joked. She didn’t laugh, only smiled back at him as Partment led her
out into the wine-dappled phalanges of dawn. Roy wondered if the
broken old man had designs on her. She could mend him, he thought,
or she could rend him.
The remaining bunch sequestered themselves in the garden,
lounging on the grass and sipping mint tea. They had cast their net;
all that remained was to see if the ropes held. Roy prostrated himself
before the god of systems: introduce a strange new attractor, then
stand back and watch all the dangling participles slowly find their
subject. He stared dreamily at the sheltering blue orb above him, now
the blue of baby blankets and tropical shores, covering him like cool
water.
Leona reached her hand out to stroke the smooth skin of his
chest, but he was asleep and dreaming. In his dream he saw the sun
tear itself from the sea and soar over a pale blue leviathan, drifting
belly-up amongst the reeds.
ABYSSINIA
62
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