But there is something who will never see that mask. Ella drew the girl
closer to her. Somebody who remembers only the way he was before.
Debra's grip tightened on Ella's hand, and she began to smile, it was an
expression that seemed to radiate from deep within her.
He needs you now, Debra, Ella said softly. That is all there is left
for him. Will you change your decision now? Fetch him to me, Ella,
Debra's voice shook. Fetch him to me as soon as you can.
David climbed the long line of stairs towards Ella's studio. It was a
day of bright sunlight and he wore open sandals and light silk slacks of
a bronze colour and a short-sleeved shirt with a wide V-neck. His arms
were pale from lack of sun, the dark hair of his chest contrasting
strongly against the soft cream, and upon his head he wore a
wide-brimmed white straw hat to guard the cicatrice from the sun and to
soften his face with shadow.
He paused, and he could feel the break of sweat under the shirt and the
pumping of his lungs. He despised the weakness of his body and the
quivering of his legs as he came out on the terrace. It was deserted,
and he crossed to the shuttered doors and went into the gloom.
Ella Kadesh sitting on a Samarkand carpet in the centre of the paved
floor was an astonishing sight. For she was dressed in a brief bikini
costume adored with pink roses that almost disappeared under the rolls
of ponderous flesh that hung over it from belly and breast.
She was in the yoga position of Padmasana, the sitting lotus, and her
massive legs were twisted and entwined like mating pythons. Her hands
were held before her palm to palm and her eyes were closed in
meditation; upon her head her ginger wig was set four square like that
of a judge.
David leaned in the doorway and before he could recover his breath he
began to laugh. It began as a wheezy little chuckle, and then suddenly
he was really laughing, from deep down, great gusts of it that shook his
helpless body, and flogged his lungs. It was not mirth but a catharsis
of the last dregs of suffering, it was the moment of accepting life
again, a taking up once more of the challenge of living.
Ella must have recognized it as such, for she did not move, squatting
like some cheerful buddha on the brilliant carpet, and she opened one
little eye. The effect was even more startlingly comic, and David
reeled away from the door, and fell into one of the chairs.
Your soul is a desert, David Morgan, said Ella. You have no recognition
of beauty, all loveliness would wither on the dung heap which, But the
rest of it was lost as she also began to giggle and the yoga pose broke
down, melting like a jelly on a hot day, and she traded him hoot for
hoot and bellow for bellow of laughter.
I'm stuck, she gasped at last. Help me, Davey, you oaf - And he
staggered to her, knelt and struggled to help her unlock her interwoven
legs. They came apart with little creaking and popping sounds and Ella
collapsed face down on the carpet groaning and giggling at the same
time.
Get out of here, she moaned. Leave me to die in peace. Go and find
your woman, she is down on the jetty. She watched him go quickly, and
then she dragged herself up and went to the door. The laughter dried up
