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He sat on the stone park bench, boylike, casual, with one knee crooked, looking up at me with the predictable innocence, dusty all over, naturally, hair a long, tangled mess of auburn curls

Dressed in heavy deniht pants, and a zippered jacket, he surely passed for huh his face was now parchment white, and even smoother than it had been when last we met

In a way, he made lass eyes¡ªa doll that had been found in an attic I wanted to polish him with kisses, clean him up, make him even more radiant than he was

"That's what you alant," he said softly His voice shocked me If he had any French or Italian accent left, I couldn't hear it His tone was melancholy and had no meanness in it at all

"When you found me under Les Innocents," he said, "you wanted to bathe reat embroidered sleeves "

"Yes," I said, "and cory "You look good to ood to love "

We eyed each other for atowards esture wasn't tentative, but it was extreentle I could have backed away I didn't We held each other tight for athe hard

"Cherub child," I said I did a bold thing, led curls

He is sesture

In fact, he smiled, shook his head, and reclaimed his hair with a few casual strokes of his hand His cheeks went apple-perfect suddenly, and his ly struck me hard on the chest

Really hard Show-off Noas my turn to smile and I did

"I can't re bad between us," I said

"You will," he responded "And so will I But what does it matter e remember?"

"Yes," I said, "we're both still here "

He laughed outright, though it was very low, and he shook his head, flashing a glance on David that implied they knew each other very well, maybe too well I didn't like it that they knew each other at all David was my David, and Armand was my Armand