OCR Text |
Show 29 motionless howl, frozen, frozen in pain, and Maia sees forever down in Theresa's open mouth, sees the brown-stained teeth and the flattened tongue, sees all the soft pale-red glistening surfaces of her throat, motionless in an eternity of pain. No, much is not clear about the way the dogs died. Events on the periphery of the deaths, like points on outward-flowing circles, recede into uncertainty. The origins of the fact are obscure, and its effects dwindle onward into indeterminacy. Causality has not been traced, at least not securely: dare we impute responsibility? Responsibility? To Boaz, or the thin g i r l Maia? No, responsibility is an empty conceit: of no concern, no question. At the center there is only the fact: the dogs died. |