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Show •268 Inquisitive and hungry the seagulls veered lower with sudden screechy cries, as if betrayed by unexpected pains. The air was cool to the touch; it was filled with shining spicules of fog waiting for a signal to coalesce into cloud. The seaside light came from everywhere and drenched us in its peculiar melancholy intensity. It was nearly noon, a crucial time of day even here in these high latitudes where the sun always stays pretty low in the sky. Brightness fell sfrom the air; the atmosphere about us seemed to hum, to twang, to resonate with many far-off sounds, low and powerful The gulls ceased their screeching and when I looked up I saw them floating suddenly silent over our heads. "You killed him," I said. I was more surprised by my words than he was; Carlo saw them coming before I did, and only blinked. I stood up from the picnic table and walked around it, trying to get control of myself again. I regretted everything already, but it was too late;* I had been tricked by the peculiar light but it was no use to say so. Carlo stayed on the bench but he was poised like a butterfly, ready to be gone with one flap of gaudy wings. "I knew you were going to say that." "Am I wrong?" I said. He shook his head. The gulls had fallen out of whatever spell had held them for a minute or two; in front of us one slipped down along a steep |