Exit Kingdom

from her palms.
    If you want to know the truth, she says, it wasn’t anything in particular. It just seemed wrong. I don’t mean
wrong
wrong, not wrong for the world at large. Just wrong for
you. Doesthat make sense?
    He nods slowly.
    I reckon it does. Your life ain’t a target for the world to shoot at. The world is a target for your life to shoot at.
    She looks at him and smiles.
    Somethin like that, she says.
    Again they gaze into the face of the dead man beneath the ice. His clouded eyes blink peacefully.
    So then how come? Moses says. How come the dead don’t want you?

    The Vestal shakes her head.
    I don’t know, she says. Honest to God. All I know is it ain’t my pure soul shining so bright it blinds em.
    Moses narrows his eyes at this mystery. They are quiet. The Vestal Amata leans her head on his shoulder, and they sit for a while without saying anything. He can feel her small body
shivering.
    Go on back to the cabin, he says. Get warm.
    Okay,she says. You coming?
    In a little while. I ain’t quite done stargazing yet.
    So she returns to the cabin, and he remains out there in the frozen wild, his only real companion the trapped and pathetic dead.
    *
    They stay the next five days in the shelter of the cabin in the woods. They scrawl a sign on a wooden plank and nail it to a tree down by the main road. It says:
    SURVIVORS IN NEED OF RIDE
    THIS WAY
    And it has an arrow pointing up the path. It is the Vestal’s idea, but Moses knows that bandits frequently use such signs to trap the unwary and that no experienced
traveller would ever follow one. Still, the days are long, and it is something.
    Moses hunts squirrels for food, and Abraham cooks them in the fireplace, boiling snow for water.They do not speak of what is to come, because it feels as though time has stopped dead, as though
they have stumbled into some grand hiatus, a still centre around which the rest of the world rotates.
    Abraham tends to the wound in his thigh. He limps around, teeth grit, and sweats at night despite the cold.
    Once, while he sits on the floor by the firelight, pouring water over the woundto clean it, the Vestal looks down at him.
    That leg of yours is in bad shape, she says. It stinks.
    How do you know that’s my leg and not just me? Abraham replies. I ain’t exactly known for my ambrosial odours.
    I know the difference between regular man stink and the stink of flesh rot. You don’t get that taken care of you’re gonna lose that leg. And out here, you lose that leg and therest
of you won’t be far behind.
    It ain’t nothing, he says. Then he leers up at her and says, It ain’t nothing a quick mouth job couldn’t fix.
    She does not flinch nor even give any indication of noticing his lewd suggestion.
    I’m serious now, she says. Infection like that spreads.
    He waves her away with his hand.
    It ain’t nothing, he repeats. I’ll sweat it out.
    Then hegoes back to tending to the wound. But he can’t let the girl alone, and that very night Moses hears him hobbling across the creaky floor of the cabin not long after they have
settled in for sleep. Perhaps he believes that Moses is asleep, or perhaps he does not care – but he leans down over where the Vestal lies on the couch.
    Hey, he says to her in a soft voice. How bout a little touch?Just a quick poke like – what do you say?
    Shoo, Abraham, she says. Get back to bed.
    Come on, he says. You had worse than me, I know it. Me, I’m like a bunny rabbit – quicky dicky. Sweet and simple.
    I don’t let stinky dying men poke me, she says. Go to bed.
    All the more reason, he says. A dying man’s last wish – would you begrudge him it?
    Shoo, Abraham. Go shish-kebab a squirrel.This pussy just ain’t got your name on it.
    Moses sees her turning her back on him, burrowing herself into the couch.
    Abraham stands appalled for a moment, balancing on his one good leg.
    Well, I’ll be goddamned if it ain’t the
only
name not on it, he says to her, his voice hissing with vitriol. You got the whole phone book down your pants, girl.
    Pretending to sleep, Moses waitsto see if his brother will take more action. He is a man who does not react well to rejection of the womanly sort. But Abraham is too aware of his
brother’s presence in the room, so he turns and stumbles with great noise back to the bed he shares with Moses. Moses can hear him cursing a litany in a whisper under his breath.
    Goddamn high-falutin whores, he says. What’s everybody keepin themselvesso