Oliver Benjamin
CHAPTER 11
Life itself confided to me this secret:
Behold! I am what must always overcome itself.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
SHEBA:All the women you ever meet, from the girl at
the crossroads singing under her lantern to the
patrician high on her litter, plucking rose petals,
all the shapes half seen or imagined by your desire,
ask for them every one! I am not a woman, but a
world. My clothes need only fall away for you to
discover in my person one continuous mystery!
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT,The Temptation of St. Anthony
1. Sea of Tranquillity
“Has anyone seen Leona?” Roy asked periodically over the next few
days, and then tapered off. She had left all her things behind, a
wardrobe of loose flowing clothes and milk crates of spiritual
paraphernalia.
He hoped she was riding out the storm in a safe place. Torrents
had laid waste to a town famous for rarely seeing rain. Floods and
mudslides had already destroyed a great deal of property.
Despite the weather, the Biddenbrooks construction crew had
been incredibly efficient at installing another store. Only a few weeks
had passed and they were almost finished. Roy stood in the rain and
glared at the threatening and monolithic box before him. He wished
the heavy raindrops overhead would harden into hailstones and
destroy this unholy Kaaba. This affront to Ethiopia. This greedy
insult to God.
Suddenly, two men emerged from the building and quickly
removed the banner announcing the coming of a new Biddenbrooks.
Roy’s heart leapt at the idea that they had found some
insurmountable problem and would be forced to give up the new
location.
But then they hung up a new banner. “Grand Opening on
Saturday: Free coffee all day long.” Roy looked at his watch. It was
Friday. There was no one around—the storms had transformed the
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