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"Let me sleep," I said

I locked the door and lay on the floor, knees drawn up, war the pine needles and the soil that clung to my clothes, and the smoke, and the bits and pieces of dried excrement, and the blood, of course, the huia Sophia when the dead infant had fallen on me, and the smell of the horse manure, and the smell of the marl of Hell

All of it rapped up with me in this blanket, ainst my bare chest

"Don't come near me!" I whispered one more time for the ears of the immortals outside, ere so confounded and confused

Then I slept

Sweet rest Sweet darkness

Would that death were like this Would that one would sleep and sleep and sleep forever

Chapter 23

23

I REMAINED unconscious the full twenty-four hours, waking only as the sun died behind the winter sky the next evening

There was a fine outlay of ood clothes for me displayed on the wooden chest, and a pair of my own shoes

I tried to ist all that David had earlier sent here for ical choice And I s of how often in our lives David and I had been utterly entangled in the adventure of clothes

But you see, if a vampire leaves out details like clothes, the story doesn't randiose mythic characters¡ªif they are flesh and blood¡ªdo have to worry about the latchets on sandals

It struck me with full force that I was back froh the will of the clothed That I was covered in dirt and did have only one shoe

I stood up, fully alert, re to look at it, though I thought I could see the dark iarether on the blanket, so that not one pine needle would be lost that didn't have to be lost And then I went into the nearby bathroom¡ªthe customary cha baptized in the Jordan David had laid out for me all the requisite toys¡ªco else, really