Dr Jew

swing about it and let it dictate our orbits without it ever showing itself. Until now."
    "I wish you 'd talk so we could understand you," said Adam.
    "Oh, y ou will understand me," I said. "Of this I am certain. For the Fates so conspired to bring things together just so, that I could not have lined up the threads better if I had tried.
    "On the very night of my return from the dark continent –"
    " You seem to forget that I'm Mexican-American," said Sergio.
    "I remember," I said. "And I forgive you."
    "And Mexico is not a continent."
    "So now you are a geographer, jack of all trades. Well, call it what you will. I had returned from Mexico and found myself curled in my cocoon once again, the missus on ice, when at the oddest hour a twanging intrusion found its way to my ear. Normally such disturbances were handled by my robotic gentleman-in-waiting, but he had malfunctioned in my transmigratory absence abroad, leaving the nasty chore of guest admittance – or more likely, denial, at such a late hour – to my own groggy, enervated self. Looking through the 'peep' hole I expected to find, in all honesty, you, my dear Serge. Your impromptu and harassing phone calls whilst I was abroad led me to believe you were quite eccentrically obsessed with the results of my mystical working, so that when I saw it was not in fact you, I pondered at your actual love for Lucy."
    "Lise," said Sergio. "And I'm not even going to respond to that."
    "Wonderful. Then I shall go on. Yes, I looked through the glassy distortion at the person on the other side of the hole and who should be there, Mr. Adam, but your partner in crime, that primordial she , Ms. Eve."
    "I knew you were involved!" said Adam. "Where is she?"
    "Where? She is not here. Or perhaps she is, a little bit. A tiny inconsequential part."
    "What does that mean?" said Adam.
    "It means silence ," I said. "It means that shutting your lips will bring you most quickly to your destination and that continuing to prattle and ask meaningless questions will divert us all from our true course.
    "Now, when I saw Eve at that midnight hour and that she was definitely not our Sergio here, I admitted the girl, my fatherly instinct not one to leave her out in the cold, however stealthy and aloha-free her departure with you had been, my boy. She had gone out mysteriously and returned mysteriously and who was I to question the world's intent in acting so. It is a magical thing, this life, and I do my best to treat it so.
    "She came in, scared and ashiver. She was shaken from the findings of your recent intrusion into my domicile, that file you left astray, the discovery of her nature, being non-human, and the life she felt that revelation had relegated her to."
    "Being what ?" said Sergio.
    I looked at Adam. "He doesn't know?" I said.
    Adam shook his head. I chuckled and went on.
    " I tried my best to dismiss her beliefs and show that they lacked validity. I tried to show that life is still life, whatever its flavor, and that we should make the most of all we have been given, savoring every concrescence of experience we're allowed. I told her all this, showed her and detailed its truth through heartwarming stories and witty epigrams. I swear to you, Adam, that I tried my best. She would have none of it.
    "What she wanted, like so many deluded young people, was an end to her being. She wanted to die. She could not have the life as featured 24/7 on the television with its pervasive invasiveness. It was out of her reach, and she didn't want whatever leftovers life might hand her. She would not be convinced that leftovers in their soggy reheating via microwave radiation are often the most glorious era in the life of a meal. Bah, she seemed to spit on it all. She wanted family and glamour and a menstrual cycle and the shared experience possessed by any bag lady on the street, a childhood and story arc that went predictably from birth to death. Instead she had a memory awakened with electricity, her expiration date and future unknown, even to me.
    "Although I of course did not endorse her co urse of action, I applauded her verve in charting her destiny. So oft we chance from moment to moment, station to station, with no calculation, rhyme, or reason. She would not be so, striking forth into the bold unknown not randomly, but at the hour of her own choosing. Would I aid her in this endeavor? How could I not? Her mind was set on it. I could either help her or turn her away to the gruesome and sloppy