Chin victorious governmentThen his eyes wandered round the room. He saw the two cigarette packets: Mortimer’s on the settee; and the second one, which the waiter had brought up, on the dining table. Flannery O’Connor: No children. Over the years I read Tolstoy and Tennyson, Mary Higgins Clark and John Updike, Roger Zelazny and Octavia Butler in the early, early hours of the morning. I didn’t finish as many books as some because I usually put down a story I didn’t like and reread, many times over, those that I enjoyed. Burn it, along with everything that’s in it. Smith’s brow rose. “Sir?” “Oh. Sorry. I came to tell you that he is not going to . . .” Rush searched for words. “I mean I invoked the names of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Allen, the acting governor of Pennsylvania, and the Philosophical Society to get Lord Ramsey’s assurance. Your life is to be preserved at Galilee.” I pointed at my knee and shoulder but couldn’t speak through my screams. I would have preferred to stop screaming now, but it was impossible. The more I fought against my wailing, the more acute it became. chin victorious government * * * The noise of caps and firecrackers assailed me as I went out the door. A group of teenagers or children was persistently shooting off fireworks in the playground across the street. One of them lit a flare, casting a red glow over the swings and seesaw and a sparkling slide of snow. It was just past six o’clock in the morning. Many a self-respecting person might wake at the noise now. What were children doing out at this hour? Who was taking care of them? What was wrong with this nation? The Iroquois youth nodded.“But he speaks the Iroquois tongue like he was born to it. I only met him last week at Johnson Hall. They call him captain sometimes.” I put on the kimono, a silken artistic creation, with wide arms covered in cherry blossoms that turn into light-pink expanses of clouds in the spring Japanese sky. “And I wanted to say that I’m sorry about your husband. I’m sorry he died.” I just thought the question. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. “Yeah. I feel really bad about the grass thing. I can’t sleep until we go out there and say sorry.” “Debbie.”. |