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She one deep down the well of her brain, because she is not even aware of the ure who roan metallic when he leans back on it Moses, Abraha around and finding that the two of thes He takes a cigar from the pocket of his jacket and bites off the end of it and spits it out the hole and strikes a ar into life When he’s done with the match he flicks it out the , and she watches the pale red ember disappear down into the dark

She watches hi if she should make a run for it But he pays her no attention at all, just puffs on his cigar and stares out into the night

Finally she says, What you want anyway?

This is the first ti landed on his knuckle or soot the power to deliver

She squints at hier but determines the threat is not an immediate one, so she sits back

That’s just fine, she says

And for a while their gazes over the city are a perfect parallel

He takes a puff of his cigar and then asks her a question

You ever seen a slug with no legs?

She can’t figure out the direction of the question, but it seems safe to answer it

I did a few times, she says Walkin all arain and goes on You know, I heard of one coaspipe fire to keep the slugs scared off What you think of that?

I think that commune’s dead reckoned by now

How come?

Because h it Then all you got is a bunch of walkin torches trying to eat your guts

He nods slowly, and she sees that he already knew that about fire andher

Sarah Mary Willia it on a billboard in the distance My brother Abraham doesn’t believe you come up from the south He’s suspicious-minded like that Me, I believe you

Go ahead and both of you believe whatever you like It’s a free country

They are quiet for a while She inhales the ss When it seeets up froain, without looking at her, with no recognition of her going or co to the dark space of night sky in the maw of the broken-out pane It was here when they first came Somebody must of jumped When they took up residence, they just widened it and made it into a scenic lookout

Who’s they? Ain’t you one of them?

I’m a traveler by nature I been lots of places The provender of the earth’s good enough for h

How coht at this moment, this place is a fortress But if a man was inclined to do so, he could open up one of those loading bay doors in the ht, and suddenly we’re in a death house

That’s when he looks up at her, his eyes level with hers even though he’s sitting and she’s standing, squinting at her through the s flakes of fallen tobacco from his beard

You knohat I think? she says

What do you think?

She points through the hole into the dark throat of the diseased landscape

I think you’re irl, he says, that’s a funny thing you just uttered Because I was just now thinkin the sa back just once before she goes through the stairwell door and observing how the cloud of s hole in the glass wall--as though it is his soul, too large for hisout the pores of his skin and wandering circuitous back into the wilderness where it knows itself true a the violent and the dead

BACK IN her small room she takes a Nembutal and falls asleep almost immediately It’s probably the pill thatan hour later when the key is slotted into the door She is so deep down inside herself that it’s difficult to cli The key in the door, the rattle, the turning of the knob, and the airy squeak as the door swings inward once and then back shut She scra there and shaking herself awake just as the light in her rooood night

She squints and rubs her eyes against the sudden light He’s standing, hunched over and swaying a bit, drunk His leer makes her take stock of what she has on--just a T-shirt and underpants

Get outta here, Abraha around, is this your blade? Pretty nifty

He picks up the gurkha froh the air a few ti swords