They stand now, still as stone, in a sickening uneasy calm. As the barometer drops and drops, slowly a black cloud gathers over their heads. A little wind stirs brown hair across the mouth, brown lilacs and brown hair, ruffling through hair yellow as corn silk, through auburn, orange, russet and flame-red hair and black Pan curls....
WIND WIND WIND
A sighing sound, a whistle, a shriek, hair standing straight up now as a black funnel whirls around their slender bodies tearing cobblestones up from the street, screaming hurricanes of broken glass as the boys ride this bucking whistling wind—it's known as a 'space horse.' You let it carry you all the way out, glass blizzards stripping flesh from bones, tossing bloody bones through the air with street signs and branches, masonry, stones and timbers—the whole city is flapping and shredding.
Thousand-mile-an-hour winds—the fences, barbed wire, and massive iron gates hemming in the Casbah are tearing loose ... flying wire decapitates screaming crowds. Pan, God of Panic, rides the wings of Death as the torn sky bends with the wind, prop sky tearing, shredding—incandescent force—the pure young purpose blazes like a comet....
WIND! WIND! WIND!
Audrey is in the eye of the hurricane, a point of lucid calm. In front of him is a dusty tube of Colgate toothpaste in the window of a Tangier shop.
Far away he sees Middletown: red brick houses, a deep clear stream, some bridges, naked boys, high-pitched distant voices. A boy who looks familiar ... he knows the boy's name but can't remember from where exactly ... it's Dink ... Dink Rivers, the boy from Middletown.
Now Dink waves and beckons: 'It's me, Audrey! I'm back!'
Audrey tries to reach him but the wind tosses Audrey about like a cork. He is fighting his way upriver through breaking ice floes ... years tearing loose.
The distant voice of the pitchman: 'The age-old story of Adam and Eve ...'
Audrey finds himself in the Fun City of his dream ... can't remember exactly ... pinwheels ... shooting galleries a rural slum ... rundown houses ... rubbish ... little fields of corn and cabbage ... blotched diseased faces ... silent and intent ... all moving down a steep road of red clay ... no one seems to see him.
The road leads to a rubbly square. In the middle of the square is a platform built around a tree.
Argue second time
around such a deal
On the platform is Arn as Eve with long red hair, her body covered with fever blotches. A naked youth with long yellow hair is Adam. The fever smell steams off their naked bodies and the crowd draws the smell in, whimpering and rubbing themselves.
Something familiar about Adam, Audrey thinks. Reminds him of something a long time ago. Why ... it's me!
Now Arn proffers Adam an apple. The fruit is purple-red and shiny like the head of a penis. Here and there on the fruit are triangular bulges like Adam's apples and at one end is a russet rectum.
Adam does not hear. His face wears an appalling expression of idiotic ecstasy as he bites into the apple. Audrey can feel the sugary burning-metal taste down to his quivering toes as Arn rises from his side tearing loose ... the sweet diseased knowledge.
Eve stands there with a noose ... bone's song burning marbled cream smashed roses ... old story of Adam and Eve ... how Eve was
By noon of the third day, General Darg is ready to surrender. Knowing the treatment meted out to defeated generals in Yass-Waddah, he calculates how he can get a better deal from Dimitri. The insurgents are now in control of Ba'dan, or what is left of it. Considering the terrible fate awaiting prisoners taken by the Green Guards during the battle, Dimitri launches an immediate all-out assault on Yass-Waddah.
Audrey has been captured by the Green Guards and brought to the Countess de Gulpa's palace. She isn't going to share
'Hello, Audrey, I am very glad to see you here.' She smiles and licks her lips, her eyes glowing with green fire. 'Let me show you around.'
