he was there on the wet ground unmindful of the light rain falling on him. it was not enough to extinguish the cigar, but enough to make my think my bones were cold. i drifted in and out. he might have been there an hour before i noticed him. he said you're going to die out here. he just said it. yes, i said. it occurred they might eat me. if they meant to eat me, they wouldn't have let my flesh get this rotten. i was not good enough to eat. i'm not good enough for you to eat i muttered into the read too tired to choose before thinking or speaking. you and i would not have heard it, but their ears were good. maybe just your heart, he said. it was not like speaking to a person, he was just a shadow against others. i wanted to lie down with the dead, be numb and blind and without memory, but that's not what happened. i kept my memory, especially the parts i didn't want. oh, my god. [laughter] oh, it's across the river. i said that. try to keep up. [laughter] this is, you know, we all, the scandinavians among us, and there's nothing we can do about it. this is