Chapter 71 — Smear Together
The Curve of Time, Chapter 71 —— Smear Together, in which Mica learns about Zeno’s death.
Followed by Rufus musing on turning points in life.
Listen to full episode :
— 71 —
Smear Together
Despite declaring that Mica held an important place in Saskia’s heart, Saskia didn’t stay the night; Tomato needed her too.
Mica was miffed that Saskia had left, though with Fish resting against her legs at the end of her own bed, she felt hypocritical holding it against her paramour. Perhaps her feeling had more to do with the unintentional slight that Saskia had rendered when she said that her mind wasn’t everything. Mica liked feeling sexy, but she didn’t like feeling that she was a poor substitute intellectually. She knew Saskia hadn’t meant it that way; that Wassily’s mathematical expertise was what Saskia had been connecting to ...but it still hurt.
Either way, her reverie was interrupted by a call from Dalton. She smiled, her self-worth boosted by the way Dalton was going out of his way to keep her apprised of developments.
The police had spoken with Lizzie, the yoga instructor who had been with Zeno when he died. Further, hotel security footage had corroborated Lizzie’s improbable story.
“So what did she say?” Mica asked.
“That Zeno was moving so fast she thought he was having some sort of freaky orgasm.” Dalton laughed at his own report. “Before that, though, he’d told her he could warp time.”
Mica coughed.
“Weird, huh. And she was straight-faced. She said he claimed it was like looking into a dark cave. Obviously you can’t see anything in a dark cave, but with his ability——it was almost like he had a dim flashlight. Couldn’t see much, but it gave him a sense.”
Mica ran her tongue over her top lip. Humans were always looking for visual analogies, evidently Zeno was no different.
Dalton filled the space that Mica’s silence had left. “He claimed he could speed time up, or slow it down. But that there was a separation from the world around him when he did. Like not being able to feel the touch of someone——when they’re not physically present with you. Basically, the bane of video conferencing.”
“Makes sense,” Mica nodded to herself.
“Really? Seemed implausible to me.”
“Just that it might feel like that.”
“Right. Anyway, the time travel. The police would’ve ignored it, but, like I said, there was the hotel security footage——it corroborated her story.” Dalton paused. “According to the girlfriend, Zeno claimed he wanted to try it out with her. See if he could touch her while he warped time.”
“Creepy.”
“Right!” Dalton described how Zeno and Lizzie had been caught on camera: Alone by the pool, where they had basically been having dry sex on the sun lounge when, in what might otherwise have just appeared to be a nod to decency, they adjourned to the pool. That was when it all went bad.
“Did you see the footage?”
“No. But my guy swears it supported Zeno’s claim to her.” Dalton recalled the specific details: Zeno had spent an unnaturally long time below the surface of the water, as if he had the ability to hold his breath forever. It manifested as interminably slowed movement. Then, everything shifted and in playfully frenetic motions, he’d flit from one side of her to the other, zipping all the way around her, as fast as she could turn her head. “His efforts clearly intrigued and delighted her.”
What neither Dalton, nor his insider, could possibly have understood was that as Zeno brought the time around him to a standstill, he managed to simultaneously, both stare into Lizzie’s eyes and place his hand on her hip from behind. All that the police saw was that Lizzie balked and spun about violently. Unfortunately, her jolt distracted Zeno, and ripped him out of his flow back through time. So much so, and so quickly, that he failed to apply his clutch move.
Unlike Saskia, who fleetingly bumped into herself when she’d stalled in Mica’s bed——something the body is very attentive to——Zeno collided with Lizzie. And worse, with the water they were submerged in.
Zeno’s hand tore a film of flesh from Lizzie’s waist as their smeared-together skin ripped apart. Of that, Lizzie was too embarrassed to tell the police, and it was hidden below the water’s surface.
As for Zeno’s death, in essence, Molly’s intuition had been spot on: the body doesn’t function well when it’s crammed full of water.
∞
Mica extracted a promise from Dalton that he’d call her back if he heard anything about the autopsy, and then she let him go.
She lifted her foot and gently stroked Fish, who was still resting against her legs. It was right here, over two weeks ago, that Saskia had jerked her awake.
Had Saskia gotten off lightly back then? With a mere heart arrhythmia. Perhaps it was a good thing that Saskia had failed to teach her to slip in time.
Mica’s mind wandered back to her conversation with Saskia, back when she had the idea about a clutch move. What if her baby bird analogy was more apt than she’d realized? Curious, she picked up her phone again and investigated survival rates of hatchlings during their first flights. Numbers varied widely between species, with the little songbirds with their altricial young——highly dependent on their parents——the most at risk. Flight itself, though, seemed like a subordinate factor to predators, parental care, and habitat.
A stirring at her feet returned her attention to Fish, who stood and pawed his way up her leg. He nudged the phone from her hand, clearly not satisfied by her earlier petting.
Mica rubbed under her cat’s chin and he purred.
“Well, what is it about Saskia?” she asked him. “Is she truly unique?”
But before Fish could reply, the moment was broken again by the buzz of her phone.
Well, that was chapter 71, Friends, I hope you enjoyed it!
Having returned recently from galavanting, I’ve been in the process of taking stock of where we’re headed and I’m thrilled to report that the next couple of months are super exciting from the story perspective! There are some great surprises and emotional moments ahead, and I look forward to sharing them with you.
It’s fun to review something that you did a while back and be happy with what you find. I had a similar feeling when last I looked back over my PhD thesis, though, in that case, mainly because I recalled once having had a reasonable idea about what it all meant.
Of course, temporal space can also bring new perspectives, and on a different note, I’ve recently been doing some revisions to the opening chapters with the help of my writers’ group. That experience offers another elation altogether: that of discovering personal growth. Specifically, I think the new opening pulls the reader in to Saskia’s world faster. The changes are not so big story-wise, so at this point I’m simply saving them for the eventual publication, but I’m excited at how they strengthen the presentation.
Noticing these gating moments in life always adds another dimension to an experience, and I wanted to leave you today with one more such moment. My wife just bought a big mixer. We’ve been making bagels for quite a while now and after inadvertently killing our KitcheAid we decided it was time to upgrade. The daydream of running a bagel shop is now more likely to happen than ever before. Whatever else happens, bagel drops are definitely coming very soon. They kind of have to to justify a mixer that will mix fifteen pounds of dough at a time!
So, for those of you in LA, stay tuned!
And in the meantime, appreciate the turning points you see in your own life.
Until next week, be kind to someone and keep an eye out for the ripples of joy you’ve seeded.
Cheerio
Rufus
PS. If you think of someone who might enjoy joining us on this experiment, please forward them this email. And if you are one of those someone’s and you’d like to read more
