She came to in the air as it were, floating, hovering somehow weightlessly, there above her own body, staring down at it — that mere human form which she had once encompassed and contained and commanded, now small and wasted … Read More
VII. School the Second. The tale and the game; a search for the unseen; the first conjuration; illness and recovery. Thrust against his wishes into a community that did not understand him, and did not want him; oppressed by teacher … Read More
“After the operation — ah, what a cold word! After… it was done… I fell sick almost immediately.” Victoria was standing now, walking slowly beneath the tree, her long dress dragging immaculately in the dust, her face set in consternation. … Read More
VI. School the First. The shattering of his solitude; the birth of his isolation; society convenes; a revelation; a near miss. Well and enough! But the time has come that we must summon the initial true moments of Samuel’s life, … Read More
“I remember Mom’s face when I told them,” she continued, a certain heaviness in her voice, her eyes grown, dark, deep. She bit her lip slightly. “I don’t know how Dad looked… That’s funny, isn’t it? I didn’t even notice. … Read More
V. The Scenes of His Childhood. Eden upon the mount; the world above and the world below; old woman Templeton; what was there and what was not. In his very early days, when he was but a toddler and had … Read More
But even then she seemed unready, somehow, to tell him what her parents had said. Perhaps it was the oath she had made him take that was yet in the back of her mind, that thought that he would not … Read More
IIII. The Stage of his Childhood. Silverspur and the Blackmores; the history that intercedes; a soil too shallow; a soil too dark. The city of Silverspur where Samuel spent the better part of his youth and the majority of his … Read More
Several weeks before her funeral, Victoria Tucker had begun to notice the telltale changes in her body. She had somehow known from the very first, though she had continued for a time in a kind of quietly willful denial of … Read More
