“I followed the little troop outside, where a police car was waiting, into which they put his luggage as he stood rattling on and shaking hands now with those officers who were to stay behind.

“I drew near enough to hear his profuse thanks and apologies, the dreadful euphemisms and meaningless language, and his enthusiastic statements as to how much he’d enjoyed his brief voyage. How he seemed to enjoy this masquerade.”

“Yes,” I said dismally. “That’s our man.”

“Then the strangest of all moments occurred. He stopped all this chatter as they held the door of the car open for him, and turned around. He looked directly at me, as if he’d known I was there all along. Only he disguised this gesture quite cleverly, letting his eyes drift over the crowds coming and going through the enormous entrances, and then he looked at me again, very quickly, and he smiled.

“Only when the car drove off did I realize what had occurred. He had willingly driven away in my old body, leaving me with this twenty-six-year-old hunk of flesh.”

He lifted the glass again, took a sip, and stared at me.

“Maybe the switch at such a moment would have been absolutely impossible. I really don’t know. But the fact was, he wanted that body. And I was left standing there, outside the customs building, and I was … a young man again!”

He stared fixedly at the glass, obviously not seeing it at all, and then again his eyes looked into mine.

“It was Faust, Lestat. I’d bought youth. But the strange part was … I hadn’t sold my soul!”

I waited as he sat there in confounded silence, and shook his head a little, and seemed on the verge of beginning again. Finally he spoke:

“Can you forgive me for leaving then? There was no way I could return to the ship. And of course James was on his way to jail, or so I believed.”

“Of course I forgive you. David, we knew this might happen. We expected you might be taken into custody just as he was! It’s absolutely unimportant. What did you do? Where did you go?”

“I went into Bridgetown. It wasn’t even really a decision. A young very personable black cabdriver came up to me, thinking I was a cruise passenger, which of course I was. He offered me a tour of the city at a good price. He’d lived for years in England. Had a nice voice. I don’t even think I answered him. I simply nodded and climbed into the back seat of the little car. For hours he drove me around the island. He must have thought me a very strange individual, indeed.

“I remember we drove through the most beautiful sugarcane fields. He said the little road had been built for the horse and carriage. And I thought that these fields probably looked the way they did two hundred years ago. Lestat could tell me. Lestat would know. And then I’d look down at my hands again. I’d move my foot, or tense my arms, or any small gesture; and I’d feel the sheer health and vigor of this body! And I’d fall back into a state of wonder, utterly oblivious to the poor man’s voice or the sights we passed.