These Dreams of You

~ ~ ~

Soon Sheba and Piranha struck an accord. Now Sheba howls out on the deck and the dog howls with her, the two craning their necks and turning their mouths skyward.

Of course Sheba’s name isn’t really Sheba. “Should we really be calling her that?” says Viv.

“As in queen of,” says Zan.

“Yes, I know who the Queen of Sheba was,” says Viv, “that’s not my point.”

“I was only explaining it to Parker,” says Zan, though at this moment Parker listens on his headphones to the small fluorescent-green music player barely bigger than a stick of gum that hangs around his neck.

Viv says, “But still.” On the birth certificate that came with the adoption, Sheba’s name is shown as Zema, which in Amharic means. . well, Zan and Viv aren’t precisely sure what it means. The closest variation means “melody” or “hymn,” but from what Zan understands, Ethiopian names only derive meaning from adjoining names, like tarot cards derive meaning from the surrounding cards. Only by putting all of a person’s names together do you complete the meaning.