§

I couldn’t look away. But I wasn’t there. No. I was not in this small wooden room with this small but powerful man. I was not here in these woods. In this camp. In these mountains. No.

I am in the tomb of Queen Pu-Abi. Staring at the corpses around me. And I am prying their arms apart, all the while they break and crumble and exploded into dust in my arms. And I am with my assistant. And he leans in close and he is yelling to me and I am laughing. I am laughing as the lantern casts its rays across the darkness of the entrance of the tomb and I am tearing into these corpses with my bear hands, shredding them and they explode into dust, and in these rays, I am laughing, maddeningly, as the glittering gold dances in the lantern’s beams.

§

As the head caromed against the far wall, a golden spray glittered about the room like a sacred mist set within the landscape of far-off dreams of long ago. The corpse lost its pitch and slowly released its tension against the ropes and went slack. The dark, amber liquid, granular and shimmering, pulsed from his neck with a slowing pace.

And I am back in Egypt now. And my assistant is with me. And he is laughing and cajoling and eying the dancer with bloodshot eyes and he bumps into me and laughs as I light the match and begin to burn this letter just as the Elders arrive.