The spotlights melted into marquee lights. Joshua and I walked into a fine restaurant filled with people in fine clothes, drinking fine wines. I overheard some of their conversations, whining over poor service and overdone delicacies and complaining of spilled champagne, while others told endless stories of their achievements. I knew the ending of every story. I didn’t feel hungry for what was being served here. My hunger was less in my stomach than in my chest.

My heart suddenly buoyed when I saw Victoria alone at one of the tables. I didn’t know she’d left the red road.

I watched her from a distance, studied every inch of her. She looked so beautiful tonight, so slight and delicate, dressed so elegantly.

I heard a sound on my chest, a tranquil purr. Startled, I looked down and saw a sort of tiny gerbil, hardly bigger than a golf ball and so fuzzy it seemed almost weightless. Somehow it had attached itself to me with its little claws and was nuzzling softly against my shirt. Where had it come from? Had it fallen on me from a tree back in the marsh without my noticing? Or from something in one of the buildings?

I smiled at the big-eyed creature and thought how Amy would have loved it too. Frodo would be barking his brains out, but he was nowhere to be seen. Joshua looked at the creature, nodding his approval and petting it himself. I stroked it as I watched Victoria. I smiled, mesmerized. The longer I looked at Victoria the more she filled my heart.

“Go sit with her,” Joshua said to me. He led me by the arm and took me to her table, then excused himself: “I have other things to take care of.”

Victoria seemed pleased to see me.

“He’s adorable,” she said, stroking the creature’s fur. “Have dinner with me—you too,” she said to the gerbil.

I couldn’t detach him because his claws clutched tightly to my shirt, but he didn’t get in the way. Victoria and I dined alone and toasted with champagne. When the music began, I managed to relocate my little friend to my side so Victoria and I could dance. My blood stirred and my senses tingled. We embraced, every song and every dance flowing into another and another. I felt intoxicated. The hunger in my chest deepened.

We stopped, and she kissed me, then smiled and said she had to go.

“Can I … go with you?”

“Not tonight,” she whispered to me, but she smiled as she walked away, and her eyes said yes. Another enchanting melody arose, and the desire within me refused to cool. The gerbil-like creature crawled back to my ribs, near my chest. I smiled and petted it.

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