Equilateral (21 page)
Authors: Ken Kalfus
“Yes, Pho,” she says. “That’s true.”
“And what a discovery, what a revelation. Your sweet, welcoming mouth. The strength of your arms. Your heat. Then, my darling, your graces are offered to my sight and touch. Powerful thighs and delicately turned ankles, the saucy, aggressive rump, hah, I was taken by surprise. The full breasts tipped with dusky aureolas. Your caresses are light and knowing. Your broad freckled back. The mons veneris, moist and warm and hungry and yielding, a perfect fit, dear. Your skin tastes of mesquite, and sweat, and citronella. Yes, my darling, it does.”
“Yes,” she murmurs.
A foreign howl, a prolonged wail, slices through the sickroom. It reverberates against the walls and shivers the windows. Ballard looks up abruptly, gazing through the open door into the hallway.
Thayer falls silent. The cry, the first time this voice has been heard in this world, has penetrated down, down, down to him. The Chilean desert vanishes. His eyes narrow.
“They’ve arrived,” he whispers, barely audible, and barely in the room. “They’re here.”
Miss Keaton drops her head and stares into her lap.
Ballard continues to look away, into the hallway. In the corridor the nurses hold their breaths. Carts brake on the plaza before the customs hall. The fellahin put down their packs and look up. A caravan driver raises a bony hand and a long, outstretched finger to order a halt. He listens. Men in offices lift their pencils from their documents and allow them to stay in place, hovering. Diplomats pause in their negotiations. No one speaks as they wait for the next signal, the inevitable call of life; intelligent, companionable, needful, rampant life.
Δ
Ken Kalfus is the author of two novels,
The Commissariat of Enlightenment
and
A Disorder Peculiar to the Country
, which was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award. He’s also published two collections of stories,
Thirst
and
Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies
, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. His books have been translated into more than ten foreign languages. He lives in Philadelphia.
NOVELS
A Disorder Peculiar to the Country
The Commissariat of Enlightenment
STORIES
Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies
Thirst
The author wishes to thank the Pew Fellowships in the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He also wishes to acknowledge his extravagant use of Google Books, Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha, and Starry Night, a product of the Simulation Curriculum Corp
.
The author is grateful to James Stockard and Sally Young, of the Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, for many courtesies during his wife’s 2011–12 fellowship year
.
Copyright © 2013 by Ken Kalfus
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information address Bloomsbury USA, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR
eISBN: 978-1-62040-017-3
First U.S. Edition 2013
This electronic edition published April 2013
Table of Contents
