The Totem-Maker (part fourteen)

The Totem-Maker Chapter Two Jealousy (part fourteen)                 I drew for Sente mostly dry signs, the least ill-boding reversed. An easier sort of luck than rain, so given to deluge or drought, too much or none at all. The dove, bearer of gossip, sat center. Sun was below, […]

All Bedlam Courses Past (part seventy-nine)

          All Bedlam Courses Past   Chapter Three An Object in Motion (part seventy-nine)             Something brewed. She took it for anger at Owen, though he must with his in-laws sit down to Sunday roast. He must, when he could, see his wife. He must work […]

All Bedlam Courses Past (part seventy-eight)

          All Bedlam Courses Past   Chapter Three An Object in Motion (part seventy-eight)               “Oh, Mariette will be tickled. Look how pretty!” A quarter of peach damask, a miniature ball-gown’s worth. Mariette’s first lady doll to wear what Clotilde could make of these… “And […]

All Bedlam Courses Past (part seventy-seven)

          All Bedlam Courses Past   Chapter Three An Object in Motion (part seventy-seven)                iv. Daughters       Her sister let the shirtwaist fall, one of the spaniels too interested… In snuffling deep, as a dog near blind with age will, the scent […]

All Bedlam Courses Past (part seventy-six)

          All Bedlam Courses Past   Chapter Three An Object in Motion (part seventy-six)              “Ma’am.” She wasn’t sure, the rhododendron masking them from one another, that Lawrence could be speaking to her. A moment passed, while neither Élucide nor Mrs. Koker answered. “Ma’am,” he said […]

All Bedlam Courses Past (part seventy-five)

          All Bedlam Courses Past   Chapter Three An Object in Motion (part seventy-five)              The start of a speech that would have done. They were hurting not Élucide Gremot, but Bertrand Sartain, a man who would never in return hurt them, or any soul in […]

All Bedlam Courses Past (part seventy-four)

          All Bedlam Courses Past   Chapter Three An Object in Motion (part seventy-four)              The hand that struck Richard was his mother’s. Verbena, swallowing cries, had been rising from the cot and lowering herself. She stood now. “I don’t have no filth in my house! […]

All Bedlam Courses Past (part seventy-three)

          All Bedlam Courses Past   Chapter Three An Object in Motion (part seventy-three)              The cabin had one room altogether, a cot mattressed by the full store of quilts, a barrel stove, home-crafted, in a corner; and the braided rug and patriarchal armchair from the […]

The Totem-Maker (part thirteen)

The Totem-Maker Chapter Two Jealousy (part thirteen)                 The porter led Lom to the terrace’s threshold, preceding a new-arrived visitor for whom Lom rightfully served as vanguard, Cime. Sente did not rise. “Can I fairly suppose, Sente, that the law touches you at last?” Mine was the eye […]

The Tambinder Engine (part ten)

      The Tambinder Engine  A McAlley Story (part ten)     If it needed driving into town, this new tedium, Deenie felt willing to spy, to troll the apartment house Railsback said was Mick’s. A tan brick two-story. Outside stairs. She pulled to a light, shifted her mirror, a move no one could […]