The Auburn Prince
Page 30
When the weather became sunny and bright, Clementine went to the park where she read new books and practiced playing the mandolin, which, after a few months of grueling practice, she grew to enjoy. From a knoll across the near woods, she people watched and, based on their body language, imagined their life’s problems and victories. She grew overtly sensitive to colors, examining them in detail and asking others what, say, green, symbolized to them. She pondered the courage that it took to live in kindness, of the love she had for the people missing from her life and for the sacrifices that she made to give the best of herself to others.
While she sat on that knoll, her imagination would play tricks on her, envisioning a fox and a beagle, sitting side by side, silently watching her from atop an adjacent mound. Often, she thought of them, Mika and Gideon, but chose not return to Vivéret since leaving. “Not until I can make my home colorful and just,” she told herself.
Having left the bookstore with a new copy of Vonnegut’s Slapstick, she passed the park. Noticing an empty bench at the near end, she sat down and watched a dozen kids kick a soccer ball around. Warm breeze blew from the east. “This is nice, this moment right here,” Clementine said, closing her eyes, enjoying the warm wind against her cheeks, the sun light against her face.
Stepping up to the bench, someone blocked the sunlight raining down upon her. She opened her eyes and man in a fine, shiny suit stared down at her.
“I need my chaplet back, Clementine,” he said, stretching out his gaunt hand. “Now.”
Adam Zmarzlinski was born in the Tatra Mountains and now lives near Chicago. He is in the process of finishing a Ph.D. Among his various honors are the Michał Heller Prize, Amnesty International’s “Moral for a Dictator” Human Rights Fairy Tale Award, and the Marilyn Houghton Keyton Founder’s Prize for Poetry.
Coming soon from
The Lamentation of Cin’Céline
and
Monotreme Press
The Eye of Eyes
England, 1901. An adventurer sets out to the North Pole in a balloon only to end up in a strange nightmare where his past comes back to haunt him and the sins of all humanity bare his face.
Dispatches from a Derelict Soul
From Lemont, Illinois to Lahore, Pakistan, journalist and drunkard, Amell Andreas recounts his intellectual coming-of-age in a crude, ruthless and savagely funny portrait of the Age of Static.
The Crow Witch
A sequel to The Auburn Prince. Gideon Renard and Clementine Aurelius journey into the Infinite Ocean to retrieve the memories of their beloved friend while facing an ancient evil.
Czerń: Within the Cauldron
Lost in an infinite darkness, a recent college graduate, an alcoholic and a former hand model face their shortcomings and disillusions while learning to forget the errors of their past.
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