Fic a Week 22 - To Heaven

[pauraque_bk]

Busy weekend, almost forgot to post this. Source material is Diana Wynne Jones's novel Dogsbody; drabble will not make sense unless you've read the book.

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To Heaven

Kathleen lost a patient today. He was an Irish setter, an older gentleman who always looked at Kathleen with quiet patience while she tried to cure his cancer. When at last it was his time, she found herself doing what she had promised herself she would not anymore: searching his eyes for comprehension. For a mind. It was ridiculous, and made her feel worse after.

He was a dog, and only that.

She lay in the grass behind the hospital at lunchtime, eyes closed and crying. Through oak branches, the sun touched her back gently, like a mother's kind caress.

Comments

[leni-jess.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's always seemed to me there is a world of pain ahead of Kathleen (her Star was almost cetrainly too optimistic and too simple-minded about her future), as well as of healing others, and this drabble encapsulates both.

[pauraque]

Thank you for reading!

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

*sob*

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Dogsbody was the first Diana Wynne Jones book I read, and it tore my heart out. I was unable to read anything else of hers for a number of years, just because Dogsbody did such a number on me.

[pauraque]

It's still one of my favorite books. I know someone on my flist had mentioned a long time ago they wished there was any fic for it, and thought it was you, but I'm not sure so I didn't want to name names. :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I can't tell you how happy I am that at least two other people get this and have read the drabble and liked it. I want there to be MORE such folk, because it's great.

[pauraque]

Thank you so much! <3

[aunty_marion]

Dogsbody is possibly my second favourite DWJ book (after Eight Days of Luke, because I adore Loki), so yes, I got it, and liked it. And in fact, I don't think I've EVER seen any other DWJ fanfic, so kudos to you for that!

[pauraque]

I'd be really surprised if there wasn't any for Howl's Moving Castle, since it has a movie adaptation (which I haven't seen, actually). That usually gets people interested.

[aunty_marion]

I vaguely wonder whether any for that would be for the film version purely, rather than the book, though. And I didn't much care for the film...

[pauraque]

That was my thought, which is why I admitted I hadn't seen the movie so I couldn't guess what quality of fic might result from it. :)

[leni-jess.livejournal.com]

If you're interested, there's fanfic on Yuletide (and over the years I've found a remarkable proportion of it to be excellent!) and someone on the LJ comm dianawynnejones has done a neat round-up (see here (http://community.livejournal.com/dianawynnejones/150176.html)).

Don't know if pauraque will see a notification for this as well...

[pauraque]

Yep, and thanks for the tip!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

ow, my heart. :(

She found herself doing what she had promised herself she would not anymore: searching his eyes for comprehension

amazing

[pauraque]

I started this ages ago and only remembered it when you decided to read the book, so thanks :o