Kindly ablaze borderI listened to this for days after J?i died. The half king gave a small nod. Are you nervous? I laugh and say: Time is always crazy— let us not take notice of it. I grab his clenched hands, releasing them from each other, lightly bite his fingers and direct them down to my loins, where they’re quick to find a special project. Nor do my hands remain idle. They can’t restrain themselves from investigating this man’s torso, the body hard with muscles, the soft skin, the masculine legs covered with rough hairs, as they should be. We’re in no hurry in bed, because our time tonight will have to last us for a very long time, well beyond this one January night. There are moments when I let it be in the past, and I envision myself recalling it in my mind when I am old. The night is fuel for a time to come, a future time. Tonight the roads of all time conjoin. As a child, I had succumbed, like everyone else. In Mont-Dore, aged fifteen, I had been allowed to order a dress of my choice: my dress was mauve, as mauve as a bad novel published by Lemerre, laced at the back, as though I had had hundreds of maids, and with bunches of artificial Parma violets on each side, as in a play by Rostand; a collar held up by two stays that dug into my neck; below, at the back, a sweeping train with which to gather up all the sweethearts behind you. Laufsk?lar — Arbors — changes into desert. ‘Christ, it’s worse than gone,’ I realised, thinking out loud. Pennies were dropping like anvils. ‘We still have to pay it back.’ “Old Jaho’s been here since long before any of us arrived,” Larkin explained. “Crazy old bird. Sits for hours at night spouting that mumbo jumbo. Said once he had been here for all of time. Says that going into his little tent is taboo, that it would bring a curse on any European who tries.” The northern ranger shrugged. “But when in his right senses he can explain the environs right well, even tells stories of days long past that have the ring of truth.” It will be grand, says Bett?. Hasn’t the trip gone well? At night, after Lloyd’s gone, your father falls asleep in his favorite recliner. Remember the reason — the false one — you are here. You almost forgot, didn’t you? Find your mother’s old car keys hanging by a pink plastic lanyard by the door, and take them into your bedroom. Take care to be quiet. Slowly, slide open the bedroom window and, as you did a million years ago, heave yourself through. You certainly have grown, R?sa, I say, to make up for Edda S?lveig’s lovely behavior. She didn’t like him because she couldn’t stand Marie Fiala. In the slanting light of a distant street lamp he saw the rear seat, the edges of the suitcase and, between the two, like something incongruous, the blurred outlines of the slumped body. “None of us have seen it, but aye,” Larkin offered, “that was the sound of it. Most plantations have their own mill.” “I don’t dare tell people how you live, rising at seven o’clock, always in bed by nine, no one would ever believe it. And you don’t care about a thing!” I go to find Hei?ur to wish her good night. She’s sitting on the bed that I started making for her, and I squeeze my way over beneath the overwhelming plant and sit down next to her. kindly ablaze border. |