Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

close to you. Even at that, you’ve been almost as much afather to me as Alfred has. I think you can say what you haveto say to me.” Alan remained on the stand-cushion but leanedforward with his elbows on his knees.Elmore paced a couple more times. “I’ll get right to theheart of it,” he said, “because I just can’t think of the rightway to get into it.”“It’s about me and Ava,” Alan laid it out for him.Elmore curled his lips in and leaned back with his handsclasped behind him. He rocked back and forth. “Thomfollowed Ava into the closet a couple nights ago,” was all hewould say at first.That would have been Nightday here. Ava took him to aclub in Yondure where the fashions were straight out of acarnival samba troupe. Many couples discreetly had sex onthe dance floor, but Ava did not. He wondered how muchThom followed. He could have been at the taps all eveningand neither of them would have noticed because Ava’s magiccould take them years of travel away in his three-d realitybox. They thought their hiding place was totally secure. “He’sleft her alone a lot,” was all he could say.“He saw her run into your arms, he saw you go off intothe crowd together before her door closed.”So it wasn’t that bad, he hadn’t followed them to thebeach for instance or to the bedroom. “I did show her aroundmy universe a little that evening.”“Alan, I need to know how it really is, I’m an old friend74