a feords by the wrong person at the right moment may just cause it to veer in its courseFar away in the bustlingof sparks across an otherwise bare wall and thenthere was a shop An old musical instrument shop No-one remarked on its arrival As soon as it appeared, it had always been there Death sat staring at nothing, chinbone resting on his hands Albert approached very carefully It had continually puzzled Death in his more introspective moments, and this was one of them, why his servant alalked the saht, CONSIDER THE SIZE OF THE ROOMwhich went on to infinity, or as near infinity asfor a rooot rather flustered when he'd created the house Tis to be manipulated, not obeyed The internal diotten to er than the inside It was the saun to take a little s, he'd realized the role people seemed to think that colour played in concepts like, for example, roses But he'dIt ith everything, sooner or later The humans he'd known - and there had been a few - had responded to the inoring the door had opened, Albert had stepped through, carefully balancing a cup and saucerand a e of the relatively small

istory This is a story about memory And this much can be rememberedthat the Death of the Discworld, for reasons of his own, once rescued a baby girl and took her to his horow to become sixteen because he believed that older children were easier to deal with than younger children, and this shows that you can be an is, as it were, dead wrongthat he later hired an apprentice called Mortimer, or Mort for short Between Mort and Ysabell there was an instant dislike and everyone knohat thatterm As a substitute for the Gri probleht between him and Death which Mort lostand that, for reasons of his own, Death spared his life and sent him and Ysabell back into the world No-one knohy Death started to take a practical interest in the hu It was probably just curiosity Even the most efficient rat-catcher will sooner or later take an interest in rats They ht watch rats live and die, and record every detail of rat existence, although they may never themselves actually knohat it is like to run the es the thing which is observed[1], it's even ot married They had a child This is also a story about sex and drugs and Music With Rocks In Wellone out of three ain't bad Actually, it's only thirty-three per cent, but it could be worse Where to finish? A dark, storh the rickety, useless fence and dropping, tue below It doesn't even strike an outcrop of rock before it hits the dried river-bed far below, and erupts into fragments Miss Butts shuffled the paperwork nervously Here was one froed six: What We Did On our Holidys: What I did OnWhite hors and a garden it is al Black We had Eg and chips Then the oil fronites and there is a second explosion, out of which rolls - because there are certain conventions, even in tragedy - a burning wheel And another paper, a drawing done at age severe All in black Miss Butts sniffed It wasn't as though the gel had only a black crayon It was a fact that the Quir Ladies had quite expensive crayons of all colours And then, after the last of the ember spits and crackles, there is silence And the watcher Who turns, and says to someone in the darkness: YES I COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING

And rides away Miss Butts shuffled paper again She was feeling distracted and nervous, a feeling coel Paper usually made her feel better It was more dependable Then there had been the matter ofthe accident Miss Butts had broken such news before It was an occasional hazard when you ran a large boarding school The parents of els were often abroad on business of one sort or another, and it was sometio hand in hand with the risks ofunsympathetic men Miss Butts kne to handle these occasions It was painful, but the thing ran its course There was shock and tears, and then, eventually, it was all over People had ways of dealing with it There was a sort of script built into the human mind Life went on But the child had just sat there It was the politeness that scared the daylights out of Miss Butts She was not an unkind woently dried out on the stove of education, but she was conscientious and a stickler for propriety and thought she kne this sort of thing should go and was vaguely annoyed that it wasn't going 'Erif you would like to be alone, to have a cry-' she'd proht track 'Would that help?' Susan had said It would have helped Miss Butts All she'd been able to e was: 'I wonder if, perhaps, you fully understood what I have told you?' The child had stared at the ceiling as though trying to work out a difficult probleebra and then said, ' I expect I will' It was as if she'd already known, and had dealt with it in some way Miss Butts had asked the teachers to watch Susan carefully They'd said that was hard, becauseThere was a tentative knock on Miss Butts's study door, as if it was being made by someone who'd really prefer not to be heard She returned to the present 'Co open Susan always made no sound The teachers had all remarked upon it It was uncanny, they said She was always in front of you when you least expected it 'Ah, Susan,' said Miss Butts, a tight s across her face like a nervous tick over a worried sheep 'Please sit down'