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Show 'SI A sudden smile, her arms tightening around me in a hug, and I felt a sharp exuberant affection for her. There we were at the edge of the ocean at the edge of the continent, stepped out of our social selves as much as out iia.ce. of our clothes, naked and met. I kissed her with pleasure. She was kissing me, giving to me, when she suddenly stopped. "What's that?" She was frowning, listening, and then I heard it too, something. Soft but distinct from the sound of the sea I heard it, and I had heard it often enough before, but I could not believe it. "What is_ it?" she said, gripping my arm. "It couldn't be, but it sounds like a horse." "That's what I -- Oh my god.'" She wrenched herself out of mya' arms and went running up the beach. I was confused. I was dizzy with booze and lust in my blood, those hoof-beats didn't make sense, and I looked up the beach and saw nothing. Seeing nothing confused me more. Then I turcfned and looked down the beach. The horse was coming on at a lope, the rider's white hat rising and falling in the night. Into the water he went, splashing high, **&&&* eventf though I saw the horse and rider, even more I did not believe them. I had never imagined a horse galloping at the edge of the ocean, in the ocean. Had I drunk more than I thought? But there went Marion in the moonlight running up toward the grassy dunes, her buttocks jiggling a retreat, she slipping in the soft sand, and for a moment the only rational thing to do in a crazy world seemed to be to give in to panic and follow ner,.run like hell. Let that nigntmare of a horse go on by. Yet a part of me told me that what I saw was the real world, and I wanted to take our telltale clothes with us since I didn't relish running around naked on Miami Beach with a horseman in pursuit to tell me I'd left my clothes behind. There seemed plenty of time but as I squatted down to them I saw that the horseman had seen me and that his horse had veered out of the water and toward me. That made me hurry more, which* made me drop a few of the things I had picked |
