Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

which had some of those flounced skirts, plain but colorfulskirts and open-fronted blouses in it, several long strips ofsoft cloth, a bronze hand mirror and an oil lamp. There was asmall box with cute little ceramic vials of cosmetics andointments. The old woman made motions that this cubiclewas hers. Ava nodded and thanked her. She nodded andsmiled. A bit of information had been transmitted betweenthem.She took Ava to the bathroom and showed her which washer wash rag, tooth pick and soap. There was only one washbasin and it was pottery, but there was a tiled shelf near it.The water spigot was a colorful little dolphin with a cork inhis mouth. She showed her the toilet jug. There was a coverthat kept the smell in.Then, back in the landing where these cubicles were, shegave Ava a long and gentle speech. Ava tried to pay closeattention, she hoped she’d get something out of it, but mostdogs in her old neighborhood (and most of them were feral)understood more of the average human conversation than shedid of this. With that complete, she bid farewell anddisappeared down the stairs.Ava had to accept the fact that she was going to be lostuntil she understood the language. She had to be encouraged.Wherever she was, it didn’t seem like she was beingpunished. She wasn’t sure because she wasn’t a history major,but to her this seemed to be a reasonably accurate virtual409