“Wow,” Colin said, beaming, “I must be good at this!”
After things calmed down a bit, Roy came out of the kitchen with
several large pots of steaming coffee. Everyone sipped and settled in
comfortably. Conversation flowed freely and laughter filled the hall.
Though everyone had places to go and people to meet and errands to
run and business to transact and things to buy and information to
collect and relationships to maintain and people to order around or
take orders from and a million other things that made up the normal
fabric of day to day life, they all did none of that. They just stayed and
enjoyed the categorical aperitif. People shared jokes, performed
magic tricks, sang songs, gave each other massages, offered advice,
flirted openly, sat alone in cozy silence, hugged and grinned
irrepressibly.
Sprout stood watching them all next to the plaster statue of
Martin, her hand upon his foot. Around the room she saw faint
echoes of something she remembered, like some kind of postcard
from the great atavistic beyond, echoes of history, sonatas of the
subconscious. They were like happy children. Their joy was reflected
everywhere in the mirrored walls of Martin’s gymnasium.
Espying Roy, she strode across the floor to him. He was full of the
feeling too. She wrapped her arms around him as if to say, “Here we
are.” He looked in her eyes and saw a gracious variety of love. She
saw her coronated king. “Welcome back, Jack,” she said.
“Jack?” Roy asked.
“Jack and the beanstalk. He stole the magic beans from heaven.
Chopped down the stalk and the giant came tumbling down.”
“Oh yeah,” Roy said, trying to remember the fable. Sold the cow
to get the magic beans to climb the stalk to win the goose that laid
the golden egg. But now the golden goose was walking away from
him.
Circumnavigating the room, Sprout hugged each of her friends:
Bennie, Colin, Izzy, even General Heck. She saw through them,
beheld their true colors as if under loupe and light. She helped
embellish and refresh them, gave them their hue and cry.
Finally she drew near to her beloved Yak. As her hands reached
around his back he offered no resistance. He encompassed her in his
heavy arms. She pressed her lips against his and an eerie electrostatic
shock made her jump.
The rest of the party came together and hugged in a big circle,
ABYSSINIA
340
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