Language of Love

There were distinctive dips and shivers in the various foliage, syncopated, almost cadenced in the way that once made him invent “understanding.” * Now the boss could say “parameters” and mean something like “I’ll pinch.” By repeating the gesture exactly the woman awakened an excited suspicion in the infant. When he awakened she was just returning from one of her little trips. It’s common to confuse the distance with flirtation: that expectant solemnity which seems to invite a kiss. * He stroked her carapace with his claw. They had developed a code in which each word appeared to refer to some abdicated function. Thus, in a department store, Petite Impressions might neighbor Town Square. But he exaggerated it by mincing words like “micturition,” setting scenes in which the dainty lover would pretend to leave. * Was it sadness or fear? He still wasn’t back. The act of identification, she recognized, was always a pleasure, but this lasting difference between sense and recognition made her unhappy or afraid. Once she was rewarded by the beams of headlights flitting in play.