The Persistence of Memory

**“The Persistence of Memory”** is the ninth story in *Gleanings*. It was written by Neal Shusterman and co-authored with Jarrod Shusterman and Sofía Lapuente.

## Plot

Scythe Dali prepares to glean a couple at their wedding via a combustion gun. However, they flee when the gun has an issue, and so he gleans their parents. Scythe Gaudi appears, and gleans the couple using painless poison as they sleep. As they leave, Gaudi's adoptive niece Penelope climbs down from a house after being scolded by a rotund woman. She was trying to watch a gleaning of her uncle's, which fails. A baker steals immunity, and they run into Dali. Dali angrily accuses Gaudi of 'ruining [his] masterpiece', to which he says that it is his prerogative to glean how he wishes. Dali resolves to go into Gaudi's usual park and glean someone using a pitchfork. However, he loses his appetite for it and realizes he feels depressed over being feared and not loved, like how Gaudi is. Dali considers many different options, before deciding on a grand gleaning in the center of town.

One day a few weeks later, Penelope sneaks onto the construction project while Dali is there and pretends to be a part of the construction crew. She annoys Dali with her whistling, and when he tells her to stop, she refuses to call him 'Your Honor'. He reminds her that he can glean her, and Penelope responds that that is a command violation. Dali says that gleaning the annoying wouldn't be something anyone would be disciplined for, and Penelope accuses them of not truly living by the commandments. He decrees that she is fired and trespassing, but Penelope points out that he doesn't own it and nor does her uncle own where he lives, then leaves. Dali figures out her connection to Gaudi.

Penelope wanders along an old street, and notices someone is following her. She enjoys the fear of it, and surprises her pursuer, Dali. He states that he has no 'untoward intentions', and she promptly asks what his intentions are. Dali says that it was to confirm whether she was a ward of Gaudi. She does, and Dali says that his ring doesn't show her immunity. Penelope explains how it isn't *biological*, but rather because her gleaned father had been friends with Gaudi and her mother had left. He then sedates her, and takes her to a room set aside for the soon to be gleaned and wakes Penelope up at her last dinner, which is all of his favorites. She questions why it's his favorites, and Dali says that it's because he didn't know what she likes, so he had to go off his preferences. He then gives her his standard speech for those he intends to glean, which Penelope mocks. While Dali does almost admire her audacity, he becomes intensely angry at her indolence, but to glean Penelope then would be to ruin what his project was working towards. She is perfect for this gleaning in his opinion, and he wouldn't be able to find a better substitute.

Penelope goes to her room for the night, and wonders what it's like to be permanently dead. Dali responds that he'll deliver her to the answer the next day, but he doesn't relish in it, or even feel joy at the spite-gleaning. He then explains how he and his wife and daughter had been in a forest when a fire hit and killed them all. Only Dali could be revived. Then he met Scythe Miro, who apprenticed him. The reason Dali gleans is to send people to keep his wife and child company, but also because he is scared to join them. When he finishes, he quickly says that the only reason he said anything was because of Penelope's fascination with death and leaves.

The next day, Dali waits for her to wake up and explains what she is to wear. When Penelope asks what happens if she resists, he darkly says that her mother will be receiving a visit. Then, she asks Dali to leave so she can change. When they set off to her demise, he explains how Penelope is to be gleaned. She begins to wonder if the veil she is to wear is more for him to not see her, and Dali talks about how now the crowds love him more than Gaudi. Penelope's silence leads Dali to defend himself with the argument that this spectacle is causing the people to love, but she says they don't earn love or respect.

The road is gridlocked, and there is little that can be done about it in time. The BladeGuard driver's statement of this makes Penelope laugh, and Dali accuses her of thinking him constantly in need of immediate gratification. She says it doesn't matter, as she is to die in mere hours, to which Dali says that even so, he doesn't want her to dislike him. Penelope says that there isn't really a way she couldn't, he's killing her, and realizes that he views her as similar to his daughter. He threatens to glean her where she stands, but Penelope says that they are sitting. Dali says that Gaudi will cry as never before over her death. Penelope requests to at least get to reveal her face, which Dali confirms she will.

Unfortunately for Dali, the car he is taking there doesn't have a route because of the closed roads for the very same gleaning. Penelope suggests the subway, on the condition that he tries to reconcile with Gaudi. He reluctantly does, and they arrive on time. Penelope asks to be freed so she can go on her own terms to the arrow, not as a prisoner. Reluctantly Dali agrees. Gaudi is by the crossbow, and Dali mentally screams for him to knock the bow off course. True to her word, Penelope doesn't run, but Dali intentionally takes the arrow instead. Dali thinks that Gaudi set the whole gleaning up to get Dali to self-glean, but Penelope's reaction convinces him that it wasn't. She tries to rescue him, calling Dali's ruination of his own art 'stupid'. Dali initially insists that he must die, nothing less would be absurd, but Penelope says that everything about him is. Something occurs to Dali as he realizes that no one, not him or Penelope, will die then: he wants to take her on as an apprentice. Penelope says that that will annoy her uncle, which Dali replies is the best part.

## Characters

* Scythe Gaudí
* Scythe Dalí
* Aldo
* Pilar
* Penélope
* Penélope's mother
* Penélope's father
* Scythe Miró

## Inspiration behind the story

> "*Hey everyone :) It was a total thrill writing The Persistence of Memory! We wanted to introduce some new Scythes and characters into the lore, and highlight Sofi's Spanish culture. What is the world like outside of MidMerica? Barcelona. La Sagrada Familia. Scythe Dali. Scythe Gaudi. Our priority was to stay true to Neal's fantastic world building, but at the same time have fun, and debate some important topics concerning life and death. What a pleasure it was to write! I'm sure this collection will have readers demanding yet another book!*" — Sofía Lapuente & Jarrod Shusterman co-authors of “The Persistence of Memory”
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## Trivia

* Penélope’s father was most likely gleaned by Scythe Goddard. She said to Scythe Dalí that her father was gleaned on a business trip by a MidMerican scythe. While not confirmed, her father was likely in chapter 6 of *Scythe.* He is likely not the narrator, given the mention of his children plural, when Penèlope has no confirmed siblings.
* The story is named after Salvador Dalí's famous surrealist painting of melting clocks, which is also titled "The Persistence of Memory."

## References

1. ↑ Neal Shusterman's Shustermania November 2022 newsletter