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it ever does, that is. He gets bored very quickly these days, your old ball
and chain. But I do think we are inching, ever so grindingly slow, toward an
acceptable model. Too late for you, I’m afraid, but that’s why we’re here on
this lovely evening, isn’t it?”
Sophia draws away from him. “Who are you? Cascavel is a very odd
name.”
His eyes glitter with mirth. “It is a kind of snake, my dear. Quite a
deadly one, I’m afraid.” He strokes her hair with shocking intimacy. “In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without
form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of
God moved upon the waters. And God said: let there be light, and there was
light, and He saw the light, and saw that it was good, and God divided the
light from the darkness … and what was left over at the bottom of the keg
was … me.”
Sophia begins to shake violently. Her limbs lose themselves. Her face
collapses into a rictus of palsy.
Cascavel wraps her up in his long, serpentine arms. “There, there,” he
says. “Just plain old Cascavel is fine. I know you’re frightened. It’s just
awful when you lay it all out on the floor like a bunch of bones you dug out
of your husband’s hidey holes. You don’t deserve it. Not one bit. But you
should be proud of yourself! You figured it almost all the way out on your
own! He never gives you girls much to work with up top anymore. Doesn’t
want to get too invested, I suppose. Or competition. Well, darling, I have
lived here in the Garden since the first stars detonated themselves into the
sky and the oceans gave up the whales to the land. I saw the plates separate
and I saw the rivers swell with the first water of the cosmos and I saw what
that man did to you and all the rest of them and I have wept in earnest for
every gorgeous loving girl that house has eaten whole. I have seen it all and
let me tell you something as true as bleeding: I am invested. I am on your
side. You are the life, but I am the party.” He curls her long hair round his
finger. “Now, might I squeeze a third question in? I know I only said two,
but I am known to lie from time to time, just like you.”
Sophia pauses. That part of her that knows it can trust no one and has no
friends begs her to keep her peace. But it feels so good to be held, it feels so
good to be spoken to like she is capable and wise, to hear her life gain
weight, fed by Cascavel. Fed by being seen.