Life was one long journey for Narcissa. Most days she felt very old. Perhaps that's why she tended to consider most of the tunnel residents to be children. Well, compared to her, they were. When she thought of Vincent, she pictured the small, timid boy he'd been wrapped up inside the strong, giving man he'd become. In spite of her blindness, Narcissa saw the many layers of her world quite clearly. She understood that for Vincent, Catherine was the one light, the one hope, the one love. The one.In her youth, Narcissa had traveled the country performing on the TOBA vaudeville circuit. She'd had her share of ones. Back then, she was something else. She'd graduated at the top of her class at Tuskegee but couldn't get work as anything but a domestic so she went on the road with a traveling show. It was a hard life, but she met many interesting people. She even saw the one and only original performance of Cradle Will Rock. She became a committed New Deal Democrat. Narcissa cried the day FDR died. And she cried again on the day that Mrs. Roosevelt died. But she didn't cry when she stood in front of the House Un-American Activities inquiry. She stood tall and held her head high and reminded herself that Tuskegee turned out Excellent Scholars and Good Persons and by God, she was both. When she joined Jacob Wells and the rest in the tunnels, it just seemed natural. She'd already been living underground for years.
Tonight, surrounded by the oldest and newest members of the tunnel community, Narcissa reflected that if she had to define Vincent's role within their community, it would be that of Soul. Yes, Vincent was the very Soul of the place. And if Vincent was the Soul, then Catherine was the Heart. They belonged together. Together, they made one perfect being. Yes, she decided, what the tunnels had been missing all these years had been their perfect and abiding love.
Narcissa let one of the many small children hand her letter to Vincent.
Age, she thought, has its privileges. Wisdom is only one of them.