( anna - anya, as she had previously invited him to call her, too flint-eyed to convey the appropriate friendliness of the gesture - is only a few steps behind him, the accumulated scars and blemishes of ordinary life lived after zion melted to nothing by the way that she still sees herself, untouched and untouchable by time. in an abstract way, she hopes to find death as suddenly and violently as she began the life she never really lived; she searches her reflection each day for signs of age, and it unsettles her in ways that her pride will never let her put into words.
her hands are clasped behind her back, her hair pulled away from her face. she comes to stand beside him, all regal placidity, and eventually she says, )
And are you satisfied by it?
( without any particular expectation that he will answer her. )
no subject
her hands are clasped behind her back, her hair pulled away from her face. she comes to stand beside him, all regal placidity, and eventually she says, )
And are you satisfied by it?
( without any particular expectation that he will answer her. )