watched him out of sight, feeling forlorn, deserted, but Donnell gazed anxiously in the other direction.
'I knew the son of a bitch would be late,' he said.
The interior of the store was dark and cluttered. Shelf after shelf pf canned goods and sundries, bins of fish hooks and sinkers, racks of rods and reels. The fading light was thronged with particles of dust, and their vibration seemed to register the half-life of some force that radiated from a tin washtub of dried bait shrimp set beneath the window.
'Cain't wait here 'less you buy somethin',' said the woman back of the counter, so they bought sandwiches and went outside to eat on the steps.
'Funny thing happened last night,' he said, breaking a long bout of chewing. 'I was talking to Edman while you were searching the house, and I felt you behind me. I could've sworn you'd come back in the room, but then I realized I was feeling you walk through the house. It's happened before, I think, but not so strongly.'
'It's probably just sexual,' she said.
He laughed and hugged her.
'You folks cain't wait here much longer,' said the woman from inside the door. 'I'm gonna close real soon, and I don't want you hangin' round after dark.'
'There must be some kind of feedback system in operation,' said Jocundra after the woman had clomped back to the counter. 'I mean considering the way your abilities have increased since you began healing. I'd expect more of an increase while you're on the veve. Even though you'll be trimming back the colony, you'll be routing them through the systems that control your abilities.'
'Hmm.' He rubbed her hip, disinterested. 'It was really weird last night,' he said. 'Sort of like the way you could tell the Gulf was beyond the pines at Robichaux's. Something about the air, the light. A thousand micro-changes. I knew where you were every second.'
The sun was reddening, ragged strings of birds crossed the horizon, and there were splashes from the marsh. A Paleozoic stillness. The scene touched off a sunset-colored dream in Jocundra's head. How they sailed down one of the channels to the sea, followed the coast to a country of spiral towers and dingy portside bars, where an old man with a talking lizard on a leash and a map tattooed on his chest offered them sage advice. She went with the dream, preferring it to thinking about their actual destination.
'That's him,' said Donnell.
A long maroon car was slowing; it pulled over on the shoulder and honked. They walked toward it without speaking. There were bouquet vases in the back windows, a white monogrammed R on the door. Jocundra reached out to open the rear door, but Papa Salvatino, his puffy face warped by a scowl, punched down the lock.
'Get in front!' he snapped. 'I ain't your damn chauffeur!'
'You're late,' said Donnell as he slid in. Jocundra scrunched close to him, away from Papa.
'Listen, brother. Don't you be tellin' me I'm late!' Papa engaged the gears; the car shot forward. 'Right now, right this second, you already at Otille's.' He shifted again, and they were pressed together by the acceleration. 'We got us a peckin' order at Maravillosa,' Papa shouted over the wind. 'And it's somethin' you better keep in mind, brother, 'cause you the littlest chicken!'
He lit a cigarette, and the wind showered sparks over the front seat. Jocundra coughed as a plume of smoke enveloped her.
'I just can't sit behind the wheel 'less I got a smoke,' said Papa. 'Sorry.' He winked at Jocundra, then gave her an appraising stare. 'My goodness, sister. I been so busy scoutin' out Brother Harrison, I never noticed what a fine, fine-lookin' woman you are. You get tired of shar-penin' his pencil, give 'ol Papa a shout.'
Jocundra edged farther away; Papa laughed and lead-footed the gas. The light crumbled, the grasses marshaled into ranks of shadows against the leaden dusk. They drove on in silence.
The house was painted black.
On first sight, a brief glimpse through a wild tangle of vines and trees, Donnell hadn't been certain. By the time they arrived at the estate, clouds had swept across the moon and he could not even make out the roofline against the sky. A number of lighted windows hovered unsupported in the night, testifying to the great size of the place, and as they passed along the drive, the headlights revealed a hallucinatory vegetable decay: oleanders with nodding white blooms, shattered trunks enwebbed by vines, violet orchids drooling off