Lion Head Mesa bellows

it had happened before she could comprehend it.

makono had returned! she had been elated; there had been a strange conversation, and in her ill state nazli had not followed it closely enough. the pharaoh ate, and the pharaoh was no more.

there were hymns, prayers — the man had gone away to a high place, and now —

nazli had been escorted to her own alcove. tremors shook the voices of the fellahin as rumor spread, as panic came to some of them, and nazli could not understand! it wasn't until a day later, two days, she could not be sure, when tavina came.

is he sick? the pharaoh? she was delirious.
she had been there, watched it happen. numb. happy to see makono. confused. mostly confused.
and the time had slipped by.