“Oh, Wala, isn’t she gorgeous?” she said.

The haltered animal was being held on a lead rope by Gloria. She might have smiled at me. I stood next to Eigen and stroked the horse’s neck.

“Isn’t she something?” Eigen said. “Her name is Lilac a Rug. Do you get it? Her mother was Lilac Perfume and her father was Cut a Rug.”

“Nice,” I said. “Eigen, are you all right?”

She didn’t seem to hear my question. At least she didn’t respond.

“She’ll be my entry in the Derby,” Sill said. “She stands a good chance. She actually enjoys being pushed. What about you, Wala? Do you enjoy being pushed?”

“Not particularly,” I said.

“What about you, Eigen?”

“What?” she asked.

“Do you like to be pushed?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said.

Sill pulled some strands of hair from her face and gently pushed them behind her ear. “How are you feeling, darling?”

“I’m wonderful,” Eigen said. She looked right at me. “I’m wonderful.”

“Yes, you are,” said Sill. Sill looked at my eyes. “Yes, she is.”

4

We were seated at Sill’s customarily well-appointed lunch table on a lawn just below the pool and once again we were joined by General Takitall. This time, however, the general was not in uniform but dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts, and orange Crocs on his surprisingly small feet.

“Professor Kitu, we meet again,” Takitall said. “Look at this lunch. John, you’ve outdone yourself.”

“Lunch is, without doubt, the most important meal of the day,” Sill said. “Isn’t that right, Eigen?”

“I love lunch,” Eigen said.

I looked at the table.

“DeMarcus, run down the menu for us,” Sill said.

DeMarcus cleared his throat. He pointed. “Here we have Guinness-poached lobster with dill smetana, wild trout roe, and fennel flowers. Here we have cubes of marble rye bread stuffed with caramelized onions and Parmesan custard. Finally, masa toro topped with Marky’s Imperial Beluga Hybrid caviar.”

“I don’t care about your fucking expensive and fancy foods,” I said. “I’ll have a roast beef sandwich. A damn pizza. And not one with edible gold on it.”

“Looks to me like somebody got up on the wrong side of the quadrilateral,” Takitall said.

“Eigen!” I shouted. “What the hell is wrong with you?” I fell exhausted back into my chair.

“Are we done?” Sill asked me.

I nodded.

“Very good, the rest of us will now enjoy the, as you called it, expensive and fancy food.”

“Excuse me,” I said. “I believe I’ll return to my room.”

“Gloria, see that the professor doesn’t get lost.”

“Of course, Mr. Sill,” Gloria said. “Professor.”

I looked at Eigen one long, last time and then got up and left the table, Gloria on my heels.

“You realize I know the way,” I said.

“Yes,” she said.

“What is Sill doing to my friend?”

“Nothing that she is not receptive to.”

“What does that mean?” I asked. “Aside from the fact that you use questionable grammar?”