392
DAVID ZANE MAIROWITZ
The rash begins
to
crawl over Perfidia's legs and her troll-lover
thumps
his
rubber tail in her eyes. She goes to a cupboard, selects a
brown suit at random, a lace hat with glass fruit on top, a pair of
stockings. She rolls them together against the rain .
"Perfidia
!"
The voice tugs at her sleeve in the doorway. Mother Munch
has unearthed a breadknife and holds it, handle first, toward the
vanishing figure.
"Take everything. Anything you want. Only, please, cut my
throat. Cut my throat."
The young girl disappears in the rain and the old woman must
report a theft. It is
in
the course of things to do so.
In her basement room, Perfidia has put on the stolen garments
and glares at an image of her Mother in the mirror. She cups the
protruding shoulder of the jacket, throwing her arm across her mouth.
She sucks
in
at the wrist, wonders at the tight hips and long skirt.
Kropotkin will find it out of date and detectable. She must rip out
the shoulders, shorten the skirt, cut the fruit from the moth-eaten
hat. Before doing this, she sees, for the last time, in her widest eye,
the wearing of this garment for Father Munch, returning from
his
wounds, all through that night, never removed.
Her confinement is celebrated this night by the entire Brigade.
She is taken to some dark hovel where she will spend the two nights
before her act. She will see or communicate with no one, and only
the special emissary of the Brigade will bring her instructions at the
final hour. She will be given time only to carry out her objective, not
to brood on it. This isolation is the rotten fruit of past miscalculations.
There have been too many leaks, too many rents in the fabric of
Absolute Security.
She is given a ration of brown rice and water. During the pre–
paratory hours she will be fed excessive doses of sugar to mobilize
her force. She is made to wear her Mother's clothes until they are
worn naturally. On the final day, her emissary will help her to pre–
pare her face and hair, iron her clothing and lead her to a place where
she will collect her explosive device. She is made to consume the
classic texts which form the background to her act. She must under–
stand the historical perspective and morality of her intentions. She
