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Show Moon -105 blades as thick as swords. In that grass lurked cobras. Her brothers were warned against going into that grass, though Joy was the one who would have gone leaping into it first. Joy wandered in this world asleep, surrendered to the heat and the colors which pressed themselves into shapes, dreams, stories. She'd nearly forgotten that her brothers existed. Her parents, too, were gone under the backwash of the ship. She was alone, but still caught here, waiting for something to release her into the future. The tall grass made her vaguely afraid, a menace too close to the house, too nearly touching the purple flowers, too compelling. She was sure that one of them would have to walk out into that grass sooner or later. She was saving the money she earned at the embassy against the day when she'd be on her own. She planned for that day, knowing it would have to come soon, sooner than she'd be ready. She secretly wrote away to art schools in the States, mailed portfolios and scholarship applications, crossed her fingers for The Art Students League in New York City. She should have simply stayed in the States and gone to school, but she hadn't known then how urgent it would be to get away from her family. The Government, she knew, would pay her passage to the States to attend college. If she won a scholarship, James would have to let her go. Mother, now that so much is being said these days, I see it's nothing new. Then, I thought I was the only one. Under the tropical sun, where nothing is ever new, sand sticks to the feet of the slender brown men, and if you sit on the cement |