Site Map                                                    Table of Contents                                                    Confused?

'Does the moon look bigger to you tonight?'

The Book of Ataniel

Seven Year Itch



�Karel!� Khyrisse screamed again, losing a short and unsuccessful struggle to think of something, anything else to say to her errant brother.

�Goodbye,� whispered Silverlace, casting a mysterious smile back over one lovely shoulder as she melted into the fabric of the Hotel.

Karel barely seemed to notice her leaving. �Look,� he said, desperately, �Khyri, it wasn�t--�

�Wasn�t what it looked like?� she demanded, her hands shaking with a rage she couldn�t suppress. �What were you doing then, Karel, checking her lips for poison?�

�No, I--look, of course I was kissing her, Khyri, but it wasn�t--it wasn�t real.�

�Oh, it wasn�t,� Khyrisse snapped. �Let me guess, you were rehearsing for a play.�

�No!� He buried his hands in his hair, a look of anguish on his face. �I mean it�s not real. C�mon, don�t you have erotic dreams about people besides Ebreth sometimes?�

Not in a long time, actually, but Khyrisse did not want to feed her family�s stupid superstitions about pasirels right now. �This isn�t a dream,� she said instead.

�It feels like it. Everything happening out of order, nothing fits together with anything else--it�s like some big, bizarre dream sequence. Khyri, please don�t tell my wife.�

�Why?� she said acidly. �Don�t think she�d buy that excuse either?�

�I don�t know,� he said. �But it would hurt her even if she did, and I don�t want to do that.�

�Maybe you should have thought of that before fucking a fairy behind her back!�

�Khyri, for gods�-- we weren�t fucking, all right? It was just a kiss!�

�That�s because I walked in on you, Karel! You�re really trying to tell me you would have stopped if I hadn�t?�

�Well we�ll never know now, will we?� He slumped into a plush chair, defeated. �I don�t do this kind of thing in real life, I swear. But it�s not because I never think about it, it�s because I don�t want Miyrr to leave me. Look, I know you�re a newlywed and all, Khyri, but I�ve been married for twenty-five years. Of course I fantasize about other people. I don�t act on it because I love my wife, but you can�t crucify me for dreaming about it. This place--it�s random, disjointed, there�s so much stress and fear, and then suddenly there you are with a woman you had a raging crush on twenty years ago and she�s taking off her sweater. I�m supposed to not kiss her? It felt like a dream, Khyri, I swear. I�m only mortal.�

Khyrisse sighed, very heavily. �I believe you, Karel, but this isn�t a dream. It�s practically the opposite of a dream... what you do here affects your entire destiny. You could be jeopardizing your future with your family over these--these silly, hormonal--you have children, Karel, how could you do this?� She hadn�t wanted to shake him this much since she was about eleven. �If you start fooling around with other people in here, what�s going to happen out there?�

�Nothing,� he said, stoutly. �I have free will, Khyrisse. They can�t make me cheat on my wife if I don�t want to.�

�They just did!�

�They can�t make me do it without drugging and disorienting me first. Thinking about other women isn�t new for me, Khyri. I haven�t gone to bed with anyone but Miyrr in twenty-five years and I�m not going to start now.� Khyrisse sighed again. �You aren�t really going to tell her about this, are you, Khyri? It was just a phantasm, not a real woman. And she just turned forty last year, and she�s been so goddamned sensitive about it--�

�No, I�m not going to tell her,� Khyrisse sighed. �You think I really want to screw up your home life, Karel? You think I really want to make Miyrr upset? I�m not even mad for her sake, I�m mad for yours. You have three beautiful kids and a wife who adores you and a thriving business and you�re happy, Karel. I can�t bear to see you throwing that all away over something as stupid as this.�

�I won�t,� he said. �I swear, Khyri. On my mother�s grave.�

If he was talking about Aunt Eleni, he must be taking this seriously. �Well, you�d better not,� she muttered, trying to suppress all the extraneous emotions battering at her that didn�t, in all fairness, have anything to do with Karel or his aborted dalliance. �Come with me. I can see I�m going to have to keep an eye on you all over again.�

�Yes, Khyri,� he said humbly, and followed.

Back to the Hotel Archives

'Does the moon look bigger to you tonight?'

Native American languages * Pequod * Loom beadwork patterns * Delaware Indians * Cherokee tribal tattoos