Status Updates From Orso

Eine Zeitlang hatten sich die Dinge schlecht für sie entwickelt. Sie hätte kein spezielles Problem benennen können; es schien eher so, als wäre das Leben im Allgemeinen gegen sie. Hartnäckig bestanden die Dinge darauf, sich immer wieder grau zu färben.

She was different. She seemed to have a body of a much younger woman. The sedentary fat had gone, leaving the shape of ribs showing. Slowly, she turned and looked over her should n the pier-glass at her back: one long, red, congealing weal marked her from shoulder to buttock. I shall keep that, she thought. And it is not the mark of Cain.

It gave her a strange peace to sit beside him. It was as if the bear, like the books, knew generations of secrets; but he had no need to reveal them.