All day, the colors had been those of dusk, mist moving like a water creature
across the great flanks of mountains possessed of ocean shadows and depths.
Briefly visible above the vapor, Kanchenjunga was a far peak whittled out of ice,
gathering the last of the light, a plume of snow blown high by the storms at its
summit.
Sai, sitting on the veranda, was reading an article about giant squid in an old
National Geographic. Every now and then she looked up at Kanchenjunga,
observed its wizard phosphorescence with a shiver. The judge sat at the far corner
with his chessboard, playing against himself. Stuffed under his chair where she
felt safe was Mutt the dog, snoring gently in her sleep. A single bald lightbulb
dangled on a wire above. It was cold, but inside the house, it was still colder, the
dark, the freeze, contained by