Heavenly makeshift catsHei?ur’s come up next to me. She stares silently at the youngsters. I know there’s little that can shake them, but her piercing gaze is better than nothing. To be able to formulate your own thoughts is the greatest privilege. TO HAVE YOUR OWN THOUGHTS ABOUT THINGS, until death, undisturbed by the everyday: low-fat curds topped with skimmed milk, sour dishcloths. It’s vulgar to compel dreams to come true. Am I really to devalue the winter night in Nor?urm?ri by battening it down to a double bed in the same bedroom for seasons on end? I should say not. Rather, it ought to be about extending the night, lap after lap on the racetrack of time. In any case, it’s impossible to repeat it. Nights shouldn’t be bound to particular locales. “You mean you want me to come up to the podium?” Rebecca West: Had one child with H. G. Wells, to whom she was not married. Tried to convince the child that she was his aunt and not his mother (arguably for his own good). In 1955, the child wrote a roman? clef,Heritage, about the son of two world-famous parents; the mother does not come off well. For twenty-nine years, West successfully blocked publication. In 1984, when the novel was finally released, the child, aged sixty-nine, wrote an introduction to the book that further condemned his mother. The same year, the child published a laudatory biography of his mostly absent father. Duncan’s only reply was his own question. “How could a dead runner know about the half king?” The flickering of the flames gave movement to the wooden figure. “Surely you understand, Tanaqua, that the half king can no longer be alive. The stories about him are from long ago, decades before any ofus were born.” “No names. Friends of Peter’s from Philadelphia.” He had two hours to wait. He didn’t wait under the station canopy, but stood out in the open. His shoes, his coat, his business suit were soaking wet. “McCallum, nigh Kyle of Lochlash, though my grandfather claimed he has laird of all the sea to Stornaway.” “You do not know of such things!” the Seneca spat. “You are not of the Haudensaunee!” Larney braced in anticipation of a blow.‘He looked like you.’ “Shit,” said Watts, as if he’d just made a decision. “You have to promise me something. You promise?” * * * He pulled a cigarette from the packet and lit it. Jim was the first to speak to the girls. Phil didn’t hear what it was but looked back to see their reaction. They giggled, and the white girl said something in the ear of the black girl. They kept walking, only now they were checking out the buses. You poor thing. Why was everything always like that with you? “Why do British citizens fear British troops?” Duncan asked.. |