Worlds Without End

4

A blackness so thick and heavy it feels like a weight against her eyes. It is suffocating, this dark- ness. It feels as though she is being swallowed up by it. Being turned into it…

Caimbeui was late.

Though I wasn't surprised, I was annoyed. It wasn't as though I were looking forward to seeing him, but if you drop in on someone with "impor- tant" news, you'd bloody well better be on time.

I'd made tea with all the things Caimbeui liked. Scones, of course, with lemon curd. Those ridiculous little sandwiches with the crusts cut off, slices of cake, tarts. He had a sweet tooth. But now the sandwiches had gone hard and the cake was stale.

I'd switched from tea to sherry, then to scotch. And still no Caimbeui.

Finally, six hours after he'd said he'd arrive, I heard the crunch of tires across my gravel.