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Show 86 cruel." She accepted. He said he'd shower first. There were fresh flesh-colored steaks on his skin. When he arrived, she was ready, and he presented her with the work. She wept. "It needs a frame," he said. "It has a mirror," Victoria showed him. She wore a dress - long and hand-crocheted -- from the past. At Caesar's Palace they ate scallopini and drank wine. Victoria, warmed by softer energy, strung the universe out like luminous beads. She populated space. And Hunt listened. They had spumoni for dessert, Italian coffee, finally Cointreau. He walked her back. "I want to ask you in," she said, outside. "But I've asked too much. Sometimes I need to stop." "Sometimes I need to start," Hunt said. He tried to smile, but a crazy kind of shame and .caring fractured his expression. He bent and kissed her head. "Thank you," she said. Hunt's breath caught. She turned her key quickly then in her lock and vanished. Alone, shadowed partly and breathing deeply, Hunt felt closer than he ever had to those he loved. Victoria's lights went on. Her shape filtered past curtains, then flickered up. Life did move! Bones still made gestures into space! It was fine; he was opened again. Now the junket was over, he knew, and he could lose. |
