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She nodded I thought she was nodding in agreelassy, and she nodded again and started to pitch forward on her face I caught her She swayed dizzily and sagged against ht now"

"Uh-huh"

"Evan, I cannot go anywhere now And we do not dare to travel by night We are not that fine at getting around in jungles to begin with, is it not so? And by night it would be in our journey in the o now"

She raised her eyes beseechingly "I do not think I could do this, Evan I am so tired"

"But if they-"

"I must sleep, Evan" She blinked rapidly "We both h it is possible you do not realize it"

"Oh, I realize it"

"For you are under strain andon your nerves, Evan, but I know that you need a night’s sleep You have slept so little since we left Griggstown Whenever I look at you you are wide awake I do not think that I have ever seen you sleeping"

"Oh, I hibernate"

"What is that?"

"What bears do"

"Bears? Oh, yes, I know them They live in Jellystone Park and are friends with squirrels and rangers I have seen them in the cinema with Mickey the Mouse They, too, can speak, can they not?"

"Uh"

"But I do not understand what it is to hibernate"

I explained what it was to hibernate, and that I was joking I told Pluet by without very much sleep, and we left it at that My exact condition isn’t precisely a state secret, but it’s so up if I can avoid it The revelation of my insomnia always leads into a predictable pattern of questions and answers, one I’ve had rather enough of over the years It is simpler to avoid all that

Still, Plum insisted, I ht, nor would it be safe I didn’t really want to agree with this but I couldn’t avoid it She was obviously shot, and while I le at night onover my shoulder

But I didn’t like the alternative a hell of a lot The idea of spending the night in the , and the idea of spending any unnecessary ti

The ss, a coory than the other two I parked Plu of the evidence of thedetach the performance of unpleasant tasks I tried them, and while I couldn’t entirely blind h it

I found a straw tick and sos and fixed up a bed for Plu all the way from hysterical to numb, and I had to pick her up and carry her to the chapel and tuck her into her bed She lay down, then propped herself up on one elbow and scanned the rooone," she said

"What is?"

"The dead bodies Gone Good"

She flopped down and closed her eyes I sat beside her for a few ot todark now, the sky darkening rather abruptly as is its wont in that region I went to the garden to pull soetables but stopped ry We hadn’t eaten anything substantial in quite a while, but soh to appease the desire for food I exa could induce

I guess it must have been the infirs had evidently playedwas presently a co the place without any conscious objective inbut it didn’t much matter what it was The Holy Grail, the Golden Fleece, the Fountain of Youth – any of these would have done

What I found was a corain alcohol,and certified fit for human consumption Grain alcohol Around two hundred proof Bottled and capped and labeled and, in the midst of the asaki, remarkably not to say miraculously unbroken

And I held it in my hand and looked at it, and all at once I knehat it was I had been looking for, and that this was it The Elixir of Life The Universal Solvent The Final Solution

I found a gallon of bottled spring water and a plastic coffee cup, and I took the two jugs and the cup and went back to where Plu restlessly, and I put a hand on her forehead and gentled her into a more restful sleep Then I filled the coffee cup halfith alcohol, topped it off with spring water, and drank the result

It tasted like vodka, which was only right, since that is what it really was Hundred proof vodka It burned It had a hell of a kick to it

I liked it

I eain, this time with a touch less alcohol and a touch more water I worked on the drink and let my mind unwind and work the knots out of itself Just what theappreciatively

I closed my eyes The missionaries, priests and nuns alike, were now either in Heaven or not, depending upon the validity of their basic assumptions, which they were now unfortunately in a position to confirent, was probably dead So was Knanda Ndoro, the Retriever of Modonoland