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"Why don't you? Don't you enjoy seeing it, even if you don't want it?"

I nodded I'd never dreamed he would let ether last year, the three of us, David had been far too reticent and suspicious to suggest such a thing We went down into the thick snowy darkness of Central Park

Everywhere one could hear the park's nightti, tiny whiffs of conversation, s individuals, individuals who kno to live in the wild in the midst of a city that is itself notoriously fatal to its unlucky ones

David found what he wanted quickly¡ªa young h his broken shoes, a walker in the night, lone and drugged and insensible to the cold and talking aloud to people of long ago

I stood back under the trees, ith snow and uncaring David reached out for the young ently around and e h and talk simultaneously And then went quiet, transfixed, until at last the body was gently laid to rest at the foot of a leafless tree

The skyscrapers of New York glowed to the south of us, the warhts of the East and the West Side he what, I wondered?

It seemed he'd lost the ability to ent archivest at the

"What?" I asked

"You knohat," he whispered "I won't survive that long "

"You serious? With the gifts I gave you¡ª"

"Shhhh, we're too s to each other which we know are unacceptable to each other We should stop "

"And speak only the truth? All right This is the truth Now, you feel as if you can't survive Now When his blood is hot and swirling through you Of course But you won't feel that way forever That's the key I don't want to talk anyelse to think about¡ªthis thing that's following me, and how I can help Dora before it closes in on me "

That shut him up

We started walking, ether,deep into the snow We wandered in and out of the leafless groves, pushing aside the wet black br

anches, the looht