AZOTUSLAND chapter thirty eight

When Jim and Matisse got back they walked up the steps and sat at the stone table.

They looked at her digital pictures and laughed and commented. Then she asked "Can I hear the poem Papi?"

"What poem Pumpkin?"

"The Tea Garden poem."

He thought about it. Where was it now? There might be a chapbook in the Library, but not likely. It was a part of a major colelction back east in the Smithsonian, but that was just vanity.

"Um... wait here ababy," he said and walked up the walkway and into the Gallery. Hans was showing an older couple some exquiste acrylic works by Lussier and a Swenson.

"Hi Hans...not a word!" he said, then worked to the back and into Silo 2.

He grabbed the iBook and launched upstairs realizing that the stew had been unattended for six hours and should be checked.

"Hey baby," he said when he got back up. "Let's go upstairs and get ready for mom, okay?"

"Sure Papi. Did you get the poem?"

"yesm, I sure did, but it is very small."

"oh good," she said and he looked up and just laughed.

"Daughters."

*******

Maugham was pissed and felt dissed. Obviously he had been folowed last night but how and why and by whom?

Pissed.

He decided to do a bit of subtle payback for whoever it was watching and went online in Ops and downloaded pictures of various Rhinos and made up some posters for the grounds.

They had a ridiculous pictures of Rhinos in more than dubious positions (yet innocent to a child) and had the caption "Rhinonymous Crossing."

Maugham felt better when he had posted them and then calibrated the few survelliance cameras they had on the grounds to cover them.

*******

As nighttime fell on Azotusland, Sabine took her chair across from Jim and she and Matisse reached out their hands and Jim nodded to Sabine to say grace. Then he dished up a wonderful lamb, garlic and yam stew as Sabine broke the bread and then she poured a nice glass of red wine she had brought.

Jim looked over at Sabine, whose face was so often harsh and caught her eyes as if to say "thank you" then he asked about her day up at the seminary and what she had learned.

********

Down in the Big Room Martine was overseeing a young threesome of musicians and it was really there first public performance. A brother and sister combination with a third cousin, they fumbled a lot but moved into a good set after awhile and sold 27 CDs at the end of the night.

Martine wonder about Maug. He semed troubled and she was not sure why. She thought about the direct way he looked her in the eye as they made love and how he smiled. He was unique.

*******

When the midget walked up to the steps and looked at each one of the signs Maugham had posted, painfully one by one, he cussed hard and heavy.

"Fuck fuck fuck and double fuck!!"

There had to be a mole.

Then he had a thought. maybe she had overplayed her considerable hand.