Zerlina was preparing for a children's party, of the little boy who played chess, and his younger brother who did not eat well.
The elder boy was developing well, but the translucent skin and extreme thiness of the younger boy was worrying.
The party was to be across the 40 storey courtyard of The Building, which was U-shaped or E-shaped.
Long ago, Zerlina had visited with the old man and woman on the same storey across the courtyard.
She saw them every evening just before both she and they drew the drapes, when you took photos of the blazing sunsets, helped along by polluting elements in the air.
They had a big dining table set at right angles to the picture window and Zerlina well remembered the evening when they had put up their big canvas tapestry of Mongol warriors galloping on the steppe.
The artist, whoever he was, was so skillful that it looked like the horses were galloping out of the window, across the air, and right into Z's condo.
This somehow set up a connection, and one fine day while the old lady had a scarf around her head, and was cleaning her windows from the inside, Z decided to visit with the older couple telepathically.
It wasn't difficult at all. She just zoomed into their heads and started chatting.
She learned that he had worked for The Company in the past. One of his posts might have been Mongolia, but he was not allowed to talk about it.
In any case, Z told them that she would introduce them to the Mr. Park whom she had met while sitting and resting and having a coffee and a plain donut, after the terrible trauma of the stress test, when she thought she would die in that coffin-like thing.
Mr Park might even have been stationed in Mongolia and Central Asia, for he spoke of his feelings of guilt in not being able to save his Mongolian contact by bringing him out with him on the Trans Siberian Railway.
From the way he spoke, Z could not figure out which way he was traveling, east to west or west to east.
Anyway, there he was in the concession stand of the hospital in Virginia now, serving coffee to the ill people who came there, and their companions.
Z. fully believed that Mr Park was a former spy, just as he said he was.
He still jerked his head around every 30 seconds to pan the room with his eyes for security reasons.
*
When Z mentioned Mr Park to James and Gill, James did not let on by any change in expression that he knew Mr Park and had been his handler, but Z knew anyway.
*
About the children's party, they said, Poor children, we will be happy to host the party.
So Z started preparing her extra-sharp swords, which were so thin and so sharp, she could wrap them around her neck like a scarf, but only of she wished to commit suicide.
Then she didn't know where to keep the swords, as she wanted them to be safe when the children came around.
So she hung them behind the closet, covered with a cloth.
But she was a bit afraid of the elder boy and his intense curiosity and extreme intelligence.
A few Easters ago, when the Sea Land economy was still suffering from over control by the Center, Mark, the elder boy had discovered her whole stash of cakes and breads she had been baking since January, in the cool space between the closets which formed a V.
The younger boy Fishy was too weak most times to do any exploring. He mostly just dozed on this mother's breast, his eyelids almost transparent.
Z wondered if his mother still breast fed Fishy.
As he was falling asleep his fingers groped for his mother's breast and she said, Oh No, No, and patted his hand away.
*
In her dream the sword fell past her right ear and she heard the swish of air.
She wondered how she could hear so well now, even in her dreams.
*
The guests started arriving.
Suddenly, the white drapes and the window to the right of James' and Gill's was pushed open and a man stood there, who looked like a camera man.
He shouted across to Z, Where is that party?
And without thinking, Z shouted back, in 3013.
***
Copyright Kyi May Kaung
10-31-2015
